Five decks, one per Strixhaven college, built on magecraft, artifact recursion, token doubling, life gain and table politics.
Magecraft triggers whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery. Copying counts, which is why the Izzet deck can get several triggers from one card and why the mechanic reads much better in Commander than it did in Standard.
Learn lets you fetch a Lesson card from outside the game or rummage instead. It gives the Strixhaven decks a small sideboard of their own, which almost nothing else in the format does.
Ward taxes opponents for targeting your creature. Strixhaven printed it widely, and in these decks it protects the commanders that the whole plan runs through.
When you cast a spell with demonstrate you may copy it, and if you do, an opponent copies it too. It is the political mechanic of the set and it shows up on ten cards.
Commander 2021 shipped alongside Strixhaven with one deck per college, which makes it one of the cleanest themed batches Wizards has released. Lorehold gets artifacts and graveyard recursion, Prismari gets spells, Quandrix gets tokens, Silverquill gets politics and Witherbloom gets life drain.
Magecraft carries the set. Because it triggers on copying as well as casting, a single well timed instant can fire it three or four times, and the Prismari deck is built to do exactly that. Learn is the other novelty, and it remains one of the few times a Commander product asked you to keep cards outside the game.
The power level across the five is uneven in an interesting way. Two of these commanders, Osgir and Adrix and Nev, went on to become archetypes in their own right, while the other three play closer to the usual precon baseline.
Quantum Quandrix is the best value in the batch and the easiest to upgrade, since token doubling gets better with every token maker you own. Lorehold Legacies is the one that rewards patience.
Osgir, the Reconstructor · Alibou, Ancient Witness
A Boros artifacts deck built around Osgir, the Reconstructor, sacrifice artifacts to deal extra damage, then exile them from the graveyard to create two token copies, building an overwhelming artifact army.
Zaffai, Thunder Conductor
An Izzet spellslinger deck from Commander 2021 built around magecraft. Zaffai, Thunder Conductor scrys off every instant and sorcery, spits out 4/4 Elementals off your five-drops, and hits for 10 when you cast something huge.
Adrix and Nev, Twincasters · Esix, Fractal Bloom
A Simic token-doubling deck led by Adrix and Nev, Twincasters, use Parallel Lives as your commander, copy each token twice instead of once, and overwhelm the table with doubled Fractals and creature tokens.
Breena, the Demagogue · Felisa, Fang of Silverquill
An Orzhov political deck led by Breena, the Demagogue, incentivize opponents to attack each other with extra card draws, grow your board with +1/+1 counters, and leverage political manipulation into a fast, counter-heavy win.
Willowdusk, Essence Seer · Gyome, Master Chef
A Golgari lifegain and +1/+1 counters deck led by Willowdusk, Essence Seer, gain life aggressively, convert that life gain into enormous +1/+1 counter payoffs, and close the game with a single unstoppable creature.