Draft Trainer

Strixhaven: School of Mages Limited Quiz

Answered: 0/20
Accuracy: 0
The Biblioplex
Average Picked At: 6.37
Total Times Picked: 46
Average Last Seen At: 5.20
Total Times Seen 281
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This is a fun reference to the FIRST TIME Wizards printed a land that represented a library -- suffice it to say, this time around it isn’t quite as good, but it is still a really great utility land. Holding on to 7 cards will be a challenge, so most of the time when you find yourself able to use the Biblioplex, you’ll be doing it in the late game as a mana sink when your hand is empty. Decks in this format will have more spells than we’re used to seeing too, so it will draw you a card pretty often. That’s huge late game upside that can help you win a game. Having a land turn into a game-winning value engine late is pretty incredible.
Codie, Vociferous Codex
Average Picked At: 5.38
Total Times Picked: 58
Average Last Seen At: 4.48
Total Times Seen 238
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: Well, this is a weird one. Not being able to cast permanent spells is a pretty big cost, and I’m not really sure Codie’s ability does enough to help that not completely sink you. Codie’s ability doesn’t help you get permanents, and sure there are lots of spells in this format, including those that make permanents, but chances are good your deck will have more permanent than non-permanent spells. Codie does give you some pretty weird fixing for all your non-permanent spells, in addition to the free card every turn you can cast something, but if you are drawing permanent spells that are dead cards, it is all kind of a wash. I don’t think this is completely unplayable, because I think playing this late in a game where you are at parity or ahead, it might help you get there, but this seems awful from behind, and hard to make work in most decks.
Enthusiastic Study
Average Picked At: 10.52
Total Times Picked: 288
Average Last Seen At: 8.99
Total Times Seen 3206
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: This is great in aggro decks, as it often helps you hit for a ton of trample damage – even saving your creature a decent chunk of the time – and ON TOP OF THAT, you get to learn, which Is just great.
Grinning Ignus
Average Picked At: 11.43
Total Times Picked: 96
Average Last Seen At: 8.60
Total Times Seen 1313
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: Basically, the Ignus gives you something of a ritual effect. It gives you a short-term mana boost, but when you actually look at the mana you spend -- which is 3 to play it and one to use its ability, you actually come out behind! Still, the UR deck in this format looks interested in getting a bunch of mana in single turns for big crazy spells, so it probably has a home.
Archmage Emeritus
Average Picked At: 1.91
Total Times Picked: 46
Average Last Seen At: 2.10
Total Times Seen 92
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This might be a super inefficient creature that dies to all the removal, but it has a great Magecraft ability. Drawing a card off of every instant or sorcery is no joke -- even if you only net one card with this, you’ll feel fine about the situation, and if your opponent doesn’t kill it and you draw 3+ cards with it? Well, they probably lose. Being a 4-mana 2/2 is definitely something that holds it back, but it is still a really great card.
Culmination of Studies
Average Picked At: 9.11
Total Times Picked: 38
Average Last Seen At: 6.09
Total Times Seen 359
Pro Rating: 1.0
Pro Comment: So, UR is all about having a bunch of mana, so pumping significant mana into X will be easier than it might first seem. So the lands give you treasure, and that will make it easier for you to cast the spells you draw for Blue cards you hit. Hitting Red cards damages the opponent, and sometimes this will just be able to close them out. If you’re a straight up UR deck, virtually every card in your deck will give you one of these effects. But the question becomes, how much mana do you need to spend to feel like this is working out for you? If you pay 6 total mana and exile 4 cards, there’s a good chance you’ll do something like get a treasure, draw a card, and do 2 to your opponent. That’s...not very good. I think the main plan with this is to really have it be a win condition in the late game when you have a ton of mana – and UR can certainly do that -- but that also means it is pretty terrible in the early game.
Witherbloom Campus
Average Picked At: 9.41
Total Times Picked: 330
Average Last Seen At: 7.96
Total Times Seen 2919
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: These are all good fixing, and then all have a nice late-game mana sink to help improve your draws when you’re flooding out. You can take these over most medium cards, especially if you are interested in splashing or they are on color for you.
Reckless Amplimancer
Average Picked At: 9.86
Total Times Picked: 303
Average Last Seen At: 8.63
Total Times Seen 3030
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: So, this is a bear with some nice late game upside, especially for decks that are either capable of producing a lot of mana or capable of putting +1/+1 counters on stuff. Or even better, both! UG is the Green color pair that will be the rampeist, and I really think it is going to want some late game manasinks, and this definitely delivers. Now, it isn’t especially efficient to pump this thing, but it is something to do with your mana. And, obviously, +1/+1 counters make it more efficient too. This is just going to be a solid two drop for pretty much all Green decks.
Reduce to Memory
Average Picked At: 9.98
Total Times Picked: 95
Average Last Seen At: 7.15
Total Times Seen 1096
Pro Rating: 1.0 // 2.5
Pro Comment: So, you can kind of sort of play this in your main deck, if you feel like you really need some removal and you didn’t get any Learn. Obviously, giving your opponent a 3/2 isn’t good -- it basically sets you up to get 2-for-1’d, but it can deal with any nonland permanent and that does matter some. You can use it on your own guy in a pinch too. Being able to sort of toolbox it up is way better, because if you can choose to get it from among other choices, that’s just a way different deal, and you can grab it when you really need it.
Solve the Equation
Average Picked At: 12.39
Total Times Picked: 120
Average Last Seen At: 9.31
Total Times Seen 1520
Pro Rating: 0.0
Pro Comment: Tutors that cost three are pretty bad in Limited. Generally, in Limited Magic, you want to be adding to the board with the mana you spend, and the more cards you have that don’t do that, the more trouble you’re in. Cards can overcome that by giving you card advantage or something like that, but they can’t normally overcome it with just card selection, and that’s what this is. 3 mana to get an instant or sorcery from your deck isn’t going to be worth doing. We’ve seen BETTER 3 mana tutors -- like Grim Tutor -- be bad in Limited, and this will be too.
Double Major
Average Picked At: 6.88
Total Times Picked: 42
Average Last Seen At: 5.31
Total Times Seen 257
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: This is cheap enough that I think I can get behind playing it all the time in UG decks. Sure, copying your 2/2 with it won’t feel amazing, but it is perfectly fine, and if you can copy your 4 drop with it you’ll be in pretty good shape in terms of what you get in return for your mana. UG is a ramp color pair too, so having the extra mana to do this is reasonably likely. Overall, I don’t think this it is amazing -- after all, you need to pair it with something else for it to even do anything.
Thrilling Discovery
Average Picked At: 13.16
Total Times Picked: 258
Average Last Seen At: 10.99
Total Times Seen 3995
Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: I really want this to be good, because I am probably the most excited about Lorehold in this set -- but I just don’t think it will be that great. Early, it could be a nice way to both load up your graveyard for various synergies and improve your card quality, but there will be situations where you just can’t really make use of this, either because you don’t want to give up cards or you flat out can’t.
Lorehold Excavation
Average Picked At: 10.64
Total Times Picked: 102
Average Last Seen At: 7.92
Total Times Seen 1116
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: While it is a little awkward that it doesn’t impact the board immediately most of the time, it does only cost two, and at least it starts doing damage and gaining you life right away. That part of the card shouldn’t be overlooked, by the way, this will sort of feel like Ill-Gotten Inheritance with more upside. If you’re in RW, and you are if you’re playing this, this seems like the kind of glue that will keep that deck together. I’m not sure it quite does enough to pull you into the color pair itself, but if you’re there already, value it highly.
Necrotic Fumes
Average Picked At: 6.84
Total Times Picked: 112
Average Last Seen At: 5.19
Total Times Seen 750
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: So, this isn’t the most amazing removal spell ever -- you have to two-for-one yourself to use it AND its a Sorcery, but it is kind of passable for your main deck if you don’t get any Learn. It will be absolutely great to grab when you DO “Learn” though, as it is a removal spell that can deal with anything, and that’s a nice thing to be able to Wish for.
Make Your Mark
Average Picked At: 11.39
Total Times Picked: 283
Average Last Seen At: 9.56
Total Times Seen 3334
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: So, the boost here isn’t going to always allow your creature to outright win combat, but that’s okay, because if your creature doesn’t win combat, you still get something back – a 3/2 Spirit. Obviously, this will feel best when you use it to help you kill a creature in combat, AND get the spirit, but even just getting the Spirit isn’t too bad.
Dina, Soul Steeper
Average Picked At: 5.83
Total Times Picked: 124
Average Last Seen At: 4.88
Total Times Seen 659
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This is a powerful life gain payoff. The ideal thing to do with her ability is going to be to sacrifice a pest token, at which point you start draining your opponent with Dina in play, in addition to raising her power. She can also just potentially threaten a bunch of damage when she attacks, which is always a nice thing to make your opponent contend with.
Curate
Average Picked At: 11.25
Total Times Picked: 297
Average Last Seen At: 9.78
Total Times Seen 3429
Pro Rating: 1.0
Pro Comment: I’m not super interested in this. It is just another Anticipate variant, and those are always replaceable. It does help you load your graveyard I guess if that’s what you want, and give you some card selection, and it will trigger magecraft, but it just has an underwhelming effect that is not often worth a card.
Fervent Mastery
Average Picked At: 10.22
Total Times Picked: 36
Average Last Seen At: 6.89
Total Times Seen 377
Pro Rating: 0.0
Pro Comment: So, even with the RW deck liking stuff in the graveyard, I don’t think this is very good. First, 5 to search up 3 cards and then discard 3 randomly is pretty bad in Limited. You spin your wheels to search up some stuff, and then you don’t even know if you’ll keep them! Now, if you cast this for 4 that’s obviously better, and sometimes your opponent won’t actually be able to do the benefit you offer them there, so that’s a thing I guess? But mostly this is a really bad, expensive tutor, that just won’t do what you want it to way too often.
Semester's End
Average Picked At: 5.46
Total Times Picked: 41
Average Last Seen At: 4.92
Total Times Seen 260
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: This is a mostly way too situational to make work. It is easy to imagine ideal scenarios where you just get to line up blocks and exile your board to get those +1/+1 counters, but it just doesn’t come up as often as you would hope, and it is often just a bad card.
Igneous Inspiration
Average Picked At: 2.80
Total Times Picked: 161
Average Last Seen At: 2.74
Total Times Seen 347
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This will frequently feel like “3 mana, kill something, draw a card” and that’s going to be pretty great. This is another premium Red removal spell.
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