Locations
We have seen the cards from Lorehold and Quandrix. Next on our list is Silverquill, the Black cards, and the lands from Strixhaven. Before we dive in, let us go over my grading scale.
I will not be going over cards that I believe will not see play in Standard and I will not be going over the Commander cards that will not see Standard play. For example, cards like Goldmaw Champion and Master Skald will be omitted since they are just Limited cards and saying, "This is just a Limited card" repeatedly gets old rather fast. Do not worry though, I will be covering all the rare and mythic cards in the actual Strixhaven set. So, if you like a certain rare or mythic, it will be mentioned in the review.
Keep in mind I am rating all these cards for Standard playability. I will mention Modern applications if I believe the card has some.
Each card will be listed by color, then alphabetically by name.
Each card will be given a rating of 1-5. If a card would receive a 0, meaning it will see no play in that format ever, its rating is left off the list.
Rating | Explanation | Standard Examples
0 - Will never see play in this format (0 ratings are not listed).
1 - Unlikely to see play. (Divine Gambit)
2 - Could see fringe play, or occasional sideboard card. (Disdainful Stroke, Annul, Erebos's Intervention, Shadow's Verdict)
3 - Commonly played, staple in a single deck, or frequent play in several decks. (Righteous Valkyrie, Behold the Multiverse, Solemn Simulacrum)
4 - Format staples. Sees play in multiple decks, one of the best cards in the format. (Saw it Coming, Fabled Passage, Bonecrusher Giant)
5 - Format warping. If you are in these colors, you play that card or keep that card in mind when building decks. (Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Embercleave, The Great Henge)
Now that we have that out of the way, let's begin!
Black
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Baleful Mastery - 3 - Baleful Mastery will be a staple for midrange and control decks. Sure, the option to pay 2 mana to exile something and having your opponent may same bad until you really need it. Get rid of that pesky Seasoned Hallowblade. |
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Callous Bloodmage - 3 - Callous Bloodmage has a lot of options. It is important for cards like this to have an option where you can just play it on curve and do not have to hold it for your opponent to play something. It is the reason why cards like Knight of Autumn are so good and more main deckable than something like Reclamation Sage. Being Mono-colored is another bonus! |
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Confront the Past - 3.5 - One of the best Lessons in the set, while it will never be a main deck card, I can assure you black decks with planeswalkers will all want at least one of these in their sideboard if they are Learning. |
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Flunk - 3 - Mono-White has a lot of creatures that are hard to kill thanks to Selfless Savior and Seasoned Hallowblade. Flunk helps a lot here with those cards, especially since they only have 1 toughness. Mid-Late game it can also hit the bigger threats like Faceless Haven. |
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Go Blank - 2.5 - This is the best Mind Rot I have seen in years; we are in a Standard where exiling the graveyard can really matter. That being said, it is still Mind Rot and I would only want this in my Sideboard against GY based decks or slow ramp decks. |
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Hunt for Specimens - 2 - Not very exciting but it is a Learn card and makes a token for the token deck, I can see this being played in tokens or sacrifice. |
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Necrotic Fumes - 3 - Another solid Black Lesson that will be great for token/sacrifice decks in the Sideboard. |
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Oriq Loremage - 2 - 4 mana for an Entomb on your next turn... I really want to like this card, but 4 mana is just too much for something that does not do anything the turn it comes into play. |
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Plumb the Forbidden - 4 - Another secret Storm spell that is fantastic in sacrifice and token decks! I expect this one to see a lot of play in those decks. |
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Poet's Quill - 2.5 - Nothing too fancy but if you want another way to Learn and to give your creatures Lifelink, this is the way to do it. |
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Professor Onyx - 3.5 - New Liliana is great as her static ability will just kill your opponent while stabilizing your life total. An excellent finisher for midrange and control decks a like. |
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Sedgemoor Witch - 4 - This token/sacrifice deck is building itself with these Strixhaven cards. Expect to see Sedgemoor Witch as a playset in all those decks especially since they stack and are hard to remove from the battlefield. This card easily passes the Bonecrusher Giant and Brazen Borrower test. |
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Unwilling Ingredient - 2 - This card is not amazing, but it is worth mentioning as it is an excellent card to sacrifice for abilities / spells while also being a great card to mill over. Worth mentioning especially since Rogues is a deck and you can use this frog's ability at instant speed. |
Silverquill
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Blot Out the Sky - 3 - Blot Out the Sky is a decent token generator that can also destroy pesky permanents. I like this in token strategies or as a singleton in control to be a finisher and/or removal spell. |
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Dramatic Finale - 2.5 - This is not that much more expensive than Glorious Anthem and it gives you removal protection for your nontoken creatures. You just need one of these to make your Inkling tokens close out the game fast. |
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Fracture - 3 - An excellent removal spell. Not as maindeckable as Rip Apart, but still a Disenchant with upside! |
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Humiliate - 3 - Two-mana discard spells with small upside are great in Standard. Cards like Thought Erasure and Transgress the Mind saw a lot of play in Standard and so should Humiliate. |
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Killian, Ink Duelist - 3.5 - Killian is begging to be built around and I think he will be great in a Magecraft deck, especially alongside Mavinda, Students' Advocate. |
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Shadrix Silverquill - 2 - Helping the opponent out is not what you want to be doing with your 5-drop creature. Seems fun for Commander but stick to cards like Elder Gargaroth for Standard. |
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Silverquill Command - 2.5 - Silverquill Command works well with Killian, Ink Duelist. I just wish it was an instant for the times you do not have Killian out. Still, it is a fine card to run in that deck, especially alongside Lurrus. |
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Silverquill Silencer - 3 - I really like this card, and moreso than Meddling Mage because 3 power is so much better than two. Being agressively stated allows it to see more main deck play. |
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Vanishing Verse - 4 - A solid removal spell and I like it more than Despark because you can use it early. The exiling is also huge and very needed when a lot of aggressive creatures have indestructible or replace themselves like Anax, Hardened in the Forge. |
Land
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Access Tunnel - 3 - I love this card alongside Efreet Flamepainter for some insane on curve plays. Discard Magma Opus on turn two, play Efreet on turn three, then turn four attack and cast Magma Opus! |
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The Biblioplex - 2 - If you constantly have seven cards in hand in Standard you don't need this land unless you want to win more. I am more interested on the 0 cards in hand and if your deck does that fast and consistently alongside playing a lot of instants/sorceries then you may want to try this card out. That is a lot of "ifs" though. |
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Snarl Lands - 3 - I'm honestly not the biggest fan of these lands and prefer the pathways as those always come into play untapped. The Snarl lands also do not work well with the tri-lands even though you think they would. That is just too many tapped lands that you may be able to have untapped if you draw right. These are only playable in two color decks and even then, I would think twice. All that being said, they are still dual lands and will see play in Standard. |
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Hall of Oracles - 3 - Seems solid in a two-color token deck as a way to make your tokens bigger mid-late game. |
Top 5 Silverquill Cards
Silverquill did very well for itself overall. Plumb the Forbidden is going to be amazing in sacrifice decks to mass sacrifice creatures and draw a bunch of cards and if you have something similar to Cruel Celebrant, you will be able to drain your opponent out.
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Tomorrow we will go over Prismari and the Red cards, do not miss it! As always, thanks for reading,
Ali Aintrazi
Follow me @AliEldrazi
