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Building on the “Strixhaven: School of Mages” expansion from 2021, the newest set for Magic: The Gathering — “Secrets of Strixhaven” — brings players back to the mystical university. The acclaimed school of magic teaches new generations of spellcasters from various planes different mystical principles, represented by the five varying deck compositions. Each of the five schools contained in the larger university — the Black/White Silverquill, Blue/Red Prismari, Black/Green Witherbloom, Red/White Lorehold, and Green/Blue Quandrix — offers different approaches to gameplay.
This is on top of the upcoming Mystical Archive cards, which update older spells with a new sense of style befitting the multiversal school. Comicbook.com is getting the chance to show off two of the cards from the upcoming sets, highlighting the vampiric lessons that players will soon be able to share with one another. “Vicious Rivalry” and “Fix What’s Broken” are both useful sorcery cards that can change the landscape of the battlefield with a single move. Both cards feature distinct art by Chris Rallis, who illustrates the different underlying magic of both the Witherbloom and Silverquill approaches to sorcery with vivid coloring and illustration.
“Vicious Rivalry” & “Fix What’s Broken” Could Make Or Break Your Next Game
“Vicious Rivalry” highlights the Black/Green fusion of the Witherborn deck. A four-cost card that must also take out some of the player’s health to be truly effective might seem like a dangerous idea, but the ability to wipe the battlefield of all creatures and artifacts under a certain mana cost is a tantalizing one. It’s a risky move, but potentially a very effective one.
It’s an easy way to counter a deck that relies on armies of smaller units, clearing the board. It can even be adjusted to target more powerful targets, although that life cost remains a dangerous push-and-pull to experiment with. It’s a very fitting realization of Black Magic’s typically venomous nature, while the Green Magic may be able to restore (or steal) some life from targets.
By contrast, “Fix What’s Broken” flips the idea of “Vicious Rivalry.” The four-cost White/Black spell comes with the same cost to the player’s life, but can be used to restore creatures and artifacts of a certain mana cost straight to the battlefield. While it may not be as potentially overwhelmingly powerful as “Vicious Rivalry” — being able to clear any and all creatures or artifacts under a certain mana cost is a very powerful spell — “Fix What’s Broken” does have some real adaptability.
The card’s ability to return each artifact and creature with a certain mana value to the battlefield is broad enough for real tweaks. It can be used to restore a major player from the battlefield, yes. However, it also serves as a clever counter to discards and counters, as it brings each card in the graveyard with that mana cost into action. It’s a potentially more versatile card, with powerful artifacts from the halls of Strixhaven making this an especially effective card.
The Risk And Reward Of Strixhaven
“Secrets of Strixhaven” is shaping up to be a very engaging set, with cards like “Vicious Rivalry” and “Fix What’s Broken” highlighting an interplay between high-cost/high-reward cards. Other cards in the set, like “Smallpox, “Conciliator’s Duelist,” and “Prismari, the Inspiration,” all come with an additional cost of life beyond the inherent mana cost. The set puts natural emphasis on the price of learning powerful spells and learning to fully harness them, reflecting the theme of the deck.
The power of these cards also highlights how this is an advancement of the previous set, which established the locale. Now, the students have grown in power and ambition, and that is reflected in the cards. If “Vicious Rivalry” and “Fix What’s Broken” are indicative of just how adaptable, powerful, and costly the cards in this set are going to be, Magic: The Gathering players are going to have a lot of fun dishing out some deadly new lessons once the set is fully available.
Magic: The Gathering – Secrets of Strixhaven comes to MTG Arena on April 21 and will release physical copies on April 24.
