Magic: The Gathering heads back to Strixhaven next month, marking the first return to Wizards of the Coast’s take on a magical school setting since its debut in 2021. The set, called Secrets of Strixhaven, will have regular booster packs alongside five prebuilt Commander decks – and we’ve got an exclusive first look at all of the cards in the blue-red Prismari Artistry deck.
Flip through the slideshow below to see all the new cards, as well reprints with new art, and scroll below the written list to read an interview with Senior Game Designer Daniel Holt about some of the decisions that went into making it!
IGN: Prismari was all about BIG instant and sorceries in the first Strixhaven. Did you have to adjust that angle here or did it work as-is for this deck concept?
Daniel Holt, Senior Game Designer: Strixhaven: School of Mages tested the waters on how every color pair could interact with instants and sorceries. The previous Prismari commander deck did that with big bombastic spells with high mana value. When I approached these decks, my guiding principle was “What does the uncommon Legend from the previous set look like now as the face of this deck?” It’s been a couple of years, there was a whole Phyrexian invasion, and these returning students are now much more powerful.
The previous uncommon Rootha cared about copying a spell and big spells usually make more exciting targets! Plus, with all the Strixhaven reprints and the new main set caring about big spells, it felt like a great theme.
Something that I wanted to tackle with the new Rootha design and a blue-red spells deck was making it clear how to close out and end the game. Her card provides large creatures alongside your large spells to really put pressure on the battle.
What are some of the challenges of building a deck around high mana value spells?
Daniel: Naturally high mana values mean hitting land drops, ramp, and early game are all pivotal to staying in the game, otherwise more aggressive decks can run you over. Spellslinger decks also don’t tend to have a lot of blockers either. This is another reason we had the face commander, Rootha, provide bodies alongside your spells.
Players need to take advantage of treasures, mana rocks, and other mana discounts in the precon (pre-constructed Commander Deck) to get to their high-end spells faster. Cost reductions are really helpful in doing that too. Cards like Blasphemous Act may have a mana value of nine for all your cards that look for that number, but you’re often able to play it for only one mana in commander when it’s needed.
Blue and red have a ton of huge and splashy instants and sorceries; how did you determine which ones were the right kind of splashy for this deck?
Daniel: Flexibility and variable costs were probably the biggest factors when choosing reprint and new spells for the deck. Some cards have cost reductions based on the board state or have an alternate ability to use the card in a way that costs a bit less. Magma Opus was a great flavor return while also having a two mana “discard for effect” buyout. Some reprints like Treasure Cruise with delve let you cast this eight mana spell by spending your graveyard as a resource.
The bigger spells need to help you at different stages in the game. Cards like Volcanic Salvo and Blasphemous Act have large mana values, often cost much less, and can get back into the game if you’ve fallen behind on board.
Other chosen spells are there to ramp you to those big spells. Burst mana from cards like Mana Geyser or Rousing Refrain really escalate your gameplan.
How tempting was it to put Goblin Game in this list?
Daniel: This feels like a very niche and specific card, ha! While it isn’t MY personal style of card, I do remember a team member at least mentioning it in early exploration.
Turbulent Springs is an interesting new multiplayer-focused dual land; how did you land on this design, and was one of the goals specifically to help players who are later in the turn order?
Daniel: The “turbulent” lands are a new cycle I designed here in Secrets of Strixhaven commander. The goal was to create a dual land that played well in Commander and supported several mana base configurations with the land subtypes included. We chose eight as the number required because this makes it enter tapped for most of the game in 1v1, but you got it exactly right in that typically in a commander game, players three and four in the turn order can have this enter untapped on turn three!
The five enemy color pairs show up here as a cycle (one in each deck). While I can’t say the release cadence here, I can assure you that the remaining five allied lands are on their way!
How do you decide when to come up with new land cycles for Commander? Do you feel there aren’t enough consistently untapped duals in the format at the moment?
Daniel: Lands for Commander have different goals than those designed with standard in mind. This cycle came from a brainstorm when we wanted one more cycle that was clearly more Commander-focused that we could use here in the precons. This idea came after recently finishing the enemy tango and cycling lands as well. You can even get your first versions of the blue-red tango and cycling lands here in the Prismari decks!
How do you determine when to give dual lands basic types?
Daniel: Checklands, Snarls, some mana ramp spells, etc. all look for those typings and are a tool we frequently rely on. I wanted these lands to be useful amongst those Commander precon staples.
Muddle, the Ever-Changing fits nicely into a lot of recent Commander strategies (otters from Bloomburrow, elementals from Lorwyn, etc). How often do you look backwards when designing cards like this? Is the intent to make them “upgrades” for recent decks to entice folk toward the next set?
Daniel: The typings on this card were kind of a happy accident! All the secondary commanders in Secrets of Strixhaven are legendary mascots of their college, so elemental in Prismari. The mechanic is all about changing into other things, so Shapeshifter. Then the art came in, and I LOVE otters, so I asked creative if we could get that in there too.
So to answer the question, we don’t usually care about types so much in sets where it isn’t the highlight, but occasionally do think “Oh, this typal deck will enjoy this” and I will definitely be putting this in my personal Bria, Riptide Rogue otter-typal Commander deck!
Was Lutri, the Spellchaser’s recent unbanning influenced at all by knowing cards like Muddle were coming?
Daniel: Bannings aren’t part of Commander precon designs. That is handled by a committee and process all on its own! As I mentioned above though, I’m a huge otter fan, so I love that I can give Lutri and Muddle homes in my decks.
Was it tricky or fun to come up with less restricted, Commander-y versions of the main set “prepared” ability?
Daniel: You’ll find plenty of new prepare creatures throughout the main set of Secrets of Strixhaven, but for the Commander decks, depending on the strength of the spell, I had more flexibility on how often it prepared or how easy it was to do. I actually designed two cycles in these precons.
One cycle is a two-color card representing the college of the deck it’s in. This cycle’s prepared spells are all a new instant or sorcery. Inspired Skypainter in the Prismari deck works on its own, but pairs well with the tokens that Rootha is summoning.
The second cycle of prepared creatures is a special one where I pitched the idea of professors traveling from other planes via the Omenpaths to teach Strixhaven students. These cards are each mono-color and prepare a well-known and powerful spell from Magic’s history. Dirgur Focusmage is a Jeskai monk from Tarkir and gives players the chance to cast Braingeyser for maybe the first time ever! I’m excited to see players’ reactions to all five famous spells in this cycle.
Tom Marks is IGN’s Associate Reviews Director. He loves puzzles, platformers, puzzle-platformers, and lots more.
