For one thing the format is just generally slow. So far in the metagame it has been possible to get away with this and pack in some higher mana value stuff for a couple reasons. In both my 7 win deck above and below I am playing only four: A lot of my Strixhaven games have been very close, and tacking 10% onto your life total can be instrumental in stabilizing.Īnother factor in my Quandrix success has been being greedy with 2-drops. A ‘free’ Ramp is right at home here, and I have seen the 2 life be much more impactful than you might expect. While the double-cost does strain your mana base somewhat, this isn’t too much of a problem in 2-color decks, and if you are 3-color you are likely to be in that college.Įnvironmental Sciences is a premium Common and a card I am always happy to have in my sideboard, and that goes double if I am Quandrix or 3-color. If I commit to Green, for example, I am locking myself into Quandrix or Witherbloom, while if I take Quandrix Pledgemage I am actually open to Prismari as well.
In fact, while drafting hybrid spells technically keep you more open than single-colored spells. So while Pest Summoning has the most synergy with Witherbloom, I still love to have it in my Quandrix and Silverquill sideboards. Another important consideration with Strixhaven is that while the hybrid-costed spells tend to do best in their home college, they aren’t necessarily archetype-specific. When you factor in these Lesson/Learn spells my deck is still in the 16-17 Creature sweet spot. When evaluating decks in Strixhaven it is really important to consider their sideboard: Serpentine Curve and Leyline Invocation both produce creatures, and my Learn spells Divide by Zero and Field Trip can fetch creatures as well. At first glance this deck only has 13 Creatures, falling well short of the 16-17 I would recommend, but this isn’t really the case. This helps me get a better sense of the shape of my deck and I do this while I draft to make sure I am building a proper curve.Īdditionally, in Strixhaven the creature/noncreature balance requires extra consideration. The leftmost column contains the stuff that will often be played off-curve. Here is a successful Quandrix build for example:Īs we go through my different drafts you may notice some things I do when sorting my spells. Additionally, this kind of deck has many tools for interacting with the board and slowing down the tempo. While true Control decks aren’t entirely a thing in Limited, these archetypes are oriented toward generating card advantage over the course of the game and winning with high mana value spells. Let’s take a look at a few examples of this sort of deck. Otherwise they tend to run away with card advantage or command the board with huge Fractal/Elemental creatures. Non-Blue decks can still be strong, but they tend to rely on tempo and Lesson/Learn synergy to keep the pressure on control decks. And… Not to brag but I kind of nailed it! Things are shaping up pretty much how I figured, with Quandrix and Prismari being fairly dominant in the relatively slow metagame we have right now.Ĭard advantage is king right now, and Blue is generally where you want to be. I suspected if the format was slow enough Quandrix would be one of if not the best archetypes, but if things became Aggro-dominant the Blue-Green decks would struggle. Witherbloom felt middle of the road to me, while Quandrix was a bit of a wildcard. I felt Lorehold was going to be the worst college, lacking effective synergy and having fewer aggressive options then Red and White are used to having. In my prerelease guides I suspected Silverquill was going to be a Tier 1 Aggro option, while I liked Prismari as the control option. I think it will be helpful to discuss the components that made these decks so successful and emphasize certain card interactions and synergy that can be especially powerful.
To assist me in this I will be running through a sample of my 7 win Premier Drafts during my run to Mythic on Magic Arena during the April season. It seems about time to check in and see how I did, and reframe the set in some ways. In my Limited Guides prior to release I made some predictions about the set and highlighted key cards in each archetype. Strixhaven has been with us for a little over two weeks already, and I think this is a good time to reflect on how the metagame is shaping up so far. Strixhaven Limited Guide: Lesson 6 – Quandrix
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