Draft Trainer

Strixhaven: School of Mages Limited Quiz

Answered: 0/20
Accuracy: 0
Ecological Appreciation
Average Picked At: 3.94
Total Times Picked: 32
Average Last Seen At: 3.47
Total Times Seen 86
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: If you have a bunch of mana lying around, this is going to be pretty sweet. Both the UR and UG decks in this format are interested in ramping, so even though this looks like it might be kind of hard to set up, it is going to be easier in this format than most. So, if you pay about 6 mana total for this, you’re likely to get a couple of three-drops, which is a perfectly decent return to get from this. This does kind of having diminishing returns, because once you get to a certain point, it is not super likely that your deck/graveyard will have enough good creatures to search up for your opponent to give you two of. In other words, I think paying 4 for X is probably going to have pretty much the same outcome as paying 5+. But, still, you do get a 2-for-1 out of it basically no matter what, and usually you’ll get your mana’s worth.
Plargg, Dean of Chaos
Average Picked At: 2.13
Total Times Picked: 52
Average Last Seen At: 2.24
Total Times Seen 97
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: Both sides of this look pretty great to me. The Plargg side can rummage, which is a pretty nice effect to have in Limited, it really helps you improve your card quality. Just a two-mana 2/2 with that effect would be a solid playable -- but Plargg has another ability that is pretty nice too, and a great late-game mana sink! Sure, you end up paying 5 mana for a card that’s cheaper than that, but that’s perfectly fine. Once you’re in top deck mode you’ll be happy to have that ability around. Then, Augusta has a nice pump effect that really makes sure that all the creatures on your board are getting some kind of bonus -- PLUS, he grants them all the ability to tap or untap, basically letting you choose which stats boost you’d like to have on the creature, while also giving your guys pseudo-vigilance.
Basic Conjuration
Average Picked At: 4.85
Total Times Picked: 59
Average Last Seen At: 4.12
Total Times Seen 223
Pro Rating: 1.5 // 3.0
Pro Comment: This will be a nice thing to grab when you “Learn,” since it gives you some pretty nice card selection and gains you some life. If you end up with no “Learn” at all, it would be a somewhat passable card in your deck too. It is a bit clunky to be sure, but gaining life off of it helps offset that problem.
Sparring Regimen
Average Picked At: 1.41
Total Times Picked: 63
Average Last Seen At: 1.76
Total Times Seen 89
Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: This is great. The effect on it would already be good without Learn, as getting a +1/+1 counter every single turn on an attacking creature just enables a whole lot of attacks and tends to snowball. But then, you add learn to the mix, and you get to draw a very real card with it in addition to getting that sweet value, and you have a bomb on your hands.
Pestilent Cauldron
Average Picked At: 4.11
Total Times Picked: 35
Average Last Seen At: 3.96
Total Times Seen 139
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: The Artifact side on this is a nice little Swiss Army Knife. Turning lands you draw into Pests in the late game isn’t too bad, and sometimes you may even be able to mill your opponent a significant amount. The card draw effect is probably the best of the abilities, but it does ask for cards in graveyards to make it work. How good this is will be really dependent on the speed of this format, but I can see it grinding out some winds. The Restorative Boon side is also pretty good -- sure, your opponent gets to gain the life too, but that’s kind of a wash since its symmetrical. The important thing is that you can can use it in the late game to get important things back to your hand, a play that can be quite nice in longer games. Overall, I think the whole package here is a pretty good card.
Elemental Summoning
Average Picked At: 5.83
Total Times Picked: 380
Average Last Seen At: 5.40
Total Times Seen 1945
Pro Rating: 1.5 // 3.0
Pro Comment: This is yet another lesson that you wouldn’t really ever want in your main deck, as a 5-mana 4/4 just isn’t good these days, but being able to draw this when you “Learn” sounds pretty good!
Multiple Choice
Average Picked At: 1.78
Total Times Picked: 59
Average Last Seen At: 2.25
Total Times Seen 78
Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: So, the ideal thing is obviously to have X be = 4, at which point you get a 5-mana 4/4, bounce one of their creatures, and Scry and draw a card. If that’s just what this always was, it would be a really good card. Basically a huge Man-O’-War type creature that also draws you a card. But because this can be used earlier than that in a pinch, it is significantly better than that. I think between the powerful X =4, and the earlier flexibility, this is something that gets in the lower range of bomb status.
Crushing Disappointment
Average Picked At: 11.70
Total Times Picked: 281
Average Last Seen At: 9.63
Total Times Seen 3544
Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: This isn’t amazing. 4-mana to draw 2 at instant speed is alright, and it is nice the life loss is symmetrical, but I tend to have a hard time getting behind this kind of card draw in Limited. It is pretty inefficient and expensive, and by choosing to spend 4 of you r mana to cast this you probably already paid some life in a way -- since you didn’t add to your board with that mana. Then, paying more life can be surprisingly painful. Again, it is nice that it can give you some reach against some opponents, and in BG especially you’ll be able to gain enough life that you don’t need to worry about it, but I still think this is a card that gets cut a reasonable chunk of the time.
Sudden Breakthrough
Average Picked At: 12.57
Total Times Picked: 269
Average Last Seen At: 10.44
Total Times Seen 3745
Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: This is a decent trick -- it gives a boost large enough for your creature to win combat most of the time -- and it gives you a Treasure for some fixing and ramping. But you’ll probably cut it a lot, after all, it is still a trick -- and that means it is risky and highly situational.
Tenured Inkcaster
Average Picked At: 6.91
Total Times Picked: 113
Average Last Seen At: 5.52
Total Times Seen 830
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: This card is a potent +1/+1 counter payoff. When it comes down it immediately buffs a creature, and makes it so that creature drains the opponent for one life when it attacks. That’s not a bad deal, and that’s pretty much the fail case. If you end up with a synergistic +1/+1 counter deck, her presence on the board will make the game close to unwillable for the opponent. Now, she is super undersized for her cost, so taking her down won’t be too hard, but left unchecked she seems pretty great.
Efreet Flamepainter
Average Picked At: 2.21
Total Times Picked: 48
Average Last Seen At: 2.54
Total Times Seen 95
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: If this gets through for damage, it is going to be pretty crazy. Because it has double strike, you’ll get to cast two instants or sorceries for free every time! If you can do that even once, that will win most games. Now, given that it’s just a ¼, getting through with it won’t always be a cake walk, but its worth remembering that this thing has such a scary combat damage trigger that your opponent will have to be pretty careful, and they will leave back blockers they just wouldn’t have before. Using a removal spell to get a blocker out of the way, and then attacking with the Flamepainter and casting that spell for FREE is going to come up sometimes, and that’s going to be amazing.
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.
Test of Talents
Average Picked At: 9.56
Total Times Picked: 102
Average Last Seen At: 6.95
Total Times Seen 1061
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: This set has a ton of instants and sorceries, and countering those no questions asked for only two mana actually seems like a decent thing here – after all, it’s a hard counter. The fact you then take out all the other copies of a card you counter is upside, but it isn’t exactly huge. I think this is just a solid playable.
Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy
Average Picked At: 4.57
Total Times Picked: 173
Average Last Seen At: 4.34
Total Times Seen 572
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: So, Zimone’s first ability is the kind that is often overrated in Limited. Sure, if you have the extra land she will ramp you early, and that’s nice. Thing is, you tend to run out of extra lands to play in a hurry in Limited, so she is going to do this once, and only if you get her early, really. Her draw effect is what is more intriguing to me, just being able to pay 4 for a single card is a great mana sink, and in the late game when she starts drawing you two, she’s likely to just win you the game. She is small and easy to kill, but at two mana that isn’t going to hurt too much.
Honor Troll
Average Picked At: 6.79
Total Times Picked: 112
Average Last Seen At: 5.83
Total Times Seen 865
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: Increasing the amount of life you gain is nice, especially because BG has lots of ways to gain life. This Troll becoming a 4/4 isn’t going to be impossible, but you shouldn’t count on it either. It is mostly going to be a ⅔ with vigilance and a decent life gain enhancer.
Eureka Moment
Average Picked At: 8.11
Total Times Picked: 335
Average Last Seen At: 7.28
Total Times Seen 2508
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: This ramps you a little bit while drawing you cards which is fine. A lot of the time the ability to put lands into play from your hand aren’t that good in Limited because there comes a point where you just don’t have lands to put down, but this draws you card, and makes it more likely you have a land to put into play to take advantage.
Augmenter Pugilist
Average Picked At: 2.10
Total Times Picked: 50
Average Last Seen At: 2.08
Total Times Seen 81
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: Both sides of this have their place. The Pugilist side is far less situational since it is just an efficient creature -- and one that gets really scary in the late game, but sometimes you’ll want to cast the Echoing Equation side of things -- you pretty much only do that when you can swing for lethal though, and it will sometimes enable that.
Burrog Befuddler
Average Picked At: 12.02
Total Times Picked: 338
Average Last Seen At: 10.20
Total Times Seen 3848
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: This seems like a solid two-drop. Flash + the ability to lower a creature’s power will sometimes give you a pretty attractive blocking situation, but even if this just prevents one damage and lets you add to the board with a two-mana 2/1, that’s fine too.
Beaming Defiance
Average Picked At: 10.60
Total Times Picked: 325
Average Last Seen At: 9.27
Total Times Seen 3155
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: This is a solid trick, it gives a good enough stats boost to win most combats, and the Hexproof part makes it so that you can also use it to effectively counter removal. Like I always say, it IS still a trick, which means you will only be running it in aggro decks, and it comes with various risks – but it will be solid for those decks.
Thunderous Orator
Average Picked At: 4.42
Total Times Picked: 139
Average Last Seen At: 3.84
Total Times Seen 545
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This is a kind of reasonable card just as a French Vanilla creature, so when you add the rest to the mix it gets quite good. Being able to gain whatever key words it friends has will sometimes be awesome. That said, he will also sometimes be a two mana 2/2 with Vigilance and that’s it -- which is fine. Just don’t expect him to always be always taking to the sky or anything. He will gain other keyword abilities often enough though to be a relevant card at multiple stages of the game.
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