Strixhaven (Back to School[s of Magic] this April)

Release date: April 23, 2021

https://i.imgur.com/FrCvQdZ.png https://i.imgur.com/TvdoNPE.png
https://media.wizards.com/2021/stx/en_YKtrpGddjt.png https://i.imgur.com/1Q7FmEE.png
https://i.imgur.com/fnPIy0P.png

So, the schools are enemy-colored pairs. Also, shows a new template, "mana value" replaced "converted mana cost" since it is less words, so takes up less space on cards.

https://i.imgur.com/qQjC1Ow.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/AqtqFOw.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/6fhn5YQ.png

Mystic Archive cards, alternate border, not Standard legal (but most will become legal in Historic, although not DT and StP for sure). Also, DT previews a new template, dropping "your library" from "shuffle." Sort of like Masterpeices but guaranteed to be one per Booster (no matter what sort of booster pack). There are also alternate art Japanese ones as well:

https://i.imgur.com/fv2athE.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/9ImoUBI.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/3dMURuW.png

I believe they said these will be available in English Collectors Boosters as well.

(If you think of a witty title for the thread, I'll change it.)

Out of those commands, the BG and UR one seem like they're the most playable ones. The white ones suck, so no surprises here.

Let's just hope they fired whoever came up with UG cards in the last two years.

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Originally Posted by Barook

Out of those commands, the BG and UR one seem like they're the most playable ones. The white ones suck, so no surprises here.

Let's just hope they fired whoever came up with UG cards in the last two years.

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Not so fast on the UG call, bounces Lage and can be an Annul. Also has anti-Thassa text.

UG has some utility, but I don't think the power level is all that high. I agree though that off the bat, UR and BG look like the best ones with the UG being marginal and the two white ones being maybe EDH playable (in a pinch).

Since the BG one can return any land, it can act as a mini-Loam to return a Wasteland while also killing a small creature or permanent - for 2 mana. That's a huge swing in tempo.

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Originally Posted by Barook

Since the BG one can return any land, it can act as a mini-Loam to return a Wasteland while also killing a small creature or permanent - for 2 mana. That's a huge swing in tempo.

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"Destroy target noncreature"

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Originally Posted by Fox

"Destroy target noncreature"

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Yes, but it can also give -3/-1 to a creature. So, while not necessarily lethal to any creature, it can remove some small ones.

The power level on these cards is just right (which means they will only see play as situational role players in legacy). And that’s good.

The BG is not overpowered but will 100% see play. Decays primary purpose is to kill chalice and small creatures. Loam’s primary point is to recur wasteland. This card does both effects and will see play in B lands builds and loam decks.

It’s 2 W6 activations and can also kill chalice and vial. Kill a mom, get back a wasteland is 90% of what w6 got banned for. This is faster and more flexible but not infinite value. Anything 2 mana that has a chance to 2 for 1 will see play.

More fringe, the face drain is quite relevant vs or in marit lage decks. The shrink in combination with big creatures like KOTR could kill things decay could not (for example, a ooze with one counter can block a mandrills for free). The mill screws up mystic sanctuary or doomsday. The mill clears library/brainstorm and digs for an actual loam. Can blank surgical on wasteland or depths.

The 1UR seems iffy compared to kcommand, but actually is really good compared to abrade. It gives a mana refund, so it can actually be the same mana cost any turn past t2. It is a better top deck. It can go face. It can pitch to fow. Later in the game, looting is totally worth the extra mana.

The looting increases the floor of the card substantially, just like the cycling on Wilt does. Would you bring in abrade vs lands? It could easily be dead, but if not you could get punked by a random sphere. Dig for lands and making a mana source in response to a port though is also great. Or shock their face and dig for another bolt if they are at 5 and about to make a lage.

All the x/3s just got banned. This seems very good in ur delver.

1UG one might see play in infect sb since it covers both planeswalkers, Marit Lage, and plague engineers. But pretty bad.

The other ones are >3 cmc spells in legacy, but totally fine for standard.

Edit: I did miss that UG beats doomsday sometimes, maybe ok?

By themselves those Japanese cards look fantastic but is this really how mtg cards should look like?

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Originally Posted by Kage

By themselves those Japanese cards look fantastic but is this really how mtg cards should look like?

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Given that the card-frame changes were ridiculous already and that they jumped the shark with Amonkhet masterpieces, I'm almost okay with those.

But yeah, wasn't the whole point of having things like a colored border to make it so you could tell what cards . . . uh . . . do?

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Originally Posted by Ronald Deuce

Given that the card-frame changes were ridiculous already and that they jumped the shark with Amonkhet masterpieces, I'm almost okay with those.

But yeah, wasn't the whole point of having things like a colored border to make it so you could tell what cards . . . uh . . . do?

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Time Spiral Remastered will be a soothing return to form.

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Originally Posted by Kage

By themselves those Japanese cards look fantastic but is this really how mtg cards should look like?

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No border >>> modern border.

Why are the blue commands the best ones, like always

What do they have against the color pair boros exactly

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Originally Posted by chunderbucket

Why are the blue commands the best ones, like always

What do they have against the color pair boros exactly

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Because their narrow definitions of the color pie basically reduces the "available" effects to be borderline worthless.

Remember the Forces in Modern Horizons?
White and red aren't even worth the paper they're printed on.

It's surprising that they even bothered to complete the cycle.
In Zendikar they just gave up on the Inscriptions and didn't do a red or white one.

On another note, why is this spoiled already?
It feels like Kaldheim came out like 2 weeks ago.
I know February is a short month but still.

Since this is the Harry Potter set, I'm kind of interested to see for what themes they go and utterly fail at.
Can't wait for the backwards ass anti-bullying message.
Bonus points for yet another Teferi as teacher and failing his character completely.
Would at least allow for an all Teferis deck in Modern.

There is a pretty outrageous amount of Stifle main, Torpor SB without any 12/12s in the deck going on right now. Red Force is hard castable into a fresh untap for Stifle - this is a better use than most non-Dreadnought decks have for Stifle. The red one has legs. Like you actually have to justify why this card isn't in such a deck if it can make RR.

Calling the other four cards in the cycle "Force of" is how you knew the whole cycle was going to blow chunks after Negation.

I'm still mad that they decided what older formats needed was yet more free countermagic for blue just so that pure greed can never ever be punished. And also fuck Loam I guess.

Anyway enough ranting, let's see what decks will be made further unplayable by whatever broken blue printing they'll come up with in this set.

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Originally Posted by Zoid

Because their narrow definitions of the color pie basically reduces the "available" effects to be borderline worthless.

Remember the Forces in Modern Horizons?
White and red aren't even worth the paper they're printed on.

It's surprising that they even bothered to complete the cycle.
In Zendikar they just gave up on the Inscriptions and didn't do a red or white one.

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I think WOTC does Boros dirty as much as you do, but the white force (being proactive) could easily have been too strong. It sees more play than force of despair anyways.

Not completing the cycle gave us 2 of the strongest Boros cards for legacy in recent years, whereas none of the inscriptions see legacy play: the “retreat” cycle of Valkut Exploration and Felidar Retreat.

Imo in the context of standard both white commands are better than the Simic one. The GB is better than the Izzet one imo.

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Originally Posted by chunderbucket

I'm still mad that they decided what older formats needed was yet more free countermagic for blue just so that pure greed can never ever be punished. And also fuck Loam I guess.

Anyway enough ranting, let's see what decks will be made further unplayable by whatever broken blue printing they'll come up with in this set.

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Eh, i think Modern is better with Force in it which was their goal. Even in legacy Force only gets played in limited quantities to supplement original flavor Force for when you Absolutely Positively Must keep the combo deck in check.

Good thing no deck at all could profit off playing 12 Forces and become Tier 1. And that 80-card control has no chance of beating glass cannon combo by maindecking 7-8 Forces.

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Originally Posted by FTW

Good thing no deck at all could profit off playing 12 Forces and become Tier 1. And that 80-card control has no chance of beating glass cannon combo by maindecking 7-8 Forces.

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Yes, but unironically.
I even checked the latest challenge for 12 force...

Hot take: gb command could revitalize BUG delver. The problem with the deck has always been lack of reach and this is the first legacy playable lightning helix (shitty as it may be) in those colours.

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Originally Posted by FourDogsinaHorseSuit

Yes, but unironically.
I even checked the latest challenge for 12 force...

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He’s talking about turbo Tibalt, which ran 4 fow 4 fob 4 misdirect before being banned.

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Originally Posted by Reeplcheep

Hot take: gb command could revitalize BUG delver. The problem with the deck has always been lack of reach and this is the first legacy playable lightning helix (shitty as it may be) in those colours.

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Collective Brutality disagrees in the strongest possible way.

The problems BUG Delver had was that it's discard suite was worse than Probe/Therapy, into UR Delver was spamming PoP, into RUG Delver had Dreadhorde + Wrenn or Oko. So what they really need is to wake up and realize that life gain (Cling to Dust) is how they need to address their primary problem: enemy Bolts. Thoughtseize is the fundamental deckbuilding error.

Brutality always trades even though where this Witherbloom Command should usually 2-1. That being said, it being a Sorcery is a real hinderance still.

I think it is definitely potentially playable, but I think we'll have to see how the meta looks to say if it is really good or just another fair option. If Miracles shapes up to be a real force, I am not sure this is where BUG wants to be to fight it, for example.

There's also a large number of Delver pilots playing the legacy has-been YP. At no point will this new card take a slot before Golgari Charm (which also hits B2B and Moon). You don't want to cast this new card anywhere near a Delver mirror.

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Originally Posted by FTW

Good thing no deck at all could profit off playing 12 Forces and become Tier 1. And that 80-card control has no chance of beating glass cannon combo by maindecking 7-8 Forces.

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The issue is that obnoxious greed and catch-all countermagic aren't punished enough. The CMC1 uncounterable Elf is a step in the good direction but we need way, way more printings of the kind so that blue players actually think before automatically jamming 8+ cantrips and 6+ forces in their deck. Uncounterable Chalice or uncounterable Thalia would be a nice start. But knowing Wizards if we get that it'll probably be in blue lol

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Originally Posted by Fox

There's also a large number of Delver pilots playing the legacy has-been YP. At no point will this new card take a slot before Golgari Charm (which also hits B2B and Moon). You don't want to cast this new card anywhere near a Delver mirror.

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Rebuy a wasteland, kill a young peezy is a crazy blow out in the mirror. Or win the goyf battle plus shock face. The fact that it also answers problematic permanents like vial, mox diamond, exploration, wishclaw talisman and can go face is gravy.

W6 literally got banned for being too good in delver and this is 2 immediate W6 activations for the same price. How can it be unplayable?

I tried to play collective brutality but it’s so bad vs counter magic it is unplayable without gy/madness synergies. Like therapy in the post-probe era.

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Originally Posted by chunderbucket

The issue is that obnoxious greed and catch-all countermagic aren't punished enough. The CMC1 uncounterable Elf is a step in the good direction but we need way, way more printings of the kind so that blue players actually think before automatically jamming 8+ cantrips and 6+ forces in their deck. Uncounterable Chalice or uncounterable Thalia would be a nice start. But knowing Wizards if we get that it'll probably be in blue lol

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Cantrips and forces are just the best thing to be doing in a vacuum. But without the ridiculous card advantage engines blue decks are quite beatable. D&T, nic fit, lands, gaak, TES all hard punish decks full of counters in their own way (at the cost of horrible combo mus)

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Originally Posted by Reeplcheep

Rebuy a wasteland, kill a young peezy is a crazy blow out in the mirror. Or win the goyf battle plus shock face. The fact that it also answers problematic permanents like vial, mox diamond, exploration, wishclaw talisman and can go face is gravy.

W6 literally got banned for being too good in delver and this is 2 immediate W6 activations for the same price. How can it be unplayable?

I tried to play collective brutality but it’s so bad vs counter magic it is unplayable without gy/madness synergies. Like therapy in the post-probe era.

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Most of the functions offered by this new card are covered by Trophy or Decay. With the banning of Astrolabe, it's one corner case evaporated: it would have been better than Decay/Trophy at cleaning up an Astrolabe and an Ice-Fang.

A critical mistake in approaching BUG Delver is to think your deck is relevant to the point that doing something harder matters at all. The main problems were *strategic* meaning they cannot be overcome. The strategy of BUG Delver is to jam 1 card combos; so when someone is jamming more and better 1-card combos (i.e. Probe/Therapy, Wrenn/Oko/DHA) you lose by default. These strategies are banned.

The last problem is *tactical* - you lost DRS's lifegain and started dying to Delver with Bolt +/- PoP [primarily UR]. This new card fails to correct this tactical deficit (does not address UR Delver's onboard damage sources). Playing Thoughtseize inflames this deficit further.

Reach does not matter. Fighting Lightning Bolt out of Delver is the single most important aspect to address for any potential new additions. This new BG card was dead on arrival, and the existence, without use, of Collective Brutality told you all you need to know.

Why are people comparing the new BG command with Brutality? This one can generate card advantage, Brutality can only generate card parity. This seems rather silly to compare (as I don't give a fuck about Delver), even if both can drain life or kill creatures.

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Originally Posted by Fox

Most of the functions offered by this new card are covered by Trophy or Decay. With the banning of Astrolabe, it's one corner case evaporated: it would have been better than Decay/Trophy at cleaning up an Astrolabe and an Ice-Fang.

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Once you consider that the metagame is no longer just Snow Island + Snow Forest.dec, there are a lot of relevant 2-for-1 cases

vs D&T: Kill Vial + Mom/Thalia/Flickerwisp

vs Esper Vial: Kill Vial + Soulherder/Flickerwisp/Recruiter/Strix

vs Goblins: Kill Vial/Chalice + Lackey/WInstigator/dork or return Wasteland @ Caverns

(remember Aether Vial now has text beyond "T: Attack for 3", and a single card that answers both Vial and Cavern does a lot for blue to swing the Vial matchups)

vs Maverick: Kill Mom/mana dork/Hexdrinker/Thalia/Arbor + Sylvan/Jitte

vs Delver: Kill unflipped Delver/Borrower/YP + return Wasteland/fetch (kill threat and don't lose the mana battle)

vs Thalia Stompy: Kill Chalice/Suppression Field + Thalia

vs Doomsday: Win the game. Then gain 2 life.

vs Storm: Kill Wishclaw/LED/Grid/Carpet + Hope/Xantid OR return Wasteland (any of those plays does a lot vs their anti-blue plan)

vs BG Depths: return Wasteland + Go above 20 life = Time Walk

in BG Depths: return Depths/Stage/Urborg/Bayou + put opponent below 20 = Time Walk

Many others I couldn't think of.

That doesn't mean this card will replace Decay overall, but it has relevant 2-for-1s vs a big chunk of the field now that fair creatures and artifacts are playable again. The rest of the time, being modal should be useful.

W6 has shown us how strong rebuying wasteland is in delver when it is on a flexible card. The chance at a 2 for 1 and flexibility is absolutely worth being a bit worse at killing big creatures. No-one in Grixis plays abrade over kcommand because it only deals 2 damage.

You know what is really good at stabilizing vs UR? Killing their 4/4 sprite dragon with your delver and lightning helixing their face. If getting bolted to the dome is a problem, than the life drain effect is worth almost a full card by itself.

Saying the command is unplayable because brutality is bad is like saying ravens crime is bad thus Kcommand is unplayable.

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Originally Posted by Reeplcheep

W6 has shown us how strong rebuying wasteland is in delver when it is on a flexible card. The chance at a 2 for 1 and flexibility is absolutely worth being a bit worse at killing big creatures. No-one in Grixis plays abrade over kcommand because it only deals 2 damage.

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Yeah, being modal shouldn't be underestimated. How many Legacy decks played Shatter or Searing Spear in the last 10 years? How many played Abrade once it was printed?

Lets see other use cases:

Vs bant-Icles: kill sylvan, mill their terminus (this may be difficult at sorcery speed)

Vs burn: kill the 2 cmc sulfuric vortex thing plus gain 2 life.

Vs loam: kill a bob plus a chalice. Oof this one is good.

Vs show & tell: drain 2 plus rebuy wasteland & clear a brainstorm, not amazing but better than decay.

Vs gaak: kill your own delver to clear bridge plus destroy altar.

Disingenuous arguments and spurious comparisons? Legacy really is back baby!

I can't wait until the card is out and then when it isn't in 100% of top 8 lists, they can say "I told you it wasn't playable!"

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Originally Posted by H

Disingenuous arguments and spurious comparisons? Legacy really is back baby!

I can't wait until the card is out and then when it isn't in 100% of top 8 lists, they can say "I told you it wasn't playable!"

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February's Vintage Challenge had 7 Black Lotus in the top 8, so I will accept my apology in the form of an interpretive dance, thank you very much.

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Originally Posted by PirateKing

February's Vintage Challenge had 7 Black Lotus in the top 8, so I will accept my apology in the form of an interpretive dance, thank you very much.

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Circa-2010 Workshop decks, is that you?

These are scenarios that can happen @Reeplcheep, but Delver doesn't really get the option to ignore its main problems for corner case scenarios. This card has no meaningful text against a flipped UR Delver, and that's what matters.

@FTW that comparison does not work. Abrade had to be not 1cmc b/c of Chalice. Every other card that did the same thing [Shatter] on that cmc had a backup plan that attacked a more fringe resource than a creature (Smash, Grudge).

For every scenario you listed, we could make small alterations and see the same stuff written for Collective Brutality. None of this modality matters if the card is failing to address the fundamental deficit. The thing about Abrade is that it played precisely because it addresses a fundamental deficit: artifact removal.

To be fair, there is a higher deckbuilding cost to Collective Brutality compared to the new golgari charm. One requires BG, the other needs spare cards to pitch to gain the same modality. One is a natural 2-for-1, the other has a real cost to getting more than 1 card. The only deck that I saw profitably using Collective Brutality to it's fullest potential was Br Reanimator in the Deathrite Shaman era. This new card is splashable in any BGx deck without any cost other than needing targets for the modes.