Secrets of Strixhaven is our next Standard-release set, and it releases on April 24th. While we don’t know a ton about the set right now, we have seen one preview card from the set’s new incarnation of the Mystical Archive – a reprint of Stock Up.
One of the coolest things about our first visit to Strixhaven was its Mystical Archive, a curated sub-set of powerful and/or iconic Instant and Sorcery spells with unique frames that appeared alongside cards from the main set in booster packs. Sub-sets like this one are commonly called “bonus sheets.”
The Archive was really important in the history of Magic too, because it ushered in a period where bonus sheets have become commonplace. If you want a deeper dive on the topic of bonus sheets, their history, and what’s awesome about them, I did write an article on that topic a couple of years ago.
Suffice it to say, one of the best things about bonus sheets is that they give us really pretty reprints of cards that are in high demand. In this article, I’m going to give you my picks for 5 cards I hope they reprint in the Archive.
BIORHYTHM
They just unbanned this card in Commander last month, so there’s probably not a great chance of this getting reprinted because they had long moved on to other sets by that point.
So, this one is probably wildly unrealistic, but we do definitely need a reprint of this card in the near future. The fact it’s been banned in Commander for so long means they have virtually never reprinted it as it isn’t really a card that works in any other formats. As such, it only appears in a single black-bordered set. That, combined with the now heavy demand for the card has resulted in Biorhythm being very difficult to get your hands on.
Its unique effect is really sweet, and more players deserve to try this card out now that it’s been let out of Commander jail.
THE COMMANDER 2020 FREE SPELL CYCLE
Okay, so I cheated a little bit on this one by including five cards, but I included them all together because they’re all part of a powerful cycle that is in fairly short supply. Each of them is an Instant that is free if you control your Commander. Fierce Guardianship and Deflecting Swat are in the most demand, as they give you free ways to protect your Commander, but the other cards in this cycle are also really cool.
Now, they did just reprint this cycle in Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Eternal set, but that’s not a big set with a huge print run, so that had a limited effect on the card’s supply. Appearing in the Rare slot in Secrets of Strixhaven’s Mystical Archive would make a much bigger difference.
The bad news about these cards is that they’re not very good in Limited because you’ll never have a Commander. And that certainly matters to a degree for bonus sheet cards. Biorhythm is terrible in Limited too – but they print plenty of bad Limited cards on bonus sheets, so it’s definitely possible.
MANA DRAIN
Mana Drain is in the conversation for “Best Counterspell Ever,” and if that doesn’t scream “Mystical Archive Reprint,” I don’t know what does. Countering a spell and then getting a massive mana boost on your next turn just wins a whole lot of games.
Unlike the cards we’ve looked at so far, Mana Drain also sits at a perfect intersection between all of Magic’s formats. It’s a powerhouse in Limited, it sees play in the Eternal formats, and it’s great in Commander. In short, this is a reprint that would make everyone happy.
It’s worth noting that it did get reprinted on the Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s Breaking News bonus sheet, but that particular bonus sheet’s aesthetic isn’t something everyone loves, and the card is still very difficult to get your hands on, even with that relatively recent reprint.
SCAPESHIFT
Scapeshift has a really cool design, where you can give up all your lands on board and then tutor up that many lands and put them on the battlefield tapped. This has enabled insane combos in 60-card formats, most notably when it’s paired with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle or Field of the Dead. It still sees regular play in Modern.
It’s also great in Commander, where it can be particularly spicy with Landfall Commanders, as there are few cards that can give you so many landfall triggers in a single turn.
However, this great card isn’t particularly accessible, with its original printing in Morningtide and a reprint in Core Set 2019 its only significant printings. Because this card is so cool, players definitely deserve easier access to it, and it’s also iconic enough to appear in the Archive.
AD NAUSEAM
Ad Nauseam is a lot like Scapeshift. It’s a super powerful card that is in demand for players in multiple formats, and can enable some interesting strategies. You can basically dig as deep in your deck as you want to, provided you have enough life to do it.
Over the years, combining it with effects that don’t let you lose the game or lower your life total has been really powerful, especially in 60-card formats. When you do that, you can really just draw your whole library. Ad Nauseam still sees play today in Legacy.
But it’s great in Commander too, appearing in almost 100,000 decks on EDHRec. And you can bet that if the card was a little bit more accessible, that number would be significantly higher. As it is, Ad Nauseam has only been printed a single time in a regular-release set – way back in Shards of Alara, and it’s definitely time for a reprint to help players in multiple formats.
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So, what do you think? What Instants and Sorceries do you want to see reprinted in the new Mystical Archive? Let me know over on X or Bluesky.
Jacob has been playing Magic for the better part of 24 years, and he especially loves playing Magic’s Limited formats. He also holds a PhD in history from the University of Oklahoma. In 2015, he started his YouTube channel, “Nizzahon Magic,” where he combines his interests with many videos covering Magic’s competitive history. When he’s not playing Magic or making Magic content, he can be found teaching college-level history courses or caring for a menagerie of pets with his wife.