Secrets of Strixhaven is upon us, and today we are talking about every card with the Opus mechanic. This ability shows up in the Prismari colors () and functions very similarly to Young Pyromancer by rewarding you for casting Instants and Sorceries. Opus takes that already popular ability and makes it even better by providing players with extra value if they spent five or more mana to cast the spell.

Note, the wording on Opus is likely to trip up several players, as it cares about the amount of mana spent to cast the card, not the card's mana value. That means it will not provide the extra effect if you use Delve to cast a Treasure Cruise for one mana, you need to actually pay five or more. It does however work with X spells that you sink mana into, and in rare corner cases also works with effects like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that makes cards cost more.

With that out of the way, let's jump into the actual cards, see what they do and discuss where they might show up.

Opus in Secrets of Strixhaven

Colorstorm Stallion

Colorstorm Stallion is my personal favorite card with Opus and promises to enable some really interesting gameplay. Three mana for a 3/3 with Ward 1 and Haste, is already a great rate, but its Opus ability puts it over the top. Any Instant or Sorcery will give it a temporary power and toughness buff, and if you paid five or more mana for the spell you get to make a copy of the Stallion.

There are two things worth noting here. Firstly, the copy does not disappear at the end of turn. It immediately gets in for an attack and stays around, making this card a powerful token engine in the right deck. Secondly, this Opus ability does not have an "instead" clause, meaning that you get to make a copy and grow any Stallions already on the board.

While I mostly think this card will function like a Creature with Ward, Prowess, and Haste, the ability to be a self-contained combo makes it ripe for deck-building and exploration.

Deluge Virtuoso

Stun counters have proven to be the ultimate tempo play in Limited, and Deluge Virtuoso is designed to make sure that you take full advantage of the window it provides. Not only does the Virtuoso put a Stun counter on a Creature but it taps the Creature to clear the way for one or two attacks.

Its Opus ability is less exciting than other cards on this list but a solid rate that any spellslinger deck would be happy to see. I think this card will be a serious roleplayer in its Limited environment, but also has the potential to make waves in lower powered Cubes looking to provide more interaction for their tempo decks.

Elemental Mascot

Vigilance is the most important line of text on Elemental Mascot by a longshot, and it's what separates it from being an unexciting roleplayer vs completely unplayable. Under ideal circumstances, this mascot is designed to buy you time until the late game. It can chip in for incremental damage in the air, and stays back as an effective blocker thanks to its Vigilance.

This card is likely going to trip up newer drafters who try to jam it into Aggro and Tempo decks. It truly excels in a slower deck that can reliably get to five mana and take advantage of its Opus ability to generate virtual card advantage in the late game. If you see Elemental Mascot in your draft, make sure you're in the right deck before taking it.

Exhibition Tidecaller

Mill players rejoice they finally gave us a new Hedron Crab. While not exactly the same, Exhibition Tidecaller functions on the same axis. Resolve it early and then play your deck as normal, all while getting more value out of your cards.

Modern Mill decks on average run around 28 cards that trigger the first half of its ability. While it is possible that you might pay full retail for an Archive Trap, the Tidecaller is likely going to mill three cards most of the time, but that is more than enough.

It is worth noting that cards like Kitsune's Technique exist in Standard, letting you sneak in a devastating Mill as early as turn two. Lastly, it is always worth pointing out that this card allows you to Mill yourself, meaning that it can rapidly fuel your graveyard in older formats.

Expressive Firedancer

Likely the bread and butter of most spell-based Draft decks in SOS, Expressive Firedancer is a cheap Creature that can reliably attack and punch above its paygrade. Comparable to Kiln Fiend in many ways, this card promises the threat of truly explosive amounts of damage if left unblocked and has a very serious home in basically every lower powered Cube that supports a Red aggressive deck.

Instead of addressing the obvious, let me highlight an interaction that is likely to catch many Secrets of Strixhaven players off guard. One of the greatest pump spells ever printed, Bulk Up, is getting a reprint in the Mystical Archive, meaning that some lucky drafters will be able to turn this into a 6/3 Double Striker at Instant speed.

Molten-Core Maestro

When I say the phrase, "Goblin Bard" many will think of Dungeons and Dragons, others will think of the infamous internet Cello Goblin, but Molten-Core Maestro is here to steal the spotlight. In most circumstances, this card is an upgraded Electrostatic Infantry that will occasionally refund your mana investment, but it has real potential as the hidden Commander of your next deck.

A 2/2 that grows is not particularly exciting in a multiplayer format until you start envisioning a world where it gets to five power. At that point it becomes a combo machine that breaks symmetry of expensive wheel effects like Reforge the Soul and Incendiary Command wide open. Each draw seven refunds your mana investment and allows you to formulate powerful combo turns where you churn through your deck, cast spells that give you extra turns and keep going.

Muse Seeker

Elegant, clean and powerful are the words that come to mind when I see Muse Seeker. This card does not do anything backbreaking but it does provide an incredible amount of value, by attaching a Merfolk Looter effect to each Instant and Sorcery you cast.

I love that it is aggressively costed, I love that it is fragile, and I love its Opus ability regardless of if I am casting a spell for five or more mana to draw an extra card or simply looting. This is a stellar card that I would gladly put in any Draft deck, use to round out the 2-drop slot of any Cube, or add to the 99 of a Spell-slinger Commander deck.

Spectacular Skywale

The award for cleanest art and design goes to Spectacular Skywhale. I love everything about this card and hope to see it redefine the Izzet section of many Cubes. In Draft, this appears to be an absolute slam dunk signpost uncommon that for one more mana provides a much scarier threat than Elemental Mascot.

I love its design because its Opus ability is the perfect blend between power and elegance. It wants to attack and it wants to see you cast spells. If those spells happen to be five or more mana, it does the same amount of damage upfront but grows and scales into the late game. It plays incredibly well with Cantrips like Opt that lead to explosive combo style turns, and it provides an unreal amount of value with big card draw spells like Lorien Revealed.

Tackle Artist

Tackle Artist looks like unexciting Draft filler when viewed in a vacuum, but when addressed in the context of a Draft or Sealed event it has the potential to be very impactful. Most decks won't want more than one, maybe two copies of the card, but when played on turn four it will likely attack with six power on turn five.

Your hand will either include a Land and large spell or more likely small cantriping spells that you can cast more than one of in a turn. If you can navigate the early turns of your SOS draft correctly, I imagine this card will put in serious work.

Thunderdrum Soloist

I hope you are ready to hear your opponents do their worst AC/DC impression as they cast an Instant or Sorcery and yell, "You've been thunder struck!" for the third time in a turn. Thunderdrum Soloist is the newest in a long line of small Red Creatures that ping your opponents.

It will be a happy inclusion in most spell based Draft decks, but where it really shines is in a Group-Slug style Commander deck featuring Torbran, Thane of Red Fell. With very little effort, Thunderdrum and Torbran turn cards like Tectonic Hazard into a certified bomb.

Conclusion

Opus is an incredibly straight forward and fun mechanic that I hope Wizards of the Coast continues to revisit in future sets. It plays perfectly with existing spell-slinger strategies and gives players a reason to include and cast bigger Instants and Sorceries.

This new twist on an old mechanic makes it exciting in everything from Limited to Commander, Modern and Cube. At all rarities there are cards to be excited about, and each of the Rares read as if they are one new card away from becoming the backbone of the next dominant combo strategy.