Today we're tackling my second list of the top cards from the Secrets of Strixhaven set.

Secrets of Strixhaven marks the return to Arcavios, the setting for 2021's Strixhaven: School of Mages. Like the original set, SOS is built around five two-color Schools of magic, putting Magic: the Gathering's spin on the popular 'Magic School' genre of fiction ( like Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, or Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series).

Strixhaven was designed to present the already well-defined enemy color pairs from Ravnica (Boros , Golgari , Izzet , Orzhov , and Simic ) in a new mechanical light as The Colleges of Lorehold, Witherbloom, Prismari, Silverquill, and Quandrix). Much like its predecessor, Secrets of Strixhaven features a heavy focus on Instant and Sorcery spells.

I've been giving you these Top lists for casual play for decades, and then I almost always have played casual formats like Commander, Five Color, Highlander, multiplayer, Type Four and more. These lists feature cards that are primed for play in Casual formats, whether you're playing one-on-one or at a multiplayer table. That's everything from Commander and Five-Color to Type Four, Peasant, and even Pauper.

Cards are much more powerful than they used to be. So, here're some of the most fun, most broken Secrets of Strixhaven cards for casual players.

Best SOS Cards for Casual Play

If you're looking to build Casual decks that are lots of fun to play, then you should absolutely consider these Secrets of Strixhaven cards.

• 20. Diary of Dreams
• 19. Emil, Vastlands Roamer
• 18. Essenceknit Scholar
• 17. Orysa, Tide Choreographer
• 16. Colossus of the Blood Age
• 15. Forum Necroscribe
• 14. Antiquities on the Loose
• 13. Exhibition Tidecaller
• 12. Thunderdrum Soloist
• 11. Vastlands Scavenger
• 10. Jadzi, Steward of Fate
• 9. Stirring Hopesinger
• 8. Tragedy Feaster
• 7. Transcendent Archaic
• 6. Tam, Observant Sequencer
• 5. Magmablood Archaic
• 4. The Charm Cycle
• 3. Garrison Excavator
• 2. Blech, Loafing Pest
• 1. Brush Off

20. Diary of Dreams

Diary of Dreams is a two-drop Artifact - Book, introducing the Book type to the game. Whenever you cast an Instant or Sorcery spell, you get to put a page counter on the Diary. For mana, you can tap the Diary to draw a card. Pretty straightforward, but what do the page counters do for us?

For every page counter on Diary of Dreams, the tap ability costs less to activate. That can become free pretty quickly in the right deck, making the Diary able to simply tap and draw a card. Is this good enough to run outside of a dedicated Spellslinger deck? Maybe not, but the allure of a free card every turn is strong.

19. Emil, Vastlands Roamer

Emil, Vastlands Roamer is a three-mana 3/3 Legendary Green Elf Creature. He has a static ability that gives our Creatures with +1/+1 counters Trample. Players love their +1/+1 counters, so I can see this slotting in to quite a few lists off that ability alone.

You can also tap him for to make a 0/0 Green and Blue Fractal Creature that receives a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the number of differently named lands you control. It's really easy for Green Landfall and Ramp decks to get lots of different lands into play, and in those decks Emil should shine.

18. Essenceknit Scholar

Essenceknit Scholar is a three-mana 3/1 that enters and creates a 1/1 Pest token that gains you one life every time it attacks. That wouldn't be anything to write home about, but the Scholar has a second ability.

At the beginning of your end step, if a Creautre died under your control this turn, you get to draw a card. Two bodies and a personal Deathreap Ritual is a pretty good deal for three mana.

17. Orysa, Tide Choreographer

Orysa, Tide Choreographer is five-drop 2/2 Legendary Blue that costs less if you control Creatures with total toughness 10 or greater. She's a bit of a Mulldrifter variant, drawing us two cards when she arrives.

She doesn't have Flying, unlike Mulldrifter, but she can sit in the Command Zone so there's some build-around potential. She works with Blink, Midrange, Legendary-matters, Merfolk, or Toughness-matters strategies, so she can slot into a ton of different decks.

16. Colossus of the Blood Age

Colossus of the Blood Age is a Boros Artifact Creature 6/6 for six mana. When it enters the battlefield, it deals three damage to each opponent and you gain three life. Then, when it dies, we can discard any number of cards to draw that many cards plus one.

Colossus is an Artifact, so it gets to play with all of the synergies inherent with that card type. It's also great in Sacrifice, Blink, or Graveyard decks as a source of repeatable damage and a pseudo-Wheel of Fortune effect to help improve our hand or fill our graveyard. That's a lot of potential in one package.

15. Forum Necroscribe

Forum Necroscribe is a Black 5/4 Ward - Discard a card (that means your opponent has to discard a card to target it). It has the Repartee ability, so it does something when we cast an Instant or Sorcery that targets a Creature. What it does, specifically, is return a Creature card from our Graveyard to the battlefield.

Necroscribe is an incredible recursion engine and all it asks is for you to cast targeted spells to keep it going. That seems pretty reasonable.

14. Antiquities on the Loose

Antiquities on the Loose is a three-cost Sorcery that makes a pair of 2/2 Red and White Spirit tokens and has Flashback for. Then, if it was cast from anywhere other than our hand, it tosses a +1/+1 counter on each Spirit we control.

Two 2/2 Creatures for three mana is already great, but being able to flash this back for six mana for another two tokens and a good number of +1/1 counters is huge. It's great for Spirit decks, Token decks, and triggers the Lorehold 'leaves the graveyard' abilities.

13. Exhibition Tidecaller

Exhibition Tidecaller is a one-drop 0/2 in Blue and it has an Opus ability. When we cast an Instant or Sorcery spell, target player mills three cards. If five or more mana was spent to cast that spell, that player mills ten cards instead.

Tidecaller is an excellent little potential win condition for spell-heavy decks, but it can also serve as a source of self-mill to help fill up your own graveyard. It's cheap, and it can do a lot in the right shells, so it's definitely one to look out for.

12. Thunderdrum Soloist

Thunderdrum Soloist is a two-drop 1/3 with Reach in Red that also has an Opus ability. Whenever we cast an Instant and Sorcery spell, we get to hit each opponent for one damage. If we spent five or more mana on that spell, the Soloist deals three damage to each opponent instead.

Casual players adore Spell Pingers like Guttersnipe and Thermo-Alchemist, and this adds another to the pile for only two mans and a huge potential upside of doing three damage instead of one. Those kinds of decks tend to favor cheap spells that draw cards so the engine can continue to hum along, but this provides an interesting new angle of attack for a decent payoff.

11. Vastlands Scavenger

Vastlands Scavenger is a three-drop 4/4 with Deathtouch in Green. It Enters Prepared, and can cast the Prepare spell Bind to Life for five mana at Instant speed. Bind to Life has you mill seven cards, and then puts a Creature from among the milled cards onto the battlefield.

The Scavenger is great for Green Graveyard decks, filling up your yard and providing a Creature in play for your trouble. There are plenty of massive threats you could cheat into play with this, and you get a 4/4 Deathtoucher.

10. Jadzi, Steward of Fate

Jadzi, Steward of Fate is a three-drop 2/4 in Blue that draws and discards two cards when she enters. She also enters Prepared, ready to cast the spell Oracle's Gift for . Oracle's Gift Creates X 0/0 Fractal tokens and puts X +1/+1 counters on each Fractal you control.

A three mana 2/4 that loots 2 when it enters is a great defensive option early on, and if she survives to cast her Prepared spell then you're also getting a sizeable army later in the game. That's a lot of power packed into an unassuming three-drop.

9. Stirring Hopesinger

Stirring Hopesinger is a three-drop 1/3 with Flying and Lifelink. It has the telltale Repartee ability of the Silverquill, so whenever we cast an Instant or Sorcery spell that targets a Creature, we get to put a +1/+1 counter on each Creature we control. Getting to boost our whole team whenever we cast a combat trick, or blow our opponents out with a removal spell is a big game.

8. Tragedy Feaster

Tragedy Feaster is a four-drop take on a classic Magic: the Gathering. It's a 7/6 with Trample and Ward - Discard a card, so it has a huge body for a small cost. However, It does demand you sacrifice a permanent at the beginning of your End Step unless you gained life this turn. The devil (or demon in this case) is in the details.

There are plenty of ways to incidentally gain life on your turn, so it shouldn't be too much trouble to appease the Feaster. That leaves us with an undercosted beater that puts huge amounts of pressure on our opponents' life totals.

7. Transcendent Archaic

Transcendent Archaic is seven-drop Colorless 6/6 with Vigilance and a Converge ability. When it Enters, you draw X cards, where X is equal to the number of colors spent to cast it. Then if you drew one or more cards this way, discard two cards.

This Archaic isn't a serviceable way to draw cards in all kinds of decks, and it helps fill the graveyard. Casual players have long adored Etched Oracle, and this seems like a kind of second coming. Play it alongside some five-color Mana rocks and Dual and Tri-Lands and go to town.

6. Tam, Observant Sequencer

Tam, Observant Sequencer is 4/3 in Simic and the Landfall ability to become Prepared when a Land you control Enters. Tam's Prepared spell is Deep Sight, a two-mana Sorcery that draws a card and gains a life.

Compared to some of the other Landfall Legends, this is pretty fair since it makes you spend two mana at sorcery speed to draw a card. You can take advantage of the Karoo Lands to provide a steady stream of Landfall triggers, but that's a lot of hoops to jump through. If you're looking for a solid option for lower-powered Casual tables, Tam has you covered.

5. Magmablood Archaic

Magmablood Archaic is a 2/2 with Trample and Reach in Red. It has Converge, and it gets a +1/+1 counter when it Enters for each color of mana spent to cast it. The kicker comes in with its mana cost, which features three Red/two generic hybrid mana symbols. So, you could make it a 3/3 with Trample and Reach for , or max out its stats as a 7/7 for .

If a potential 7/7 with Trample and Reach wasn't enough, it also has another ability. Whenever you cast an Instant or Sorcery spell, Creatures you control get +1/+0 for each color spent to cast that spell. It may look like a Mono-Red card, but Magmablood Archaic shines in multi-color Creature decks.

4. The Charm Cycle

Next up is the cycle of uncommon charms. Each of these costs two mana (one of each color for each of the five schools), and has three different modes.

Silverquill Charm can put two +1/+1 counters on a Creature, exile a Creature with power two or less, or make each opponent lose three life and you gain three life.

Witherbloom Charm can sacrifice a permanent to draw two cards, gain you five life, or destroy target nonland permanent with mana value two or less.

Prismari Charm Surveil 2 then draw a card, deal one damage to each of one or two targets, or return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand.

Lorehold Charm can make each opponent sacrifice a nontoken Artifact, return target Artifact or Creature with mana value two or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, or pump your team with +1/+1 and Trample until the end of the turn.

Finally, Quandrix Charm can counter target spell unless its controller pays , destroys an Enchantment, or makes target Creature's base power and toughness 5/5 until end of turn.

These all are extremely flexible and cheap, so they're easy to slot into decks of all kinds. Well, provided you're running the proper colors.

3. Garrison Excavator

Garrison Excavator is a four-drop 3/4 with Menace in Red. Whenever one or more cards leave our graveyard, we get to make a 2/2 Red and White Spirit Creature token. We can do that any number of times per turn.

The Lorehold theme of removing things from our graveyard is a really fun design space to explore alongside Mill, Flashback, and Spirit tokens.

2. Blech, Loafing Pest

Blech, Loafing Pest is a 3/4 in Witherbloom , and he cares about the Pest tribe. Whenever you gain life, you get to put a +1/+1 counter on each Pest, Bat, Insect, Snake, and Spider your control.

There's no once per turn limit on that ability, so if you have a way to repeatedly gain life, like Essence Warden, you can end up making your team huge.

1. Brush Off

Brush Off is a four-cost Instant that an counter any spell, but it cost less if it targets an Instant or Sorcery spell.

Having the option to cast this for cheaper if we're countering an Instant or Sorcery is a nice boon. Normally these cheaper counters are limited in what they can target, like Essence Scatter, Negate, or Swan Song. Unlike those spells, Brush Off can always be cast for to counter anything.

Honorable Mentions

Of course, there are many more cards worth talking about from Secrets of Strixhaven (several more lists, in fact!). Here are some honorable mentions that sit just outside this list of the top Casual cards from the set.

Traumatic Critique

Traumatic Critique costs for an Instant that deals X damage to any target. Then you draw two and discard one, like casting a Catalog.

You'll always get the draw two, discard one, so you can cast this for just the with X equals zero to draw, which is a nice bit of flexibility.

Conciliator's Duelist

Conciliator's Duelist is a Silverquill four-drop. When it Enters, each player draws a card and loses a life. It also has a Repartee ability, so when you cast an Instant or Sorcery that targets a Creature, you get to exile up to one target Creature. It is returned to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next End Step.

It's a solid little bit of card advantage that also works great for doubling up on Blink spells for even more Enters trigger abuse.

Wrapping Up

There we go! I hope you enjoyed this third look of the most exciting Casual cards in Secrets of Strixhaven. Until next time.