Archway CommonsArchway Commons | Art by Piotr Dura

Friendly greetings and welcome back to Strixhaven. I'm John Sherwood, your Campus GuideCampus Guide for a look back at Strixhaven: School of Mages in preparation for Secrets of Strixhaven.

Whether you're an inquisitive first-year, or reminiscing alumni, I invite you to explore the colleges and cards of the first Magic set on the plane of Arcavios.

New Takes On Old Colors

For over fifteen years, Ravnica dominated the visual and mechanical design of Magic's two-color pairs. The Ravnican guilds established identities and precedents for two-color card design. Strixhaven: School of Mages presented new names and flavors for the enemy color pairs in the form of five schools. Let's compare and contrast the Ravnican Guilds and Strixhaven's five colleges.

Five Elder Dragons founded Strixhaven and its five colleges, each focused on specific arcane disciplines. Those namesake Dragons breathed vibrant new energy into the form, fit, and function of the , , , , and color pairs.

Silverquill

Contrasting the debt-trapping dogma of the Orzhov Syndicate, Shadrix SilverquillShadrix Silverquill values expression over extortion. The students and faculty of Silverquill weave poetry and prose into their spells. They study literature, law, and communications to weaponize words into investigative and offensive magic.

Mechanically, Orzhov cards make up the core of Aristocrats decks. Ravnican cards use sacrifice outlets to win via lifedrain and token production. Silverquill overlaps mechanically with Orzhov in sacrifice synergy and producing flying creature tokens, but replaces lifedrain with +1/+1 counters for a much more combat-focused faction.

Prismari

Galazeth PrismariGalazeth Prismari transposes a key change to Izzet's experimental and inventive overtures: combining visual and performing arts into arcane evocation. Strixhaven's art kids eschew Izzet's steampunk aesthetic for bold, bright costumes. Beneath the outward trappings, Izzet and Prismari are cut from the same Spellslinger cloth.

Mechanically, Prismari differs from Izzet in the production of Treasure tokens. Since most Ravnica sets predate Magic's Treasure era, I think that difference is largely a result of timing. Regardless of reason, Treasures are a core facet of Prismari signpost cards like Creative OutburstCreative Outburst and Prismari CommandPrismari Command.

Lorehold

Before Velomachus LoreholdVelomachus Lorehold excavated Boros design space, many Commander players regarded as repetitive. Even today, new Boros Equipment legends incite groans and yawns. Before Strixhaven, uniquely potent Feather, the RedeemedFeather, the Redeemed topped the Boros data by a margin of thousands of decks. Osgir, the ReconstructorOsgir, the Reconstructor at one point overtook Feather, riding a wave of community excitement for something new in the color identity.

Lorehold, a college of magical history, thematically plays from both the graveyard and library, recurring yesterday's history and formulating today's knowledge. The Strixhaven approach to red and white gained card advantage and board presence - both important for staying power in protracted games of Commander.

By engaging the Spirits and spells of the past, Lorehold excels in the present.

Witherbloom

Out of all the Strixhaven Colleges, Witherbloom has the most in common with its Ravnican precursor. Both the Golgari Swarm and Witherbloom College interpret through the dichotomy of life and death. While the underlying themes align, tonal differences suggest the philosophy of Beledros WitherbloomBeledros Witherbloom takes a more holistic approach.

Looking at rules text, those tonal differences are superficial. The graveyard features heavily in both Goglari and Witherbloom text boxes, with tools to get things in the yard and out again. Meanwhile, Golgari and Witherbloom payoffs include the creation of new sacrifice fodder, pumping creatures, and draining opponents' life totals.

Quandrix

Quandrix is what Simic might be if ethics or standards of conduct applied to Ravnican science. The subordinates of Tanazir QuandrixTanazir Quandrix share a quantitative enthusiasm for natural order instead of Simic's qualitative hubris for unnatural evolution. Beyond the math vice mutant flavor differences, Simic and Quandrix look like opposite sides an equation. The formula looks different, but the answer is the same.

Everything about Quandrix is additive or multiplicative, never subtractive or divisive. Despite the math theme, Quandrix designs always result in more output than input. More lands, more creatures, more counters. It's just another ride on the value train.

Mechanics of Strixhaven

In preparation for a new semester at Strixhaven, the summer reading list includes a refresher on the last term's Lessons. We might learn a thing or two about the mechanics of Strixhaven: School of Mages, with insight from the data here on EDHREC. The mechanics of STX introduced a new spell subtype, and new takes on old concepts.

Learn/Lesson

First up, a mechanic that doesn't entirely work in Commander. Cards with learn allow the controller to either put a Lesson card from outside the game into their hand, or to discard then draw. Lessons were a totally new subtype for instants and sorceries. On one hand learn and Lesson is an easy flavor win for set design. On the other hand, bringing cards from outside the game makes it mechanic non grata in Commander.

The most popular learn card is First Day of ClassFirst Day of Class, in nearly 9k decks. Despite Commander's prohibition on wishes, First Day of Class is a good haste enabler with the upside of rummaging to filter cards.

Fortunately Lessons experienced a renaissance in Avatar: The Last Airbender, because the first Lessons in STX were lackluster at best. The most popular Strixhaven Lessons are all colorless utility spells, with Introduction to AnnihilationIntroduction to Annihilation as the frontrunner in 21k decks. Colorless decks have to take whatever they can get for removal.

Magecraft

Next we have a retuned version of prowess: magecraft. Cards with magecraft provide easy payoffs for casting and copying instants and sorceries. Even though prowess triggers on more spell types, the most popular magecraft cards are about three times more popular than the top prowess cards. I started writing this article two weeks ago, and noted the popularity of magecraft all-stars Storm-Kiln ArtistStorm-Kiln Artist and Archmage EmeritusArchmage Emeritus. In those two weeks, both cards increased by 5k decks each. With that in mind, I'm not going to bother listing their present counts.

As a side note, Storm-Kiln Artist gets additional style points for being a 2/2 in a tutu, which makes my kids laugh, while having zero bearing on the card's impressive performance.

Ward

Easily the most controversial mechanic from Strixhaven, ward joins the pantheon of defensive abilities like protection, shroud, and hexproof. Unlike its predecessors, which prohibit targeting, ward is a triggered ability that allows the object to be targeted before countering the applicable spell or ability unless a cost is paid. Ward is both great and problematic.

It's great as a skill-check for players to be more attentive and intentional. However, some people blame ward for feels-bad moments of missed opportunities and squandered resources.

The other problem with ward is one of restraint in card design - or a lack thereof. I felt like ward was well-received after Strixhaven: School of Mages. For example, Sedgemoor WitchSedgemoor Witch is a productive engine piece, and a ward cost of three life is fair. Unfortunately, design swung too hard with ward in subsequent sets. They made a lot more of it, pushed the costs higher, and printed mistakes like Voja, Jaws of the ConclaveVoja, Jaws of the Conclave.

Lesson learned: ward is fine in moderation. Fortunately, recent ward costs returned to manageable levels.

Modal Double-Face Cards

Finally, Strixhaven brought back MDFCs with a twist. It was the first set to feature modal double-face cards with the option to cast a spell from either side.

There was a cycle of school deans, with legendary creatures of different colors on either side, like Plargg, Dean of ChaosPlargg, Dean of Chaos and Augusta, Dean of Order. Others included a mix of creatures, sorceries, and planeswalkers. DFC's are normally pretty popular, but somehow these manage to be underwhelming. It's probably because none of them are lands.

The most popular MDFC from STX is Wandering ArchaicWandering Archaic, in 107k decks. Make no mistake, that's a respectable deck count, but not because it's double sided. Wandering Archaic is cracked. Its back side, Explore the Vastlands, is a spell that does things. I'm going to hyperbolically assert no one ever casts Explore the Vastlands, if only for the sake of inviting contrarian comments. Go ahead, contrarians, give me your narrow examples.

We all know many players forget Wandering Archaic is double-sided, many more can't remember name Explore the Vastlands, nevermind recalling what it does.

From Arcavios to Zimone

That brings us to the end of our tour. Please exit through the giftshop (comment section) where I would love to see your memories of Strixhaven: School of Mages, and hype for Secrets of Strixhaven. Full disclosure, I actually despise the visual design and exaggerated academic tropes. Furthermore, I despised STX Draft, and this set was one of my lesser reasons for quitting Standard.

And yet...I'm looking forward to Secrets of Strixhaven way more than I anticipated. The story hooked me, and I'm hoping to get more from the flavor text of the cards.

When you're done here, please check out Ezra Sassaman's recent article about the top Strixhaven Commanders, and stay tuned to EDHREC for Secrets of Strixhaven previews and deck techs.