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Even though I really loved Kaldheim as a set, I may be enjoying Strixhaven even more. For me, some of my favorite sets are sets like Ravnica and Khans of Tarkir. I love multicolored sets that allow Limited formats where you can play decks with more than two colors, and both Kaldheim and Strixhaven fulfilled that later desire.
But Strixhaven has a lot more to love going on, and today I'm going to go over all of the things from Strixhaven that I enjoy seeing in the set.
Elder Dragons!
We've mentioned some of the Elder Dragons in previous articles, but having one for every two-color combination now is pretty sweet. While every previous Dragonlord from Khans saw play at one point or another - Atarka, Dromoka, Kolaghan, Ojutai, and Silumgar - I'm not entirely sure which Elder Dragons from the new set will see play.
I think Velomachus Lorehold could be a strong combo enabler, and Beledros Witherbloom has a lot of value attached, in terms of both mana and creatures. At first, I thought Galazeth Prismari was a little underpowered, but the fact that it costs four mana and essentially ramps you is kind of bringing me around. Tanazir Quandrix and Shadrix Silverquill might be the least likely to see competitive Constructed play, but I bet a lot of these could find homes in Commander.
Now that we have the full two-color cycle of Elder Dragons, the only ones we're missing are the Khans clans: Abzan, Jeskai, Mardu, Sultai, and Temur. Let's just say I'll be overjoyed when we get a Sultai Elder Dragon.
Commands!
Commands are also something we went over a couple weeks back, but this is another sweet addition to Strixhaven, and another similarity to Khans of Tarkir block. Now we have all five of the mono-colored Commands and all ten of the dual-colored Commands. What's next? Tri-colored Commands!? One can hope, although we do have the Charms...
A Powerful Cycle of Mythic Rares
One thing the set also has is a powerful cycle of mythic rares. It's an interesting cycle, because they all do different things, and they all have different mana costs, but they all seem to have very unique effects. The five cards I'm talking about:
You can tell these are a cycle because they're the only two-color mythic rares in the set that aren't the Elder Dragons and they all have very unconventional abilities. They also have the ascending mana costs of X with a minimum of 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, so that's interesting. Truth be told, I want to play with or build around all of these cards. I actually thought Hofri Ghostforge was just a Spirit lord before I read the full wall of text on the card, then I realized it was ridiculously strong. I'm not sure it will see play in formats like Standard or Historic, but it will definitely see play somewhere, especially since it's a Legendary creature.
One of my absolute favorite interactions that was created in the set is the combination of Torrential Gearhulk and Magma Opus. The Opus even has a built-in way to discard itself while, at the same time, helping you ramp into the Gearhulk. Ending up with a 5/6, a 4/4, four damage divided any way you choose, two tapped permanents, and drawing two cards is a pretty wild ride, especially if you're able to do it as soon as turn five thanks to the Treasure token that the Opus provides.
There could also be a Bant deck with Body of Research or an Esper deck with Blot Out the Sky that wants to +1 Teferi, Time Raveler to cast these at the end of the turn. That should put a significant amount of power on the board. Feel free to Fling the Fractal token to win on the spot as well.
The Best Common Two-Color Lands Ever
Not only is there a dual land in every pack, but they are the best common dual lands ever. Sometimes common dual lands do nothing. Sometimes they gain you one life. These scry, and that's really great. I absolutely love this new trend of putting dual lands in the basic land slot in the packs and I hope it keeps up. I feel like it makes Drafting a whole lot more open and it encourages potentially splashing a third color at times.
Ward!
In card games where variance and randomness are ever-present, the thing you want to try and maximize is diverse interaction: you want to have as many answers and options at any given time as possible to ensure that each random draw has a use. Hexproof invalidates a lot of one player's options, while leaving open the opposing player's options.
While shroud was arguably (and surprisingly) better than hexproof due to the symmetry, I think the new "ward" mechanic from Strixhaven is an improvement over both, and I hope it's a mechanic that they continue to use as time goes on. Placing a tax on interaction is significantly better than removing that interaction altogether.
Another benefit of ward is that It also opens up a good deal of design space where you can alter what the ward cost or tax may be. We saw in Strixhaven both mana costs and life payments, but in the future, ward could let the card's controller draw a card, it could force the player targeting to sacrifice a creature, it could gain the controller of the creature life. The sky is kind of the limit in terms of what we can use for costs.
Who knows? In a perfect world, maybe we'll never see another Scaled Behemoth in Limited again!
Mystical Archive
I'm a huge fan of both alternate art cards and alternate frame cards. As an extension of that, I also love the new extended art and borderless cards (although I don't know why those both exist, when they're so shockingly similar). So, it should go without saying that having an alternate art, alternate frame card in every single pack, that includes some of Magic's most iconic spells - from Channel to Brainstorm - is a slam dunk for me. The fact that there is a second, Japanese, alternate art and frame for every card is just the icing on the cake.
I genuinely love the idea of Mystical Archive cards, and I hope we see them in one form or another in every set going forward. Just like Secret Lairs, which I also enjoy, these are all solely cosmetic cards as well, so you don't need to pick them up, and they should only help lower the costs of the original printings.
With all of this said, Strixhaven is a huge hit for me. I love all the nostalgic aspects that were included in the set, and I hope that a lot of the things that were included here end up bleeding into other, future sets. But what do you guys think? Is Strixhaven resonating with you, and if not, how come? I'm really curious to hear what you think about the set's impact in whatever format you may play, so definitely let me know all about it in the comments below.
Well, that's about all I have. Thank you guys for everything. I've appreciated you over the past couple years, and your support has meant a ton to me. I hope you guys all stay safe, thank you so much for reading, and I'm sure I'll see ya around!
Frank Lepore
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