{"ops":[{"insert":"The Lorehold Spirit Precon was my absolute favorite of the Secrets of Strixhaven set (and is probably my favorite of the past several years). Everyone spent spring 2026 talking about Killian, Decisive Mentor and Dina, Essence Brewer, but my man Quintorius, History Chaser has got them beat. I believe this deck has a very high skill-ceiling. If you just pick up the precon and play, you'll have a good time and you'll probably do decently well in the game. If you make a handful of key upgrades in the deck and practice some of the extremely fun value tricks this deck can do, you will have fun and you'll probably win a lot. This deck takes a lot of players by surprise, and it is both flexible and resilient.\n\nCredit to where credit is due: most of the upgrades were directly inspired by this article from draftsim: "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://draftsim.com/lorehold-spirit-upgrade-guide/"},"insert":"https://draftsim.com/lorehold-spirit-upgrade-guide/"},{"insert":"\n\nI think the upgrades work extremely well. I didn't follow it to the letter for budget reasons and because of some personal play style decisions but check out the article for more info and more ideas.\n\n**How does this deck play and work?**\nOn the surface, the base precon is all about manipulating your graveyard to create Spirit Tokens with Quintorius. Quintorius's +1 ability helps you efficiently fill your graveyard and draw you cards. Honestly, this is Quintorius, History Chaser's real strength because he allows you to filter through your deck very quickly to access all of your tools faster than many other decks. We don't particularly care if cards are in the graveyard because we have tons of ways to pull them back out again. The upgraded deck list is geared towards adding additional discard outlets and improving synergies with Quintorius (as outlined in the linked article). If you know what you're doing, this deck is very good at generating value. I'll outline the general game plan and the various tips and tricks below.\n\n**Early Game: Find and Play Value Engines**\nYou want your opening hand to have 3 lands and card draw at the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM. If you find yourself starting out slow, your main goal is just to play your commander. Quintorius is an excellent draw engine, even though you have to discard. Simply discard higher cost cards or cards that don't really speed you up, you can always get them back later if they're important. Plus, there are absolutely cards that are often better in your graveyard than in your hand, especially if you draw them early. Cards like Angel of Indemnity, Anger, Shenanigans, and Sevinne's Reclamation to name a few.\n\nAside from Quintorius, you are looking for those early game value engines that will serve you all game. The obvious ones are those 4 enchantments in the deck (Tocasia's Welcome, Primary Research, Monologue Tax, and Advanced Reconstruction) (if you want to increase the power level of the deck, Smothering Tithe can be added). There are also creatures like Relic Retriever and the other 2 Quintorius cards that are good as well. Squee, Goblin Nabob is an excellent perpetual discard candidate as well, and you'll get a free spirit on each of your upkeeps. Containment Construct and Conspiracy Theorist are also way more valuable than they appear, which brings me to:\n\n*Trick #1*: If you have Containment Construct or Conspiracy Theorist on the field with Quintorius, History Chaser, it makes his +1 ability extremely valuable. You simply use the +1 ability to discard whatever card you want to play that turn, then exile it using Containment Construct or Conspiracy Theorist. You immediately get two draws and a Spirit Token off Quintorius, then you can play/cast the card from exile. Containment Construct specifically says 'play' and not cast, so if they are out, you can discard a land and play the land from exile. Win-win. A similar interaction also works with Currency Converter.\n\nAgain, your early game goals are to set up some value engines, filter through your deck, and fill your graveyard. Save board wipes and other targeted removal in your hand if possible, those are harder to recover. If you want to be more aggressive, cards like Augusta, Order Returned, The Warring Triad, and Hardened Academic can act as decent early game threats that won't draw a lot of hate. I've found that most people don't really know what to make of this deck. They'll see you drawing and discarding and maybe they'll see a few creatures pop up, but there's nothing that really establishes you as a 'problem.'\n\n**Mid-Game: Do Damage, Trade and Remove Threats**\nBy the time you get to turn 6 (this is a bracket 2 deck, so we should be getting to turn 6) you'll officially be in the Mid-Game. Now you'll have a sense of who you're playing and who you need to take out. If somebody is catching on that Quintorius is giving you crazy value, they may start trying to kill him. It is very important to protect Quintorious, which is easier than if he wasn't a planeswalker. Don't be afraid to trade your spirit tokens heavily to remove threats and block incoming damage. If you're getting overwhelmed, be liberal with your board wipes. Quintorius survives most of them and he can repopulate your board very quickly, so don't be shy. If Quintorius gets killed, here's:\n\n*Trick #2* You can send Quintorious to the graveyard if he gets killed. Most people lose their commander and put them immediately back into the Command Zone because they have no way to pull them back without paying the tax. This deck DOES have ways it can pull Quintorius, History Chaser back onto the battlefield from the graveyard. Angel of Indemnity, Guardian Scalelord, and Quintorius, Loremaster can all bring Quintorius, History Chaser back from the Graveyard, so if it's early and you're going to have to wait a turn or two before you can cast Quintorius with the tax, sometimes pays to wait until you actually have to move him back to the command zone to cast him. It feels sooo good not to have to pay that tax. It's best to do this if you already have a retrieval piece that can hit him in your hand, or if you at least have other good ways to draw cards. If you have NO card draw currently available, then yeah probably just pay the tax.\n\nAt this point, you'll want to have full systems set up to extract full value from discarding. Many cards in this deck add value on their own, but once you hit 2 or 3 engines this deck really gets cooking. This is about the time you'll want to set up to play Monument to Endurance. Monument to Endurance is what gives you your ultimate discard value engine by allowing you to draw, get a treasure, or burn your opponents when you discard. It combos best with Hardened Academic, which lets you essentially discard at will and continually use Monument to Endurance on your opponent's turns (you can only use each of its three effects once per turn, so if you can activate it at instant speed with a discard outlet, you get to use it on your opponents' turns as well). \n\nSpend this phase of the game gathering powerful end game pieces like Angel of Indemnity, Moonshaker Cavalry, and Hofri Ghostforge either in your hand or your graveyard. For interaction, play politics with you table as much as you can and do what you can to take out big threats that you won't be able to overcome with combat damage. If you're worried about getting board wiped yourself, Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero is an insurance policy to keep your eyes out for while filtering.\n\n\n**End Game: Beat Everyone Down**\nIt's now time to assemble your end game. This deck usually finishes games with big combo combat turns. You will begin to reach large numbers of spirits and spirit tokens, all of which you can give Double Strike with Quintorius. You'll be consistently wearing down opponents with Spirits and flying creatures in this phase of the game. You also have numerous ways to get lifelink to ensure you life total stays up, allowing you to strategically take hits. This deck is capable of huge burst damage, especially with Moonshaker Cavalry. Even if you lose creatures along with your spirits, you'll have tons of cards in your graveyard you can bring back out thanks to Karmic Guide, Sun Titan, Serra Paragon, Primary Research and others. It'll be very hard opponents to beat you in a battle of attrition.\n\nFind or make an opening, go full force with your Double Striking spirits (Quintorius, History Chaser's -4 ability) and combat damage your way to a win.\n"}]}