Secrets of Strixhaven Is Available To Trade

Secrets of Strixhaven key art | Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast

Friendly greetings and welcome to the mystical plane of Arcavios! Our first visit introduced us to the arcane academics of Strixhaven, and we're back for a new term with new students and familiar faces. The Cardsphere team is excited to announce Secrets of Strixhaven (SOS) and Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) are available to trade.

I'm John Sherwood. I exercised my Artistic Process, read the Arcane Omens, and now I'm lost in a Daydream of magical escapism. This set is great for that. Despite my distaste for Strixhaven's gaudy and garish visual design, I found myself pulled in by this set's narrative and mechanics.

I hope you'll find something for you too as we embark on a new academic adventure.

Two Spells, One Epic Image

The Secrets of Strixhaven headliner is a serialized, textless version of Emeritus of Ideation, with art by legendary illustrator Mark Poole.

Poole's newest contribution to the gallery of great Magic art references one of his most iconic. The character and pyramid draw from the original art for Ancestral Recall.

Mark Poole is one of the all-time best artists ever credited in the bottom left corner of a Magic card. Sadly, very few of us will ever have the pleasure of appreciating this version of the card in person. The odds of pulling one of 500 from a Collector Booster are in the unlikely realm of lottery jackpots.

Borderless

SOS features borderless, alternate art versions of its mythic rare planeswalkers and Elder Dragons. Among those planeswalkers, we have the pleasure of meeting Professor Dellian Fel.

If you followed the Secrets of Strixhaven story, then I'm sure you can imagine his displeasure to meet you.

I'm thrilled to see Strixhaven's five founding Elder Dragons sitting for their official portraits. The alternate arts of Lorehold, the Historian, Prismari, the Inspiration, Quandrix, the Proof, Silverquill, the Disputant, and Witherbloom, the Balancer are all excellent exhibitions of these creatures as characters with personalities.

Also exhibiting borderless versions, the lands of Secrets of Strixhaven peek into the world of Arcavios. The "two or more" duals from Innistrad: Crimson Vow get reprints in SOS, and the portal alternate arts open windows of imagination.

Meanwhile, the spellcraft basics offer a stylistic view of the Strixhaven colleges' evocations.

Next, the Field Notes style returns with annotations from Strixhaven scholars on six rares and six mythic rares.

Whoever took notes on The Dawning Archaic was reasonably concerned with the teeth and claws. The archaics were one of my favorite mysteries from Strixhaven: School of Mages (STX), and it's awesome to learn more about them.

Finally, the last borderless treatment in SOS is the Codex Bundle Promos. These promos exhibit stunning art from Qistina Kahlidah, showcasing Sol Ring and enemy color talismans.

These promos are exclusively distributed through the Codex Bundle, and have the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) set code. They are not legal in Standard.

Extended

Extending our view of images from the regular Magic frames, extended art cards are a treat found only in Collector Boosters. I love it when an extended art card reveals hidden information. Looking at the normal version of Steal the Show, you would never know there's another performer stage right.

The extended version of Steal the Show tells more of the story.

Mystical Archive

The Strixhaven Mystical Archive is a love letter to Magic. Wizards of the Coast nailed it with the original Mystical Archive, and they're doing their best to give us a worthy sequel. To that end, every Secrets of Strixhaven booster includes a Mystical Archive card.

If you're a Collector Booster or Bundle consumer, you might pulls some Japanese Mystical Archive cards. These are the same 65 cards as the English Mystical Archive, with illustrations inspired by Japanese art styles. Japanese Mystical Archive cards can also have the silver scroll foil treatment, which appears to mute the colors in favor of a metallic shine.

Special Guests

Nine reprints are graduating with honors, featuring new art as the Special Guests for SOS. However, I'm giving the tenth Special Guest for this term a failing grade.

The Special Guest with no credit on its transcript is neither a real reprint, nor will it be available to trade on Cardsphere. This Library of Alexandria is an Arena-only (online) reproduction, and will not be printed in paper because of the Reserved List.

It's too bad, because Bruce Brenneise did an outstanding job of reimagining the Library as it might exist on Arcavios.

Pardon me while I derail this trade announcement into my personal anti-Reserved List editorial. Take a look at the index prices for Library of Alexandria and Sol Ring. The Alpha Sol Ring and Library of Alexandria both command impressive prices over $1200. That first printing of Sol Ring is still very much collectible and valuable, despite millions of cheap reprints in circulation.

Imagine Cardsphere in a world where the same is true of every card on the Reserved List.

Back on the trade announcement train, nine real Special Guests portray iconic spells as lessons in classes at Strixhaven. For example, new Archaeomancer has a model posing for the original art of Archaeomancer for a studio full of Prismari students. Full points for this novel art-within-the-art approach.

Conclusion

Secrets of Strixhaven is an outstanding return to an intriguing plane. It builds on the best parts of original Strixhaven, and introduces some exciting new mechanics. If Adventures and Omens are any indication, I'm sure we'll be see more designs like prepare in the future.

In the meantime, I'm looking for an Emeritus of Ideation to live the dream of casting Ancestral Recall with mana from Black Lotus, courtesy of Garth One-Eye.

Tell us about your picks for this set in the comments, or join the conversation on Cardsphere's Discord. Until next time, happy trading!