Earlier this week we shared two new brews for Historic featuring additions from Strixhaven, and we're closing off the week with two new brews for Standard. During our preview streams and in our articles I have been very hyped for Venerable Warsinger in Lorehold Aggro decks. I was also interested in a Quandrix Magecraft deck with Dragonsguard Elite as a fun new tempo archetype. Today we'll be running through the two lists, discussing my design process and what I have in mind for the decks moving forward.

Lorehold Aggro

Venerable Warsinger is a house and has a lot going for it. If a Lorehold Spirits deck were to exist it would probably revolve around Warsinger, and being a Cleric is relevant as a tribe and fits into Party decks. We'll be inserting it into a more traditional Boros Aggro shell in hopes to allow that deck to rise up in popularity under the Lorehold banner. The deck actually has a lot of cards that already synergize with Warsinger's reanimator ability, like Selfless Savior and Alseid of Life's Bounty that can put themselves in the graveyard. This means you can loop protection for your Warsinger and put a lot of pressure on the opponent. Seasoned Hallowblade is also on curve and has a discard ability if we want to give it indestructible, which will allow us to put more cards in the yard to reanimate. Venerable Warsinger also makes our Usher of the Fallen easier to attack with because they can just keep coming back after we swing in for the boast ability. Luminarch Aspirant is giving Warsinger some heart eyes, as it would love to ship this trample creature some +1/+1 counters every turn.

Turns out Venerable Warsinger wears equipment like a boss, and Standard has two scary aggressive equipment in Maul of the Skyclaves and Embercleave. Seasoned Hallowblade into Maul was already a lethal pairing in the older Boros builds but now we can also slam it on Warsinger to make a 5/5 flier that can reanimate anything in our deck. Embercleave is obnoxious no matter what creature you attach it to, but giving Warsinger double strike means we get the trigger twice, thus allowing us to bring back two creatures into play. I started off conservatively with two copies of each but I could see an argument to add copies three and four of Maul.

The rest of the creatures are what you would expect from this color pairing already, and some new additions from Strixhaven. Giant Killer is still good at killing big creatures and tapping down creatures which can help on both defense and offense. Luminarch Aspirant is a staple of any white aggressive deck with the ability to put a +1/+1 counter on a creature every turn being very powerful. As far as new cards go we're trying a pair of Flamescroll Celebrant to hate on activated abilities and is a good mana sink with that pump fire breathing ability. Revel in Silence on the backside can also be clutch on a turn where the opponent needs to wrath, or you can play it in response to an Emergent Ultimatum to watch it fizzle out. Lastly, we have Elite Spellbinder which is the white card that everyone is hyped about. Kind of hand disruption and certainly a good tempo play, Elite Spellbinder will allow any white aggressive deck the ability to slow down the opponent's most important plays. It is also a pretty aggressive body as a 3/1 flier which will help you get the opponent dead.

At the top end, we have Lorehold Command and Showdown of the Skalds. Showdown is card advantage in an aggressive color pairing and the last lore counters can help us explode onto the battlefield. Lorehold Command is actually pretty awesome even though it is a bit pricey at five mana. If we're behind we can make a 3/2 creature and Lightning Helix something on the opponent's side, and if we're ahead we can swing in and pump the squad while also making them indestructible, and we can sac an extra land or random token to draw two cards. Command is a solid finisher and is definitely good enough to see steady play in this Lorehold archetype. Quandrix Magecraft

I was super excited when I first saw Dragonsguard Elite and I immediately wanted to put it in a deck with Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse in some sort of Quandrix spells deck. Jolrael wants us to stick a bunch of cantrips in the deck and that works perfectly with Elite's Magecraft. What I like about this pairing is that it allows us to go both tall and wide on the battlefield. Making both a massive Elite and an army of cats can be hard for some decks to answer. Both creatures also have fantastic activated abilities that we can use in the late game to close out. We also have a pair of Faerie Vandal which are slower Elites but do have the upside of flying. I'm very excited to see Jolrael back in action as it did see decent play in Standard early on, and at one point cycling decks were even splashing green to play it.

As a sexy Mono-Blue Mill stud, I know a thing or two about a good cantrip. We already had Opt and Frantic Inventory, but now we can add Charge Through and Curate to the mix. Charge Through is obviously more aggressively slanted by granting a massive Dragonsguard Elite trample which prevents the opponent from chump blocking. Curate is a cute two-mana instant speed Ponder lookalike and allows us to spill unwanted lands aside to keep the gas flowing. Perhaps my favorite innovation has to be Of One Mind. Rogues were the only deck that could take advantage of this card with Ruin Crab plus any human rogue allows them to cast it for one mana. Jolrael is a human and makes a cat token, meaning she can get Of One Mind going all by herself. Elite is also a human so we can get this down to one mana very often. I started off with two copies for now but I could see a third copy making its way into the deck eventually.

For interaction, we have some amazing new additions to help us stop whatever it is that the opponent is trying to do. Snakeskin Veil is just begging to get broken and we can use it to protect our Dragonsguard Elite and put two +1/+1 counters on it. Decisive Denial is awesome versatility as it can be a fight spell to push through creatures or it can counter something important like Emergent Ultimatum. I think this is a scary card if you're the Sultai Control player trying to use your Ultimatum to stabilize, but then you need to have three extra mana up to avoid the counter. Quandrix Command is another solid addition as it gives us another Petty Theft effect and countering an Embercleave or The Great Henge is big game. I hope you enjoyed these two new brews for Strixhaven Standard! What do you think of Venerable Warsinger in an explosive Lorehold Aggro deck or the possibility of a new Quandrix Magecraft archetype? I'm definitely going to aim towards getting this Quandrix Magecraft deck put together so we can take it for a spin on stream. Speaking of which, feel free to browse the homepage for links to our Twitch, Discord, and YouTube Channel. As always thanks so much for reading and joining the Fellowship! Best of luck in this new Standard and I hope you reach your goals for this season.