Precon Upgrade Guide
Silverquill Influence Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the Orzhov precon from Secrets of Strixhaven, commanded by Killian, Decisive Mentor.
Picking this precon up?
Shown here is the commander's card art, not the box.
Buy Killian, Decisive Mentor on TCGplayer →Quick verdict
Silverquill Influence is for a player who likes an Auras deck that draws real cards instead of just voltron beatdown, backed by a political goad plan that points attackers away from you. It's good out of the box for a casual multiplayer table, where goading redirects real pressure onto other players and the Aura-draw engine has time to pull ahead. Its biggest weakness is fragility: this precon leans on a handful of specific creatures staying alive, and losing one to a well-timed removal spell can take several attached Auras down with it.
TurnZero rates Silverquill Influence a 3 out of 5 on strength and a 3 out of 5 on difficulty, with the deck's political element rewarding a player who reads the table. See it alongside every other precon we cover on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
Killian, Decisive Mentor goads a creature whenever an enchantment enters, and draws a card whenever an Aura-enchanted creature attacks, so the plan is to keep casting enchantments to redirect pressure while cashing in cards off the deck's own Auras attacking. The precon's own four-card cycle of cheap goad Auras ( Coercive Impetus , Ghoulish Impetus , Martial Impetus , Parasitic Impetus ) does double duty: they goad an opponent's creature and buff it slightly so it hits harder wherever it's forced to attack.
Sram, Senior Edificer and Kor Spiritdancer turn the deck's own Auras into card draw and raw stats instead, and Eriette of the Charmed Apple punishes anyone the deck enchants for even trying to attack you. Shadrix Silverquill is the top end: a flying double striker that makes tokens, drains life, or draws cards depending on what the board needs that turn.
Killian, Decisive Mentor vs. Scriv, the Obligator
Both commanders lean on the same goad idea, but they attack it from opposite directions.
Killian is the better fit for leaning into the deck's own Aura suite and card draw. Scriv is the more politically direct option, since the Contract tokens do their job without needing the rest of the 99 built around Auras specifically.
What works out of the box
Sram, Senior Edificer ↗
Draws a card off every Aura, Equipment, or Vehicle spell cast, a clean engine for exactly what this deck is doing anyway.
Kor Spiritdancer ↗
Gets +2/+2 per Aura attached and draws a card whenever one is cast. A real threat once two or three Auras land.
Eriette of the Charmed Apple ↗
Locks down whatever it enchants from attacking you and drains life every end step. Strong defense and a clock at once.
Shadrix Silverquill ↗
Flying double strike with a flexible combat trigger. The deck's best top-end threat.
Ghostly Prison ↗
Taxes attackers, buying time for the goad plan and the Aura-draw engine to take over.
Land Tax ↗
Keeps the deck's land count even with the table for one white mana, a real find in this precon.
What needs improvement
The manabase is a solid two-color base already; see the Land & Mana Base Guide → if the basics ratio needs adjusting as upgrades come in. The curve leans heavily on cheap Auras with only a few real payoffs at the top, so see What Makes a Curve and Why It Matters → for how to weigh adding a couple more finishers against the deck's existing density of one- and two-mana Auras.
The bigger gap is protecting whichever creature is actually carrying the Auras, since this precon loses more value to a single removal spell than most. See the Voltron archetype guide → for how decks built around stacking Auras on one or two bodies typically shore up that exact weakness.
10 cards to cut
Each of these has a real function. None of them earns its slot in this specific 99.
Tomik, Wielder of Law 's affinity for planeswalkers does nothing in a deck with none, leaving only a conditional attack trigger behind a body that isn't doing much else.
Keen Duelist is a symmetrical life-loss engine off library reveals that costs you exactly as much as it costs the table.
Martial Impetus is the plainest card in the deck's own four-card Impetus cycle, with no upside beyond the shared template the other three already carry.
Combat Calligrapher hands out flying tokens whenever anyone attacks an opponent, padding the whole table's board as often as it helps you.
Secret Rendezvous draws an opponent three cards to get three of your own, closer to a wash than a real edge.
Flickering Ward only grants protection from one chosen color, solving a single problem while doing nothing against the rest of the table.
Sentinel's Eyes is a small stat bump with a narrow escape clause, well below the deck's other Aura options for the same slot.
Darksteel Mutation leaves a 0/1 indestructible body around instead of actually removing the threat it's enchanting.
Fallen Ideal is a sacrifice outlet stapled to an Aura in a deck that doesn't otherwise generate much fodder to feed it.
Screams from Within only shrinks a single creature by -1/-1, a weak rate next to the deck's actual removal.
First upgrades
Budget, first
Skullclamp ↗
Turns any small Inkling or Contract-punished token that would otherwise sit there into two cards.
Swords to Plowshares ↗
Premium one-mana removal, a clean addition to the deck's existing exile-based answers.
Next
Blood Artist ↗
Drains and gains off every creature death, including the deck's own goaded Auras dying in someone else's combat.
Zulaport Cutthroat ↗
A second copy of the same trigger, stacking with Blood Artist for real damage over a game.
Toxic Deluge ↗
An efficient, scalable board wipe this precon otherwise lacks.
Higher-investment
Win conditions
The upgraded deck still wins the way the precon wants to: goad opposing threats away from you while Kor Spiritdancer or Eriette of the Charmed Apple grows into a real clock under a stack of Auras, refueled by Sram, Senior Edificer and the deck's Aura-triggered draw. Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat add a slow drain that closes games the rest of the table doesn't see coming until the life totals are already gone.
The upgraded 99, in shape
The finished list keeps the precon's core engine untouched (whichever commander leads, the Aura-draw package, Shadrix Silverquill as the top end) and adds a real aristocrats-flavored drain package the base 99 only gestured at. The symmetrical and narrow filler is gone, replaced by cheap interaction and a board wipe the precon never had. The deck still plays the same political, Aura-first game it always did; it just survives the removal spell that used to end its best creature's run.
Who should buy this precon
A good fit for a player who enjoys reading the table and enjoys an Auras deck that draws real cards instead of just stacking stats. It's a weaker fit for a table that plays fast and punishes any single point of failure, since this precon's plan can unravel quickly if its one or two key creatures die.
Track how the upgrades actually perform.
TurnZero HQ keeps a win rate per deck version, so you can change ten cards, play ten games, and see the difference instead of guessing.
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