First, to answer a couple of questions. First, is my Cleric deck dead? Absolutely not! I just need to get some wind back in my sails to get these posts out in a reasonable time. Second, why no posts since April. Well, after Lorwyn Eclipsed came the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set. And it featured absolutely no clerics.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the latest In-Universe set, Secrets of Strixhaven. There are a whopping seventeen Clerics in the set! Better yet, fourteen of them are candidates for my Orzhov deck.So, the question is now, which ones can I include in my deck and improve it.
Ascendant Dustspeaker is not necessarily a bad card but there are so many better alternatives for its cost. It could have a home in some kind of exile deck but I don’t see it in the current incarnation of my Clerics deck. Pass for now.
Eager Glyphmage is in the same boat except that it could be paired with Ennis, Debate Moderator, to create a token engine. But doing so would require another component to make Ennis’ effect repeatable or a different card offering a similar effect. It’s a lot for not much tangible benefit over the current cards.
I’d love to put Emeritus of Truce in the deck but the challenge is that this is an aggro deck depending on creatures. I expect that there will be too many times when I will not be able to get him prepared to take advantage of his companion spell, a classic that I would love to cast over and over! Maybe worth a try to validate the theory!
Honorbound Page faces a similar challenge: The value of the card lies in being able to repeatedly prepare it to leverage its companion spell. As much as these new cards look to be fun, I don’t see them fitting easily into this deck.
Inkshape Demonstrator is an interesting card. I enjoyed the Repartee mechanic during the pre-release event. It reminded me of Magecraft in fact. At a cost of 
, the +1/+0 is not worth it but lifelink might be. If nothing else, it is worth a try!
I’m not sold on Joined Researchers. While the card should be easier to prepare over and over, I’m not sure that giving my opponent three cards over and over is a good thing . Again, this might be worth a test or two to see.
Owlin Historian is not a great card for this deck. It simply does not fit well into the deck. Another pass!
Quill-Blade Laureate is another preparation-type card. It suffers from the same challenge as most of these cards – How to repeatedly prepare it within the context of this deck?
Remember how I said I liked Repartee? Well, I actually played a Scolding Administrator in my pre-release event and found it to be a fun card. Menace and the ability to grow certainly fits well in the deck. And being able to move its counters to another creature when it dies is another plus. Look for this one in my deck!
The same can be said for Snooping Page. Its Repartee mechanic again fits nicely into my deck. The card draw is another plus albeit at a cost that needs to be managed but less so than usual given that the deck includes lifelink. Another candidate for inclusion but at the cost of what?
The last Cleric to consider is Spiritcall Enthusiast. The potential is there but the need to have a token enter makes it more difficult to leverage in this deck. It will sit on the sidelines for now.
Before we wrap, we should talk about a few other cards.
The first is one that I immediately want to put into the deck: Erode. For , you destroy a creature or planeswalker but at the cost giving its controller a tapped basic land. I”ve replaced my two Get Lost removals for two copies of Erode. We’ll have to see if giving my opponent a tapped basic land each time I kill a creature or planeswalker proves to be too much of lopsided cost but it’s hard to argue with a cost of .
Before we wrap, there is one card that I played during the pre-release that I wish was a cleric. Stirring Hopesinger was good fun and it’s too bad that it’s a bard. This one would have been an immediate include with its flying and lifelink abilities and a simple way to trigger its Repartee ability.
Here is what the deck looks like at the moment:
Deck
- 3 Murder (J25) 467
- 4 Essence Channeler (BLB) 12
- 2 Inkshape Demonstrator (SOS) 21
- 2 Authority of the Consuls (FDN) 137
- 4 Preacher of the Schism (LCI) 113
- 2 Rosa, Resolute White Mage (FIN) 555
- 2 Minwu, White Mage (FIN) 26
- 3 Aerith Gainsborough (FIN) 4
- 3 Sheltered by Ghosts (DSK) 30
- 2 Bitter Triumph (LCI) 91
- 2 Elegy Acolyte (EOE) 97
- 3 Wanderbrine Preacher (ECL) 41
- 2 Scolding Administrator (SOS) 224
- 2 Erode (SOS) 15
- 2 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269
- 2 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244
- 9 Plains (THB) 250
- 3 Scoured Barrens (IKO) 254
- 7 Swamp (THB) 252
- 1 Valgavoth’s Lair (DSK) 271
Sideboard
- 1 Enter the Avatar State (TLA) 18
- 2 Pest Control (BIG) 22
- 1 Virtue of Persistence (WOE) 115
- 2 Nowhere to Run (DSK) 111
- 1 Seam Rip (EOE) 34
- 1 Roaming Throne (LCI) 258
- 2 Exorcise (DSK) 8
- 1 Day of Judgment (FDN) 140
- 1 Compassionate Healer (TLA) 13
And with that, time to go see what the next set has in stock for our Clerics!
pip in its mana costs. That leaves us with five to review.
, we can add either a 
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