Recently, Wizards of the Coast revealed cards for the upcoming Secrets of Strixhaven set. While big hitters like Ancestral Recall are making a return to the game, I really want to discuss the 5 FounderDragons that started the school of Strixhaven.

Lore

Strixhaven University is a pillar of the multiverse for the magically inclined. Promising students gather for the far reaches of Magic's universes in order to learn and develop into powerful mages. This institution was originally created over 700 years ago by 5 dragons: Lorehold, Prismari, Quandrix, Silverquill, and Witherbloom. The university now has 5 different schools named after each dragon, each school aligned with the same two mana colors. The dragons are still around, and even recruit the most powerful practitioners of magic into their Dragonsguard.

Lorehold

Miracle is an ability that allows you to cast a card for it's miracle cost instead if it is the first card drawn this turn. With Lorehold, every instant and sorcery card in your hand can be cast for 2 colorless mana only if it is the first card you drew each turn. You also must cast it right after you draw it (basically before it touches the other cards in or hand), otherwise you lose the ability to cast it for its miracle cost.

However, Lorehold's second ability synergizes wonderfully with this. Since miracle only cares about cards you've drawn each turn, if you draw a card with miracle on an opponent's turn you can take full advantage of it. On top of this, it happens at the beginning of the opponent's upkeep step—allowing you to get the jump on them before their turn truly begins.

Building a deck with Lorehold, you would want to include many instants and sorceries so you can take advantage of Lorehold's abilities. On top of this, Boros (Red-White) in Strixhaven utilizes the graveyard, so I would also include plenty of recursion to take full advantage of each card in the deck.

Some good cards to look at in the new set include:

• Primary Research
• Lorehold Charm
• Molten-Core Maestro

Prismari

Storm. What else can I say?

For those of you who don't know what storm is, storm has you to cast multiple copies of a spell for each other spell that has been cast this turn. For instance, if I have already cast 2 spells, and cast Lightning Bolt (with storm from Prismari), then I would create 2 more copies of Lightning Bolt and cast them as well. Then if I have another storm spell, I would create 5 copies of it to cast (2 before Lightning Bolt + Lightning Bolt + 2 Lightning Bolt copies = 5 spells cast so far). This commander can get out of hand very quickly.

If you're into slinging spells and making your turns last 45 minutes, Prismari can be a great focus of your deck. Some Secrets of Strixhaven cards I'd also look at include:

• Emeritus of Ideation (Ancestral Recall with Storm???)
• Molten-Core Maestro
• Improvisation Capstone

Quandrix

Cascade. What else can I say... again?

Cascade allows you to chain-cast spells from the top of your deck. If you cast a spell with cascade, you then exile cards until you find a nonland card with a strictly less than mana value. You cast that card for free and put all the exiled cards in a random order on the bottom of your library.

I'm sure you can see how this can grow out of control. If I play Quandrix, I can cascade into a spell for 5 mana or less. If that is an instant or sorcery, I repeat.

To build a deck around Quandrix, I'd stack it with a range of instant and sorcery spells to cascade into. Putting plenty of mana value 1-5 will let you always be sure you can get as much value out of each cascade as possible. There aren't that many Simic (Green-Blue) instants and sorceries revealed for Secrets of Strixhaven yet, but be on the lookout for anything that will help you create powerful combos!

Silverquill

Casualty allows you to sacrifice your creatures to copy your spells. When you cast a spell with casualty 1, you can sacrifice any number of creatures with power 1 or greater. For each creature you sacrifice, you make and cast a copy of the spell. My tokens are afraid.

Token decks are built for this. Imagine having just 5 tokens on the board and casting 6 copies of Syphon Mind. You can get rid of each of your opponents hands, draw a ton of cards, and even avoid getting it counterspelled. All of this for a single common and 5 1/1 tokens.

Some cards from Secrets of Strixhaven I 'd look out for are:

• Abigale, Poet Laureate (Put +1/+1 on all creatures for each token you sac)
• Silverquill Charm

Witherbloom

Last but not least, we have our favorite goth mommy: Witherbloom. Another dragon in our lineup that will love a big board of tokens. Affinity reduces a cost of a spell by 1 for each permanent of a certain type you control (in this case it is creatures). This even gets around commander tax for you commander players! If you have a good enough token engine early on, you'll only be paying 2 mana for Witherbloom.

Similar to the other dragons, this empowers your big instants and sorceries. Thus, let's look at some cards from the upcoming set that are an auto-include for each deck focusing on Witherbloom:

• Lluwen, Exchange Student
• Bogwater Lumaret
• Teacher's Pest

The Dragons Return

I'm excited to see what the rest of Secrets of Strixhaven has to offer! The Founder Dragons look like cards you don't want to miss, but the rest of the set is shaping up to have plenty of interesting mechanics as well. Ancestral Recall is coming back, characters we saw last time are growing up, and there's even a new Planeswalker!