In this deck tech, we’ll be looking to transform the elephant planeswalker himself, Quintorius, History Chaser, into a large threat ready to fight it out on the battlefield.
Before we go into the deck itself, I’d like to thank Soup for their support in making this deck profile. Looking at Quintorius, we have one of the more unique commanders from this cycle of precons. Quint, as I’ll be shortening his name to, is the only and a rare sort at that of a planeswalker commander among the new Strixhaven precons. This gives both benefits and demerits, namely that Quint is a bit harder to remove through the traditional sense of removal spells as he dodges most creature removal. However, being a planeswalker makes him more of an easy target when it comes to creature-based combat.
Quint does have a bit of his own defence as evidenced by his static ability. However, the issue is that neither of his active planeswalker abilities provide him with a trigger, leaving him defenceless without the use of another card. Quint incentivizes you to essentially play cards that have graveyard-leaving abilities. Cards with keywords and effects like Flashback work extremely well with him. His first ability is great since it does help you filter your hand while also filling your graveyard. His final ability is a bit niche, but if you do manage to make a board of spirits, you can give them a combat boost to hopefully swarm out and wipe out your opponents.
One of the easiest synergies to speak about is the nice spirit package that is provided within Quint’s precon. The spirits included are quite decent, but there is a significant issue with them. Most of them do not synergize with Quint himself. These are mainly good spirits not spirits that work with Quint. They will still get buffed by his secondary ability, but they do nothing to benefit any of his other abilities whatsoever. While it is nice to play with Quint’s spirit calls, Quint really needs cards that either fill the graveyard or remove cards to activate his static trigger.
One nice inclusion to the precon is these graveyard payoffs above that give you more value for removing cards from your graveyard that synergize perfectly with Quint. However, aside from Conspiracy Theorist, they are all dependent on you having rummaged cards to begin with. Quint, with his first ability, accomplishes this, but it can be rather slow. Furthermore, in the case of Conspiracy Theorist, his first ability will take at least one full turn cycle to activate.
What we should be looking for are ways to activate Quint’s main static ability, the main source of his value generation on board. The two cards above are perfect examples to accomplish this. Vanguard of the Restless even gives its own anthem effect, which can eventually spiral into an overrun instance when combined with Quint’s second activated ability. The bottom line is that we need cards that can either exit the graveyard on their own or help other cards do the same.
Rummaging cards that fill the graveyard are good, especially the ones that can be casted again later from the graveyard.
Given how Quint runs, we want to consider our graveyard as essentially an extended hand. As long as the card is relatively cheap in terms of mana costs, the card can be great with Quint. At worst, the card always provides a spirit on your battlefield.
You don’t exactly have to cast spells from your graveyard with Flashback to trigger Quint’s static ability. Quint specifically states when a card “leaves” your graveyard, so abilities like Eternalize, Encore, and Disturb are all excellent options to consider as well. All these abilities will cause the card to leave your graveyard thus making the spirit with Quint.
Within Strixhaven’s own set, we’ve got a bunch of cards that provide recursion from the graveyard by themselves, helping with triggering Quint’s ability continuously. Keep in mind that Quint’s ability triggers for each instance of a graveyard leaving effect, not based on the number of cards removed.
Artifact support should help with either milling our deck or ramping us up. Tablet of Discovery is great since much of our deck is focused on casting spells and the discount works even if the card is from our graveyard. Ark of Hunger does double duty as way to slightly damage our opponents while essentially giving us a free playable that generates a spirit as well for Quint.
Collector’s Vault and Currency Converter do the job of filling the graveyard. Collector’s Vault is great since it also refunds a treasure token, making it essentially a single cost to rummage. Currency Converter is weird since you ideally want to have cards in your graveyard, but it has its own ability to force a rummage and can also deposit the exiled card later back into your graveyard for additional value in the form of a creature or treasure.
Be creative and toy around with Quint’s rather unique ability. Remember, he only cares that cards leave your graveyard, not how they do so. Cards like Ojer Taq technically touch your graveyard, so, when its trigger sends it back to the battlefield, it will still count and give you those nice juicy tokens. Both Radiant Grace and Faithbound Judge add even more “fun” to the battlefield.
The coolest part of Quint, in my opinion, is the rather flexible nature of his static ability. Beyond the more common keywords, there are multiple ways to make use of his trigger. Whether that be by summoning phoenixes from the graveyard, abusing self-return abilities, or even using more rare keywords like Unearth, there are plenty of ways to make use of Quint and ensure you get those spirit bodies.
As far as removal goes, Lorehold Charm is a wonderful card with modality that lets you perform a number of functions. Rip Apart gets the job done and has modality for artifact or enchantment removal. Wraths are pretty fine for the most part, and one of the bonuses for our elephant man is that he dodges creature removal. You’ll get your cards back from the graveyard anyways, but it is rather slow, so wraths that are more one-sided are helpful. Retribution of the Meek is cute since your spirits are 3/2s, letting them dodge the wipe condition. You’re in white and red, so you have plenty of removal options as is. Take a look. Granted, also since most of the creatures we’ll be employing are tokens, Hour of Reckoning can be a very efficient spell to use, especially thanks to convoke.
I have to say, I love this card. Advanced Reconstruction is very fun, and if you are able to level it up to its final level, you’ve got a very cheap way to bring back your cards and enable Quint consistently. I’m glad that they put this card in the precon.
Lands-wise, the precon is packed with some good stuff. Emeria’s reprint was unexpected (and makes me wish I had waited before purchasing my Japanese version). Mistveil Plains is a cheeky and cheap way to activate Quint. Some other additions would be Elegant Parlor if you can afford the price tag. Surveil on play is nice to just give you a free dump off the bat into your graveyard. Fetchlands of any capacity can be a consideration just because they fill your graveyard. They’re especially great if you are planning to use any sort of Delve or Escape mechanic.
The elephant man is cool, and his general game plan is very straight-forward. Fill your graveyard, remove cards from it to make spirit tokens, and then ram through your opponents. How you do so to get those tokens is, in my opinion, the most cool part of it all, and that’s where your creativity will truly shine.