With five color pairs to draft instead of the usual ten, the breakdown often goes like this: decks 1-3 have two drafters each and decks 4 and 5 each have one drafter. This means that people tend to stay in their lane and it’s pretty tough to get out. There’s an interesting thing about a format that shoots for five viable archetypes though: cards don’t tend to overlap too often. I believe the following three archetypes to be the tier 1 decks of the format and the ones that I’m happiest to land in. Keep in mind that each archetype can go a different way than the “designed” direction of the deck. This was very frustrating for me and hopefully everything will level out and start to make more sense as the format continues to play out and everyone better understands the strengths and weaknesses of its archetypes. Some days I felt like I couldn’t build a bad deck if I tried, other days I felt like I needed to find someone at Wizards that I could bribe so that I could get at least one win. Strixhaven ArchetypesĪs I jump into the archetypes, I want to note that I had varying success in the format. This is highlighted even more so by the fact that it only appears on four cards in the set, two of which are rares. Ward feels more like a simplifying of text on cards rather than an entirely new ability. This comes in the form of an extra mana cost (e.g., Waterfall Aerialist costs two more if you want the spell to resolve) or life (e.g., if your opponent wants to target Owlin Shieldmage they need to pay three life). Ward is followed by a cost that your opponent has to pay or else their spell or ability is countered. This is an ability attached to a creature that makes the creature more difficult to interact with for opponents. The final new mechanic in Strixhaven is ward. Waterfall Aerialist | Illustration by Lie Setiawan The learn/lesson mechanic is something that I think is great for a limited format and improves the drafting experience as well as the gameplay. This mechanic will nearly always be useful over the course of the game.
If it comes down to it and you have no lessons to learn for or they are of no use to you, you can always just discard and then draw. If you don’t need that, then you can access cards like 3-mana 3/2’s or a 5-mana removal spell that draws your opponent a card instead. This makes a draft so interesting since you’re drafting cards that are intended to be used as part of a “ wish board.” The Strixhaven drafting experience becomes unique because, while most lessons are too underpowered to be played in your main deck, having access to a flexible suite of cards which are all essentially (and literally) sideboard cards is incredibly useful.Ĭards like Environmental Sciences allow you to guarantee you hit your land drops with early learn cards. This first option is what makes learn so freaking sweet.
Learn gives you two options: Search your sideboard for a lesson and put it in your hand or discard a card, then draw a card. The thing about learn is that it’s often even better than that. It’s highly unlikely that anyone wants to play a card that says, “Gain 4 life” or “Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.” Tacking “draw a card” onto these all of the sudden make them playable.
The card that it’s attached to is almost always worse than a card you would typically consider including in your deck. Learn is an interesting mechanic that seems underwhelming at face value. Fractal Summoning | Illustration by Livia Prima
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