Strixhaven: School of Mages/Trivia

Strixhaven: School of Mages/Trivia

 

Mystical Archive

 

Trivia

 

Card comparisons

 

Art series

 

Maro's Strixhaven Teaser

Mark Rosewater gave his traditional teaser with the following hints.

First up, here are some things you can expect:

• a white card with the rules text “draw three cards” — Secret Rendezvous
• a planeswalker you know, but not as you know them — Professor Onyx (Liliana under a new identity)
• a card featuring Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa’s likeness (for winning the World Championship) — Elite Spellbinder Player Spotlight
• a spell with three X’s in its mana cost — Crackle with Power
• introduction of a new evergreen keyword — Ward (previously informally known as frost armor)
• a red sorcery that you can have as many copies in your deck as you want — Dragon's Approach
• a futureshifted card (appearing for the first time in a premier set other than Future Sight) — Grinning Ignus
• an MDFC with the same card type on both sides that hasn’t been printed before — Rowan, Scholar of Sparks /// Will, Scholar of Frost (Planeswalker)
• a card sharing something never shared before — Kasmina, Enigma Sage (Loyalty abilities of Kasmina to other Planeswalkers)
• a cycle of enemy dual lands finishing off a ten-card cycle — the Reveal lands, like Shineshadow Snarl

Here are snippets of rules text, you’ll see:

• “Search your library and graveyard for up to four creature cards with different names” — Ecological Appreciation
• “Otherwise, put a study counter on it.” — Kianne, Dean of Substance
• “Whenever a permanent entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability to trigger” — Strict Proctor
• “untap each creature you control, then tap any number of creatures you control” — Augusta, Dean of Order
• “Pay 10 life:” — Beledros Witherbloom
• “Repeat this process six more times.” — Professor Onyx
• “Pests, Bats, Insects, Snakes, and Spiders” — Blex, Vexing Pest
• “Each mode must target a different player.” — Shadrix Silverquill
• “Whenever an opponent activates an ability that isn’t a mana ability” — Flamescroll Celebrant
• “where X is the number of cards in your library” — Body of Research

And finally, here are some creature type lines you’ll see:

• Creature – Turtle Druid — Quandrix Cultivator
• Creature – Bird Warlock — Owlin Shieldmage
• Creature – Frog Wizard — Burrog Befuddler
• Creature – Spirit Dwarf — Pillardrop Warden
• Creature – Troll Druid — Augmenter Pugilist and Honor Troll
• Creature – Eye Bat — Eyetwitch
• Legendary Creature – Vampire Warlock — Valentin, Dean of the Vein
• Legendary Creature – Orc Shaman — Plargg, Dean of Chaos
• Legendary Creature – Dryad Druid — Dina, Soul Steeper
• Legendary Artifact Creature – Construct — Codie, Vociferous Codex

Banned and restricted cards

• Divide by Zero is a spin on Remand that follows the templating on Venser, Shaper Savant, with a mana value clause to protect tokens and Learning instead of drawing a card. With Alrund's Epiphany providing a very resilient top-end kill around turn 6, Divide gave the deck an unconditional stack interaction that ignored uncounterability, and guaranteed either land with Environmental Sciences or nine power's worth of creatures with Mascot Exhibition, making the card a perfect control card for the format. It was banned alongside Epiphany and received an Alchemy nerf in January 2022.

Other

• The full art for Ruxa, Patient Professor (Commander 2021, #393) references the Muraganda Petroglyphs, a card with a similar mechanic.
• Thanks to Matt Tabak, Embrose, Dean of Shadow is named after wrestler Dean Ambrose.
• Heated Debate references the "I Studied the Blade"-meme
• Strixhaven has numerous structural quirks:
  • It has the lowest number of monocolored cards (140) since Hour of Devastation (137), which is notably a small set. Only two other large sets have fewer in Battle for Zendikar (135) due to the Devoid keyword and Scars of Mirrodin (134) with the artifact theme. That said, all three of these sets have multiple cycles of colorless cards with monocolored color identities, which still marks Strixhaven as especially low. Conversely, it has the highest population of both hybrid cards (25) and multicolored cards in general (90) since Alara Reborn's all-gold gimmick.
  • The main set has one of the fewest number of enchantments since two in Mirrodin Besieged, with four. Curiously, all of them are white. Incidentally, as both enchantments were Auras in Mirrodin Besieged, Strixhaven still has fewer Auras (Detention Vortex). As one might expect for the spells-matter set, it has the most instants or sorceries at 127, higher than some blocks.
  • At its release, it was the most technically ambitious set on a printing technology basis. The land slot is replaced with the Mystical Archive with its three rarities, the DFCs are threaded with the rest of the rares and mythics, and the one-per-booster Lesson is occasionally rare or mythic, in which case the pack has another common. This puts Strixhaven with three more sheets than the average set.