Secrets of Strixhaven: The Draft Syllabus

ORI 101

Orientation: The Mechanics

Prerequisite for everything

Nine systems govern this campus. Learn them before the first pack or spend the draft reading cards while your neighbors take the good ones.

Prepared Spells NEWInstants or sorceries printed on a creature (reverse adventures), castable while the creature is in play and prepared; many enter prepared, and preparations do not stack. Worth roughly a full extra card, and they count as instants/sorceries for Opus and Repartee math.

Repartee Silverquill WBTriggers whenever you cast an instant or sorcery targeting ANY creature, yours or theirs. Removal, taps, and tricks all count; aggressively slanted payoffs.

Opus Prismari URTriggers on every instant/sorcery, with a bigger effect if you SPENT five or more mana (mana spent, not mana value). X spells enable it at either end.

Infusion Witherbloom BGCards improve if you gained life this turn. When the bonus is a trigger or spell, gain the life BEFORE it resolves.

Increment Quandrix GUThe creature grows when you spend more mana on a spell than its power or toughness. Checked on trigger AND resolution; triggers naturally as you play.

Leaves-the-Graveyard Lorehold RWPayoffs trigger whenever cards leave your graveyard, fed by flashback and repeatable self-exile. Doubles as graveyard hate.

FlashbackCast instants and sorceries again from the graveyard for a flashback cost, exiling afterward. Virtual card advantage that fuels both red decks.

Paradigm Five mythicsThe spell exiles and you cast a free copy at each of your first main phases for the rest of the game. Strongly pulls you into its color; wins any board stall.

Converge + the ArchiveConverge scales with colors of mana spent; most payoffs want 3+. And every booster carries one Mystical Archive reprint with special art: fully draftable, fully playable. Do not pass it out of confusion.

HON 500

The Dean's List

Take on sight

The ten highest honors, in ranked order, then the two mythic cycles that bend any draft around themselves.

**Stirring Hopesinger**Cheap lifelink flier whose repertoire pumps the whole team every time a spell targets a creature. Runs away with any board.

**Professor Dellian Fel**Four mana, five loyalty, does everything: removal, repeatable draw, lifegain reload. Splash him in any green deck.

**Improvisation Capstone**Recasts itself free every first main phase. A flood of cast card advantage nothing else matches.

**Slumbering Trudge**One green mana now, an untapped 6/6 around turn five. A free giant that dodges cheap interaction.

Emeritus of Ideation // Ancestral Recall — **Emeritus of Ideation**5/5 flier with ward, prepared with a literal Ancestral Recall. Roughly a four-for-one through removal.

**Antiquities on the Loose**Two spirits, then two more plus counters on flashback: up to 12/12 across four bodies from one card.

**Berta, Wise Extrapolator**Grows herself, refunds mana, and births a growing Fractal every turn at instant speed. Survives a turn, wins the game.

**Ark of Hunger**Mill-and-play every turn while every card leaving your graveyard drains. An engine most decks cannot answer; first-pick caliber.

**Quandrix, the Proof**6/6 flying trample with cascade: value even if it dies, and alive every spell cascades too.

**Moment of Reckoning**Four modes of destroy-and-reanimate: roughly a four-for-one that flips lost games. Worth jamming even in aggro.

The Founders (Elder Dragon cycle)

Generically powerful must-kill flying bombs, worth building around or splashing wherever castable.

Faculty Emeritus (prepared with famous spells, in rough pick order)

Emeritus of Abundance // Regrowth — **Emeritus of Abundance**

Emeritus of Woe // Demonic Tutor — **Emeritus of Woe**

Emeritus of Conflict // Lightning Bolt — **Emeritus of Conflict**

Emeritus of Truce // Swords to Plowshares — **Emeritus of Truce**

One classroom rule for Emeritus of Truce: never hand the opponent the Inkling token that unlocks their Swords to Plowshares unless a bomb is about to kill you.

COL 210

The Five Colleges

Current standings included

Five enemy-pair colleges plus one interdisciplinary program. Standings reflect the post-release meta; the format is medium speed leaning slow, and only Silverquill is true aggro.

SilverquillStanding: #1

Repartee · the format's one fast aggro deck

Curve out and grow your creatures by targeting them with spells. Only build it with a real two-drop curve and two-plus card-advantage uncommons (Stirring Honormancer, Snooping Page), or an opened Moment of Reckoning. It edges out Lorehold because Lorehold hype dries those cards up.

Quill-Blade Laureate // Twofold Intent — **Quill-Blade Laureate**

LoreholdStanding: #2

Leaves-the-graveyard · midrange value

Not a conventional beatdown: flashback and repeatable self-exile feed payoffs that grow creatures and spawn Spirits. Red-white lacks raw draw, so maximize natural two-for-ones and finish with evasion or burn. Could retake #1 as the meta shifts.

PrismariStanding: #3

Opus · spells control

Build the CONTROL version, not tempo: strong removal, blue card advantage, treasures reaching the five-mana Opus threshold, and prepared creatures inflating spell count. Frequently splashes a converge payoff or two.

Sanar, Unfinished Genius // Wild Idea — **Sanar, Unfinished Genius**

QuandrixStanding: #4

Increment · ramp and Fractals

Keep casting spells bigger than your creatures' stats to stack counters and spawn Fractal tokens; bounce and roadblocks survive the setup turns while X spells and obscene draw go over the top. Best base for the multicolor piles.

Studious First-Year // Rampant Growth — **Studious First-Year**

WitherbloomStanding: #5, rising

Infusion · lifegain AGGRO, not value

Underperforming only because it is over-drafted and misplayed as a grind deck. The cards point to lifegain aggro: Bogwater Lumaret turns infusion on every turn, pests attack for life, and payoffs convert life into pressure. Take the beatdown role, even against Lorehold.

Interdisciplinary StudiesReal deck

Converge · the four-to-five color program

Assembles nearly every pod: base Quandrix, add black or red by removal density, white least represented. First-pick Together as One, then prioritize fixing relentlessly. Not a forced build: pick converge payoffs when the fixing already supports them.

Registrar's color rankings (tiebreakers, not laws): white first, then red, black, blue, green. Starting white and choosing between the Silverquill and Lorehold lanes is the strongest way to open a draft. Much of the format's power sits in gold cards that wheel late, so stay flexible longer than usual. Green's low rank reflects its enabler role, not weak decks.

LIT 101

Required Reading: Top Commons

Ranked first, second, third

White

Elite Interceptor // Rejoinder — **Elite Interceptor**Prepared one-drop: tap or untap plus a card, whenever you need it. Great everywhere, not just WB.

**Ajani's Response**Destroy for five, three less versus tapped. Triggers Repartee; pairs with your own tap effects.

**Eager Glyphmage**3/3 plus a 1/1 flying Inkling for four. Generic value.

Blue

**Essence Scatter**Countering a prepared creature denies the extra card too.

**Run Behind**Library-top removal, cheaper against attackers; instant speed feeds Opus.

**Deluge Virtuoso**Stuns a blocker for two turns, then grows with every spell.

Black

**Last Gasp**Two mana, minus 3/3, instant. Efficient in every black deck.

**Wander Off**Four-mana instant exile: answers anything, springs Repartee mid-combat.

**Sneering Shadewriter**Evasive drain that closes races; best in aggressive shells.

Red

**Unsubtle Mockery**Four damage plus surveil at instant speed; stocks the yard for Lorehold.

**Expressive Firedancer**Opus grower that makes every block a nightmare.

**Heated Argument**Deal six at the big-spell breakpoint, exile a graveyard card, ping for two.

Green

**Burrog Barrage**Green's interaction: fight-style removal at instant speed, hard to blow out.

**Noxious Newt**Deathtouch blocker that taps for mana. Never a dead draw.

**Tenured Concocter**4/5 vigilance that draws when targeted; Infusion swings for six.

HON 300

Honors Program: Overachievers

Better than they read

The format is slow and grindy with card advantage in every color, which promotes cards most sets would bench: big spells, engines, and converge payoffs. Maindeck the slow-matchup cards.

**Mathemagics**At ten-plus mana the opponent draws until they deck. Card draw AND a win condition; take it very highly.

**Brush Off**The format's biggest riser: counters the game-deciding haymakers, often for two mana.

**Strixhaven Skycoach**Fits every deck: converge fixer AND a genuine 3/2 flying attacker. People wrongly pass it.

**Exhibition Tidecaller**Mills 10 per big spell in a format slow enough to actually deck people.

**Practiced Offense**The white decks reliably go wide; flashback double strike ends close games instantly.

**Pestbrood Sloth**4/4 reach that dies into two lifegain pests. Exactly what green decks want.

**Forum Necroscribe**Turns your removal into absurd two-for-ones.

SEM 220

Study Groups: Two-Card Synergies

Pairs worth assembling

Cast a spell, tap Sanar for a Treasure while it is on the stack, sacrifice it to Mica to copy the spell. Doubles every instant and sorcery for the rest of the game.

Lumaret turn two, Mascot turn three: every creature gains life, every gain grows the Mascot. Add Poisoner's Apprentice and the removal trigger is always on.

The aura triggers flying plus surveil; flying connects, and combat damage rebuys the aura from the graveyard. Loops every turn.

Rummage, discard the Dromedary, buy it back for two. Every rummage becomes pure card advantage plus a graveyard-leave trigger.

Scathing Shadelock // Venomous Words — **Scathing Shadelock**

The Shadelock re-prepares every main phase, casting a deathtouch pump each turn: a repeating Repartee trigger that turns the Page into drawing, growing pressure.

Reanimate the Scrollsmith; its entry exiles Helping Hand back to hand for recasting. Chain multiple Scrollsmiths for absurd recursion turns.

A big X Procrastinate stuns their best blocker for many turns AND pumps the trampler by all the mana spent. Each half fixes the other.

The Lorecaster rebuys the sorcery on entry; the sorcery rebuys the Lorecaster plus a friend when it dies. Late-game inevitability worth splashing.

PRB 000

Academic Probation

Do not enroll

The format is deep in good cards, so raise your bar. Judge every card by its floor when you are behind, not the imagined best case.

**Borrowed Knowledge**Four mana that never touches the board; the self-discard mode leaves you DOWN a card.

**Fractal Anomaly**Default state: one mana for a 1/1. A dead card waiting for a combo.

**Harsh Annotation**Removal that gifts a 1/1 flyer nearly two-for-ones you and ruins killing utility creatures.

**Ulna Alley Shopkeep**Without real lifegain density it is a three-mana 2/3 with a terrible floor.

**Biblioplex Tomekeeper**Below-rate 3/4 whose prepare mode barely matters. Gets snowballed past.

**Rabid Attack**+1/+0 rarely swings combat; you pay two mana to replace a dying creature. Play around it, do not play it.

**Growth Curve**Two counters at sorcery speed unless a loaded Fractal already exists; invites the two-for-one.

Blazing Firesinger // Seething Song — **Blazing Firesinger**The ritual pays off only on exactly turn three with a big follow-up. Otherwise below rate.

**Daydream**Needs a strong enters-the-battlefield creature to re-trigger; nearly useless behind or creatureless. One lecturer defends it in Lorehold.

**Arcane Omens**Five mana for about two discard in a normal deck. EXCEPTION: a real converge deck discarding three to five breaks mirrors open.

Faculty dispute, noted for honesty: Oracle's Restoration is rated playable by one lecturer (a cantripping Repartee trigger that gains a life) and panned by another (it is a SORCERY, not a trick, with blowout risk). Same for Daydream above. Treat both as narrow role-players, not staples.

OFF 150

Office Hours: Play Around This

What open mana threatens

White

Interjection: +2/+2 and first strike for one
Ajani's Response: three cheaper against your TAPPED attackers
Silverquill Charm: two permanent counters, the classic blowout
Practiced Offense: team counters plus double strike, twice via flashback

Blue

Chase Inspiration: +0/+3 and hexproof, held to protect bombs
Fractalize: can shrink YOUR bomb to a 1/1 for one blue
Counters: Brush Off, Essence Scatter, Spell Pierce (live late against X spells)
Quandrix Charm: super flexible, played constantly; the 5/5 mode is huge on Fractals

Black

Masterful Flourish: indestructible for one
Dissection Practice: wins a combat AND kills a small creature
Rabid Attack: the reason behind a suspiciously wide black attack
Send in the Pest discard: hold an extra land to shield key spells vs BG

Red

Tome Blast: four total to the face across flashback. Stay above four life, not at it.
Heated Argument and Cost of Brilliance also reach the face
Lorehold Charm: team pump and trample on alpha strikes

Green

Efflorescence: two counters, plus trample AND indestructible if they gained life
Lumaret's Favor: +2/+4, COPIED with lifegain. Two combats at once.
Burrog Barrage: their blocker fights at instant speed

Every classroom

Instant-speed removal is also a surprise Repartee or Opus trigger; combat math lies here
Late-game decks must still END games: chip damage always, or Tidecaller and Mathemagics steal it back

REG 310

The Registrar: Mana & Splashes

Fixing is everywhere

Half of all packs carry a college dual in the basic slot (Forum of Amity, Spectacle Summit, Titan's Grave, Fields of Strife, Paradox Gardens), each with a late-game surveil activation. Take lands high: the gold two-drops want both colors on curve, and off-color duals feed converge.

**Terramorphic Expanse**Simple, effective, always welcome.

Goblin Glasswright // Craft with Pride — **Goblin Glasswright**Treasures for splashes and the Opus threshold.

**Emil, Vastlands Roamer**Rewards land-name diversity; dominates late boards at instant speed.

The one-basic splash rule: splash with a single off-color basic and let the fixing multiply it: Skycoach fetches it, Studious First-Year finds it, Spectacle Summit taps for it. Your early turns stay consistent; your late game goes rainbow.

EXM 400

Final Examination

Build day and game day

Sealed build, in order

Know the mechanics before you arrive; the prerelease kit's seeded booster is all one college, the easiest (not mandatory) home.
Start from bombs and paradigm mythics: a paradigm card strongly pulls you into its color and wins any stall.
Count prepared spells as spells: your Opus and Repartee counts are higher than the creature count suggests.
Aggro needs a real curve: this format grinds, so a Silverquill build without two-drops and two-plus card-advantage uncommons loses the long game it created.
Consider building two decks from one pool: streamlined aggro for game ones, a grindier configuration against removal-heavy opponents.

Play like a professor

Prepare patience: deploy the creature and cast its spell in the same turn when possible, denying the removal window.
Life total discipline: five is not four. Red reaches for the last points through flashback burn.
End the game: once ahead, never skip chip damage; this format's mirrors go long enough to be stolen.
Hold counterspells honestly: the scariest opposing plays are max-mana X spells, so even Spell Pierce stays live late.
Stay open in draft: the gold cards wheel; the reader of signals beats the forcer of lanes.