Top 10 Best Secrets of Strixhaven Cards

Secrets of Strixhaven Is A Recent Favorite MTG Set

Thank God for Secrets of Strixhaven. Standard needed a shakeup, and I needed an Izzet (fine, Prismari) deck to play that actually focuses on casting lots of spells and drawing lots of cards.

And I don’t think I’m the only one that’s been missing playing two-color decks built around very distinct strategies (except blue-white players, but they always have some version they get to play). Though my list doesn’t properly reflect it, this set has so many interlocking keywords and fun payoffs that I almost want to get into Limited, just to see what I can do with them.

But, of course, we all know it’s often the semi-self-contained engines that make the real splashes in Constructed formats. So, that’s more what I’m looking at today. I’ve read over every base-set Secrets of Strixhaven card, thought about them deeply, narrowed them down to only ten, and then tried to put them in order of powerfulness. I sometimes get something wrong with these lists (I’m still embarrassed I put Ajani ahead of Formidable Speaker in my Lorwyn Eclipsed list), but I think I’ve mostly got this one down.

Restoration Seminar

Paradigm is a weird mechanic, but if I understand it correctly, you get to cast a copy of this spell every turn. And that’s a pretty solid end-game play for control. You can loop various cards and undo anything your opponent does to stop you. I do admit I’m rating this Secrets of Strixhaven card somewhat on the assumption that we get a decent Learn option down the pipeline. It’s an even better card if you can keep it safe in the sideboard until it’s time to start winning.

Applied Geometry

Four mana to double anything on your board, only it’s also a 6/6, is good enough that this card needed to be on the list. Normally, a generic clone effect wouldn’t make the cut, but I literally can’t conceive of all the possibilities and tricks you can do with this card.  

Ambitious Augmenter

I think Increment is my favorite mechanic from Secrets of Strixhaven, if not any recent set, and this is the best card with it. Ambitious Augmenter is a great aggro card by all metrics: cheap to play, gets bigger without much extra work, and isn’t totally ruined by a board clear.

Professor Dellian Fel

Okay, I know this seems high for this card, but I think it’s going to be such a player in the new Secrets of Strixhaven meta. Let’s go through the play pattern. Turn four, use this to gain some life. Maybe that triggers some other stuff; maybe not. Turn five, you get that emblem, and now every single card in a (presumably) life-gain deck is absurdly dangerous. It’s also a four-mana kill spell if you absolutely need it.

Dina’s Guidance

Another Secrets of Strixhaven card that I feel like I need to defend a bit. It lets you find anything you need or set-ups reanimating anything you need. Yes, it might be a little slow, but it’s a three-mana very flexible tutor, and surely powercreep hasn’t totally knocked that out of usefulness.

Petrified Hamlet

Want to stop someone from using creature lands? Here’s the answer. Control decks will run this for obvious reasons, and aggro decks will run this because it’s a good form of disruption against control decks.

Emeritus of Ideation

In spell-heavy decks, this is the top-end, and in control decks, this is the stabilizer. It’s big, hard to stop, and will likely draw you six cards before your opponent gets a handle on things. SIX CARDS!

Molten-Core Maestro

The best aggro card for any spell-heavy deck (and likely meant to pair with Avatar’s firebending cards). Every instant or sorcery makes it grow for the rest of its life, not just the turn. I’d hazard a guess that it’s possible to pull off the full Opus trigger the second turn this is in play—making it a kill-on-sight Secrets of Strixhaven card.

Informed Inkwright

If there’s a Repartee deck, this goes in that. But this has so many other applications. The wording is very broad. If you target any creature, for any reason, with any instant or sorcery, you get a 1/1 flier—and it works every time you do it. That gets out of hand really fast for any opponent.

Erode

And how will we kill Molten-Maestro or Informed Inkwright before they get out of hand? With this throwback to Path of Exile. Admittedly, it is a bit dangerous to give people more lands—but we’re also in a Standard environment with so much mana fixing players might not have that many basic lands in their decks. It’s worth the risk, is what I’m saying. There are so many brutal low-cost creatures, both in this set and recent ones, that any deck running white should run four of these to make sure you have a quick, effective, all-targeting answer. I know it’s not a very flashy number one, and it’s possible I’ve underestimated how good one of the creatures is, but this is my pick for the best card in Secrets of Strixhaven.

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