Metagame: Secrets of Strixhaven's First Week on Competitive Formats

Secrets of Strixhaven had its first week of release, and the set's trial by fire came during Magic Online Challenges and independent tournaments in the Standard format.

The consensus is that Flow State is the main staple from the set, appearing in practically every environment where it's legal, but other cards also stood out in specific Metagames.

Professor Dellian Fel, for example, was one of the highlights for Pioneer and Standard, while Exhibition Tidecaller brought back Dredge decks in Modern, now running Arclight Phoenix in the package. For Pauper, Spirit Mascot and Pursue the Past transformed Inside Out into a combo deck with different win conditions.

Below, check out the main highlights from Secrets of Strixhaven in tournaments over the weekend.

Izzet remains the most efficient color combination in the format. It's no wonder: Prismari added several new tools for all variants.

Flow State starred as the main addition for Prowess and Lessons, proving once again that a "Draw 2" with top-filtering remains as efficient as it was with Expressive Iteration.

Izzet Lessons found slots for Emeritus of Ideation. Generally, two copies are split between maindeck and sideboard, or both in the sideboard. The lists also started including Great Hall of the Biblioplex as a complementary win condition.

Spellementals didn't include many copies of Flow State, probably due to the already high reliance on the graveyard to operate. In compensation, Prismari Charm, Traumatic Critique, and Colorstorm Stallion appeared in some quantity in the main lists.

Emeritus of Ideation was also an addition in Grixis Reanimator variants and in some Dimir Excruciator lists.

Sultai variants didn't run the new creature but gained more consistency with Dina's Guidance serving as a tutor for the graveyard and a toolbox for the hand.

The Witherbloom also added several tools to the format that brought back a once-forgotten archetype in Standard: Golgari Demons.

Traditional Midrange decks, especially those built around permanents like Unholy Annex, face the challenge of mana efficiency imposed by cards like Boomerang Basics and Stormchaser's Talent, but Golgari's range of answers combined with the breadth of threats and card advantage effects makes it hard to know what to expect from each opponent and how to respond appropriately when "just ignore and win the race" doesn't work.

Mono Green Landfall also found room for Emeritus of Abundance, given the ease of reaching eight or more lands with Icetill Explorer and the new card's ability to maintain grind in fairer games.

Daydream and Skycoach Conductor pushed Azorius Momo even further toward Blink lines with Quantum Riddler and other Warp permanents.

Resonating Lute was the main addition to Control decks, considerably easing the cast of Jeskai Revelation by doubling the available mana while the new artifact is on the board.

As in Standard, Izzet and Golgari were the most benefited archetypes in Pioneer. For practical purposes, the main archetypes of the competitive Metagame remain the same, with a significant increase in Golgari Midrange lists in the Top 8 of Challenges.

Professor Dellian Fel was the most notable inclusion for Golgari, but some specific sideboard additions were tested, while other variants tried using Emeritus of Abundance in the three-drop slot, which could become a standard in a more grind-oriented Metagame.

But we're not in a grind format. Prowess remains the best deck in the format, and Flow State did the job of Expressive Iteration in an archetype that doesn't rely on Treasure Cruise to operate.

Izzet Phoenix included a full set of Traumatic Critique and Vibrant Outburst. Critique directly interacts with the archetype's game plan, even though it costs relatively too much mana early in the game to work, but Outburst compensates as a card capable of holding off two threats and controlling the opponent's clock, helping to extend the game.

Flow State found room in Modern but competed with Expressive Iteration in Izzet lists. The archetype with the best results using the card this weekend was Dimir Murktide.

A pleasant surprise over the weekend was the return of Arclight Phoenix and Dredge to Modern in the same deck: Exhibition Tidecaller turns each spell into a "Mill 3," fueling the ability to put Dredge enablers into the graveyard to put even more cards there with Faithless Looting and Burning Inquiry, hoping to end the turn with several Phoenixes in the graveyard, ready to return after sequencing multiple cheap spells.

Speaking of graveyards, Dina's Guidance simplified the Goryo's Vengeance stacks, which can now operate on a Golgari shell using Formidable Speaker and Unmarked Grave as complementary tutors to the new card.

A Mono Green Zenith list also appeared in one of the Challenges using Slumbering Trudge, whose role is to reduce the cost of The Great Henge to three mana and then be sacrificed with Life's Legacy to draw six cards for two mana.

Pursue the Past was the main card from the new set for Pauper. Besides complementing the discard package of Boros Moxite/Boros Bully lists, the new spell established, alongside Spirit Mascot, a new variant of the Inside Out Combo.

The deck can now attack from three angles. The first is the classic combo of Inside Out and Tireless Tribe to swap power and toughness, dealing four damage per attack for each discarded card. Unlike conventional lists with Whiteout, this variant takes advantage of the interaction between Eidolons with multicolored spells, where Thrilling Discovery, Pursue the Past, and Inside Out return any number of them that were discarded.

Spirit Mascot grows whenever a card leaves the graveyard, and the Eidolons' triggers increase its power significantly each turn if we have a multicolored discard spell to accompany them. The new creature also interacts with Sneaky Snacker, our third attack line, which benefits from the various looting effects included in the list.

Other decks had less impactful or transformative additions. Turbo Fog, for example, gained Embrace the Paradox as a new card advantage source that eases access to mana in the late game, even allowing responses to graveyard triggers on the opponent's turn, since we can put a Bojuka Bog into play with it.

Gates gained Follow the Lumarets, which can dig for both threats and the land of the turn, with a condition for generating card advantage that's easy to trigger with Sacred Cat and Lunarch Veteran.

Page, Loose Leaf was tested in a Cycling Storm list, where, with one copy in play, the others in hand can be discarded to find an instant or sorcery, which culminates in more rituals or Reaping the Graves, making it easier to maintain a damage streak with Drannith Stinger.

As expected, Flow State was the big highlight from the set for Legacy, showing up in various blue-based archetype variants: from traditional Tempo lists to Jeskai Control and Doomsday.

Petrified Hamlet was another standout card from the new set in the format, mainly in Eldrazi Stompy lists.

Finally, a new variant of the deck known as Mississippi River did show up in one of the Challenges, running 80 cards with Yorion, Sky Nomad and including an Eldrazi titans package and the new Improvisation Capstone.

That's all for today!

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Thanks for reading!