Strixhaven Archetype Guide

[@RaynmanPlays]

"Sir, you've been in a coma for 10 years." "Wow, I can't wait to play some MTG and draft Orzhov lifegain, Izzet spells, Boros aggro, Simic counters, and Golgari graveyard!"

[@CommanderGinyu]

Except this time it’s more like orzhov Aggro, boros graveyard and golgari lifegain

[@RaynmanPlays]

@@CommanderGinyu Yes, that's the meme.

[@briar9395]

Two out of three ain't bad?

[@Clonekiller66]

@@CommanderGinyu r/whoosh

[@eace446]

34 minutes and only 1 ad at the end? You're a blessing.

[@gdiridium5525]

Reconstruct History actually *will* trigger Stonebinder's Familiar, since Reconstruct exiles itself on resolution

[@jdazzani]

Nice catch

[@ofdgaming2351]

Came here to say this... it does actually trigger it, not for the expected reason but still worth noting

[@entothechesnautknight1762]

I don't think I quite realized this while looking at the set card by card, but I think I understand why cauldron familiar was banned now.

[@TempestDacine]

I'm super impressed with the synergies in this set I'm very excited to try sealed and draft. My fav is prismari they really spiced things up with UR this time!

[@geefron]

Excellent work Nizzahon. Another exemplary limited review. A+

[@beeftank_jr8314]

I'm not a mathematician, but I'm not sure you're right that any given Mystical Archive uncommon is "rarer" than a normal uncommon. There are only 18 of them, and Wizards has said that the Mystical Archive slot is an uncommon 2/3's of the time. So they're way more likely to be the card in the slot from a pool that's less than a quarter the size of the regular uncommon pool. I think you can count on seeing any given MA uncommon pretty often.

[@littlel9906]

the chance of any given normal uncommon being in a pack is 3.75%, while the chance of any specific mystical archive uncommon being in a pack is 3.72%, based on what ive seen; so yes, youre right that theyre basically equivalent

[@migerh2269]

"Reconstruct History" will trigger the "Stonebinder's Familiar", won't it? The card doesn't have to be exiled from the graveyard and you exile "Reconstruct History" as part of its effect.

[@TempestDacine]

Yeah just need to exile a card so itll work. Same for removal spells that exile

[@10freekie2]

Like how you included the mystical archives in this.

[@kewlkid4845]

witherbloom looks so fun to play

[@meutoharris4427]

A fantastic way to showcase card selection in limited! Thank you ☺

[@robertwoods3685]

Hi Nizzahon. I am a huge fan of your content. I always look forward to limited review week. However, I find the archetype guides a little tough to digest. Maybe going over the key cards in more depth and leaving out the borderline cards would make the video more interesting. Just a thought. Hope this doesn’t sound too negative, just trying to help. Thanks for all the great limited content!

[@RedOctober_]

Do you have an opinion on which color pair is the strongest or weakest? Also are 3 color decks viable?

[@NizzahonMagic]

It is always hard to say what is strongest ot weakest at this point, that's the kind of thing you can only learn by playing. There is enough fixing for 3 colors, but I imagine this format will mostly be two-color decks that sometimes splash a 3rd color for a bomb or something.

[@tullius43]

black/white seems strong with its focus on +1/+1 counters and removal

[@stuflames4769]

I like that the Orzov colors are exploring a little beyond life drain in the last few sets. Double spelling in Kaldeheim... counters and tricks here... For the last ten years, ever since Extort in Return to Ravnica, this color pair has seen set after set dominated by passive versions of life drain. And, has been super boring for it. Play this, drain. Sacrifice this, drain. Don't really do anything special, drain. Okay, they also have had removal in that time. But, removal is very utilitarian, and very same-y. Drain is fine, but like the same-ness of B/U mill, the color pair needs some other identities, some other interests, something a little more interactive, or it's just so... so dull if that's the only thing Wizards assigns a color pair, as its identity. Anyway, whatever Wizard's mistakes, I'm happy to see them poking around a little more in the Orzhov etc. color pie pairs.

[@stuflames4769]

Same with some of the other color pairs being explored here, but Orzhov has been my biggest peeve for a while. Maybe black and white *should* be thematically a bit dull, by it's very lack of color... but that's not all that fun a justification for me.

[@sallomon2357]

I'm a bit surprised that despite there being a lifegain archetype with a sacrifice subtheme in Witherbloom, there is no "drain 1 whenever sth on your side dies" card. Dina kinda works like that, but it's only with Pests, so I wouldn't count it really. Would it be too strong? 🤔

[@eduardobarros3986]

Probably because they wanted to put more emphasis on the lifegain aspect. The sacrifice is only there to trigger the pests' ability.

[@c.d.dailey8013]

Ooh. I am getting all psyched up. The archetypes are cool this time around. I like enemy color pairs. They are so interesting. They do get unusual play styles this time around. I am not a Boros fan but the other four are awesome. Izzet and Simic are my two favorite guilds out of all ten guilds of Ravnica. So I think that is a good place for me to go. Simic does get ramp this time around. That is not too wierd. I already have a Simic ramp deck. It mainly uses Zendikar Rising cards. This does give me a head start. It is unusual for Izzet to have ramp. That is wierd. I think the two could probably go together. Maybe I can make a Temur ramp deck. I can add the Izzit, Simic and even Gruul pathway lands for mana fixing. I could add the Temur ultamatum card from Ikoria. I think there is a Temur Ramp deck somewhere in the meta. This is so awesome!

[@julianfacundocalabrese1176]

I really like the twists they made for most of the color pair archetypes here (except maybe simic, a lot of stuff from quandrix feels like something that could have been on ravnica) aside from that, is it just my impression or izzet seems kinda hard to make work? hard to judge withouth actually playing the format, but i feel like you need to line things up pretty well in deckbuilding, is not as straight forward as witherbloom for example and if you don't get good ramp options i feel like you would get squashed

[@heronfountain6215]

I thought so too, but Ravnica Simic is all about +1/+1 counters, and Quandrix is all about lands. Yes, a bunch of their stuff has the same look and talks about counters, but that has to do with their fractals.

[@Petrelli1926]

does anybody know at what time the new set will be released on mtga? is it a midnight release and does it depend on the timezone? could´t find any information.

[@NicerDicerSmart]

Quintorious escape sounds fun for historic and historic brawl

[@stuflames4769]

I hope they did some limited (and other) play testing with blue/red, because paying and discarding a card for a treasure token seems super sketchy. It's not even cycling and a treasure token. Just treasure, at the cost of a card and mana. I'm not throwing it out, yet, but I'm not a believer yet, either. It's asking a lot for a temporary gain... a tempo gain? And, asking that your big tempo pay off is big enough to offset your opponent's consistency and what amounts to card disadvantage on your part.

[@creakybeak1252]

I didn't give it much thought, but you're right, it does seem like you're paying high price for a rather weak effect.

[@daygoncornhole2395]

I'm as wotc put it in the test an izzet student it's funny cause it's my favorite color pair but I am excited to see how the spirits will work for you and lifegain for me cause that's what I will try to draft 😊 ( BG)

[@creakybeak1252]

Do you think there's a possibility of an ally color deck happening in this format? Or are they not supported enough?

[@NizzahonMagic]

They have no support, so there's really no reason to go that route.

[@creakybeak1252]

@@NizzahonMagic I thought so, but I really hoped I would get to play a GW deck. Anyways, thanks for all the effort you put into these videos!

[@AkukAkuku]

While allied pairs are not supported, I think UW flyers, RG ramp, GW +1/+1 counters look like they can work.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Maybe, but you are putting yourself at a massive disadvantage by not staying in the five main pairs.

[@AkukAkuku]

@@NizzahonMagic won't just 5 archetypes make some problems for 8 drafters?

[@NizzahonMagic]

5 drafters? There are usually 8 drafters, and no it generally won't cause problems because they are all so deeply supported and have tons of multi-colored cards. Like most drafts, if your color pair isn't very open you'll be in trouble, but each color pair has enough support that it is just as likely that things will be open for you as it would be in a 10-color pair set.

[@AkukAkuku]

@@NizzahonMagic i meant 8 drafters of course. Thanks for the answer!

[@rfs8194]

I'm not really feeling the blue/red ramp. Trading in cards for treasure tokens? :/

[@NizzahonMagic]

I mean, that's not the only way to do it. You just have to think about the treasure effect on the big spells as very minor upside. The color pair has several ways of making big spells cheaper, and treasure is just one of them.

[@rfs8194]

@@NizzahonMagic Yeah, but at common, there's one combat trick that also makes a treasure, and that's it. I don't know what you're supposed to do if you don't have Storm-Kiln Artist. Play Quandrix splashing red? Hm... the Artist is not the only uncommon that can help you out. I'd still prefer if there was more support at common.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Like I said, Treasure isn't the only way of doing things. You also have the two flyers who reduce the cost of spells.

[@rfs8194]

@@NizzahonMagic You're right. I somehow got it into my head that Spectacle Mage was yet another uncommon. I don't know how that happened. Having a common enabler makes it look a lot less sketchy.

[@jasondeutschbein8102]

Is it Zimone or Zimonee? The kids show Arthur called the character "Persephone" and I totally feel like Zimone, the prodigy is a reference to Hermione.

[@creakybeak1252]

Am I missing something? What does Arthur have to do with this?

[@jasondeutschbein8102]

@@creakybeak1252 arthur had an episode where one of the characters was obsessed with "Henry Skreever". I can't recall the others but several references to hermione in different parodies make note of names that are spelled with what looks like a silent e but are infact pronounced with a long e. Persephone, Calliope, Hermione, Zimone

[@creakybeak1252]

@@jasondeutschbein8102 Are you sure they're referencing Hermione? Persephone and Calliope are both from greek mythology. I can definitely see Zimone being a reference to Hermione though, with all the magic colleges and whatnot.

[@jasondeutschbein8102]

@@creakybeak1252 Persephone IS from greek mythology; however the character in question from Arthur was also named Persephone and was a very clear reference to Hermione. I'm actually not sure why this comment is getting so many replies.

[@creakybeak1252]

@@jasondeutschbein8102 It was an interesting comment, so I replied. Anyways, have good day sir.

[@Culicidae47]

Echoing Equation worked well for me in a game where it turned all my creatures into unblockable Vortex Runners. Just don't use it to turn all your creatures into base 0/0 fractals

[@Culicidae47]

Also, it seems like at least some of these pairings have more than one archtype. Blue/Green also seems to have a cast lots of instant/sorceries subtheme that I found hard to fit into my 8 or more lands matter deck.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Pretty much every color pair has an instant/sorcery subtheme in this set.

[@Culicidae47]

@@NizzahonMagic I see it now! That's pretty slick

[@MooseFG]

Can’t wait for draft, come on lorehold!

[@bethmaxwell7834]

It’s as though Lorehold was made just for you. I’m no historian, but I think it’s my college, as well.

[@BrunoNunes83]

quandrix fractals/counters subtheme?

[@NizzahonMagic]

It is a thing, but pretty small. Other than Biomathematician, most of the cards that support it look pretty bad (like Square Up).

[@DraconiaDrawing]

Thanks

[@DuelingCharisma]

Did he delete his video going over mistakes he made during his limited review?

[@NizzahonMagic]

No

[@DuelingCharisma]

@@NizzahonMagic OH MY GOD!!! IT’S YOU I’M SUCH A FAN!!! THIS MADE MY DAY!!!

[@randomencounter8984]

Yeah R/W dragon is going to be more bonkers in U/R deck

[@demilembias2527]

ok, I haven't seen anyone mention this--am I the only one who thinks the mystical archive art for faithless looting looks like some bizarre photoshopped shit out of an experimental satire cartoon from the early 2000s or something? like, why is the person clearly photorealistic but there are also stained glass cutout elements, why is he wearing a red ballgown, like what is going on? sleeper pick for weirdest MTG card art imo, at least in the past 10 years.

[@thenextchicken]

There was a lot of discussion around this art. That is why I love it, it got so many peole upset

[@sallomon2357]

The worst thing is that beyond the looks of the art it doesn't even have anything to do with looting. We got a hooded guy with two bowls of soup. Wow.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Everyone think this.

[@demilembias2527]

@@NizzahonMagic yeah sorry its just a figure of speech for pointing something out, come to think of it I don't really like when people say "am I the only one" either but whoops I did it anyway haha

[@daygoncornhole2395]

@@sallomon2357 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@TheUltimateRey]

Earlier than a time skipping quandrix lol

[@WhatSmada]

Good doggo

[@YourSkyliner]

The amount of gold cards in this set makes me slightly uncomfortable

[@NizzahonMagic]

I mean, its the same as Ravnica.

[@Shadow-kj5oc]

Never been this early

[@cspeeds96]

Wooooo

[@Deathixful]

Always wanted to write this - first :)

[@daygoncornhole2395]

Congratulations you get a🍪