So, all your life you have been special. Been different. You can do things others can’t. The older you got the more you could harness such powers. The power of magic flows through you. And as you grow into your prime, you apply to the most prestigious wizardous school of all the lands to hone this natural talent of yours: Hogwarts Strixhaven.
Strixhaven, just like Lorwyn, is a beloved location in the history of Magic the Gathering. Unlike Lorwyn however, the original Strixhaven set debuted just a few years ago in 2021. Whilst I am not privy to the choices behind set releases, it does seem odd that we are revisiting Strixhaven so soon. Especially when there are planes we haven’t visited for much longer, or ever at all. But that being said, it is an incredibly fun set. And I have played more draft of Secrets of Strixhaven than I have with any other set released, ever. But what kind of cards, mechanics, characters etc can you expect to see in Secrets of Strixhaven?
Highlights of Secrets of Strixhaven
So, Strixhaven is a place of learning, research, guidance, and experimentation. This opens up the design space for an interesting clash of lore and game mechanics. And I think this is what males certain sets truly shine.
So, all your life you have been special. Been different. You can do things others can’t. The older you got the more you could harness such powers. The power of magic flows through you. And as you grow into your prime, you apply to the most prestigious wizardous school of all the lands to hone this natural talent of yours: Hogwarts Strixhaven.
Strixhaven, just like Lorwyn, is a beloved location in the history of Magic the Gathering. Unlike Lorwyn however, the original Strixhaven set debuted just a few years ago in 2021. Whilst I am not privy to the choices behind set releases, it does seem odd that we are revisiting Strixhaven so soon. Especially when there are planes we haven’t visited for much longer, or ever at all. But that being said, it is an incredibly fun set. And I have played more draft of Secrets of Strixhaven than I have with any other set released, ever. But what kind of cards, mechanics, characters etc can you expect to see in Secrets of Strixhaven?
Highlights of Secrets of Strixhaven
So, Strixhaven is a place of learning, research, guidance, and experimentation. This opens up the design space for an interesting clash of lore and game mechanics. And I think this is what males certain sets truly shine.
Prepared is likely the most prominent new mechanic seen in this set. Partly due to some inflated controversy over the reserve list. Some new creatures come into play with a spell attached to them. (one might say it is the spell they prepared for battle). And you can cast that spell as long as the creature remains prepared. Some of the spells are ones on the reserved list, which Wizards of the Coast promised never to reprint. Which they haven’t. Technically. But the prepared mechanic is an interesting one to add to the game, and I hope it returns in future sets. There are 36 creatures with the prepared mechanic which can offer some interesting utility and synergies for deck creation.
Repartee is exclusive to Silverquill (black, white) and sees specific effects trigger when you cast an instant or sorcery that targets a creature card. Considering this is such a basic part of the game, I can understand why there are only 12 cards printed with this mechanic. I can see it becoming incredibly strong if they print too many cards with this trigger. Especially when you consider that if you have multiple of them out and you trigger one of their effects, you will actually trigger all of them simultaneously.
Opus is exclusive to Prismari (red, blue) and cares about the amount of mana you spend on casting spells. The opus effects all have a unique benefit but has a stronger or alternative benefit if you cast a spell with a higher mana value. These can play perfectly into spells that have an X cost in them, having you decide how much mana you spend. There are only 10 of these cards though and I would have liked there to be more.
Infusion is exclusive to Witherbloom (green, black) and triggers if you gained life during your turn. It is a more straightforward mechanic than the others, but each infusion effect is unique and offers decks some great utility options. There are 12 cards with this mechanic.
Flashback is exclusive to Lorehold (red, white) and lets you cast cards again from the graveyard. Flashback is the only mechanic exclusive to a college that isn’t a new one. Which is oddly thematic as Lorehold is the college of historic studies. But more oddly is that in previous sets, flashback can be found on cards of all colours. Which makes it both thematic and not thematic at the same time. There are 10 of these cards in this set.
Increment is exclusive to Quandrix (blue, green) and it also cares about the mana cost of the spells you use. If a card you cast has a higher mana cost than a creature’s power or toughness, then its increment ability will trigger. This is my personal favourite of the college mechanics. Partly due to the fact that includes one of my favourite cards in the set. Cuboid Colony which is simply a cube of bees that steadily gets bigger and scarier. What is not to love? There are only 9 of these cards though sadly.
Paradigm is another new mechanic that isn’t exclusive to specific colleges. But there are only 5 of them. One for each colour. It is a very powerful ability though as it allows you to recast the spell for free at the start of each of your future turns. They are also all lesson cards, and so there are more synergies for these outside the scope of just this set. Especially with some of the Last Airbender cards.
Converge also makes a slight comeback in this set, primarily to support the archaic avatars. Converge has increasing effects and power based on the amount of colours used to cast them. There are only 9 of these here but both converge and avatars are in previous sets and have wider support in the game as a whole.
Other things to note from Secrets of Strixhaven are that it introduces the ‘book’ subtype and retroactively labels a bunch of old cards with the subtype. Also, pests are back, although a little bit different this time around.
Booster Packs
As with every set, there are fetch cards you will want to pull from the boosters. Some of the obvious cards available in Strixhaven booster packs are the five dragons that the colleges are named after: Lorehold, Quandrix, Witherbloom, Prismari and Silverquill. There are also five Emeritus cards, one for each colour. Some of them are currently valued at over £10 each. The two planeswalkers available in the boosters are highly sought after, though I don’t think they are especially strong to run in your decks.
A new staple card in this set is Erode. It is very similar to Path to Exile, which is in almost every white deck. Although instead of exiling a creature, Erode destroys a creature or a planeswalker, giving it a little more versatility for the same mana cost. Flashback is a card that gives cards in your graveyard, well, flashback. It seems like a card that probably should have existed a long time ago and will likely find a home in many decks. Planar Engineering is another card that I imagine will see plenty of play. It has you sacrifice 2 lands to pull out 4 basic lands. I can see this being a staple in landfall decks.
There is a Mystical Archive card in every play booster so they aren’t as sought after as they may appear, even though they have special artwork. Special guest cards make a return in this set however and follow the same rules as previously – non foil available in play boosters. There are borderless versions of the planeswalkers, elder dragons and portal land cards available in the booster packs with alternative artwork. There are also borderless fieldnote cards available in these boosters too, though I am still not a fan of the way these look personally. There is also a new set of full lands to gather.
Collector Booster Packs
Collector boosters have the chance to net you some incredible pulls. As always, the big money card is a serialised one with only 500 in the world to grab. In Secrets of Strixhaven collector boosters it is the Emeritus of Ideation card. It comes in a retro frame and double rainbow foiled. The cheapest one of these is currently on the market for £3000. That is correct, 3 zeroes.
Also available in these packs are Japanese mystical archive cards and silver scroll foil Japanese mystical archive cards. Some of these are worth a lot of money too. Jeska’s Will for example has 4 printings in Secrets of Strixhaven. The mystical archive edition is selling for £22+ (Available in booster and collector packs). The foil mystical archive edition is selling for £32+. The Japanese mystical archive edition is selling for £65+. And finally, the Japanese silver scroll foil edition is selling for £300+. I opened one collector booster pack that I got in a draft night box and managed to pull both the £22+ version and the £300+ versions in the same pack. It is the luckiest I have ever been with booster packs, but the silver foil Japanese looks incredible.
You can also find foil versions of special guest cards in these booster packs.
It is worth noting that there are also a few cards (such as Quintorious, History Chaser) only available in the commander decks. There are a few borderless promo card reprints only available in the Codex Bundle. There is also a special edition version of Command Tower that is only available in the book Strixhaven Omens of Chaos. Yeah, you read that right, if you want this card brand new, you will have to purchase an actual book to get a hold of it.
Final Thoughts
A part of me can’t help but be a little cynical with this set as it makes me wonder how long it will be before we see a cringe Harry Potter Universes Beyond set. But as a whole, I love Secrets of Strixhaven. It has been my favourite set since I started playing Magic the Gathering again last year. I think each of the colleges (and in turn, the elder dragons) are interesting and offer fun mechanics and synergies for both standard play and commander play. The new mechanics and keywords in the set offer really interesting directions to take deck creation. I love the theme and lore of the plane this set is based in. And as much as I loved Lorwyn Eclipsed, it felt like an incomplete set. Secrets of Strixhaven doesn’t suffer from this issue, it feels like a full, complete, and well-structured set. I highly, highly recommend Secrets of Strixhaven
Zatu Review Summary
Score Zatu
92%
