General [STX] Strixhaven Spoilers

Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Despite the first card with the mechanic being a black one, I think the copy part heavily implies a primary {U/R} mechanic, since those are the two colors that traditionally like to copy spells.
 
Zoss

Zoss

I think it's possible that Magecraft is the new Evergreen mechanic, and the copying bit could just be to give it some life in eternal formats. Or alternatively this could be a more general change in consistency. Looking back through Scryfall, the last time Standard saw "whenever you cast an instant or sorcery" on a card that can trigger meaningfully multiple times per turn was in Guilds of Ravnica, so two and a half years ago. (Yeah, I'm leaving out Orvar, the All-Form, but it's specifically spells that you control that target your stuff, so there's some riders there that make it an unfair comparison IMO. Speaking of which, has anyone tested Orvar out? I liked the look of the card but it quickly fell off my radar.)
 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
I think copying spells will remain largely in UR but that the Magecraft wording is meant to clear up a common confusion around Prowess etc - it's unintuitive (and not just for new players) that copying a spell doesn't trigger it because, you see, you're not casting it, it just appears on the stack...
 
Rasmus Källqvist

Rasmus Källqvist

Hm okay how about this for some wild speculation, what if there's some kind of flavor in the set were you "teach" a creature how to cast a spell by you casting your spell first, and that creature then copying it?
 
sigh

sigh

Cipher doesn't need the new "or copy" wording because you are casting the spell again anyways. If anything cipher gets more confusing with the new wording (am I triggering when I create the copy and again when I cast it? Or just when I cast it?).
Cipher (Then you may exile this spell card encoded on a creature you control. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may cast a copy of this card without paying its mana cost.)
 
Heymaker

Heymaker

I'm kind of hoping Magecraft somehow pulls together and pays off some of these teaser phrases mechanically...
  • “untap each creature you control, then tap any number of creatures you control”
  • “Otherwise, put a study counter on it.”
... like an Outlast for spells or something. Really, I just want counters-as-a-consumptive-resource to be a thing.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

ravnic said:
I wonder if every faculty ill have its own keyword/ability, just like the guild of ravnica get one
Click to expand...
I kind of hope the colleges are thematically unique, but don't have unique keywords. I don't like how faction sets tend to feel like variations of Ravnica sets, even when they're tonally completely different. While I think it would be cool for the different schools to care about different things and different mechanical identities, (R/W artifacts, G/B graveyard, U/G +1/+1 counters, etc), they shouldn't each have a unique keyword. Instead, it would be cool if each College used the same pool of mechanics in different ways.

Basically, I'm hoping the set feels a lot different from a Ravnica visit.
 
Velrun

Velrun

TrainmasterGT said:
I kind of hope the colleges are thematically unique, but don't have unique keywords. I don't like how faction sets tend to feel like variations of Ravnica sets, even when they're tonally completely different.
Click to expand...

Any particular faction set you have in mind that tend to feel like a variation of Ravnica?
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Velrun said:
Any particular faction set you have in mind that tend to feel like a variation of Ravnica?
Click to expand...
Because Ravnica's guild structure is a really effective tool for organizing a faction set, so Wizards has gone back to it several times. Having every supported color combination have a unique keyword to differentiate it from the other factions makes a clean and simple set structure. The "problem" is that we've had 3 Ravnica blocks, the Alara block, and two different groups of factions on Tarkir that all follow this structure. It's safe and easy to do, so WOTC has done it 5 times (6 if you count the Khanates and Dragon Clans separately) in 16 years.

Strixhaven is unique because all of the Colleges are part of one larger University. It would be interesting to see how different fields of mage use the same basic mechanics with their unique magic, instead of every group feeling mechanically isolated. The Spring sets we've seen for the last three or so years have all been extremely innovative. It would be sad if Strixhaven used the same tired guild structure we've seen half a dozen times, as that would probably eat most of the design space for some other interesting element for the main set.
 
shamizy

shamizy

I don't think it's necessarily bad to re-use a system that works this effectively. Factions are just fun for people to play with, are easily identifiable for the playerbase, and very easy to understand for the average player. It's a formula that's worked every time dating back to the original Ravnica with the guilds and I'm not surprised that it's become their go-to with future sets with gold-centered themes. It just works and they've had great results just about every time. In my opinion it's the best way to to make factions resonant with an audience. Coming out with one of these every 2 1/2 years seems about right if unexciting.

I far prefer something like Strixhaven with tangible if somewhat overused structure to an exploratory mess like Ikoria which didn't feel cohesive at all to me.
 
ravnic

ravnic

I'm not sure how much of the guild structure we will get in Strixhaven, but I don't think we have to fear it will be uninspiring and afraid of experimentation, as Maro has stated that this set will be different and out there compared to most others. i guess tomorrow we will have an idea of what he meant with that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top