MTG Secrets of Strixhaven Quandrix Unlimited decklist, reprints, and 12 unique cards revealed

“‘Solving for X’ and trying to get a number as big as possible was a great flavor fit,” Wizards of the Coast lead designer Daniel Holt told Polygon via an email interview.

That idea now defines another preconstructed commander deck led by Zimone in the upcoming Secrets of Strixhaven set. Polygon can exclusively reveal the full decklist for Quandrix Unlimited, a green-blue Commander deck built around X-spells, +1/+1 counters, and overwhelming the board with massive Fractals.

Quandrix Unlimited Commanders

Zimone, Infinite Analyst starts out as a 0/4 for one colorless, one green, and one blue mana — so she can hit the board early with room to grow. Her top ability reduces the cost of the first X spell you play each turn by 1 colorless mana for each +1/+1 counter on her. And whenever you cast your first X spell each turn, you put two +1/+1 counters on her. The strategy here is readily apparent: buff Zimone with lots of counters and use that to cast increasingly large X spells.

“When approaching Zimone’s new design, she was a tricky student,” Holt said. “Her previous cards mostly referenced ramping mana and then later card draw. So, I took a wider look at her other printings and what the school was doing in general and ‘solving for x’ and trying to get a number as big as possible was a great flavor fit for this Quandrix prodigy.”

Whereas the Strixhaven: School of Mages commander decks were all headlined by teachers at the school, this time around, the five commanders representing the five colleges are all students from the previous set that were featured mostly as uncommons. Now, they’ve gotten an extensive glow-up. Magic’s game design team made this decision, Holt said, and when it came time to decide on alternate commanders for these decks, he came up with the idea to feature college mascots.

As the face commander in the Duskmourn: House of Horrors Jump Scare! deck, Zimone, All-Questioning created the fractal creature token called Primo every time you controlled a prime number of lands. (Yes, she likes math that much.) That version of Zimone returns for this deck, along with Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy and the Zimone’s Hypothesis instant offering a removal option and easy counter distribution. The new version of her fractal companion is Primo, the Unbounded which sets up 0/0 creature tokens to multiply and overwhelm opponents.

“For those Magic players who have also been around a while, I was partially inspired by the card Tolsimir Wolfblood who was first introduced in Ravnica: City of Guilds,” Holt said. “In that set (and his next two printings) he created his wolf token companion, Voja. Like Primo, we finally gave Voja his own card in Murders of Karlov Manor.”

Quandrix Unlimited unique cards

Alongside these versions of Zimone and Primo, Quandrix Unlimited has an additional 10 brand-new cards. One major inclusion is a forest island land called Turbulent Wilderness that enters tapped unless your opponents collectively control eight or more lands.

“The turbulent lands are a new cycle I designed for Secrets of Strixhaven alongside the Commander team,” Holt said. “The goal was to create a dual land that plays well in Commander and supported several mana base configurations with the included land subtypes. We chose eight as the required number because this makes it enter tapped for most of the game in 1v1, but in Commander, players 3 and 4 in turn order can have this enter untapped on turn 3.”

Because Turbulent Wilderness is categorized as both a forest and an island, that makes it a fetchable dual land, meaning that you can pull it onto the battlefield with a card like Three Visits — also in the deck — because it searches for a forest specifically. That’s a rarity in Commander. Holt also confirmed that all five of the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander decks have a Turbulent dual land coinciding with each college color combo — and he confirmed that the remaining five allied lands are on the way.

One of the most powerful cards remaining among the unique Quandrix Unlimited cards is Expansion Algorithm. A pure blue sorcery with a cost of two blue mana and X, it simply proliferates X times. It’s the kind of card you might buy the entire deck for just to pluck it out and use it elsewhere. “Because of how many counters are floating around in this deck, Proliferate is a great mechanic to support the deck’s game plan,” Holt said. “I love simple cards like this working well in the precon — being an X spell here, but later inspiring players to do something else cool with it in their own decks.”

Narrative lead Lauren Bond also weighed in on the meaningful impact that Expansion Algorithm has on this deck. “Expansion Algorithm is inspired by Escher-like tessellating creatures while the Lattice Library showcases the many varied forms the fractals can take,” she told Polygon.

“As the school of mathematics and natural sciences, Quandrix is all about manifesting mathematical concepts,” she told Polygon. “Their magic takes a lot of inspiration from real world geometries. Fractals in particular are a major focal point both in their mascot and in their spellcasting.”

Another notable new card is Nexus Mentality, a four-cost instant that can transfer counters from a permanent onto another or remove counters to draw cards for each counter removed — or both, if you control a Commander.

Kinetic Ooze offers a highly versatile creature that leverages both X mechanics and counters — and it fits neatly with Primo’s abilities since it’s a 0/0 creature with a cost of X and one green mana. In the late game, if you pay 10 or more for X, it doubles the number of +1/+1 counters on any number of creatures. Just stop and think about what that could look like in the end game when your board is stacked with a bunch of creatures with a lot of counters on them. This card alone could be a game-winner in all sorts of counter decks, and since it’s green, it’s bound to see a lot of use in blight decks that also leverage +1/+1 counters.

Preparation matters

Like the rest of the Secrets of Strixhaven set, Quandrix Unlimited also emphasizes the new prepared mechanic.

“For the Commander decks, I actually designed two cycles,” Holt said of prepared spells. “One cycle is a two-color card representing the college and theme of the deck it’s in. Striding Shotcaller for example is a Quandrix mage tower sports player who is ‘running the play’ with his prepared spell to apply his mathematics magic prowess to the game.”

“The other cycle of prepared creatures is a special one where I pitched the idea of professors traveling from other planes via the omenpaths to teach Strixhaven students,” Holt said. “These cards are each mono-color and prepare a well-known and powerful spell from Magic’s history.”

Here, that card is Yavimaya Bloomsage, a Dryad visiting from Yavimaya who has the spell Channel, a card that is actually banned in Commander. Channel converts life into extra colorless mana. In Commander formats where you have a lot more life by default — and in a deck like this where you’re paying colorless mana for all of these X spells — that winds up feeling quite overpowered.

The reprints

In terms of the deck’s many reprints, Unbound Flourishing is a standout that fetches prices up to $20 from other sets. It’s a three-cost green enchantment that doubles the value of X whenever you cast a permanent with an X mana cost. For instants, sorceries, and activated abilities, the effect is doubled if the cost contains X.

Hydras also have a huge presence in this deck, leaning into both X and +1/+1 counter strategies. Benevolent Hydra has the next highest-value and is also typically priced around $20. Primordial Hydra and Goldvein Hydra are both not far behind, priced around $15. Other vital reprints include Ozolith, the Shattered Spire (also around $15), which boosts the amount of +1/+1 counters you distribute.

Another notable card is Guardian Augmenter, which offers incredible mechanical value for any kind of green Commander deck. It’s a three-cost green creature with flash that gives your Commander +2/+2 and hexproof — some much-needed instant-speed protection if Zimone or Primo gets targeted by an opponent. Other protection options include Silkguard and Tyvar’s Stand.

Quandrix Unlimited also has nine cards that establish a strong overall draw engine, so we get a copy of Relinquary Tower to make sure you don’t have to discard to maximum hand size.

“Because X-Spells require mana (or cost reduction from Zimone) to really get going, the deck takes a slower start to ‘ramp’ into the mid-to- late game,” Holt explained. “Some of the other decks in the biodome go a bit faster, but if you and other players can slow down those starts, the deck is in a great position to win the long game. Scaling X effects tied to card draw and creature size help every card be relevant no matter what point in the game. It’s such a great feeling when other players run low on resources, and then you top deck an X card draw spell.”

During one particular playtest, Holt said that one player managed to generate a lot of counters on Zimone, and then they cast Channel from their prepared Yavimaya Bloomsage to funnel that into Biomass Mutation — essentially sacrificing a bunch of life to give every creature on the board a base power and toughness of X/X until the end of turn. Holt called it an “absurd” number to “attack the table for the win that same turn.”

To see a full decklist, check it out on Moxfield where the estimated value — without the new cards — comes in at a staggering $226.17.

For a deck built around pushing numbers as high as possible, that feels fitting.