Variety is the spice of life, and Magic: The Gathering‘s publisher Wizards of the Coast seems to understand that well. If you’re heading to this weekend’s Secrets of Strixhaven prerelease expecting a similar experience to Lorwyn Eclipsed, then you’ll be shocked out of your planeswalker boots. The newest Magic set feels and plays nothing like its in-universe predecessor (no, I will not talk about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, sorry, mutant fans).
After playing Secrets of Strixhaven in early access, I came to one conclusion: these cards are strong. Compared to Lorwyn Eclipsed, where the quality of a deck was achieved by focusing on synergies and payoffs for the various typal strategies, in Secrets of Strixhaven, cards shine for their power level in a vacuum — and become even stronger in the right, mechanic-focused deck. Even lowly commons like Landscape Painter shine thanks to the prepare mechanic: who doesn’t like a two-drop creature that can cast Divination later in the game?
The uncommons in particular look quite strong, and worth dictating the direction of a Draft, to the point that some of them wouldn’t look weird with a golden set symbol instead of a silver one. I’m talking about cards like Garrison Excavator, Additive Evolution, Primary Research, Graduation Day, Thornfirst Striker, Kirol, History Buff, Sanar, Unfinished Genius, Snooping Page, and Cuboid Colony. If you see them in your Sealed pool, play them.
This is a stark contrast with Lorwyn Eclipsed, where your best cards were such because of their synergy with the rest of your deck. By comparison, a card like Snooping Page doesn’t need you to fill your deck with spells that trigger repartee: just triggering its ability a couple of times is enough to make the card good. Each Strixhaven college gets their own dedicated ability. Silverquill’s is repartee, which triggers whenever you play an instant or sorcery spell that targets a creature. That includes when you kill your opponent’s creatures with removal spells, and those are cards you want to play anyway in your deck. The same is true for opus (Prismari) and increment (Quandrix), which don’t require a lot of effort to work, while infusion and the Lorehold card need some more dedication (but the latter triggers over flashback cards, which are usually good by themselves).
Of course, all these powerful cards shine more in their dedicated college color pair, but no worries. Physical Prerelease Packs will include one “seeded” booster, which contains only cards of your chosen college, helping you build a deck. If you’re playing on Magic Arena, you will get two of these special boosters, resulting in some pretty disgustingly strong decks. This happened with Avatar: The Last Airbender too, but while those seeded packs were mono-color-themed, Secrets of Strixhaven‘s colleges guarantee you will get tons of cards in your two colors of choice. Here are some of my early attempts at Sealed.
Obviously, I had to start with my favorite pair, black and green. Witherbloom’s mechanic, infusion, cares about gaining life, but that’s not all that will be going on in a good Witherbloom deck. Black and green have a lot of removal and excellent recursion, so build your deck planning to kill your opponent’s creatures or trade yours, and then accrue advantage in the late game. My deck had nine removal spells, and I even left three more in the sideboard. Witherbloom Charm is amazing for its “draw two cards mode,” perfect for sacrificing Pest tokens or creatures that are hit by an opponent’s removal spell, or even to turn excess lands into more action late in the game. Thornfirst Striker can easily take over the game if left unchecked, but keep in mind that its effect is only active while the card is on the field!
I had a great Lorehold deck next (but I forgot to take a screenshot). Finally, a set where I’m happy to play red and white! In Secrets of Strixhaven, the combination is not about fast aggro as usual, but about exiling or playing cards from your graveyard instead. Luckily, there’s plenty of flashback cards in the set. Lorehold is very synergy-heavy, so expect a lot of triggers to be remembered if you choose this college.
My Quandrix deck allows me to talk about another important aspect of Secrets of Strixhaven Limited: bombs. I know that, nowadays, bombs shape the Limited meta regardless of the set, but I have to mention just how absurdly powerful the Lessons cycle is here. I had Germination Practicum in my pool, and I won every game as soon as I cast it. I expect Echocasting Symposium and Improvisation Capstone to have a similar effect, while Restoration Seminar needs more setup. Decorum Dissertation looks like the weakest of the bunch, but I may be wrong. In any case, if you’re playing blue and have a Mana Sculpt of Brush Off in your pool, play it without fear: counterspells are the only good answers to these absurd cards. The five dragons are also game-warping bombs, so look out for those.
I’m including my Silverquill deck just to showcase how powerful an Arena Sealed deck can look. The density of good cards is over the top, and I had some more good choices that had to be left in the sideboard. In fact, deciding what cards to cut was my biggest issue with these Sealed decks. I always ended up with 50-plus cards after the initial selection, so you really need to understand what your deck is supposed to do if you want to avoid leaving important pieces on the bench.
I only had time to try one Draft, and I ended up with a good Lorehold deck. I have the feeling that this is where the Lorwyn Eclipsed experience will come in handy. While it’s still way too early to evaluate correctly, Secrets of Strixhaven Draft seems to be about finding an open lane — meaning what college color pair is available at your table and not being drafted by other players. However, given the power level of the single cards, it’s wise to wait before committing and start by picking the strongest cards — just like in Lorwyn Eclipsed, but for different reasons. I think early pack two is a good point to decide what to commit to, but again, it’s way too early to delineate a successful strategy, so take this with a pinch of salt.
Overall, Secrets of Strixhaven looks like a very fun set, and more importantly, the Limited experience feels very different from Lorwyn Eclipsed, which is great for us Limited fanatics. Expect to see some powerful decks this weekend during the set’s prerelease, and good luck with your pulls!
About the Author
