Friday 24 September 2021

Strixhaven Commander 7point highlander set review


This set nearly slipped by me. Commander 2021 is available in preconstructed decks only and is thematically tied to Strixhaven. It was actually released before Strixhaven and I've already published my Strixhaven review; this disorder hurts my OCD.

Thankfully Scryfall has a setting that only shows first printings in a set so I don't have to filter the reprints myself.

Alrighty, let's start BIG:

Dodges Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push, the ward ability prevents huge blowouts from removal. Kolaghan's Command isn't game over. Worst case is they steal it with Dack Fayden, but you can say that about most artifacts.
~ is a golem, don't run it with Precursor Golem!
Creatures with ward are especially good to accelerate out because your opponent may not have the mana to pay for the ward yet. ~ can easily come down on turn three from the artifact deck.
I've found that if you want to run all the good artifact synergy lands, you can't play more than two colours reliably. Once you've added the following:
City of Traitors
Ancient Tomb
Mishra's Workshop
Tolarian Academy
Seat of the Synod
Tree of Tales
Ancient Den
Vault of Whispers
Great Furnace
Darksteel Citadel
...Say you make the remaining lands: 7 fetches, Prismatic Vista, 1 dual, 1 shock, 3 basics. That's 26 lands total and you have 13 sources of two different colours, 14 counting Mox Opal. We're talking bare minimum %'s here. What I'm getting at is that Portable Hole just got printed, the first tutorable artifact that deals with Null Rod, and all the tutors for it are blue and therefore I conclude that UW is the best artifact colour combination. You could also play Bant now that I think about it because the green land tutors act like blue sources when they find Tolarian Academy. You may find yourself Sylvan Scrying'ing'ing for Ancient Den occaisionally though.

I would want at least 75% of my spells to effectively be artifacts.
If you own a Mishra's Workshop you're gonna put it in this deck, yet Workshop doesn't cast ~ or pay for the triggered ability, some tension there.
~ is vulnerable to Lightning Bolt but the risk is worth it; ~ takes over the game if not dealt with.
~ incentivises cheap artifacts, especially zero costs because you can cast ~ on curve at 3 mana and then double trigger on turn four, or immediately trigger after casting ~ at 5 mana.
'2C' mana cost threats are nice with Mana Crypt and Ancient Tomb.

Wow, lots of support for white artifacts. ~ is more suited to 'battle mech' style, that's a Starcraft II term; I'm referring to an artifact stompy strategy. This style of artifact deck is less vulnerable to Null Rod et al because you can still attack for the win sometimes.
Again, '2C' mana cost threats are nice with Mana Crypt and Ancient Tomb.

Powerful if you can manipulate the top card of your library, most likely with Sensei's Divining Top. You would run this in a deck full of artifacts; The damage clause prevents you from abusing it like Shape Anew, and having to sac an artifact prevents you from abusing it like Madcap Experiment into Platinum Emperion.

Possible inclusion in the artifact reanimate deck with Daretti, Scrap Savant, Trash for Treasure and Goblin Welder. The mountaincycling puts it in the graveyard from hand for value and mana fixing. 
May even be good in hyper tempo reanimator with all the cheapest spells where the Wheel of Fortune death trigger would be excellent.

BOOM! There are now 18 artifact lands (10 enter tapped though and may not be playable). Alibou has a huge impact. So much damage to any target.

A 'heavy' for artifact decks, i.e. a threat for ≥3 mana that provides no value if killed in the opponent's next turn, but if it survives you probably win. Heavies are high risk high reward. I try avoid them but they are acceptable if your deck has a lot of creatures to draw fire or if you have heaps of protection for them.
A nice way to bring back Time Vault from the graveyard.


I can imagine this in a Mishra's Workshop midrange deck which runs Walking Ballista, Arcbound Ravager, Verdurous Gearhulk and Triskelion. Green also provides Hardened Scales, Ancient Stirrings, Crop Rotation and Sylvan Scrying for that deck.

Laelia
Lovisa
If you knew each of these cards without looking at the links you are a freak and I love it.
When does a distinct name become more important than a dulcet one?
In my metagame, Laelia is the most impactful card from Commander 2021 due to her interaction with Tainted Pact. Thassa's Oracle + Tainted Pact/Demonic Consultation is public enemy number one, and for that deck to gain an on-colour combo piece is disappointing. At least ~ disallows Lurrus as a companion.
I did some Googling to try confirm the Tainted Pact + ~ ruling. I found a few forums and the consensus is that it works because Tainted Pact says "repeat this process". You are triggering ~ each time, whereas Demonic Consultation only gives you two triggers (one for the initial 6 and one for the rest). This rules interaction was hard to check. It has less exposure because it's only relevant in Commander and Highlander and at the time of writing this, ~ wasn't available on MTGO along with a dozen other legendaries:

* = playable and featured in this set review (unfortunate for paper/digital gap)

These omissions increase the distinction between paper and digital highlander; MTGO being much cheaper creates a vastly different metagame, some combos are too slow to execute with the MTGO interface and MTGO has bugs. At the moment paper and digital are close but hopefully the gap doesn't widen.

Back to talking about Laelia.
She has already been errata'd. Her oracle text is now:
Haste
Whenever Laelia, the Blade Reforged attacks, exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn.
Whenever one or more cards are put into exile from your library and/or your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on Laelia.
She has changed to also trigger when your opponent exiles a card from your library or graveyard. This may not have been a functional change but an improved wording to clear doubt.

Anyway, ~ is just a super strong card regardless of combos. Any red deck can run her really. A 3/3 haste for three mana is already decent against planeswalkers, then add on the extra card she gains you each turn and the fact she grows and her creature types are useful and she's single red for Ancient Tomb et al. Wow.
The Grixis Oracle deck can protect her very well with Duress, Inquisition, Thoughtseize, Force of Will, etc and just ride her to victory. And if they have Tainted Pact they can make her a 20/20 whilst digging for the removal to get her through, or the Force of Will to protect her. There's a small chance that Thassa's Oracle gets exiled by Laelia but that's unlikely and they generally don't care because Laelia will likely win the game anyway.
Thoughtlash is another card that combos with Laelia and Thassa's Oracle, but it is clunkier.

8 is A LOT. To get 8 in good time you probably need to mill yourself rather than just relying on casting cantrips.
Since Khans of Tarkir and the delve mechanic, the strategy of casting a lot of cheap instants and sorceries has forked. Now you either consume your graveyard with delve and escape or you let it grow for cards like Bedlam Reveler, Enigma Drake and Cryptic Serpent.

Huge deck building tax because even the best vanilla creatures are barely playable. The payoff of Ruxa is strong but you can only play one! The best configuration of vanilla creatures would be a Naya aggro deck with:
You would need Skullclamp and tutors for it to convert the X/1's in a boardstall. You would also run Green Sun's Zenith as another copy of ~.
Muraganda Petroglyphs is another payoff for vanilla creatures but it doesn't work in the above proposed deck because only a handful of our creatures are vanilla. Muraganda Petroglyphs is more suited to a token deck.

Felisa is indiscriminant when it comes to her counters. There are some weird creatures out there with some weird counters in large quantities. Every highlander player at some point has reached level 8 on their Hexdrinker and thought, "Should I just level this further in case?". Well Felisa says yes!
Other than the level mechanic, there is also:
Eventually there'll be a critical mass of creatures that combo with Felisa. 

Radiate on legs! (presumably)
I don't actually think it's playable but it's so cool. Imagine copying:
A 4drop that can be Lightning Bolted is easy to disregard, but that token making ability is very powerful. Perhaps a bird or cleric tribal deck would give ~ that extra power boost to make it playable. Or perhaps a deck with a few anthems to put ~ out of Lightning Bolt range and pump the tokens.

The second ability removes any counter from your dudes. I'm imagining a creature that needs a counter removed to unlock its super powers, something like Thing in the Ice but better.

Could be a combo card if you manage to put something really expensive on top. ~ is quite similar to Stormfist Crusader otherwise.
RB aggro expert Dillon Kikkawa isn't playing ~. I imagine part of his reasoning is that RB aggro has cheap spells, i.e. the opponent won't lose much life from the revealed card. Also, aggro is a strategy that can be undone by one sideboard card like Timely Reinforcements, so you don't want to increase their chances of finding it. On the other side of the arguement, the opponent's spell are going to be more expensive on average and therefore it's unlikely they can cast the extra cards fast enough, whereas you can.

Now that is a lifegain payoff. Very hard to permanently remove. Even Swords to Plowshares may play into a life gain deck's strategy.
~ is a huge threat at any point in the game but if you want to cast it early then Nourishing Shoal, Sunspring Expedition, Heroes' Reunion, Tavern Swindler, Children of Korlis (with fetches and shocks) and Rest for the Weary are cheap enablers. You'll definitely beat any burn deck!
Note that you can Entomb, Buried Alive and Unmarked Grave to gain access to this.

There are probably several strains of life gain deck. Sproutback Trudge builds want to gain life in huge chunks, whereas Dina, Soul Steeper builds want to gain 1 life many times. Trudge Garden is better in the latter, but works in both.

Kind of a 1 mana counterspell that you can only cast turn 4 onwards. It also lets you cast all the powerful 'no cost' sorceries like Ancestral Vision and Crashing Footfalls.

4 mana creatures are typically bad against removal but that ward 2 fixes that. 3 mana Fatal Push or 4 mana Stomp is bad but it's not game over. The reward for taking the risk is beating ground creature or planeswalker strategies. Since ~ is blue, you're probably relying on Force of Will, Force of Negation and Daze to protect you from combo whilst you token-up the board. Most of the other token payoff cards are white, and we would rather not expose ourselves more to Blood Moon if we don't have to, so we're solidly in Bant.
You really want token effects that happen as soon as ~ enters, that cost no mana. That way you'll probably get value even if they remove ~ in their next turn. I'm thinking:
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, Emmara, Soul of the Accord, Opposition, Earthcraft, Idol of Oblivion, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Dovin, Grand Arbiter, Geist of Saint Traft, Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer, Oko, Thief of Crowns.

SIDEBOARD CARDS


Sideboard for Polymorph/Transmogrify decks.

Good sideboard card in creature decks against control. Also strong against aggro decks with lots of X/1's.
I was going to mention something about the aristocrats deck and then coincidentally saw this image on the discord and took it as a sign not to:

CONCLUSION

Laelia, the Blade Reforged is the best card by far, but she's not pointworthy. She will be especially good in mono red and Tainted Pact decks.

Boros artifacts got a big boost; three white options and four red options, the most notable being Alibou. At the moment if I'm building an artifact deck I'm playing white for Portable Hole and blue for the tutors. I don't think there's room in the mana base for a third colour. 

Thanks for reading,

Luke
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Saturday 4 September 2021

Strixhaven 7 Point Highlander Set Review



 Hello Harry Potter fans!

This is my Strixhaven 7 Point Highlander set review. As usual I will only discuss cards I can imagine running. And as usual I am behind on my set reviews; I will be referring to cards that are 1 or 2 sets newer than Strixhaven haha.

Power creep has made for some long set reviews these past couple years. Let's hope WotC can make this set three-in-a-row for no new pointed cards!

First lets take a macro look at the set with the overall mechanics:

MAGECRAFT


Ral, Storm Conduit used to be the only payoff for making infinite copies of instants and sorceries but now there's magecraft. 
Like a white Monastery Swiftspear/Soul-Scar Mage with a lower floor but higher ceiling.

You can make infinite spell copies with Chain of Smog targeting yourself everytime (and the opponent with the final copy because why not). You can also make infinite copies by 'forking' a 'fork'. You will also need a catalyst instant or sorcery to target with the first fork, the catalyst should be cheap so that you have enough mana to cast two forks on the stack as well. 
Forks are remarkable with Time Walk or Ancestral Recall. 
At this moment here are the available forks:
That's 6. Not many considering you want to draw 2 of them. There are more forks but they cost >2 mana, and therefore are too expensive to combo off on turn 5, which is the latest I'm comfortable comboing.
Note that there are several cards like Teach by Example, which may look like a fork but they won't work because copying a spell is not 'casting'; "I see you've played forkey-spooney before".

There are 28 cards with the magecraft ability but a mana cost of ≥5 is too slow, and you want to win even if the opponent has chump blockers; that narrows it down to 4 mage craft creatures that win the game with infinite copies:
With infinite triggers you can put every land from your deck in your hand and leave any card you choose on top of your deck at the end. If you have two mana spare you can cycle Lonely Sandbar, draw Firestorm and throw 20 lands at their face? Or leave Splendid Reclamation on top, discard your lands EOT, next turn untap and reanimate all your lands including Valakut and ≥7 mountains FTW.



~ is great in any instant/sorcery dense deck. You could play her even without the Chain of Smog combo.

~ is quite expensive, so your deck should have cheap spells to cast on the same turn to get value in case your opponent kills it immediately.

To summarise magecraft combo, it is vulnerable to simple instant speed removal from the opponent, which means it's too risky to make it your main strategy. I think the best approach is to run cards which are fine by themselves and then some times you'll happen to have all the pieces and the opponent will be tapped out and you can go for it.

~ isn't suited for the Chain of Smog combo because the opponent may simply have a chump blocker. It is however a really big creature in a prowess deck.

SPIRIT TRIBAL


Unfortunately there's no strong tribal additions.

+1/+1 COUNTERS


No strong payoffs like Hardened Scales, etc. But there is a good provider of +1/+1 counters:

There is a lot of competition for colourless lands in Highlander, especially because most decks are three colours due to the fetch land dual land dynamic. I do think ~ has the strength to contend with Mishra's Factory, Field of the Dead, etc for a slot depending on deck strategy.
If you're running creatures with persist, modular, lifelink, doublestrike, infect, then those +1/+1 counters get better. There's also creatures like Walking Ballista, which make better use of counters than normal.

LESSON/LEARN


Here are all the lessons:
https://scryfall.com/search?as=grid&order=cmc&q=type%3Alesson
You would never put any of these in your main or sideboard unless you were running a card with 'learn'. None of the 'learn' cards are generally good; they need to go in focused strategies. I almost forgot that you don't need to find a lesson with the learn mechanic, you can rummage instead if you prefer.

Could be sideboard if your strategy relies on controlling a certain planeswalker, e.g. Wrenn and Six for Strip Mine recursion.

Goes infinite with a saccer and a creature with persist. 

Could go in persist or a +1/+1 counter synergy deck. Cute with manlands since you can use the creature for mana afterwards.

Would work well in a Recurring Nightmare deck as a body to sacrifice and a means of discarding big creatures to reanimate.

It's important for tool box creature decks to have an answer to artifacts/enchantments. Containment Breach turns Professor of Symbology and Gnarled Professor into a new kind of Qasali Pridemage. Using Containment Breach is very slow, perhaps too slow; but it does have an advantage that existing 'pridemages' don't, i.e. they can be cast on curve and die yet still answer an artifact/enchantment later. The opponent will know you have Containment Breach though, so they won't expose their important artifact/enchantment unless they have to.

Could go in polymorph provided the build is black.

CREATURE TOKENS PEST/INKLING/SPIRIT/FRACTAL TOKENS


Lots of noncreature cards that make creatures in Strixhaven. This makes me think of Polymorph et al.
The token producers need a mana value of <4 so they curve well into the 'Polymorphs':

With this strategy you only want to run the biggest, most powerful threats. Note that Polymorph et al won't trigger the powerful cast triggers of Emrakul, Ulamog and Kozilek.

The noncreature creature creators are the aforementioned Hunt for Specimens and:

She's not good yet but they might print a planeswalker that starts on ≥8 loyalty, which will be able to use Kasmina's ultimate immediately.

Highlander has lots of fetchlands to make this a tapped 3/3 mana dork on turn two most of the time.

LIFE GAIN


There is an immense amount of lifegain synnergy cards in Magic. Sorting them all to evaluate the benchmark for a playable life gain card is beyond the scope of this set review, so I'm just going to guess which payoffs are playable. There are only two:

Dishes out the life loss in a dedicated life gain deck. 
Goes infinite with Exquisite Blood. She's the cheapest of this effect yet; she joins Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Marauding Blight-Priest and Cliffhaven Vampire. 

Abrupt Decay has gotten a little worse with the printings of Murktide Regent and Ethereal Forager. 
In a dedicated life gain deck, ~ is premier removal.

Ok, that's the Strixhaven mechanics covered. Now the remaining cards:

OTHER PLAYABLES


Their is Ancestral Recall, Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time way up in the clouds; down on earth Hymn to Tourarch is the king of pure card advantage instant and sorceries. After Hymn, Expressive Iteration may be next in line ahead of Night's Whisper.
You need to play one of the exiled cards immediately or else you'll lose it forever. This means you'll cast ~ turn three or later so that you can play a land or 1drop from the three cards. Technically you could cast Expressive Iteration on turn two if you were desperate, or if you know there's a zero cost spell in the top three.
~ gets better with a lower average mana cost for the deck. You especially want a good number of 1drops to cast on turn three after ~.
It's nice that ~ gets around Hullbreacher, Nars3t and Leovold.


I think this is maindeckable. Most opponents will have minimum 4 or 5 targets.

At the moment I don't think X=0 could be used but perhaps they'll print several more creatures with no casting cost like Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar.
X=1 could work in elf tribal which has many powerful 1drops.
Other creature decks will begrudginly cast X=1 if necessary but X≥2 is where good value begins.

I can imagine ~ in a mana denial strategy, either with land destruction or cards like Suppression Field, or both.

If your metagame has lots of small creatures then you could put ~ in a deck with several burn spells that deal damage divided as you choose, i.e. 1 damage to ~ and the rest to your opponent's creatures. I imagine this deck may also contain Siegehorn Ceratops, colour permitting.
~ may also go in a prowess/storm deck that utilises 1 mana cantrips that target, of which there are about 18, including:
That deck idea seems bad but it would be fun. Could also run Feather, the Redeemed, Silverfur Partisan, Wild Defiance, Ink-Treader Nephilim, Mirrorwing Dragon, annnnnd Storm-Kiln Arcanist:

Is instant speed, which is important for Opposition Agent. Hits th big delve threats, which dodge a lot of other popular removal.
Funny with Painter's Servant.

Sorcery speed is bad against Opposition Agent.
Kills Urza's Saga, which is nice.
If you're relying on removal spells to fill your curve early in the game, sorcery speed can be awkward if you're going first.

Alex Bader wrecked me with this card a couple times in his Jund lands deck. He returned Strip Mine and killed my thing.
The milling mode is nice against Imperial Seal, which just went down from 3 points to 2. Returning your Wasteland or Urza's Saga is very strong.
As the format increases in power and speeds up, players tend to run cheaper threats, making the second mode better.
Wrenn and Six and Liliana, the Last Hope have done a great job scaring away X/1's so the -3/-1 mode is less good, especially at sorcery speed.


Much more powerful than the art and name would lead you to believe. You basically win the game if you untap with ~. It requires some deck building constraints but they're easy to work with:
  • ≈16 or more non-permanent spells.
  • Avoid instant and sorcery spells with 'X' in their cost.
  • Run powerful 'no mana cost' sorceries so that your one-mana spells 'cascade' into them. Crashing Footfalls, Ancestral Vision and Gaea's Will are best in long-game strategies, but they basically have no build cost otherwise. The rest of the 'no mana cost' sorceries require very specific strategies to be effective.
I imagine there's a deck which inadvertently exiles a card each turn.
Chrome Mox, Swords to Plowshares, Bomat Courier, Deathrite Shaman, Grim Lavamancer, Mardu Woe-Reaper, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Scavenging Ooze, Dauthi Voidwalker, Territorial Kavu.

Untaps Time Vault. Other creatures which do this include Kiora's Follower, Aphetto Alchemist, Rimewind Taskmage, Captain of the Mists, Clever Conjurer, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Vizier of Tumbling Sands.
3mana creatures that don't give some value between casting them and the opponent untapping and killing them are a risk; Cards like Teferi, Time Raveler, Fatal Push, Swords to Plowshares, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, are brutally efficient and therefore you need a big payoff for that risk...I dub these risky creatures 'heavies'. They're like throwing a heavy punch or heavy kick in a fighting game; they're easily punished but if they hit they do a big chunk of damage but not game ending damage. 
If you are running heavies it's a good idea to run protections, e.g. Mother of Runes, Giver of Runes, DITS (Duress, Inquisition of kozilek, ThoughtSeize), Force of Will, Force of Negation, etc.

≤3mana tutors set up turn4 combos, which is roughly the death turn against aggro. ~ finds:
Flash and Summoner's Pact (Protean Hulk)
Channel and Fabricate (Lich's Mirror)
Demonic Consultation and Worldly Tutor (Thassa's Oracle)
Wheel of Misfortune and Intervention Pact (or Hallow). I haven't seen anyone else mention this combo. I might be the original creator.

Not a good card but Thassa's Oracle is a huge threat in my metagame right now and is extremely difficult to interact with. Someone pointed out to me that you can kill your opponent's Thassa's Oracle with ~ in response to the trigger and they're forced to draw a card. Presumably they had zero cards in library from Demonic Consultation. If they used Tainted Pact instead, this plan may not work; Some Oracle players are in the habit of always removing all cards from their library in case the opponent has instant removal for Oracle. However, if they have more blue devotion or they Thoughtseize you beforehand, they may keep 1 card left to draw and you'll still lose.
Baleful Mastery could also be removal in a cascade deck, which doesn't want anything <3 mana value except the payoff spell.
A weak card, but if the upcoming Innistrad set includes a few powerful Vampire tribal payoffs to make up for individual card weakness, then ~ could fill the numbers.

Paying 1 each turn to rummage is a big tempo loss. This card is better evaluated by pretending the first ability doesn't exist, but it is a nice option to have.
The second triggered ability is where the real value is. A simplistic way of interpretting it, is that it gives all your cards madness, unless you discard multiple cards at once, in which case only one of those cards has madness. In a deck with lots of discard, this is a great source of card advantage.
~ and madness cards work best with cheap discard outlets because that maximises the chance of having enough mana to cast the madness spell. It's easy to make the mistake of adding 'bad' discard outlets to your deck, e.g. You don't add Aquamoeba just because you want a discard outlet. Discarding needs to gain significant value, like drawing a card.


Plargg is an excellent madness enabler and a way to gain value with various phoenices.
Augusta is bad.

If X = 1, that's 5 mana to kill something. These days you want to spend no more than two mana on a removal spell which gives no other value.
What about killing the opponent? To deal 20 we need X = 4, which is 4 x 3 + 2 = 14 mana. That's cheaper than Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Right now I can't think of a deck which would want this, but perhaps in the future.

Pretty hard to justify a card that costs 7 mana when these days you can win the game with a 2 or 3 mana threat instead. Perhaps there's a deck which runs several Time Walks that can justify ~. Perhaps the following card could work:

My mate Brett Hughes loves to brew, and cards like this are his favourite. He shot me a few rough decklist which demonstrate the crazy things you can do with Dragon's Approach:

The first non-creature card that breaks the Highlander deckbuilding rules - I think it deserves some attention at the very least!  So clearly Tinkering out some Dragons sounds very fun, but how easy is it to do and is it any good.  Let's go with the discussions and some very rough lists.  That's right, plural!

So firstly, what Dragons are worth cheating into play? Niv-Mizzet, Parun is already a popular Oath and Reanimation target so I assume he is numero uno and can be game winning on it's own if you untap.There are a couple of other Niv-Mizzet's, but I think the next best option against control might be Skyline Despot.  Take the monarch and slowly Lava Spike them to death what's not to love?  Chromium is an honorable mention here as well.  Against aggro and creatures there's a couple of standouts, Bogardan Hellkite and Dragonlord Atarka probably lead the pack there, Drakuseth and Balefire Dragon are probably the most powerful effects if you can get them haste (Anger, Dragon Breath) and it lives to your attack step. Speaking of haste, what's the best one shot capabilities we have access to?  Dragon Tyrant will come out of the gates with 12 damage (and more if you have red mana).  Dream Pillager and Dragon Mage both have nice effects, and The Ur-Dragon is a 10 ball cantrip and Show and Tell all in one.  Also on the combo end of the spectrum you have Knollspine Dragon if you want a Bedlam Reveler type effect, newbies Velomachus Lorehold and Beledros Witherbloom have some unique effects we may be interested in depending on the builds.  Finally, Bladewing the Risen is a useful candidate that can rescue Dragons that disappear due to discard/mill.

I mean Dragons are cool and all, and I could talk about them all day, but what about analysing some cards we have never had the opportunity to do in Highlander before?  Pyromancer Ascension is the first one that came to mind, if you really wanted to win the game with spells instead of Dragons this is probably top of the list. You need to cast the Ascension, get 2+ Approach's in the bin and then cast 2 Approach's before this even does anything, so you probably need to build a specific deck around that effect.  Locket of Yesterdays and Harness the Storm work well together and technically do things.  Spellweaver Helix is probably the most interesting one, paired with something powerful like Time Walk and a high chance to draw an Approach and trigger it regularly.  Thrumming Stone is an expensive card but should be able win the game if you cast an Approach after it.  There is one other card with the text "same name" on it and I'll save it for the decklist.

Here's 4 lists below - 1) is a typical looking list, gameplan is just to cast a Dragons Approach as quickly as possible, 2) is a spliced Reanimator deck with a spicy aforementioned card that should probably just be Griselbrand Tin Fins, 3) is an attempt at a combo core decklist with the Dragons as an afterthought, and 4) is just a crazy deck trying to do its best Narset, Enlightened Master impersonation. Enjoy!

1) UR Dragons Approach

Win (24)
17x Dragons Approach
1x Niv Mizzet, Parun
1x Bladewing the Risen
1x Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
1x Skyline Despot
1x The Ur Dragon
1x Dragon’s Breath
1x Anger

Draw (18)
1x Brainstorm
1x Careful Study
1x Faithless Looting
1x Gamble
1x Mental Note
1x Thought Scour
1x Chart a Course
1x Contingency Plan
1x Idea’s Unbound
1x Izzet Charm
1x See Beyond
1x Strategic Planning
1x Taigam’s Scheming 
1x Dack Fayden
1x Frantic Search
1x Intuition [1 Point]
1x Show and Tell
1x Collected Conjuring

Mana (18)
8x Fetchlands
2x Island
1x Mountain
1x Volcanic Island
1x Steam Vents
1x Spirebluff Canal
1x Fiery Islet
1x Shivan Reef
1x Mox Ruby [3 Points]
1x Mox Sapphire [3 Points]


2) RB Reanimator Approach

RB Dragons Approach

Win (24)
17x Dragons Approach
1x Niv Mizzet, Parun
1x Bladewing the Risen
1x Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
1x Skyline Despot
1x Dragon’s Breath
1x Anger
1x Sphinx of the Chimes

Draw (11)
1x Burning Inquiry
1x Faithless Looting
1x Gamble
1x Control of the Court
1x Discovery/Dispersal
1x Goblin Lore
1x Cathartic Reunion
1x Ransack the Lab
1x Wild Guess
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Wheel of Misfortune

Reanimation (6)
1x Entomb
1x Reanimate
1x Exhume
1x Animate Dead
1x Life/Death
1x Stitch Together

Other (2)
1x Collective Brutality
1x Once Upon a Time

Mana (18)
8x Fetchlands
1x Mountain
1x Swamp
1x Badlands
1x Blood Crypt
1x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Sulfurous Springs
1x Black Lotus [4 Points]
1x Mox Ruby [3 Points]
1x Lion’s Eye Diamond
1x Lotus Petal


Sorcery Storm

Win (20)
12x Dragon’s Approach
1x Locket of Yesterdays
1x Pyromancer Ascension
1x Harness the Storm
1x Spellweaver Helix
1x Helm of Awakening
1x Ruby Medallion
1x Semblance Anvil
1x Niv-Mizzet, Parun
1x Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind

Draw (7)
1x Faithless Looting
1x Gamble
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Wheel of Misfortune
1x Wheel of Fate
1x Reforge the Soul
1x Hazoret’s Undying Fury

Other (7)
1x Underworld Breach [1 Point]
1x Blood Moon
1x Magus of the Moon
1x Mizzix’s Mastery
1x Recoup
1x Past in Flames
1x Goblin Dark-Dwellers

Mana (26)
5x Mountain
5x Fetchlands
1x Ancient Tomb
1x City of Traitors
1x Gemstone Caverns
1x Black Lotus [4 Points]
1x Chrome Mox
1x Lion’s Eye Diamond
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt [2 Points]
1x Mox Diamond
1x Mox Opal
1x Simian Spirit Guide
1x Rite of Flame
1x Desperate Ritual
1x Manamorphose
1x Pyretic Ritual
1x Seething Song


Velomachus Approach

Win (21)
17x Dragon’s Approach
1x Niv MIzzet, Parun
1x Bladewing, the Risen
1x Velomachus Lorehold
1x Spellweaver Helix

Draw (11)
1x Brainstorm
1x Careful Study
1x Faithless Looting
1x Gamble
1x Mental Note
1x Thought Scour
1x Contingency Plan
1x Idea’s Unbound
1x Izzet Charm
1x Strategic Planning
1x Taigam’s Scheming 
1x Frantic Search

Time Walks (11)
1x Time Walk [5 Points]
1x Savor the Moment
1x Mizzix’s Mastery
1x Relentless Assault
1x Seize the Day
1x Capture the Jinghou
1x Savage Beating
1x Temporal Mastery
1x Time Warp
1x Waves of Aggression
1x World at War

Mana (18)

Some super sweet cards and ideas in there!

Sacrificing creatures to attack and block is not that difficult for a Contamination deck, but spending 4 mana on something that gets Fatal Pushed or bounced by Teferi, Time Raveler is enough to lose the game. The stats are so big that perhaps this could go in a weird deck that cares about power/toughness, e.g. Thud and Cragganwick Cremator.

2/2 lifelink menace is good stats in a deck with lots of removal.
It's rare these days to have playable lifelink creatures, the first one that comes to mind is Batterskull. Lifelinkers get better with equipment and pump.
Unexpectedly ~ reduces the cost of spells which target your creatures and your opponent's creatures.
Cheap multicolour legend for Mox Amber.
Humans are a good tribe. Warlock is new. I thought warlocks were distinguished from wizards by drawing their power from a demonic connection? I don't think Killin has a demonic connection, so not sure what's happening there.

I think this is just on the verge of playable. The best mode is sacrificing an unneeded land to draw two cards, and provided that the other chosen mode trades with something of your opponent's, then you're pretty happy with the outcome. 
You'll often be saccing a land, therefore ~ should be at the top of your curve.
If the Lightning Helix mode isn't enough to take down am annoying planeswalker on 4 loyalty, then you do have the option of creating the token and giving it haste for 4 damage, but obviously only if they have no blockers.

Powerful enough that it's worth running in a ramp deck or deck which can use an alternate cost, e.g. It discards itself and accelerates into Mizzix's Mastery and Torrential Gearhulk.
Imagine Red Elemental Blast countering ~, yuck.

Best in metagames with lots of artifacts.
Good in decks that want certain cards in the graveyard, e.g. reanimation targets or Arclight Phoenix.
Like Dack Fayden, ~ says 'target player' for the loot ability, which combos with Hullbreacher.
Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation is the popular combo right now. It's unlikely they would go for the combo into 3 open mana, but if they do, you can force them to draw cards when they have no library, i.e. you win.

The spirit making ability is powerful but being on a 5drop makes it hard to use. ~ is similar to Tormod, the Desecrator. It is harder to cast but much more resilient because it doesn't die to Fatal Push or Lightning Bolt like Tormod does.
Ideally you would like to exile cards immediately one at a time, to get as many triggers as possible when your opponent has removal. Scrabbling Claws, Relic of Progenitus and Phyrexian Furnace are on-colour options. Adding black gives Deathrite Shaman and Kaya, Orzhov Usurper. At that point you may as well add Tormod, the Desecrator too. Funny how similar Quintorius and Tormod are posing in the art, yet they're such different characters.

Amazing in a delirium strategy. Casting it would turn off delirium but the card advantage would be game winning.

I think ~ would be good in the persist combo deck because you can sacrifice your creatures at will. The risk is that your opponent may have removal, so ~ is situational, e.g. your opponent taps out, you cast ~ on Kitchen Finks and sacrifice it to Carrion Feeder, stacking the triggers such that you tutor for Melira, Sylvok Outcast or equivalent before Finks returns.

Good stats and provides significant value if removed at sorcery speed on the opponent's next turn. Will win the game if not dealt with.
There is a lot of competition at the 5slot, and you can't fit many 5's into a curve, so ~ may never get played, but I think it's good.

I like this in aggressive decks. Especially if True-Name Nemesis is popular in your metagame.

Especially strong against Underworld Breach + Lion's Eye Diamond + Brain Freeze combo.
Even if you don't get a trigger, a 3/2 for two is acceptable for maindeck.
Gets better if you're running DITS or Gitaxian Probe.
Nice against suspend spells.

Most forks copy target spell. Teach by Example, Sea Gate Stormcaller, Dual Strike and Doublecast don't target and are therefore better against counterspells. Targetted forks can copy your opponent's stuff but are risky especially with the current popularity of Force of Negation, Force of Will and Daze.
~ is at its best with Ancestral Recall and Time Walk.

As far as I know the dredge decks don't currently play white, but perhaps with this Thrilling Discovery they might.

Seems good in burn decks.

Flamescroll Celebrant is good against some combo decks like Time Vault and persist. I would only run it in metagames with those combos present.
Unlike Harsh Mentor it does die to Wrenn and Six, but at least you ping opponents for using planeswalkers, which Harsh Mentor does not.
Revel in Silence would be a situational bonus for running Flamescroll Celebrant. You would never run Revel in Silence over Orim's Chant or actual Silence.


Not super strong, but playable. Mila is the focus here. I'm imagining three simplified outcomes when casting Mila:
  1. The opponent Lightning Bolts her immediately. You end up a card ahead but two mana behind, an ok trade for you.
  2. The opponent is using a strategy which doesn't target creatures and overpowers you because a 2/3 for three is very inefficient. This outcome is unlikely however because players must play removal these days due to the ridulous power of creatures.
  3. Mila effectively shuts down something your opponent was doing like Wasteland or Liliana, the Last Hope until they kill her and you draw a card.
Mila gets better when you run permanents that your opponent must kill if they want to win.
Lukka may be a better option than Mila late game.

SIDEBOARD CARDS


Monoblue and Dimir decks can struggle against artifacts. They can counter or discard them, or bounce them and then do so; that is the traditional method. But if the opponent is running cards like Academy Ruins and other graveyard recurion, that's when Resculpt becomes a good option.

Decent sideboard card if your meta has lots of decks it will effect. Hatebears that disrupt ETB triggers can be awkward if your own deck contains, say Stoneforge Mystic.
Hushbringer, Tocatli Honor Guard and Hushwing Gryff outright prevent ETB triggers whereas ~ can hose infinite combos whilst still allowing your own ETB triggers but obviously you wouldn't run many.
In general you would rather outright prevent triggers due to Thassa's Oracle.

Good sideboard if you can support the mana cost.

Anger of the Gods is much better, but sometimes you really want a second sweeper which exiles.

Pretty crazy that this could net you mana as well as sweep their board. You may even want to run things that want to die, like Hatching Plans.


Valentin is good against combos which require a creature to die, e.g. Flash + Protean Hulk, Academy Rector or perist combo
He's easy to tutor for and comes down fast.

CONCLUSION


I'm relieved the development team managed to desgin a set without something that needs banning or pointing. Here is my list of the best cards in Strixhaven in rough power order, but they're all roughly the same:


Thanks for reading. I'm craving paper tournaments. Very excited for when they resume.

Luke

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