The Silverquill Influence MTG Commander Precon is here, offering a unique Black/White politics-and-goad deck packed with valuable reprints, exciting new cards, a surprisingly strong Auras/enchantments shell, all with multiple viable commanders right out of the box.
Read Ahead:
Deck Gameplay & Philosophy
Silverquill is the college of rhetoric. Its primary philosophy centers around the power and influence of written and spoken words. This precon is a crash course into this philosophy. This is not simply a goad deck. This is a politics deck that will challenge you to use your words to make allies and shift focus onto the real threats. Many cards don’t strictly punish your enemies or protect you—they offer incentives, and it’s up to you to use them to forge alliances.
You’re not controlling the board—you’re controlling the conversation.
Face Commanders
The face commander of this precon is Killian, Decisive Mentor with a brand new alternate commander, Scriv, the Obligator.
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Killian’s two abilities mesh very well together—enchant your opponent’s beaters with Auras, goad them for a turn, and draw cards for your trouble. The goad only lasts a turn, meaning you’ll need to politic before that creature comes back your way.
Scriv doles out Contract auras to your opponents’ creatures when he enters and attacks, promising increased power if those creatures attack your other opponents or lifeloss if they attack you. Unlike Killian, there’s no goad at all, emphasizing the use of politics to keep the focus is on other threats. As a build-around, Scriv’s ability to generate enchantments meshes well with cards that care about enchantments entering.
Other Commander Options
This deck comes with numerous other politics commanders, including the college’s Elder Dragon founder and namesake, Shadrix Silverquill; the charismatic Breena, the Demagogue; and the enchanting Eriette of the Charmed Apple.
A shining example of the Silverquill political challenge, Shadrix requires you to give out one gift to two players on combat. There are no bad gifts—but they can all be turned against you, so it’s up to your words to ensure that they aren’t.
Breena incentivizes players with card draw whenever they attack an opponent of yours who has more life than another opponent. Magic players love card draw and are likely to take this deal whenever they can. For your trouble, you are always rewarded with two +1/+1 counters. Breena’s a great example of Silverquill influence – they don’t have to take the deal, but they’ll want to.
Eriette—a match made in heaven for Killian. Enchant opposing creatures to shut off attacks at you entirely. With Killian, using your big scary auras on an opposing creature only kept them off you for a turn. Eriette guarantees it for as long as she’s on the battlefield.
Each of these commanders approaches the game differently—but all of them reward you for guiding the table instead of fighting it.
Brand New Cards
Silverquill Influence brings us 13 brand new cards, inclusive of Killian and Scriv.
Creatures
Herald of Amity
The Herald is an impressive 4-drop 2/2 flier that allows you to dig 8 cards deep and cast an aura for free when he enters. There are some strong and expensive auras to hope for with this – Eldrazi Conscription is in the deck, after all. Or make your own luck and put something crazy on top with an Enlightened Tutor.
While reasonably strong on his own, this card can really turbo-charge any blink deck with a voltron-y aura subtheme. Thought your pod hated your Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines deck before? Play this with a Panharmonicon out and Cloudshift it to look through literally half your deck for Superstate and 5 of your other auras to turn MoM into a 1-hit kill.
Eiganjo Dynastorian
They finally found a way around the reserve list—printing reserved list cards as Prepared spells on creatures. White gets Replenish via Eiganjo Dynastorian, who prepares every time you attack with two creatures. The bar is so low to prepare the Dynastorian that he’s assuredly going to be in demand for many aggressive enchantments decks.
Defacing Duskmage
This Dog Warlock lets you catch up in cards by becoming prepared whenever an opponent draws their second card on a turn. You do need to pay 
for his prepared spell, Vandal’s Edit, but it is instant speed—allowing you to use it as soon as it becomes available, potentially multiple times a turn cycle.
Enchantments
Changing Loyalty
Board wipe theft! Board wipe protection! Betrayal insurance policy! Changing Loyalty is an exciting new card with numerous potential uses. With both flash and replicate starting at merely , this card will undoubtedly create power plays and big swings in commander games.
Proactively put it on your or your opponents’ creatures to dissuade against removal or a board wipe; hold up mana and use it in response to an opponent’s board wipe; or dump your mana on your prior opponent’s end step and board wipe on your own turn.
This is a master class in Silverquill Influence design.
Coercive Impetus
Joining Parasitic Impetus and Ghoulish Impetus as a third addition to mono-black goad enchantments, Coercive Impetus provides you with card draw when the goaded creature attacks. Not as swingy as Ghoulish Impetus, but definitely valuable as it is likely to at least replace itself.
Forum Filibuster
Forum Filibuster is a unique recursion effect for your auras and enchantments, bringing one back each upkeep from your graveyard attached to a 2/1 flying Inkling. Being a bit slow and higher in mana value makes its viability more limited, but in a deck like this it has opportunities to shine. Since Killian’s goad isn’t permanent—and those creatures often die—your Auras will pile up in the graveyard. Bringing one back a turn allows Killian to goad a new creature and trigger any other ETB effects too.
Outside of this deck, pairing this with something like Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist will help you move these cards off your inklings and onto your higher value creatures.
Intermediate Chirography
Intermediate Chirography is a niche card that cares about Inklings, losing life, counters, and modified creatures dying. Its first level only happens once, and its subsequent levels only trigger once a turn. It’s a set of somewhat disjointed effects that are hard to build around together. In this deck, losing life to black’s card draw effects will trigger its second level, putting counters on your creatures. For level 3, those counters, along with enchanting your creatures, makes your creatures modified, granting you Inklings if they die. Slow and offers only modest board protection. Likely an easy cut for folks looking to upgrade.
Lands
Finally, we are completing the Tango Land and Bi-Cycle land cycles in Secrets of Strixhaven! Both Orzhov and Izzet were the final two guilds missing these lands, with Tango Lands being some of the best budget 2 color untapped lands. Eclipsed Steppe is Orzhov’s Tango land (takes two [basics] to tango) and Umbral Expanse is its type-fetchable bi-cycle land.
In addition, this set is starting two new land cycles, including the Octopus lands (I don’t know if they have an official name yet) that are type fetchable (with something like Farseek) and enter untapped if your opponents have 8 or more lands. This requirement is typically met turn 3-4, making this a land that will enter untapped in most cases. Orzhov’s entry is Turbulent Moor.
Forum of Amity is the entry for the other new land type. This type is destined for the bulk bins as it always enters tapped, isn’t fetchable, taps for one of two colors, and requires effectively 5 mana to surveil 1.
Notable Reprints
Silverquill Influence is loaded with reprint value, especially with enchantment and political shells.
Big winners being evergreen includes like Land Tax and Animate Dead to the commander uno-reverse card, Inkshield.
Songbirds’ Blessing and Armored Skyhunter are both excellent includes in many voltron decks and have each only seen one prior printing.
There are a number of solid politics/pillow fort reprints with Firemane Commando, Nils, Discipline Enforcer, Ghostly Prison, Ghoulish Impetus and Combat Calligrapher.
Deck Fun Interactions & Combos
Killian’s Abilities
It’s important to note that Killian’s ability triggers whenever your enchantments enter and that if it’s an aura, you don’t need to tap and goad the creature you enchant.
This makes a card like Darksteel Mutation a two-for-one, since you can enchant one problematic creature and goad/tap another.
This also makes flooding the board with enchantments a good way to goad lots of creatures, despite not having the card draw tied to their attacks. Speaking of flooding the board with enchantments….
Screams from Within
Screams from Within can be incredible in this deck. It gives enchanted creature -1/-1 and more importantly, when that creature dies, Screams from Within comes back to the battlefield. Each time it enters, it will trigger Killian! So for 3 mana you can take out a number of mana dorks, Thopters, random 1 toughness tokens and creatures, and then likely goad everything else for your own 3-mana Disrupt Decorum.
If you have a Doomwake Giant out, this becomes progressively more lethal. Hateful Eidolon will draw you half your deck as well!
Flickering Ward
Flickering Ward is a way to dump extra mana into Enchantment Enters triggers. For a mere round trip, you can repeatedly tap down and goad creatures.
Secret Arcade // Dusty Parlor
If you’re looking for infinite combos, throw a Secret Arcade // Dusty Parlor into your deck. Secret Arcade makes all of your nonland permanents enchantments, which goes infinite with Ajani’s Chosen and Archon of Sun’s Grace. Each Cat or Pegasus created is an enchantment, and when it enters, would re-trigger the Chosen or the Archon. Note that the latter creatures’ abilities are not ‘may’ abilities, meaning, if you don’t have a way to remove them or the Arcade, the game ends in a draw.
Secret Arcade also combos with Ondu Spiritdancer in the same way – but the Spiritdancer’s ability is a ‘may’ ability so you get to keep the game going after creating 10,000 dancers. Don’t get Rakdos Charm‘d!
Silverquill Influence Precon Upgrade Recommendations
Political Includes
Duelist’s Heritage was made for this deck. Attack my opponents? Get double strike. Simple, effective, and exactly the kind of deal players love to take.
Tenuous Truce keeps cards flowing while maintaining a, well, tenuous truce, with an opponent.
Windborn Muse is a creature version of Ghostly Prison that makes attacking you that much more taxing.
Orzhov Advokist gives your opponents the option to buff their creatures in exchange for 1 turn of truce with you.
More Enchantments, More Triggers
If you want to maximize Killian, the goal is simple: more enchantments, more tap/goad triggers. This concept also synergizes with any Constellation/Eerie-style effect, which also care about enchantments entering instead of being cast.
Ondu Spiritdancer, Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice, and Psemilla, Meletian Poet all help multiply your enchantment output. Light-Paws is the standout—but have a plan before you start searching, or you’ll spend five minutes digging while your table twiddles their thumbs.
Spellbook Vendor lets you pay 1 for a new enchantment each turn and Soaring Lightbringer creates a Glimmer enchantment creature for each player you attack – so potentially 3 in your average commander game. You can combo that with Killian’s tap/goad to tap down a problematic opponent’s board, opening them up for attacks.
Recurring Enchantments
If your Auras keep ending up in the graveyard, doubling down on recursion is an easy upgrade. Hall of Heliod’s Generosity, Retether and potentially Lurrus of the Dream-Den all help to keep the pressure on.
If you like grindy value, Auras that come back on their own go a long way. This deck already runs cards like Fallen Ideal, Ghoulish Impetus and Flickering Ward, but you can push that further with Nurgle’s Rot, Eye of Nidhogg and Mourning.
A bit costly and a bit slow, Traveling Plague resembles Screams from within with its ability to come back to play as soon as the creature it’s enchanting dies. Unlike Screams, however, this gets more lethal with every upkeep, allowing you to target bigger things and have them taken out eventually. Each time it comes back, you get a new tap/goad trigger from Killian, so it can be a way to do some board control and politicking each upkeep.
Other Considerations
Vow of Malice and Vow of Duty disables the enchanted creature from attacking you. For when rhetoric doesn’t do the trick – Bloodthirsty Blade will keep one creature off your back.
Not convinced your buddy isn’t going to attack you with Eldrazi Conscription after Killian’s goad is gone? Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist gives the peace of mind by stealing those enchantments back on your combat.
Mesa Enchantress is a powerful draw engine—but this deck is already heavy at three mana and light on ramp. If you smooth out your curve, she’s a slam dunk. Otherwise, she may come down later than you’d like.
Glasswing Grace makes a pretty natural include in this deck considering it’s an aura enchantment MDFC (modal double-faced card) that can be played as a land in a pinch.
Ghostly Dancers creatues you creatures whenever enchantments enter, similar to Ajani’s Chosen and Archon of Sun’s Grace.
These upgrades don’t change what the deck is trying to do—they make it better at it.
You’re still making deals, still shifting pressure, still letting the table fight itself.
You’re just doing it with more consistency—and a faster clock.
End Step
Silverquill Influence is a rare precon in that it asks you to play more than Magic—it asks you to play the room. The cards, the commanders, the upgrades, all focus on rhetoric: say the right thing to the right person at the right time. Win the room before you win the game.
If that sounds like your kind of Magic, pull up a chair. Class is in session.
What Do You Think?
Is Silverquill Influence a true politics deck—or just goad in disguise?
What upgrades are you making first?
And more importantly… are your opponents actually going to trust you after the first game?