Legacy: Spoiler Highlight - Secrets of Strixhaven Charms

Greetings, Legacy community! We've left the New York sewers behind, and now we're going to Strixhaven University!

Secrets of Strixhaven will hit the shelves on April 24th, and we've already gotten some spoilers. In particular, this set brought back a very beloved cycle in all five Strixhaven College colors, a cycle that has a lot of potential in all MTG formats, including Legacy. We're talking about the new Charms!

Charms became a thing a long time ago. They used to be 1-mana instants that didn't have incredibly powerful effects but made up for this with versatility. They were popular enough that WotC brought us new versions right away at the time.

One of them, Vision Charm, is quite popular in the Premodern format because of how it interacts with Phyrexian Dreadnought. We also got a timeshifted version of Funeral Charm, Piracy Charm, in Planar Chaos.

Then we got multicolored Charms, first in Planeshift, then in Shards of Alara and Return to Ravnica. They weren't all great, but most of them were versatile enough to see play in many formats. Wizards of the Coast gave us more versions of them, like the 3-mana monocolored versions, so we can't say they're unpopular. The most recent versions have been expected for a long time, but they're finally here! They look quite efficient and should see play even in Legacy.

Let's go through them!

Straight away, I thought this Charm was probably the best for Legacy because similar cards already see play in this format. Brazen Borrower sees play in many decks, from tempo to combo lists, as a sort of "get out of jail free card" (a card that can solve, albeit temporarily, problematic situations) that is never useless in your hand. After all, it is an evasive threat even if you don't need to use its effect to return a permanent to your hand. The best thing about Borrower is that it is an evasive threat whether you use its effect or not.

We can't say the same for Prismari Charm, but it is a lot more versatile overall. Two of its effects - Surveil 2 and card draw plus removal for practically any sort of problematic permanent - are quite welcome in combo decks, like Sneak and Show. To sum up, in Izzet lists or when a 3/1 body isn't particularly relevant, Prismari Charm should be better than Brazen Borrower.

Finally, its third ability is also relevant considering cards like Ocelot Pride, Noble Hierarch, and Orcish Bowmasters see a lot of play in the format.

Lorehold Charm will have to fight for a slot in Boros Aggro, but it will offer a lot, and this list is already rising in Legacy.

In this deck, this card will be relevant mostly because of its second effect. You'll often have a pretty relevant creature in the graveyard that you want to bring back to put more pressure on the opponent. You might bring back a Sand Scout at the end of the turn when you have less lands than the opponent, a Guide of Souls or an Ocelot Pride that ended up dying when you need more value, or, my favorite, bring back an Ajani, Nacatl Pariah when one of your Cats die, which will turn it into a planeswalker on the spot. You can also bring back a Staff of the Storyteller that ended up discarded or countered.

The third effect is also interesting in decks that can fill the board quickly and end the game suddenly, particularly when you add Goblin Bombardment to the mix.

The first effect might be a bit less relevant, but you'll be able to use it from time to time. Even if it's just to break Grim Monolith + Manifold Key or deal with a Kaldra Compleat or Aether Vial.

Out of these 5 Charms, this is the one that probably won't see a lot of play because 2-mana conditional removals (its main effect) usually don't.

It could be good if its other effects were decent, but that's not the case: its first effect needs a creature in play to work, and even then it's not that efficient for Legacy. Its third effect could end matches, but it will probably be worse at that than Lorehold Charm, for instance. It could also give you a few life points, but don't put too much faith in that.

Basically, what the Charm above doesn't do right, this one does. It is also a 2-mana conditional removal, but it's much wider: it hits other types of permanents and is more efficient to deal with some of the most popular creatures in the format. Silverquill Charm doesn't do much against Moonshadow, Super Shredder, Nethergoyf, the active versions of Dragon's Rage Channeler, or Delver of Secrets as well as Grim Monolith, Goblin Bombardment, and Chalice of the Void.

Its other effects are also more efficient. Drawing 2 cards for 2 mana is pretty uncommon in this format, though it demands a sacrifice. Ideally, you'll sacrifice something that already creates value when it dies, or a permanent that is about to die anyway. But even sacrificing an extra land or a Grist, the Hunger Tide token in long matches could make a difference.

Finally, gaining 5 life could save you in some cases, and it's way better than gaining 3 life.

This Charm is a mystery to me because I can't decide where it would see play. The same thing I said about 2-mana conditional removals in Legacy applies to counterspells. Basically, 2-mana counterspells don't see play in this format unless we can pay for them in some other way. This is, by the way, one of the reasons why some players want Mana Drain to be unbanned. So, the counterspell effect alone is not enough to put this card in Legacy, but it is most likely its most important effect.

Its second effect is pretty situational, but there are a lot of enchantments in Legacy we must destroy, like Urza's Saga. Quandrix Charm is also an answer to Blood Moon, Up the Beanstalk, Goblin Bombardment, and even an occasional Sneak Attack.

The third effect is the least useful of all. It needs creatures to work, but decks that play counterspells usually don't play many creatures. This ability is particularly interesting with 0/0 creatures, like Construct or Germ tokens.

In a format as wide as Legacy, versatility is important. It's clear why Brazen Borrower, Disruptor Flute, Abrade, Prismatic Ending, and Boseiju, Who Endures see play in many decks.

These new charms, in particular Prismari, Lorehold, and Witherbloom, are interesting options. I believe that, even if they don't live up to our expectations, they should show up a lot in the next few months as we try them out. If I were to bet on it, I would say one or two copies of Prismari Charm should find space in Sneak and Show. We'll see.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!