Bonus Sheets are a pillar of modern Magic: The Gathering sets. In Limited, they have been fairly hit and miss, but the original Mystical Archive from Strixhaven: School of Mages was definitely a hit. Can history repeat itself with the Mystical Archive from Secrets of Strixhaven?

Let's take a look at the best (and worst) on offer from the Mystical Archive this time around.

Dishonourable Mentions

Since a lot of the cards in the Mystical Archive are splashy reprints from old sets, there's a temptation to include cards that seem cool in your deck. The thing is, a lot of the cards in the Archive are reprints for Constructed formats.

Many of them, such as Pyretic Ritual or Jeska's Will, don't even look good to most Limited players in the first place. A few of them are outright traps, though. Here a few cards that you should be avoiding if winning is your only goal.

Armageddon

Armageddon looks incredible, and I don't just mean aesthetically. Maybe you've heard of ancient decks like Ernhamgeddon from Magic's early years. Maybe you look at such a powerful effect and think it will make your opponents miserable. The trouble is, this card is only good if you're already ahead. If you're behind, mass land destruction is horrible and if you're even, it's still horrible.

Having this card in your hand also makes it less likely for you to be ahead in the first place, because you drew a card that does nothing to get you an advantage. There are spots where 'Geddon is good, but they're not as common as you might think, and do not show up in Limited very often.

Force of Will

Force of Will might be the best counterspell ever, but context matters. In regular Limited, it is almost never worth it to throw away two cards for the sake of countering one. Force is good in powerful formats where you're countering a Reanimate targeting Atraxa, Grand Unifier. It's not good when you're throwing away two cards to counter a random common or uncommon.

Even if your opponent has a ridiculous bomb, this is still likely to be worse than Essence Scatter or Brush Off.

Angel's Grace

Angel's Grace is just Fog with extra text 99% of the time. The weird edge cases where it counters a Burst Lightning are not worth the cost of putting a card in your deck that does nothing. There is a funny interaction with this and Triumph of the Hordes, though. I can't wait to see that pop up on social media.

The Best Mystical Archive Cards in Limited

I'm choosing to tackle this list by the best options in each color and not in order of power, given we're focusing on Limited application. If you see any of these cards in a Draft, they're highly worth considering!

Hop to It

Hop to It was a solid B in its original Bloomburrow environment. It's also an uncommon on this bonus sheet, so you're going to see it often enough to actually build a deck that uses it well.

Some of the cards in the Archive are powerful on their own merits and will be good regardless of your deck. Hop to It isn't quite on that level, but it also doesn't need to be. You can draft this one early and build your deck accordingly.

Winds of Abandon

Winds of Abandon is an interesting sweeper. I think the two-mana version is fine and the six-mana version is a little better than fine. Exiling is obviously nice, but ramping your opponent is a real downside early in the game, especially if they're playing Blue-Green.

By the time you're paying Overload on this card, that downside is usually going to be negligible. It's also quite likely to just end the game, because it leaves your Creatures untouched. Turns out that spotting your opponent a few extra Lands doesn't matter if they're dead.

Cyclonic Rift

What is this, a crossover episode? Before Cyclonic Rift was a Game Changer in Commander, it was an absolute house in Return to Ravnica Limited. The floor here is a two-mana bounce spell, which is eminently playable. The ceiling is Plague Wind at Instant-speed for seven mana. Thank goodness this is a Mythic, because it is going to be absolutely crushing when it resolves.

Preordain

Obviously, all the cards on this list have the benefit of triggering all your "Instants and Sorceries matter" cards. The cheap ones, like Preordain, get an even bigger nudge up, though, because they can help to get multiple triggers in a turn. Preordain does that while also being one of the best cantrips ever printed.

Stock Up

I considered having Brain Freeze somewhere on this list. I decided against it because there will be matchups where it actively harms you to mill your opponent if you're not doing it for lethal. But with strong card draw effects like Stock Up lurking around, I'm wondering if Brain Freeze might still be excellent anyway. I can see regular games coming down to who runs out of cards in library first. Despite that, you should still pick Stock Up highly. It's incredible.

Dismember

Dismember is one of the best removal spells of all time, so it's going to be just as good here as it is in most places. It goes into every deck, kills most things outright and does it all at Instant speed. Four life is not nothing, but you save a lot more by removing a Creature. This is probably going to be one of the best cards in the set.

Abrade / Burst Lightning

The two still-in-Standard burn spells, Abrade and Burst Lightning, are as good here as they always are. The Artifact mode on Abrade is not at its best in this format, but it will be relevant occasionally. Burst Lightning scales nicely with the game and will end games from time-to-time.

Neither of these cards are exciting, but both are good. They're not as splashy as something like Crackle with Power, but they're much more consistent.

Empty The Warrens

You won't be getting a crazy storm count in this format. There are multiple Rituals, but they're mostly at higher rarity, and they're pretty poor on their own so you don't want to pick them highly. It doesn't matter, because even copying Empty the Warrens a couple of times makes it playable.

This is the kind of card that looks like it needs building around, but actually doesn't. Yeah, it gets out of hand if you can get to four or more copies, but it's still good at two or three. Casting a cheap cantrip in Prismari () and then casting this nets you four tokens.

Awaken the Woods

In original Strixhaven, Quandrix () was all about ramping out expensive stuff. Awaken the Woods fits that mold perfectly. It's Ramp and Ramp pay-off in one card.

The dream is drawing this in the late game and making eight Creatures, but it can be a three-mana Rampant Growth in a pinch, too. In its original format, this was a solid card, but I suspect it is much more suited to this environment.

Triumph of the Hordes

If you weren't around when Triumph of the Hordes first came out back in New Phyrexia, let me tell you that it is an absolute beating. This might be the best Overrun effect of all time.

It only pumps for a third of the power of the OG Overrun, but it also requires you to do half the damage to kill your opponent. People are going to die to some funky stuff in this format, but going from 0 to 10 Poison counters in a single turn might be one of the funkiest. That's in a set with no other poison support, by the way.

Wrapping Up

The Mystical Archive for Secrets of Strixhaven doesn't disappoint. There's no shortage of powerful spells to implement in your Limited decks, just watch out for some of the selections clearly meant for Constructed.

Until next time.