Which Color Pair Stands to Benefit Most from Secrets of Strixhaven?

Secrets of Strixhaven is fast approaching, and we’ll soon be able to check in once more with the five schools of Lorehold, Prismari, Quandrix, Silverquill and Witherbloom. If this visit ends up anything like the last, we’ll see some fresh takes on the color pie. But which color pairs stand to benefit most, and feature the most interesting designs?

THE DEAL WITH THE COLOR PIE IN STRIXHAVEN

Strixhaven was a monumental set when it comes to the color pie. It was something of a Renaissance for certain colors, emerging as part of a big push to give colors more access to tools that they historically lack in – largely driven by Commander. This, coupled with design’s approach to focus on the conflict within these enemy color pairs, delivered some striking and interesting designs.  

Mavinda, Students’ Advocate is a mono-white spellslinger creature that free casts from the yard; Witherbloom cards like Blood Researcher leaned into lifegain and counters in a way that was usually more of white’s domain (though still in pie for BG). Silverquill also leant into Spellslinger, with Killian, Ink Duelist being something of a spellslinger/auras matter card. 

No color pair benefitted more from a fresh lick of paint than RW, though – with Lorehold giving them all sorts of fun cards. Velomachus Lorehold casting from the top of the library for free, Reconstruct History being the Boros Harmonize (and usually better!), and Lorehold Excavation featuring self mill linked to gaining life and burn? All fantastic and all feel fine and good for a RW deck. 

It could be said that RW was the color pair that benefitted most in our first visit precisely because of just how far behind it was in expression and breadth of play at the time of STX’s conception; it was still mostly a color pair about combat and equipment. It needed more to do. 

Some colors weren’t so lucky in what they got, though.

While cards like Double Major and Expressive Iteration are no doubt fun and powerful (and banworthy, in some instances!) designs, the overall vibe of Quandrix and Prismari was that of “been there, done that”. 

The intention for exploring the color pairs in STX was to explore “instants and spells matter”, with a focus on bottom-up enemy color designs. Rather than their similarities, the colleges of Strixhaven are designed around the conflicts of those color pairs. Taking just  the instants/spells matter part of Strixhaven, it does make sense that the more traditional spellslinger pair Prismari is going to feel most the same, despite being linked to pursuits in the arts, as opposed to the general UR science-mage approach.

So, why does Quandrix feel so tried and true? Well, that’s tied less to spells-matter and more to the college itself. It’s one based on math, and considering UG is already a math-based color pair (with tokens, +1/+1 counters and changing sizes of creatures), you’re going to end up with more of the same there too. 

WHICH COLOR PAIRS STAND TO BENEFIT MOST IN SECRETS OF STRIXHAVEN?

What can we expect in our return to the plane? Will it be more of the same? What do we think we might see, and which colors will pick up the most cool tech? That’s what’s really interesting to me about another Strixhaven set.

QUANDRIX

Despite being mathematically treading similar ground to existing Simic design space, Quandrix did manage to give us some really great designs. Quandrix Command might be my most-played of the Commands in the set thanks to its flexibility (and that’s without it being pushed); Double Major is also one of my favorite UG spells of all time. 

It seems that we’ll be revisiting the same formula for Quandrix magic this set, and I hope that Mathemagics is a sign of things to come. I want there to be a much more thorough adherence to mathematics in the spells, and I’m not afraid for there to be a little complexity in how this happens. I’d even argue it’s crucial for color pairs like Quandrix and Prismari to adhere very strongly to their disciplines of math and art respectively in order to differentiate them further from what the Simic and Izzet give us when we visit Ravnica. 

I can’t see UG getting much new in the color pie this time around, except for maybe experimenting more with ways they can clear the board. I could see them picking up more removal spells. 

PRISMARI

Prismari is all about art and creativity, whether through sculpture, paint, or even dance. I would love to see a new Prismari mechanic that rewards being in synch – think the Boros Battalion keyword, but expressed through UR cards and the medium of dance. You could also let them play with colors a little, either giving them a colors-matters payoff or similar, tying them in to art.

Right now, the color pair is very much a spellslinger Voltron approach, but extending that approach into two dancers/skaters/painters collaborating would be dope.

Realistically, what am I expecting? Well, more of the same. I think Prismari will be the heaviest into Magecraft – especially if other color pairs move a little away from it. How will UR benefit from the new Prismari cards? Well, I feel like certain archetypes will get some more decent modal spells, which could shore up some of the weaknesses of the more linear spellslinger strategies in Commander. 

SILVERQUILL

So, what of Silverquill? Well, Silverquill’s wordsmithing is a really cool expression of the literary arts. A lot of the cooler aspects of Silverquill last time around trended towards cost reduction for targeting creatures (either with buffs, or removal), and multiplayer politics. All of that was done really well, and I expect them to build on this with Secrets of Strixhaven – why fix what ain’t broke?

What WB needs most in Commander is more ways to pivot away from control and get to finishing a game. One of the biggest issues the color pair has is in being quite slow to grind out a win, spending a lot of time durdling and sacrificing board state to try and get ahead, while everyone else is just deploying more bodies. 

Silverquill could stand to lift WB strategies quite a bit, giving access to more political tools to push games forward, and more ways to benefit from playing classically controlling colors.

WITHERBLOOM

Witherbloom is going to be an interesting one. While the color pair didn’t feel like it did much that was new in Strixhaven, it did explore the conflict in BG identities in some interesting ways which produced some really cool cards. Looking at BG through the conflict between life and death really stretches the color pair to the limits when it comes to cycling through the graveyard.

What could we see? Well, I feel like we’re going to get more great ways to self-mill, and more ways to generate mana from actions that aren’t tapping manadorks. I feel like this could really open up BG decks to not being so reliant on mana dorks, and take advantage of their strong history of good removal and midrange tenacity. 

Many of the new-school Jund and Golgari Commanders could benefit hugely from this set – including The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride and Hearthhull. You heard it here first.

LOREHOLD

I have this weird feeling that – similarly to the original Strixhaven set – Lorehold is going to benefit RW the most. We’re already seeing fresh novelty continue with Lorehold, the Historian, a RW spellslinger creature that can cost reduce the biggest spells by giving them Miracle. This is something completely away from RW’s regular bread and butter, and the color pair continues to stay winning.

The extended Boros Renaissance has been a pleasure to experience, particularly as someone who started off enjoying the color pair before it started to see exploration beyond Equipment and Aggro strategies. 

As is the pattern with a great deal of RW cards over the last few years, “Borehold” will likely benefit from new Commander choices, and plenty of ancillary support cards and redundancy in effects that they only had sparing access to before. 

END STEP

While we aren’t going to see  anyone reinventing the  wheel in Secrets of Strixhaven, it is likely that we’ll see creativity on show, and some sweet new cards that can elevate strategies that get a little less love. My main hope is that we see Prismari and Quandrix shown a little more depth to match the effort that has gone into Lorehold and Silverquill.