TMNT was way better than it deserved to be, and I had a cracking good time drafting it. So after seeing how good Universes Beyond can be, the question became how good would the next in-universe set be. Well, now we have Secrets of Strixhaven, I can say it is beyond fantastic.
What is the secret?
This is where I normally give a short feel for the online web stories for the set. The problem is, there is a prequel novel, which I don’t want to read the online series until I have read the novel which is still en route. So in short, I don’t know. I guess the secret was awesome new cards.
What’s it like to play?
The fanciest new change is the prepared mechanic. Some cards have similar templating to omens from Tarkir or adventures from Eldraine. This time the twist is the spell on the second half of the card can be played when the creature is prepared. Some creatures enter prepared, while some require an action to prepare them, like casting your third spell in a turn or exiling cards. Once it becomes prepared, and as long as your creature is still on the board, you can fire off that spell like any others.
The benefit this brings is having more options to play on a turn. In cases where creatures enter prepared, it’s two spells on one card, giving more options, and with ones that need to be prepared, it gives potentially more options. This has massive implications on draft, in a good way, of course, and I am interested to see how some of these cards slot into construction.
There are heaps of other mechanics, but for the most part they feel like classic Magic mechanics, like repartee having effects if spells target a creature or Converge having extra effects based on how many colours were spent to cast a spell.
Paradigm is an absolute menace, where if you successfully cast the spell, it then gets exiled and can be cast for free every turn. This mechanic is only on five cards, but if it resolves, it is bonkers.
The Mystical Archive
One of the coolest things about the original Strixhaven set was the Mystical Archive bonus sheet. Here a bunch of awesome cards of different rarities got reprinted with stunning new art. Secrets of Strixhaven has brought that back with excellent uncommons like Stock Up through to insane mythics like Vampiric Tutor.
Every play booster has one of these cards, which makes cracking them so much fun, and so many of them work perfectly in the set to make them a fun addition to the draft. Oh, and they are all blimmin’ gorgeous!
Collector boosters also include a chance at super special Mystical Archive cards. These have Japanese art and language, so they aren’t the easiest to use for playing unless you know the cards. But they are all absolutely gorgeous. My first Collector booster had an uncommon with the extra special silver scroll foiling and a rare one, which both blew me away. My next two collector boosters had none, so, you know, it’s still a gamble. But as far as pretty cards go, these might be some of the more stunning ones I have seen.
The Commander decks!
Strixhaven has five schools, so of course there are five commander decks. Each has the relevant colour pairings for their schools colours, and all seem to have quite a lot of value in their reprints. Your best bet, though, is to look at what the decks do and grab the one that seems like the most fun to play. I personally bought the black and white Silverquill Influence and the blue and red Prismari Artistry.
A quick note if you haven’t picked up these decks in a while: now you only get the deck and cardboard deck box. Gone are the days of the collector booster sample packs, the thick commander cards, and the life trackers. But while that has disappeared, the cards’ quality and value seem to have spiked lately. This set comes with some new lands known as the Turbulent lands. These are dual lands that enter tapped unless your opponents control eight or more lands. For four-player commander games, this likely comes in untapped on turn three, which is pretty damn sweet. They also include the basic land names, so they are also fetchable. This is a sweet new addition to the game.
Silverquill Influence is a deck based around enchantments. The base commander, Killian, a decisive mentor, has an ability that taps and goads a creature every time you have an enchantment enter. This is a damn powerful ability, as it can force one of your opponents with a big stompy creature to attack another opponent, but it also requires some careful plays, as if you are goading all over the place, you could wind up being the target everyone wants to come for. Even better, when a creature you control that is enchanted by an aura you control attacks, you get to draw a card. So you can enchant opponents’ creatures and have them attack to get you some sweet card draw. It’s a fun deck to pilot and has some insane cards like Land Tax, making it well worth checking out.
Prismari Artistry is a blue-red deck and as such is much closer to my heart. Blue and red are generally about casting heaps of cheap instants and sorcery spells, but this deck goes another way instead, wanting you to cast big expensive instants and sorcery spells. This is because when you do so, other aspects of the deck start to pay off. For instance, Rootha, Mastering the Moment, generates an elemental with the power and toughness equal to the mana cost of the most expensive spell you cast when you go to combat. So a big expensive spell nets you a big elemental. It’s a fun and slightly different take on the usual way the colour pair likes to play.
How can you buy Secrets of Strixhaven?
As always, you can buy Play Boosters and Collector Boosters. As mentioned above, each Play Booster includes a Mystical Archive slot, so you are guaranteed one of those pretty cards. The Collector Booster has some other slots, like a Commander rare/mythic, some extended art cards, a tiny chance at a serialised card, and the possibility of those sweet Japanese art-style cards.
As normal, you can pick up Draft Night, which is a box that includes the lands, packs, and a Collector Booster to run a draft at home. If you want to crack some Play Boosters, there is the bundle, which includes nine boosters, a giant spindown dice, a bunch of full art lands, and a promo version of Wisdom of the Ages. All of this comes in a nice hard storage box.
There is also a Codex Bundle, which hasn’t been released yet. This one will include a bunch of Play Boosters, two Collector Boosters, and some promo cards.
Should you check out Magic: The Gathering – Secrets of Strixhaven?
This is the easiest kind of hell yeah! The cards are fantastic, the bonus sheet is fantastic, the mechanics are fantastic, the draft environment is fantastic; everything about this set is fantastic. I don’t know what else to say. If you want a commander deck, they all look great; if you want to crack packs, the Mystic Archives alone make that more fun.
Buy and play this set! It’s an absolute banger!
Secrets of Strihaven is everything I want in a set. Cool new cards, cool reprints, super fun to draft, and some interesting cards for constructed.
Check this set out now!
