General [STX] Strixhaven Spoilers

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Am I the only one who didn't realize Ward wasn't just a Frost Titan rewording?

Probably not but when they introduced the mechanic they said the ability would always be "Whenever this becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player X" and told us X could be many different things. Here is a link:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/strixhaven-school-mages-mechanics-2021-03-25
 
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Not immediately thrilled at the first black quad hybrid. It's not like Open the Graves was a consideration. That said, flying is a pretty big deal and maybe there's a way to build WB tokens where it doesn't detrimentally jam up the board.

Hoping to see more Inklings. This is probably too slow, but I'll definitely be looking into it.
 
Remember that it's not a 2/1 flyer token, it's a 3/2 flyer token (so long as this is still on the board). Drake Haven, eat your heart out. 1 less mama than Open the Graves for a much better body/ability combo sounds great. I think that if I can get two tokens out of this I'm going to be super happy, because at that point it's more stats than Lingering Souls for less mana, though the loss of efficiency/graveyard synergies does hurt.

Edit: to clarify, I dunno if I like it, but I think it has a chance at being a lot more powerful that it looks at first glance. I can see a lot of people dismissing it only to be absolutely bodied by it.
 
I just love fiddling with games. I actually don't like playing Magic nearly as much as I do fiddling with decks and environments
EDIT: Hall Monitor (Lizard)

I'm still sad that Murcielojos isn't going to be nearly as good of a pun in English.

I was thinking about this last night, and I think you and I occupy opposite ends of a spectrum. I love how Magic plays, and making sure that my cube plays well is my number one priority. But I'm horribly traditional - I've still never broken singleton and I decided to make a cube called the Good Games Cube after playing a bunch of experimental stuff that I thought was miserable (an all 1-drop cube! A combo cube where every land is a rainbow land!). I'm interested in agonizing over single card choices and exact as-fans of mana to get the smoothest play experience possible. Meanwhile, you're on the other end and you're like, fuck it, what if we just throw out half the mana curve? Like, I'm pretty sure I'd never want to actually play Afternoon Delight, but I think as a thought experiment it's pretty cool, and I thought the all-blue cube was brilliant.

It's probably the same reason that I'm not a particularly good deck brewer. I am much, much happier taking a deck from the internet and tuning 1-2 cards rather than complete blue ocean design. I suspect you are the opposite.
 
Huh. this is a pretty solid card for some GY formats
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Probably too low powered for me since it only pings for one regardless of whether one or ten cards leave your graveyard at a time. Most of my exiling or resurrecting happens in batches via delve or a living death effect. Funny with something like Tortured Existence tho!
 
I agree :p
It activates on so many creature types + planeswalkers that it almost copies itself more regularly than not. But the fail safe is a pretty low bar. Sorcery speed Opt for 3.
 
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Unstable Transformation
1U
Sorcery - Lesson
Until end of turn, target nonland permanent loses all abilities and becomes your choice of a Frog creature with base power and toughness 1/1 or an Octopus creature with base power and toughness 4/4.
I think there is definitely enough here to justify a lesson/learn package for some cubes.
 
This set is booming with premium instant/sorcery spot removals..

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.. which is very fitting for a set designed around instants and sorceries. MARO mentioned they were the last card type they hadn’t designed a set around and it was only possible because modal dual faced cards allows them to print enough creatures while also print enough instants and sorceries in the same set.

In case anyone is interested: Modal dual faced cards that we see in Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim and Strixhaven was first designed for the original Innistrad set in 2011 (or a few years before when they designed Innistrad) but they’d kept pushing the mechanic back for various reasons until we finally got the mechanic in Zendikar 3.
 
In case anyone is interested: Modal dual faced cards that we see in Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim and Strixhaven was first designed for the original Innistrad set in 2011 (or a few years before when they designed Innistrad) but they’d kept pushing the mechanic back for various reasons until we finally got the mechanic in Zendikar 3.


That's super interesting! Its a mechanic that's easy to accuse of being "digital first design", and while it's certainly easier with double faced cards in a video game than in paper, it's interesting to hear it dates back 10 years ago.
 
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