The newest Magic: The Gathering expansion set is Strixhaven: School of Mages, which is based on the five enemy-color pairs. In this set, players will find that instants and sorceries are a big deal in gameplay, and that factors into games of booster draft Limited. Here’s how to draft Strixhaven, starting with the five archetypes.
Nearly all M:TG draft sets come with built-in archetypes for players to follow, providing basic blueprints for building a Limited deck based on the colors present in the player’s card pool. Players must take care when choosing cards from packs, and Strixhaven players should know that the five established archetypes are all powerful and fun to play with. What’s on the syllabus for this semester?
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The Silverquill Archetype
The white-black archetype is a bit broader than the other four, dipping its toes into a variety of effects and strategies that come together into a tricky and merciless archetype. Arguably, Silverquill‘s main strategy is giving its creatures +1/+1 counters, but there is more to it than that. Some Silverquill creatures can also pump the entire time with +1/+1 or +2/+2 until end of turn, a classic white effect. That can really pay off when the Silverquill deck goes wide with Inkling creature tokens and/or cheap creature spells.
Arguably, though, Silverquill shines the most with evasive creatures, decent removal effects and the aforementioned +1/+1 counters, a lean and efficient archetype based on slowly and steadily grinding out an advantage over the opponent. This archetype’s best cards for getting +1/+1 counters include Dueling Coach, which is a great mana sink in the late game if this strategy comes together. Also great are Spiteful Squad, Exhilarating Elocution, Humiliate and Essence Infusion.
Silverquill can diversity its portfolio with other effects, such as the many good removal spells in these colors. Baleful Mastery is a fine example, not to mention Necrotic Fumes, Reduce to Memory, Vanishing Verse and Fracture. Flying creatures like Owlin Shieldmage are a fine target for those +1/+1 counters to easily push damage.
The Prismari School
The Prismari school embodies many of the new mechanics, keywords and gameplay themes of the entire Strixhaven set in one exciting, creative package. This school cares about big instants and sorceries in particular. In booster draft Limited, costly cards are a bit more appealing, as Limited games are almost always slow and awkward, meaning there is usually time to ramp into huge finishers. Primsari draft players should grab at least a few cards with a converted mana cost/mana value of 5+, as well as the cards that provide payoff for such spells.
Primsari Apprentice is a good example, getting a +1/+1 counter if the player casts an instant or sorcery with CMC 5 and higher. Spectacle Mage can make costly instants/sorceries cost {1} less, which is vital, and Prismari Pledgemage is an undercosted 3/3 that can attack when magecraft is triggered (it has defender otherwise). Massive instants/sorceries range from Elemental Masterpiece to Creative Outburst and Magma Opus, many of which can be discarded with a modest mana cost to make a Treasure token instead.
When drafting Prismari colors, players can and should include other classic blue and red effects, such as burn spells to pick off targets or finish the opponent. Cunning counterspells and draw effects, such as Practical Research, are also useful. This helps the Prismari player find the inspiration to cast their biggest, baddest spells.
The Witherbloom School
The Witherbloom archetype isn’t using dredge or flashback at all; instead, it’s all about lifegain. Together, these colors gain life almost as well as white mana does, setting this archetype apart from Ravnica’s Golgari Swarm guild. Witherbloom draft players should look out for green and black cards that gain life (either as a primary or secondary effect), then find cards that provide payoff for gaining all that life. Dina, Soul Steeper will slowly leech the opponent as life is gained, and Blood Researcher gets a juicy +1/+1 counter each time the Witherbloom player gains life. Meanwhile, Accomplished Alchemist will ramp mana with Witherbloom flair.
Witherbloom archetype also dabbles with the “aristocrats” concept, or sacrificing disposable creatures to fuel bigger ones. Dina is effective as an aristocrat, gaining power equal to the lost creature’s power, and Tend the Pests will gobble up a creature and split it up into Pest creature tokens (especially if the creature was about to die anyway). This school makes plenty of Pest creature tokens to fuel the aristocrats theme. It also helps that these pests gain one life when they die, so they tie into the “lifegain matters” theme. That can help fuel effective removal, such as Mortality Spear, and mono-black removal spells like Baleful Mastery and Necrotic Fumes, which work just as well here as they do in the Silverquill archetype.
The Lorehold Archetype
The red-white Lorehold school follows Witherbloom’s example, setting itself apart from its Ravnica counterpart. The Lorehold school does have some combat tricks and aggressive creatures as per its colors, but its main emphasis is the graveyard. Normally, red and white care little about the graveyard, but Strixhaven draft players should look for graveyard enablers in these colors and find some payoff. Some Lorehold cards can directly fuel the graveyard, such as Thrilling Discovery (a rummage effect) and Lorehold Excavation. This archetype can also stock up its graveyard the normal way: recklessly diving into combat so creatures die and combat tricks are cast. Cards like Beaming Defiance are a good combat trick, for example.
Then, the Lorehold player will start exiling cards from the graveyard, preferably while creatures like Quintorious, Field Historian and Stonebound Mentor are watching. Lorehold Excavation can exile creatures from the graveyard to enable this strategy, and Reconstruct History can bring several different card types from the graveyard to the hand (which counts as cards leaving the graveyard). Finally, the Lorehold draft player can round things out with a few “artifacts matter” cards, such as Storm-Kiln Artist, as well as burn spells or white pump spells that affect the entire team.
The Quandrix School
The Quandrix school of magic likes to find perfection in math, and draft players can do the same when they make 0/0 Fractal creature tokens and put +1/+1 counters on them. Not only that, but Quandrix draft players should also seek to get eight or more lands in play. This both provides excess mana and fuels abilities for cards like Zimone, Quandirc Prodigy‘s second ability and Augmenter Pugilist. Lands matter here, and tricky cards such as Divide by Zero and other bounce/counter effects like Decisive Denial keep the player ahead. Otherwise, the Quandrix school can draw extra cards with effects like Eureka Moment and Golden Ratio.
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