Modern has been in a great place lately. With multiple viable decks that could win any given tournament, MTG players will have no issues finding a strategy that jives with their playstyle. Even after enduring a lot of competitive pressure from multiple Regional Championship events, Modern still remains as versatile as ever, but there have been metagame developments.
The rise of a few select decks has changed the expected landscape somewhat, encouraging players to find new answers that address multiple common decks that they might run into. This has led to one overlooked counterspell becoming extremely popular out of nowhere. Even better, the counterspell is also a very effective tool in Commander.
Strix Serenade
Despite being an extremely efficient counterspell, Strix Serenade hasn’t seen a ton of play outside Commander until now. This Modern Horizons 3 card is essentially the opposite of Swan Song, countering all the card types that Swan Song cannot (Battles aside), while similarly offering a 2/2 Flying Bird. This counterspell may seem a bit specific, but it perfectly aligns with many of the top Modern decks right now, offering a fluid answer to multiple threats.
Interestingly, almost all of the top decks in Modern are creature-centric ones. Whether you’re countering an Escaped Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury out of Jeskai Blink or Energy, Primeval Titan out of Amulet, or Kappa Cannoneer out of Affinity, Strix Serenade counters tons of high-priority spells in Modern’s most popular archetypes. Of the top 10 Modern decks according to mtggoldfish, only Goryo’s Vengeance and Prowess can somewhat shrug off the counterspell. The card can still do work in those matchups, but it’s less impactful. Even Storm, which is seeing a major resurgence, has all of its mana-reducers countered by Strix Serenade.
This has caused Strix Serenade to see a massive surge of play in Modern. The card is primarily seeing extremely high levels of play in Jeskai Blink, considered the best deck in the format. Serenade otherwise appears in the sideboards of many other blue strategies like Goblin Charbelcher combo, Affinity, and other Blink variants.
While Modern has certainly shone a flashlight on Strix Serenade, it’s not only seeing play in that format. The card is also quite popular in Commander.
Strix Serenade in Commander
Regardless of the bracket of your Commander pod, Strix Serenade will prove itself to be powerful. Notably, Serenade counters almost any Commander that you’ll ever run into. The card takes care of Creatures and Planeswalkers, which leaves very few Commanders that Serenade fails to hit. This card can even hit Spacecraft and Vehicles, one of the rarer Commander types now legal thanks to the recent Edge of Eternities rules change.
Past just countering Commanders for one mana, Strix Serenade deals with many powerful threats commonly found in the format. From The Great Henge to The One Ring, tons of powerful spells seen across many different Commanders get handled for just one mana. The bird matters a lot less in Commander too, since players start with 40 life. It may not counter everything, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a game where Strix Serenade doesn’t do something splashy.
Because of this, Strix Serenade even sees play in cEDH, where it’s a fairly frequent flyer. The card appears to be a blue staple in the format, seeing play in all kinds of different cEDH decks, but it does seem to see a lot of play in Sisay, Weatherlight Captain decks, in particular. That format is moving towards big creature decks that sidestep common interaction, making Strix Serenade a stronger choice than usual.
Unfortunately, if you’re looking for copies of Strix Serenade, the cat already seems to be out of the bag on this one. Demand for Strix Serenade is through the roof, even suggesting that the card might get more expensive soon.
Copies are Selling Fast
Thanks to players preparing for their Regional Championships, a ton of Strix Serenade are currently moving hands. Just in the past week, over 500 near-mint copies of Serenade’s variants have exchanged hands on TCGplayer. That’s a massive increase of the card’s sales volume previously, and it’s starting to cause a price spike. Fortunately, there’s still plenty of cheap Strix Serenades available at time of writing, but that may not last long.
For now, excluding shipping, you can find Strix Serenade for under a dollar, which is a great deal indeed. Realistically, you’ll likely be paying between $1 and $2 for this card, but at the rate Strix Serenade is being bought up, that might end up being a good deal soon. It’s impossible to truly tell the future, but Swan Song, Serenade’s alter ego, is currently worth around $7 for its cheapest variants. That card is more effective in high-bracket Commander than Serenade is, but it might not be long before the two cards have similar prices, especially if its popularity in Modern continues after the Regional Championships end.
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