Strixhaven Analysis – Part 5
Hello again and welcome back on 95mtg.com!
Last week we covered the Prismari and Blue cards for Limited and this week we’re going to dive right into an analysis for Green and Quandrix cards we’ll find in Strixhaven.
Much like you, I can’t wait to crack some packs and draft, but for now let’s try and make some educated guesses about the power level of each card so we have a good baseline to start from.
GREEN
ACCOMPLISHED ALCHEMIST: this creature has a good sized body and allows for splash potential. The life gain with pests and such may come into play as well. This card just seems solid to me but not a good first pick so it’ll get a “good common” rating from me.
Limited 3.0
BASIC CONJURATION: again, the important fact here is that it’s a lesson. This can’t be evaluated like a card you put in your deck, this is simply a spell you draw from anything that make you Learn. This digs pretty deep to help you find your best creature, and gives you a little life to boot. I’d evaluate Lesson cards similarly to how you may evaluate value lands in other formats. The good ones are premium because they don’t replace spells in your deck, they’re just options you can go for and improve your other cards.
Limited 3.0
BAYOU GROFF: this one is interesting and hard to evaluate off no games. Two mana for a 5/4 is absurd, but sacrificing a creature is quite the price to pay. Yes, we have pest tokens we can sacrifice, and being able to spend an extra 3 mana is a great bailout. The fact it’s fairly vulnerable to bounce when cast early, doesn’t have trample and dies to some common removal makes it a little less appealing but I’m guessing this will be a solid role player you’ll be looking to play as a mediocre five drop with a lot of upside.
Limited 2.5
BIG PLAY: I’ll be very frank, this looks like a pretty solid combat trick as it functionally gives +3+3 the turn you cast it and leaves a +1+1 counter behind. In general, combat tricks have diminishing returns issues as you can’t have too many combat tricks and removal spells in the same deck, and removal spells don’t need creatures in play to function so they’re a higher priority in most cases. This is right at about replacement level for me, but I’m not a big advocate of combat tricks unless they really shine.
Limited 2.0
BOOKWURM: this is my kinda card, and a well designed Limited uncommon as it provides some inevitability with its big sizing, trample, and draw a card built in. If it’s not exiled it will continue to come back in grindy matchups. This is the kind of card you’ll take over replacement level commons, but will compete with other expensive cards at the top of your curve. In a color combination pushing ramp strategies, this card fits well enough that you may want to take a copy in the middle of a pack.
Limited 2.5
CHARGE THROUGH: I’d give this a lower rating as it’s a one mana cantrip that needs a target, but with Magecraft in the set this will prolly hover at replacement level or slightly above it. Think of Defiant Strike with this one.
Limited 2.0
CONTAINMENT BREACH: I’ll be honest. I don’t have a great idea of how many must-kill enchantments or artifacts are in the set as I’ve not played it to get a good feel, but having access to Disenchant without having to maindeck them is a premium I’m willing to spend a much higher pick for than as I would for a Naturalize in my sideboard. This card gives you that angle without having to pay much of a cost, and that’s pretty huge.
Limited 3.0
DEVOURING TENDRILS: this is a bit of a power creeped Rabid Bite. I could be overvaluing it a little bit, as this may be in the 3.0 category, but Rabid Bite in my experience is usually underrated. This is a solid first pickable card and while you won’t be over the moon first picking it, it’ll do its job quite well.
Limited 3.5
DRAGONSGUARD ELITE: not sure I’d call this a bomb, but it seems like an incredible creature. A two drop that cast begin scaling immediately. Its Magecraft ability goes so well with Lesson cards, Charge Through and spells like the one we just talked about, Devouring Tendrils, that I think this will likely be better than any uncommon or common you can open a long with it.
Limited: 4.0
ECOLOGICAL APPRECIATION: there may be some rare circumstances where you have a lot of two or three drops and you want this as a value card for specific matchups as it can draw you two or three spells, but even then it will be overcosted and not have a huge impact most of the time, as when you have that much mana your two and three drops won’t have that much impact in most cases.
Limited 1.0
EMERGENT SEQUENCE: this is an interesting card as it’s essentially a 2/2 creature that taps for any color mana that comes into play tapped. So similar to a Paradise Druid, but missing hexproof leaving it vulnerable as a reliable source of fixing. It’s not a card you’ll want to rely on for fixing but it’s a solid ramp creature you’ll likely take about where you take the best commons.
Limited 3.5
EXPONENTIAL GROWTH: evaluating this card is a bit challenging. It’s horrible with pests running around if you don’t have a trample creature, but if you do have some trampling creatures (or Charge Through maybe?) you can end the game pretty quickly. This will almost assuredly end games when your opponent taps out and has no creature to block as long as you have an unchecked three power creature and six mana. As a sorcery, I think this card will simply rot in your hand too often to be overly good, and while its effect is powerful and game ending at times, I think good decks will want to avoid having a card that is going to be a 10 or a 0 most of the time.
Limited 2.0
FIELD TRIP: a ramp spell that draws a lesson, what’s wrong with it? Well, it only gets a basic forest so it can’t help fix your mana. Additionally, turn three is a huge turn in Limited that sets the pace of the game. If you’re casting this into two creatures as your first play, it likely won’t end well. Later in the game, we all know lands are less meaningful, and while you could get a solid Lesson perhaps, I think this card will be easy to pick up as later pick. It seems like one of the commons the color combination is built around, so that it’s a solid roleplayer.
Limited 2.5
FORTIFYING DRAUGHT: the cheaper the trick the better. This gives a little life, helps you win combat for a single mana and has a bit of a scaling mechanic with additional life gain. You’ll likely play this one over Big Play as mana efficiency with combat tricks is key as you ideally want to progress your battlefield while you’re winning combat’s to stay ahead.
Solid role playing combat trick when you want one.
Limited 2.5
GNARLED PROFESSOR: it’s big, it’s got trample, it’s above the curve and it puts a spell in your hand. This is a great card I’ll be very happy to first pick.
Limited 4.0
HONOR TROLL: this creature as just a 2/3 Vigilance creature would be below or at replacement level but with additional lifegain benefits and a boost when you get to 25 life I think this creature is a solid payoff if you move in a lifegain direction. I likely won’t take this over the best commons but you’ll know when you want it.
Limited 2.5
KAROK WRAGLER: this kind of card always seems better than it is. It’s got a truly powerful ability but its body is underwhelming at five mana and when you’re casting a five mana creature you’re going to want it to protect itself or you from opposing creatures. If your deck is able to chain together a bunch of board stabilizing spells the following turn, perhaps spells that cast pests and learn, then this card might seem great. It also plays well with Field Trip as a turn 3, 4, and 5 spells. I’ll have to get my hands on this for a few matches to have a great idea but my hunch is that its initial sizing is just a bit too small to be great, but might play a solid role in ramp decks with a high amount of spells to trigger it.
Limited 2.5
LEYLINE INVOCATION: big creature token with no abilities up front, not quite the Honey Mammoth we all learned to love. Will play if you’re in need of a curve topper.
Limited 1.5
MAGE DUEL: this is a great version of Hunt the Weak, plays quite nicely with any spells that make creature tokens to help reduce its cost. While it doesn’t leave a counter behind, it does a better job protecting the creature itself, which is huge.
Limited 3.0
MASTER SYMMETRIST: four mana 4/4 with reach can hold the fort quite well and it gets trample and GIVES trample to other creatures when they attack. Just an all around above the curve four drop.
Limited 3.5
OVERGROWN ARCH: this is one of my favorite cards I’ve read so far. I LOVE blocking and Overgrown Arch blocks quite well early while continuing to provide life gain for synergy and to bring you into the late game where you can then cast it in for a Lesson. Big fan of this card in any deck that wants to play long games.
Limited 3.0
PROFESSOR OF ZOOMANCY: creatures that bring tokens along with them have a history of overperforming and while they’re usually three mana 2/2s or 2/1s, this creature costing four gives it a minor downgrade to those as the creature is less relevant as both an attacking and blocking threat as the game continues. There’s also a larger diminishing returns on higher costed cards. However, this is a solid rate for four mana and I’ll be very happy to play a couple copies of Professor Z.
Limited 3.0
RECKLESS AMPLIMANCER: solid two drop that scales over time to mitigate flood. Its biggest issue is it’s not the only card like this at common in green, so there’s a lot of chances for a decent two drop like this.
Limited 2.5
SCURRIED COLONY: I think between this and Reckless Amplimancer, this is worse but not considerably. A 2/2 with reach is significantly worse than a 2/3 with reach so it’s just a replacement level two drop that will play a solid role in decks going hard on the ramp theme.
Limited 2.5
SPIKED KAROK: a replacement level three drop for decks that want to extend the game.
Limited 2.0
SPRINGMANE CERVIN: a replacement level three drop for decks that want to trade or close the game.
Limited 2.0
TANGLE TRAP: I’d take this over most cards in the 2.0 category as it’s a very versatile sideboard card similar to Broken Wings.
Limited 2.0
VERDANT MASTERY: this one is super interesting. It’s an Explosive Vegetation with downside, as it puts an extra land in your hand and one in play for them, but you can also give them one that will be functionally colorless. I think this is the kind of card you will definitely take over replacement level commons as it could have some use but most of the time it ends up in your sideboard.
Limited 2.0
QUANDRIX
AUGMENTER PUGILIST // ECHOING EQUATION: solid rate three drop with some scaling on the creature side or a very situational spell on the blue side that will mostly want to be played in a deck that ends up with small tokens left behind. This card kind of loses flexibility as the blue side just isn’t going to be something you want to cast aggressively in non Quandrix decks, but in a Quandrix deck may end up playing out like Overrun in a bunch of situations.
Limited 3.5
JADZI, ORACLE OF ARCAVIOS // JOURNEY TO THE ORACLE: this is a tough one to evaluate because it’s sort of a one card combo with itself. It will make you want to play a high land count and more ramp spells like Field Trip in a Quandrix deck and can pay you off fairly well for doing so. Its impact on the game may be quite minimal over a 8 mana 5/5 if you don’t have spells kicking around though. This is a card I’m excited to open and draft around to see how it performs but my guess is it will be a little worse than I’m hoping it could be. I’ll give it a flat 3.5 until it shows me otherwise.
Limited 3.5
KIANNE, DEAN OF SUBSTANCE // IMBRAHAM, DEAN OF THEORY: both halves of this card are exceptional. Both solid rates for what they do and provide extra resources. Both almost first pickable in their individual colors. Neither half is a bomb though, so I gave it a kick up to 4.0 because of its flexibility as a pack1-pick1.
Limited 4.0
AETHER HELIX: Regrowth effects are usually too situational for today’s game, but adding the bounce effect puts this into the solid playable category for me. While this isn’t quite card advantage, it provides back the tempo loss for a solid effect.
Limited 3.0
BIOMATHEMATICIAN: a solid three drop that produces a token like we’ve seen a few times before. Instead of flying or something of that nature, we get a card that pumps all fractal tokens, making this card get some added value in multiples. Solid three drop payoff when you’re in Quandrix, but not a huge draw to the color pair early in a draft.
Limited 3.0
BODY OF RESEARCH: there’s big and then there’s really big. This creature is often big enough to close the game if it connects once, it can block anything on the ground and there are a few ways to give it Trample to end the game immediately. I knocked it down from 4.0 to 3.5 simply because of its restrictive cost it may be too hard to cast at six mana but with common multicolor land cycle it may not be as hard as you’d think. This card is the embodiment of the “How big does a vanilla creature have to be to make it good” meme and I think it hit the mark of very strong, but not broken.
Limited 3.5
DECISIVE DENIAL: flexibility here is huge. It can interact with some both, creatures on the battlefield by making two of them fight and with non creature spells that can messed up with our plan. While both spells on their own would be just OK, I think it will be easy to find spots to cast this in a meaningful way, other than just to use it so it doesn’t go dead like the spells on their own might do.
Limited 3.0
DOUBLE MAJOR: in heavy green ramp decks this card will be playable at times. Its effect is unique enough and potentially powerful that I will take it over replacement level cards but in general the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
Limited 2.0
EUREKA MOMENT: a solid role player that fits right into the ramp theme and provides a little card advantage.
Limited 2.5
FRACTAL SUMMONING: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the first copy of these decent rate Lesson creatures is worth much more than the second, but I think we’re going to want to pick up our first copy aggressively. This increases value to all your Learn cards. This one scales fairly well and since these have Hybrid costs can really land in any deck. This is the one you want deep in the game when you have tons of mana.
Limited 3.0
GOLDEN RATIO: won’t be hard to see this one to be a three mana draw 3. You already have multiple creatures in Quandrix that create tokens turning this into a Divination immediately. However, cards like this disincentivize you from trading creatures which can be a big liability. The floor being so low makes me knock it down a peg but the ceiling is high. You’ll want to play this one with creatures with a variety of good blocking creatures so you can block, keep your creatures in play, and buy time to utilize all the extra cards you draw.
Limited 2.5
KASMINA, ENIGMA SAGE: while this is fairly underpowered as far as planeswalkers go, this is, at the very least, a three mana 2/2. If you’re able to play it on an empty battlefield you can play it and scry, untap and make a 4/4 or even a 3/3 and leave this in play. Definitely not a bomb, but an overall solid card that gains a ton of value on the play.
Limited 3.0
MANIFESTATION SAGE: this is a Maro and a 2/2 in one spell. Its restrictive mana cost outside Quandrix is the only reason I don’t give it a 4.0. This card is quite strong.
Limited 3.5
NEEDLETHORN DRAKE: kind of a removal spell with legs and it also has flying, which is good.
Limited 2.0
QUANDRIX APPRENTICE: two mana 2/2 that provides value as the game goes on. We know that access to lands don’t provide a full card worth of utility but in Quandrix getting to 8 lands can turn some otherwise mediocre cards into game changers. With Lessons and cantrips like Charge Through this is a high value two mana card.
Limited 3.5
QUANDRIX COMMAND: I may be overrating this a touch because it would play much better in an aggressive deck, but the most often used abilities here will be putting 2 +1/+1 counters and bouncing a creature with some other utility added on, This card can lead to quite a few blowouts in combat with those modes and I think pushes this into the good rare/almost always best in the pack category.
Limited 4.0
QUANDRIX CULTIVATOR: solid rate creature that gives us some ramp. Limitation of basic Forest and Island makes it not a busted multicolor ramp card that helps you just take any powerful gold card you see and put it in your deck. Solid first pickable card.
Limited 3.5
QUANDRIX PLEDGEMANGE: prowess got a really nice makeover with Magecraft and this card is just flat out great. Remember it’s a hybrid card that can fit into a ton of different archetypes so it’s getting close to a colorless Spellgorger Weird.
Limited 3.5
SQUARE UP: I’d evaluate this as a low tier combat trick. In many cases it will be worse than Resculpt, which actually leaves a 4/4 behind to stay. I’d recommend not putting this in your deck even though it’s cute with +1+1 counters.
Limited 1.0
TANAZIR QUANDRIX: while not a super busted Mythic Rare, it can turn a Fractal into a big threat while is also a big threat itself. It plays well with smaller token pests as well. Pretty easy to look at this card and know that it’s great for Limited.
Limited 4.0
ZIMONE, QUANDRIX PRODIGY: last but not least, Zimone is a solid creature that plays well as a payoff and enabler for ramp strategies. You’ll be very happy to pick this up in any Quandrix deck for the most part outside of truly aggressive ones, which I think will be few and far between.
Limited 3.5
Quandrix looks like a lot of fun to play. Ramping into big spells and drafting to play long games is my favorite form of Limited so I’m super excited to open my first Jadzi or Tanazir and see what more I can Learn.
Strixhaven will be released soon so I hope you might have found useful our Limited Set Review!
I’ll see you next week with another article, in the meanwhile I wish you all a great first day of class!
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