Today I am going to look at exploring the colleges of Strixhaven. I will also be trying to use newer cards where possible to allow for readers to build and explore the decks potential at home though some format staples may well be needed.

Lorehold College

This is a hard deck to build, the thing is Boros Monarch and Boros Bully are both great decks and finding a new deck is more difficult than it looks. I also considered just updating my wife’s Boros Tokens with First Day of Class.

Where I decided to go was to play with the Graveyard and utilise Flashback.

4 Eager First-Year
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Lorehold Pledgemage
2 Fuming Effigy
2 Stonebound Mentor

I love Seeker of the Way, but I have included several Flashback spells to increase the Prowess triggers. I have included Eager First-Year but it may be better to include the solid and reliable Thraben Inspector in its place.

4 Faithless Looting
4 Firebolt
4 Battle Screech
4 Prismatic Strands
4 Goblin Wizardry
4 Lightning Bolt

I think this deck can support the prowess for Goblin Wizardry alongside Seeker of the Way so giving a card I admire but hardly play a run out.

4 Alpine Meadow
7 Snow-Covered Mountain
7 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Lorehold Campus

Prismari College

When I started to look at the cards in depth, I noticed we did not have much new to brew around though copying spells with Teach by Example looked like the most interesting tactic. Prismari Pledgemage then got the nod and I ended up in some crazy variant of the old school Izzet Blitz archetype.

4 Prismari Pledgemage
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Jhessian Thief
2 Azure Fleet Admiral
2 Crimson Fleet Commodore

I really like my options on turn 2 and throwing in Jhessian Thief as card draw alongside the Monarch creatures. Missing out courtesy of the prevalence of the Monarch in the format were Wee Dragonauts and Elusive Spellfist.

4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Distortion Strike
4 Crash Through
4 Temur Battle Rage
4 Behold the Multiverse
4 Teach by Example

I think Teach by Example could be great fun copying the pump spells. Behold the Multiverse can be Foretold ready for later use.

4 Volatile Fjord
7 Snow-Covered Mountain
7 Snow-Covered Island
2 Prismari Campus

Ironically if we go double blue casting cost Quandrix Pledgemage is potentially an option by getting better with counters.

Quandrix College

I’ve been in a quandary with Quandrix to feel what do the cards do and what is the identity. Quandrix looks as much like Simic as Prismari has synergies to Izzet. However, after looking at the cards it does look like we can do things a bit differently.

Scurrid Colony and Vortex Runner are both cards that get better with a significant number of lands in play but Pauper tends to be a format with a lesser number of lands due to lower mana curves. The plan for this deck is to ramp into enough lands to make the creatures more effective. I am going to add Annoyed Altisaur as cascading downwards into ways to add extra lands into play will be very useful.

4 Coiling Oracle
4 Scurrid Colony
4 Wood Elves
4 Vortex Runner
4 Mulldrifter
2 Entourage of Trest
4 Annoyed Altisaur

I rather like the look of this deck and have avoided the ponza style of land destruction just aiming to go big.

4 Ravenform
4 Into the North
2 Eureka Moment

4 Simic Growth Chamber
4 Thornwood Falls
4 Rimewood Falls
8 Forest
2 Island
2 Quandrix Campus

Silverquill College

I really like Black White as a colour pairing and was looking forward to putting a deck together. I had seen Star Pupil and Spiteful Squad; Exhilarating Elocution also had some degree of appeal if we wanted more counters and to go wide with creatures. This was when we started to see some problems as the depth for decent spells that add counters to move around later and somehow add some go wide strategy is troublesome.

4 Star Pupil
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Mortician Beetle
4 Spiteful Squad
2 Basri’s Acolyte

Despite trying to find a new idea I really couldn’t think about any other option than the Carrion Feeder and Mortician Beetle combo wombo.

2 Exhilarating Elocution
4 Village Rites
3 Cast Down
2 Snuff Out
3 Chainer’s Edict
2 Unexpected Fangs
4 Battle Screech

I have gone Village Rites as the card draw as potential to move around counters from Star Pupil and Spiteful Squad. My concern is maybe the Battle Screech not being as synergistic and maybe we need some graveyard recursion to keep bringing out the creatures.

4 Snowfield Sinkhole
4 Scoured Barrens
2 Ash Barrens
5 Swamp
5 Plains
2 Silverquill Campus

Witherbloom College

Most of my friends know that I have a fondness for life gain style decks with Martyr of Sands and Proclamation of Rebirth being one of my favourite decks of all time as it helped me win my first Standard FNM, a couple of years later along came Ajani’s Pridemate and the Soul Sisters deck which I adopted for many weeks whilst it was legal and converted it to a Modern deck later. Imagine my joy when I saw Blood Researcher spoiled, I knew I would be brewing around this card.

4 Essence Warden
2 Vault Skirge
4 Putrid Leech
4 Marauding Blight-Priest
4 Blood Researcher
4 Moldering Karok
2 Witherbloom Pledgemage
2 Entourage of Trest
2 Wickerbough Elder

I feel this is the ideal deck for Putrid Leech, the life loss can be compensated for by other cards and intrinsic life gain.

2 Cast Down
2 Infuse with Vitality
2 Chainer’s Edict
2 Snuff Out
2 Unexpected Fangs

I am leaning more on creatures in this shell as we are revolving around the Blood Researcher. However, after a bit of Spell Table play, I am considering maybe the Bayou Groff is an option as adding Nest Invader and Young Wolf could also synergise with Essence Warden for the life gain.

2 Bojuka Bog
4 Jungle Hollow
5 Swamp
5 Forest
4 Woodland Chasm
2 Witherbloom Campus

Jungle Hollow being on colour and gaining life is a shoe in, Radiant Fountain is another choice but does it hamper my mana base overall. This is very similar to Orzhov Pestilence and needing some incidental life gain.

Strangely enough neither green deck provided a clear home initially for probably the best card in the set, Bayou Groff. I decided to brew around this card as its focal point.

Bayou Groff

Bayou Groff is a potentially great card, I feel we have a couple of potential shells, Mono Green Stompy or Golgari midrange.

Bayou Groff has several deck building considerations when building a deck, on the earlier turns you probably need sacrifice fodder so Young Wolf with Undying and Nest Invader with its Eldrazi friends are stellar options.

4 Young Wolf
4 Bayou Groff
4 Nest Invader
2 Llanowar Visionary
4 Sarulf’s Packmate
3 Hooting Mandrills
3 Gurmag Angler
2 Entourage of Trest

I rather like the creature mix which will make for some fun interactions.

2 Cast Down
4 Unearth
2 Chainer’s Edict
2 Snuff Out
2 Charge Through

Unearth is a great card, however, Bayou Groff is also a legal target to be Unearthed so deserves a slot.

2 Bojuka Bog
4 Jungle Hollow
5 Swamp
5 Forest
4 Woodland Chasm
2 Witherbloom Campus

First Day of Class

The other card I wanted to brew around, it has a lot of flexibility and potential to be the backbone of a great deck. Clearly a Boros Bully style deck creating haste imbued birds from Battle Screech with a prowess improved Seeker of the Way would be my choice. However, I also feel this can and should be brewed around.

My original thoughts were for Gruul preceding Burning-Tree Emissary but this felt a little late as the Burning-Tree Emissary is better turn two, however, after a restock from a Lead by Example or Winding Way it would still have potential. My second idea was to tinker with Phyrexian mana creatures to maximise use of your mana though you may need some life gain effects to mitigate the life lost.

Friends also reminded me of the Rakdos brews being pushed to allow for a combo with Persist creatures. Combo decks encourage Solitaire magic and are near the bottom of decks that I would play so I will allow an enthusiast of Combo decks to publish one.

Finally it clicked, the effect is very similar to Goblin Bushwhacker and does First Day of Class become the fifth to eighth whack effects.

I don’t think we have a suitable Lesson so when we Learn from First Day of Class we will probably be rummaging.

4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Foundry Street Denizen
2 Goblin Heelcutter

Once we add Foundry Street Denizen, we need to maximise the Goblin count, I’m doing this down the token route and allowing Goblin Wizardry to have prowess triggers as well.

4 Goblin Wizardry
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Krenko’s Command
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 First Day of Class
4 Crash Through
4 Barge In
4 Lightning Bolt

I have included both Barge in and Crash Through for Trample effects with the latter being a cantrip.

18 Mountain

Conclusion

I think the decks are good starting points for Pauper play. Any play feedback or changes you feel would improve the decks feel free to comment or contact me direct.

My Witherbloom life gain deck came together really quickly, the others took some time with the Prismari and Quandrix deck feels they are going to get reasonable results but they could be glass cannons. Lorehold feels weak but this could be because I am a big Boros fan and Silverquill, which is a colour combo I am particularly fond of, could be decks that become projects to improve to a point where I would be happy to sleeve up for an event.

I love brewing and writing about brews is one of my favourite articles to write.

During the brewing process for these decks, it did remind me about Eventide, the last wholly enemy coloured set, I feel we may well have some synergies between the two sets and going to be looking at decks focusing around the Eventide Mimics.