Strixhaven First Thoughts

[UnNamed1]

So. Another new set is coming and is about a school yada, yada, yada....

Just kidding. This is actually the first set SINCE War of the Spark that actually interested me! I'm actually excited for this spoiler season and the cards revealed so far...oh my I'm glad I already have a box and I might have to get more.

The big standout things in this set so far to me...
-Rare land cycle - WOW a standard set of lands that aren't overpowered, have a solid way to come in untapped, and will most likely be very budget friendly. I'm excited. The only down side I see is not giving them the land types to make them fetchable. Oh well, overall a solid land cycle.
- Flip Legends (commanders) - My first thought is that they seemed underwhelming (coming from a cEDH standpoint) but as I looked more I decided I would be excited to see these in a casual setting. The abilities are solid and not overly powerful to enable them to be completely broken. Overall, great design.
- Lessons (spell subtype) - Honestly, I like them. They are low powered however being colorless allows them to support decks outside of the decks color pie. I believe these will be some good includes for the more budget minded players.

Finally Mystical Archive. Spells from magic's past with a new look. They were what initially drew me to the set (I'll admit, I like shiny things) because I am not a big fan of the full art cards of the recent sets. The spells chosen so far seem like a great balance of needed reprints and giving some well used (but still cheap) cards some new art. I'm excited to get me some of these.

With that all said and done, what are your thoughts? Are you looking forward to this? Or do you have product fatigue from the massive amounts of product being pushed on our wallets?

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Ehhhhh.... I like the archive cards in theory, but I don't need 'em. I'm way too utilitarian for aesthetics of that co$t.

Enemy shadow lands are bleh. Didn't like them in SOI, doubt these will change my estimation.

Learn is kinda neat for limited. Does kind of bug me that the lessons are so generically useful and bust the color pie. They should be colored or cost more.

The flip legends I like. WotC is getting better at making legends specifically useful rather than unfettered value factories. The GB pair of deans interests me the most thus far; I've been mulling over a golgari token deck in my mind for a while, I think these two will do fine leading that enterprise.

[UnNamed1]

Ehhhhh.... I like the archive cards in theory, but I don't need 'em. I'm way too utilitarian for aesthetics of that co$t.

Most of these have very cheap printings, so good for people like you who don't want the fancy versions rights?

Enemy shadow lands are bleh. Didn't like them in SOI, doubt these will change my estimation.

Learn is kinda neat for limited. Does kind of bug me that the lessons are so generically useful and bust the color pie. They should be colored or cost more.

The shadow lands seem pretty good for 2/3 color decks. I would pretty much bet you can always reveal a land that makes these come in untapped. Or hey, you can buy shocks and duals if those suit you more.

I feel like learn is good because it is generic. The CMC is high for the effects, so the colors that are good at what the lessons do won't want them, but the other colors can use the support of them, even at a higher CMC.

The flip legends I like. WotC is getting better at making legends specifically useful rather than unfettered value factories. The GB pair of deans interests me the most thus far; I've been mulling over a golgari token deck in my mind for a while, I think these two will do fine leading that enterprise.

I agree with you here. The value of some of the flip cards or even the recent legends targeted at Commander have been a little overwhelming. I don't think Golos should be banned, but its undeniably strong for a single card to always have access to. The same goes for Chulane, Korvold, Alela... I'm glad they seem to be taking a step back and not packing the power with the last two sets.

[PeaceRibbon]

The two biggest things that Strixhaven has done to get me to want to come back to Magic is having a set based around college, which relates to my current life situation as a student, and the fact that we'll get more details on post war Liliana, because if they have to kill off my favorite Planeswalker, I at least want his death to move the other characters' stories forward in a positive and satisfying way.

Still waiting on a philosophy major to be spoiled so I can really immerse myself in the setting.

[benjameenbear]

I'm interested in the enemy-colored Elder Dragons. I can EASILY see myself building an Ur-Dragon deck with all 15 Elder Dragons in the deck. Which is very cool, from a thematic perspective.

[Sinis]

Offbrand Hogwarts.

Anyway, it'll be nice to have more two enemy colour dragons (there really aren't many), but I can't say the set is very exciting so far. Maybe it's just not my thing?

The archives look awesome, but, I suspect I will be priced out of the ones I want; like, I'd really like an Archive Demonic Tutor, but I suspect the price will make me just want to play my revised copies, even if it's "reasonable". Also, many of these alt-art/frame cards are jarring to look at in a deck, so, actually playing these Archive cards might be... weird?

I think the set does look nice. Solid Magic, and I'm hoping there's a continuing trend of not being absurdly powerful (and so far, I think the cards are in line with that).

No doubt I'll buy $50 worth of singles.

[JWK]

Some of the magecraft cards already spoiled are pretty bonkers, and I don't imagine we've seen nearly the best yet. Whether this mechanic ends up being just really good, like foretell, or completely busted, remains to be seen. The interaction with storm is obviously kind of busted, but, well, that's storm.

I really like the overall look of the set. The art and flavor text are distinctive and enjoyable.

[Magiqmaster]

So far, there are some really nice cards that were spoiled (gotta use Archmage Emeritus in my Kalamax deck for sure). Yet, I can't help feeling that this set appears somewhat childish ... Some names such as Pop Quiz, First Day of Class or Field Trip bother me somewhow. I guess Strixhaven is more targeted towards a younger audience, to which I just don't relate. Anyhow, there are some new mechanics such as the lessons, that I find interesting nonetheless.

[onering]

I loath the flavor but some of the designs are good. Lessons are an interesting design space with low impact for limited. Magecraft will make or break the set. If it's too busted it will offset the good designs, and it's a very dangerous mechanic that can very easily be busted and tedious. It's going to help me round out my Golgari spell slinger deck though so it's actually playable, so there's that.

[DirkGently]

I really like the legend design I've seen so far. Both the precon and flip commanders look sweet without being overpowered. Boros in particular has gotten some real love imo.

-Rare land cycle - WOW a standard set of lands that aren't overpowered, have a solid way to come in untapped, and will most likely be very budget friendly. I'm excited. The only down side I see is not giving them the land types to make them fetchable. Oh well, overall a solid land cycle.

"aren't overpowered"...so you mean unplayable, right?

In seriousness, commander manabases are so high powered that these will only be a very budget option imo. I can't imagine any deck that would be running these and also fetches, so the lack of typing is pretty meaningless imo (also it's just generally pretty meaningless tbh - you don't need 20 fetchable lands, most of the time you only need 2-3 dual-typed lands and you're effectively done fixing. More typed lands are just unnecessary. Also I find it annoying that people bring this point up with every dual ever printed. It's a boring repetitive criticism).

I basically never run the friendly cycle of these, so I'd assume the same for these. Maybe once in a blue moon, strictly in 2c decks with really heavy fixing requirements.

[5colorsrainbow]

Card-wise so far its looking like a more of a set I'm gonna get cards to upgrade for decks rather then build anything new. My Rowan and Will deck (based around copying stuff) is loving magecraft but i share a few thoughts this could really end up broke if not balanced right, thought so far only Professor Onyx seems worrying but she is also a mythic rare mana value 6 card so we will see how she plays out.

Lessons are nifty space to play in and will be great for non-commander formats to side board and its a sneaky way to give white rummaging and while still being in flavor as white is know to tutor for certain things it likes and can cantrip. The colorless lesson also seem decent for mono-color decks that need some help.

I like that as 4/5 of the faction are different than Ravnica and going with different themes typically done with them;

WB- Aggro
BG- Life gain/Life drain
RW- Liking Artifacts (in graveyards)
GU- Tokens and copying

UR being instant and sorcery matters again is kinda boring but if you gonna try to do a instant/sorcery matters set with enemy color focus UR will end up needing to play that role. So far they seem to wanna have big mana value spells which does at least seems like a different design space than Izzet.

I love the idea of the MDFC commander though none catch my eyes and I feels like I'd rather play them in a non-singleton format so you can play both sides to get the fun synergy.

I'm adoring the flavor overall. As we are still in the pandemic mess, its nice to have something that is more whimsical and light hearted feeling in magic. While the past sets had some humor and fun Strixhaven kinda has a comforting feeling as while there seems too be an eldritch horror cult happening as the conflict, overall the plane feels like a safe and happy place to live which is imo very rare to find on a lot of planes. I like the twist on magical school that teaches magical forms of mundane lessons than the genre normally has magical schools. The mix of creature types is cool seeing Kor an other plane, along with orcs, dryads, djinni/efreeti all getting some spotlight, as well as beast folk with Owlin being a really awesome idea we haven't seen a ton of. I love the Kenrith twins so I'm loving that they seem to be lead characters.

[folding_music]

I just grabbed Colfenor, Tormod and Ich-Tecik from CMR, I'll probably just grab Valentin and Lisette and Witherbloom Command from this... I think I am becoming a *type* =P

The lessons are really exciting, though, I'd love there to be formats where you can play them in in paper, but probably that's a thing where games'll be more accessible on Arena.

[NZB2323]

In general I'm a fan of enemy colors getting love, and them completing the command cycle and a land cycle for enemy colors, but it's very powered down. I think I'll pick up Frostboil Snarl and Shineshadow Snarl for Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Tymna the Weaver/Ravos, Soultender.

[ISBPathfinder]

So, strictly from a quick barely seen any of the set but seen sort of the feel / concepts they are going for I am going to give it a commander 2/10. That might feel a bit savage but I guess hear me out.

• For the love of god please stop making every set into a ravnica multicolored set. I get that they sell but holy %$#% its been a tad overdone lately. I grew up in a situation where you would see like 2 gold cards in a set and it would feel like god came and gave you a gift. It used to feel special and cool. Now it feels like its the norm and its way less fun to me. Now I see gold cards as things that I just don't get to run in the 99 of most decks rather than being special and some of that comes from the complete overdoing of gold cards.
• Flip Cards - The deans of the set are highlighting what is essentially another hybrid mana debate all over again. Every other format could play Valentin, Dean of the Vein in their mono black deck as a mono black creature if they felt like it but yet again the color identity comes in in an unfortunate way for us. Back when we had a rule that enforced that you could only make colored mana of the color identity of your commander I voiced an opinion that color identity and the mana production rules were largely redundant (which they were). I had hoped in the past to kill the color identity rule and keep the mana production one in a means to remedy the hybrid mana constraint but here we are with hybrid mana debate 2.0. I am not trying to derail this discussion on this topic so much as point out that it fits right in with commander problems again.
• Lessons - Oh great, this mechanic doesn't function in commander so they stapled a filter option on it. I don't think we need wishboards in general but its really annoying to see all these mechanics that break for commander. I also don't understand how the RC felt that companions didn't 100% utilize the same space as wishboards so who the heck knows if Learn will legally be allowed to access wishboards or not.
• Spoils Thus Far - I guess, I am not yet impressed. There hasn't been a single card that has interested me. Archmage Emeritus is the closest I have gotten but with everything having "draw a card" stapled onto it these days it just feels boring and uninspired to be honest. This design is boring as hell and well, honestly I am very far from impressed with anything they have spoiled thus far.

So that is me fairly intensely unimpressed. I am sure at some point during the spoils at least something will probably seem reasonable but honestly I haven't seen the start of a standard set spoil feel so completely flat to me in a very very long time. I am sure that I will find something redeeming about this set but whoah man I am so far from interested its crazy.

[BounceBurnBuff]

Lesson/Learn: Eh, Learn as a new mechanic it doesn't offer much in EDH, although rummage can help certain colours out, even if it depends on what the rest of the card offers. Lessons look like they're just going to be overcosted/generalised for the Learn mechanic.

Magecraft: This is a dangerously lazy "what flavour of infinite do you want" design, and whilst the me of a couple years ago would be all over this for degeneracy, the cards so far have either been limited focussed combat tricks, or combo fodder.

Flip Legends: Interesting space on paper, wouldn't really lead a deck with half a card. I know they're going for an either-or approach, especially with the focus on what conflicts in the enemy colours, but it doesn't appeal to me to try and build a deck around this kind of challenge when there are other payoffs in those colours. The Boros one looks the most interesting so far.

Elder Dragons: (UPDATE) Lorehold does his best "fair Narset" impression, but aside from extra combats and Armageddon, Boros really lacks anything outside of boardwipes and a couple of wheels in the 4-5cmc slots where the payoff would feel worth it. My guess is the less MLD/Extra combat focussed versions of this deck play out like a worse Feather. I love Silverquill's design! A political tool that pumps go-wide Orzhov decks and acts as draw in a pinch AND doesn't have to attack to do it? Sign me up for this as a commander, which is more than I can say for...

Precon Face Legends: I'm suffering whiplash from how utterly awful Willowdusk and Zaffai are compared to almost any of the face commanders in the past 2 years. Zaffai gives you a very mild reward for big asks in today's EDH scene, and consistently going for 10cmc spells in Izzet is not worth the effort. 10 damage to a random player when you should be winning for that cost isn't appealing to me, I'll stick with Vial Smasher thanks! Osgir and Breena are stretching into new territory for the colours, and whilst Breena loses her theme out to Silverquill himself IMO, Osgir is one I'll be keeping a keen eye on (although he strikes me as pricey to build the way I'd like). Adrix and Nev succeed in Simic somehow making a new effect in the command zone seem utterly solved and boring before they even release. Self-Parallel Lives with access to Blue at all times is not going to make for riveting games, and I can absolutely wait for the instance of Hullbreacher emerging with these in play.

Overall there's very little so far that has my interest, a surprising amount that has my concern. Kaldheim had a few bits here and there, but wasn't very interesting as a set to me either. Legends will be hard to top, I just wish the things topping it weren't yet more degeneracy.

[DirkGently]

Zaffai gives you a very mild reward for big asks in today's EDH scene, and consistently going for 10cmc spells in Izzet is not worth the effort. 10 damage to a random player when you should be winning for that cost isn't appealing to me, I'll stick with Vial Smasher thanks!

Considering he's in RU, the colors with by far the most access to spell copying (Chain of Smog notwithstanding), I think it was 100% a smart move to make his ability low impact for low-cmc spells, to prevent the fork-a-fork combo win in the CZ. I'll agree that the 10cmc payoff looks pretty uninspiring on its face, but it does motivate you to think a little differently. You might play, for example, Volcanic Salvo and copy it a few times to pay yourself off in a much bigger way than Vial Smasher is capable of. Also cards like Echo Storm become pretty enticing, whereas it's not particularly interesting in Vial Smasher (I guess it has synergy with partners, but in terms of VS's trigger it's not particularly great). I think you're only looking at the situations where he's worse than VS and not considering the times when he can be more powerful.

I'm also 100% ok with them not printing a commander that outperforms Vial Smasher. Vial Smasher isn't all that fun to play against imo. A lot of people are kind of tired of precon commanders being absurd to push sales. I'm happy to see a recent shift to scale that back a bit. Seems like the Brawl precons were the high water mark, imo. I hope the trend continues.

[materpillar]

Zaffai, Thunder Conductor excites me a ton. Not because I want to play it at all but because I already have a high "mana value" deck and it seems like izzet is going to have a handful of cards in that theme.

Give me some Torrent Sculptor // Flamethrower Sonata except not only for instant/sorceries.

[Sinis]

My previous comment was when there was only the theme spoiled. Now that some more cards have been spoiled, the set is beginning to sour on me. The theme is still appealing (if somewhat trite), but:

Lessons: I'm sad they won't work in EDH, despite being pretty innocuous (so far). They only won't work because the RC has actively decided that Wishes Are Bad™ and they do not function (not even to Glittering Wish for your Kaheera that you meet the requirements for), even though there are lots of things in the format that are worse.

Modal DFCs: I wish they would stop doing this. I can see a future in Magic where 50% of my deck is a checklist or that I need to resort to unsleeving/resleeving whenever I transform a card. It's... not great. I don't like it. It honestly made me gloss over the MDFCs because I just cannot with them. To add: I only realized how much I didn't like them when I geared up to make a World Tree deck, and realized I'd need checklists for every Kaldheim god. Previously, I used 1-2 per deck, and it was manageable. With so many more, it will be a headache.

[pokken]

I am a bit bummed that all this crazy new white stuff is coming out the first time is in a set where there's no Azorius theme, just Boros, so all kinds of bananas boros stuff is gonna come out

[Dragoon]

I am a bit bummed that all this crazy new white stuff is coming out the first time is in a set where there's no Azorius theme, just Boros, so all kinds of bananas boros stuff is gonna come out

Go Jeskai? I can see Kykar, Wind's Fury spirit tribal rising after this set.

[Wallycaine]

I am a bit bummed that all this crazy new white stuff is coming out the first time is in a set where there's no Azorius theme, just Boros, so all kinds of bananas boros stuff is gonna come out

There looks to be a decent number of mono-white stuff coming too, Strict Proctor looks up your alley.

[Guardman]

Reconstruct History is a card. And seems to be one of the best Regrowth variants around. For only four mana you can get five cards back from your graveyard. That is some serious value.

I have to say I like that the Lorehold Boros theme is Spirits and Graveyard recursion. Really gives them something unique.

As for Rip Apart, I like it. But I always value cheap removal that can deal with a lot of different cards highly, even if it is only a sorcery.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I see mostly a lot of new toys for red. And red/white. You could say WotC listens.

[JWK]

I see mostly a lot of new toys for red. And red/white. You could say WotC listens.

That's certainly welcome, but let's wait and see how Izzet does, and whether G gets its now-normative amount of totally bonkers, busted stuff.

[Serenade]

Green and black are gonna get just a bunch of life gain. Blue will get mill but just a bit. Then it might be more even.