General [STX] Strixhaven Spoilers

[LadyMapi]

I just thought of something blindingly obvious.

If you squadron together a card with Learn and a Lesson, a lot of the issues of ensuring Lesson density in draft just kinda... go away. On top of that, multiple Learn cards end up synergizing in a pretty natural way, and you could balance things out by pairing subpar Learn spells with the best Lessons and vice-versa.

We have a pretty narrow slice of the Lessons so far, but consider something like:

Guiding Voice + Expanded Anatomy
Pop Quiz + Introduction to Prophecy
Field Trip + Environmental Sciences
And so on and so forth.

Then someone who drafted Guiding Voice and Pop Quiz but ended up in GW +1/+1 counters could splash for Pop Quiz or just let Guiding Voice essentially be a modal spell. At the same time, just drafting Guiding Voice would be alright — not spectacular, but playable.

 

[whydirt]

If I wanted to house-rule lessons, I'd let people Hearthstone draft them when they cast a Learn spell.

i.e. - you get to see 3 random Lessons from a special Lesson Deck and can pick one or use your rummage

 

[Rowan_CB]

This is not particularly germane, but man, I can't think of a standard-legal set, ever, with flavor I dislike as much as I dislike this set's.

 

[LadyMapi]

That's entirely fair.

 

[Chris Taylor]

This is not particularly germane, but man, I can't think of a standard-legal set, ever, with flavor I dislike as much as I dislike this set's.

I learned a new word today

By contrast, I'm loving the flavor

This shit? this flavor text right here? Love it

 

[Rowan_CB]

I dunno, seems suspect that these first-years are just firing off preordains in their intro classes, even if it takes them a little extra effort.

 

[Chris Taylor]

It's all that extra practice that lets you pay for it

 

[sigh]

Only after being taught it by a specific teacher and helps them learn it. And it takes them three times the effort, with what looks like some sort of basin probably helping + allowing for generic mana usage. Seems reasonable to me.

 

[shamizy]

This is not particularly germane, but man, I can't think of a standard-legal set, ever, with flavor I dislike as much as I dislike this set's.

Ikoria for me. That set was just a mess all around. This might be a close second though.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I'm with you Chris! That flavor text is gold

 

[Erik Twice]

Golden butterflies? I'm sorry, but witches aren't real.

Anyways, I agree the theme is dumb. But I think all Magic set based on existing worlds with the number filed off are. I'm surprise we still don't have Sherlock Holmes in the game, seems like an inevitable candidate.

 

[whydirt]

Do you not like the concept or the execution? Because honestly, I'm surprised it's taken almost 30 years to have a dedicated Magic School set.

 

[LadyMapi]

Strixhaven reminds me of one of the things that frustrates me about Magic's design: non-permanent subtypes show up, are a big part of a set/block, and then never show up again. So any Lessons we get this time through will probably be the only Lessons we'll ever get.

...

Now part of me is thinking about an environment where Arcane spells, Lessons, and Traps are all handled interchangeably. Learn fetching Arcane spells directly helps bulk up any future "special" spells you cast, the massive cost reductions on Traps will probably work really well with Splice, and being able to fetch Traps from your sideboard is a cool bit of toolbox-y tech.

 

[Erik Twice]

Do you not like the concept or the execution? Because honestly, I'm surprised it's taken almost 30 years to have a dedicated Magic School set.

So far it doesn't actually seem very Potter-esque so it's actually fine to me. But I just can't keep a straight face when I see stuff like "Toralf's Hammer". It totally breaks my immersion and feels cheap and tired. I like games because they offer me new ideas and themes to explore. Seeing that kind of stuff just tires me for some reason. I like worlds created for Magic such as Mirrodin. I don't like knockoff Greek Mythology, Knockoff Fairtytales and Knockoff Egypt.

Really, it's a big turn off for me. I feel they are trying to sell me something. There's people who see, say, a Star Wars game and are attracted to it. For me it's the opposite, it gives me hype-adversion. But it's a personal thing.

 

[sigh]

Well, for better or worse, they are trying to sell you something. Really their only goal at the end of the day.

 

[Rowan_CB]

Do you not like the concept or the execution? Because honestly, I'm surprised it's taken almost 30 years to have a dedicated Magic School set.

It's the execution for me. I don't mind when they do their own takes on well-worn fantasy tropes. I don't like that the path they took with the wizard school trope is borrowing so heavily from the actual modern-day experience of going to college. Pop Quiz, Study Break, references to "cramming" in the flavor text, don't make me feel like I'm playing magic.

 

[Heymaker]

I made the mistake of watching the WotC live stream spoilers and so now have strong associations of this set with Harry Potter. The "quidditch" match just felt waaaay too on the nose for me.

I think Learn/Lesson will be a ton of fun in retail draft, but I'm not particularly hopeful it makes its way into my cube environment. I mean, I was (maybe still am?) particularly excited to see rummage on so many cards just for madness discard outlets, but having Learn and it's text stapled on might be enough to discard the idea of including them. Who knows, there's lots of spoilers left so I guess we'll see where Lessons end up.

Like others, kinda wish Learn had some other card restriction than searching out via a card's subtype. Sometimes these set mechanics feel at odds with cube. Understandably, WotC has to keep constructed in mind and that's almost precisely what we don't want them considering; we'd prefer to use our own discretion.

I'm particularly excited to see how Boros was developed out in this set and its accompanying commander deck. This card has me pretty pumped already (and the Lorehold Command too for that matter):

 

[Chris Taylor]

I'm also curious. Boros here looks weird

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Well, for better or worse, they are trying to sell you something. Really their only goal at the end of the day.

I can't see this being true. "They" aren't a monolith, the people who are funding the product is interested in money of course, but the people designing the cards are probably just trying to do the best designs they can.

 

[Heymaker]

I'm also curious. Boros here looks weird

https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Lorehold#Description - I really like this direction after reading into it more. It's not that combat doesn't have lots of design space left to explore, but I've always wanted other tie-ins for Boros to wield. Learning from ancestors, artifacts, spelunking, all feel so natural to these colors imo.

When I've looked at the thematic bent of WUR with respect to artifacts, I see the distinguishing trait amongst them to be (I mean, I'll be honest, I just choose to see them thematically this way):
W = restorative (Restoration Specialist, Daring Archaeologist, Open the Vaults, Remember the Fallen)
R = destructive (Orcish Vandal, Atog, Shrapnel Blast)
U = manipulative (Skilled Animator, Ensoul Artifact, Fabricate)

I don't know what that really has to do with Lorehold (maybe we'll see some of those distinctions utilized)... BUT, given some narrative aspect to what Lorehold is all about, I'm quite happy with what I'm seeing so far!

 

[Chris Taylor]

I'm mostly just saying lorehold apprentice is real wierd, I wonder where the rest of this goes

 

[whydirt]

Lorehold Apprentice is weird because it uses an ability word that scales across multiple triggers but in practice only the first trigger matters (barring corner cases where you flash in extra spirit tokens). Obviously they do it this way so it shares the same base mechanic, but it does read strangely.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

It's also the only apprentice that literally does nothing on its own when you trigger it. Such a weird design. How many spirits can you realistically draft, really? Seems pretty poisonous to me.

 

[sigh]

I can't see this being true. "They" aren't a monolith, the people who are funding the product is interested in money of course, but the people designing the cards are probably just trying to do the best designs they can.

Working in a company with a nominally similar structure, individuals might have their goals, but everything in the way the company works and in the way management decisions are made revolves around the sales. Theres really no variable that is important to management at the end of the day except how much money an idea is going to make. Not trying to be cynical, it just how companies like this function. The people designing the cards are beholden to the people funding things, and it's not a voluntary relationship.

 

[whydirt]

FWIW, I much prefer top-down design that borrows from real world mythology and even pop culture over trying to make a world from scratch.

The only interesting things from Mirrodin to me are the Myr and the 5 suns and the latter is really only used on one cycle. But everyone has their own tastes!