Silverquill Influence precon.
Silverquill Influence is the stock Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (2026) Silverquill college precon, an Orzhov (White/Black) Aura deck led by Killian, Decisive Mentor. The plan is to staple Auras onto opposing creatures and your own, using Killian to tap and goad a creature every time an enchantment enters and to draw a card whenever your Aura-enchanted attackers swing. Scriv, the Obligator is the included second face commander and can lead the deck instead, leaning harder into making opponents' creatures fight each other while you draw and drain. Either way the deck turns the table's own board into your offense while a wide enchantress package refuels your hand.
This precon ships with two face commanders. Lead the deck with either one.
This is a goad-and-draw Orzhov enchantress deck that weaponizes Auras in two directions: control-warping Auras on opponents' creatures to force them to swing at each other, and pump and protection Auras on your own threats. Killian, Decisive Mentor ties it together, since every enchantment that enters taps and goads a creature, and every attack by a creature wearing one of your Auras draws you a card. You win by grinding card advantage and politics until your enchanted threats or the chaos you have seeded close the game.
How it plays.
Core game plan
Early turns are about ramp and an enchantress engine: lead on Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Talisman of Hierarchy, or a one-drop like Land Tax or Sram, Senior Edificer, then resolve Killian or a draw payoff such as Kor Spiritdancer. In the mid game you start dropping cheap Auras, both on your own creatures and onto opposing creatures via the Impetus suite, triggering Killian to tap-and-goad and growing your card flow. Goaded creatures must attack, and the goad Auras force them away from you, so you let opponents trade blows while you draw off Killian, Coercive Impetus, and Breena, the Demagogue. Late game you convert that advantage into a kill with a suited-up evasive threat (Killian, Decisive Mentor wears menace-granting friends, or you bestow Eidolon of Countless Battles and Eldrazi Conscription), or you wrath asymmetrically with Winds of Rath and Promise of Loyalty while your enchanted board survives. Doomwake Giant and Archon of Sun's Grace reward each enchantment that enters with board swings and tokens. If Killian dies repeatedly, pivot to a slower attrition plan and let Eriette of the Charmed Apple or Tomik, Wielder of Law drain and punish. The deck is happy in long games because almost every enchantment cantrips or generates value.
Key cards
- Killian, Decisive Mentor. The engine: every enchantment that enters taps up to one target creature and goads it, and every attack by your Aura-enchanted creatures draws a card. He punishes opponents and refuels you at the same time.
- Scriv, the Obligator. The alternate face commander. On enter and on attack he makes a Contract Aura on an opponent's creature that pumps it when it attacks other opponents or drains its controller for 2 if it comes at you. He also has flying and deathtouch and triggers Killian-style payoffs as an Aura generator.
- Kor Spiritdancer. Premier enchantress: she draws a card whenever you cast an Aura and gets +2/+2 per Aura attached to her, so a couple of cheap Auras turn her into a card-drawing finisher.
- Coercive Impetus. A goad Aura you slap on an opponent's creature: it goads, and whenever that creature attacks you draw a card and lose 1 life. With Killian out, casting it also taps-and-goads a second creature.
- Sage's Reverie. An Aura that draws a card for each Aura you control attached to a creature on entry, and gives the same number as a +1/+1 buff. In a deck this Aura-dense it can refill your hand and make a real threat in one card.
- Hateful Eidolon. A one-mana lifelink body that draws a card for each Aura you controlled on a creature when that enchanted creature dies. Combined with removal or combat trades on your goad targets, it is a card-advantage faucet.
- Doomwake Giant. Constellation: whenever it or another enchantment you control enters, all opposing creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn. With cheap Auras and token makers it acts as repeatable board control and can sweep small creatures.
- Archon of Sun's Grace. Constellation token engine: every enchantment that enters makes a 2/2 flying Pegasus, and it grants those Pegasi lifelink while flying and lifelinking itself. It widens your board for the attack-trigger payoffs.
- Breena, the Demagogue. A political draw and growth engine: whenever any player attacks an opponent who has more life than another opponent, that attacker draws and you put two +1/+1 counters on a creature you control. With all the goading you do, she fires constantly.
Combos and synergies
- There are no infinite two-card combos in the stock list. The deck is built on value engines and synergy loops. The central loop is Killian, Decisive Mentor plus any cheap Aura: each Aura entering taps and goads a creature, each Aura-enchanted attacker draws. Stack that with Constellation payoffs (Doomwake Giant shrinks the board, Archon of Sun's Grace and Ajani's Chosen make tokens) so a single Aura does three or four things. The goad Auras (Coercive Impetus, Ghoulish Impetus, Martial Impetus, Parasitic Impetus) plus Scriv's Contract tokens turn opponents' creatures into your attackers, and enchantress draw (Kor Spiritdancer, Sram, Senior Edificer, Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor, Starfield Mystic discounting) keeps the Auras flowing. Recursion loops give resilience without going infinite: Animate Dead, Changing Loyalty, and Gift of Immortality recur creatures, while Sentinel's Eyes (escape), Raffine's Guidance (cast from graveyard), Screams from Within, and Ghoulish Impetus return themselves. Eiganjo Dynastorian's Replenish and Forum Filibuster rebuild your whole enchantment base after a wipe.
Mulligan
- Two or three lands with at least one White and one Black source plus a ramp rock or a one-drop enchantress (Sram, Senior Edificer or Kor Spiritdancer) and a couple of cheap Auras.
- A hand with Killian, Decisive Mentor or Scriv, the Obligator castable on curve plus enough Auras to fuel its triggers.
- Lands plus Land Tax or Sol Ring to guarantee you hit your mana while you draw into the Aura engine.
- A mix of an early payoff (Kor Spiritdancer, Starfield Mystic) and at least two Auras, even without the commander, since the enchantress plan works on its own.
- One-land or no-land hands, or hands with only one color of mana and no fixing.
- All Auras and no creatures to enchant and no commander, so nothing can carry them.
- Top-heavy hands full of five-plus drops (Doomwake Giant, Eldrazi Conscription, Winds of Rath) with no early plays or ramp.
- Hands that are pure removal and lands with no engine piece, since the deck needs an enchantress or commander to generate advantage.
Lines and sequencing
- Sequence enchantments to maximize Killian: before combat, drop a cheap Aura so his trigger taps and goads a blocker you want out of the way, then attack with your Aura-wearer to draw.
- Put the Impetus goad Auras (Coercive, Ghoulish, Martial, Parasitic) on the scariest creature an opponent controls so it is forced to swing at your other opponents, not you, while you draw and drain.
- Hold Doomwake Giant and a one-mana Aura together so the Aura's entry plus the Giant's own entry can stack two -1/-1 sweeps to clear a go-wide board.
- Use Winds of Rath and Promise of Loyalty as one-sided wraths: keep an Aura attached to one of your creatures (or a vow counter on it) so your board lives while everyone else's dies.
- Protect a loaded threat with Gift of Immortality, Shielded by Faith, or Chains of Custody's ward 2 before committing Angelic Destiny, Eidolon of Countless Battles, or Eldrazi Conscription, so a single removal spell does not blow you out.
- Lean on the politics cards (Breena, the Demagogue, Mangara, the Diplomat, Tomik, Wielder of Law) by goading creatures into the opponent with the most life so attacks trigger your draws and punish the threat.
- After a board wipe, rebuild with Eiganjo Dynastorian's Replenish or Forum Filibuster to return your enchantments, then re-deploy Killian to restart the goad-and-draw loop.
Pilot difficulty
Intermediate. The deck rewards careful sequencing of enchantments around Killian's triggers and active goad politics, which is more decision-dense than a straightforward aggro or ramp precon.