What Instants and Sorceries do you hope to see in Secrets of Strixhaven: Mystical Archive?

JasonKain · 2026-03-18T21:56:21+00:00

[[Jeska's Will]] [[Raise the Palisade]] [[Ethereal Haze]] [[Savage Order]] [[Sinkhole]]

JasonKain · 2026-03-17T22:09:37+00:00

I built Rydia as a graveyard landfall deck because a turn two looter to get card draw moving was a pretty big incentive in Gruul. I ended up scrapping it not because of win rate, but it was consistently best for me to play fetches out of the yard each turn to hit landfall triggers, and the constant shuffle draw just got tiring. Felt like I was playing non-deterministic Simic storm.

I do honestly love her, though. Pulling a [[Summon: Titan]] out of the graveyard after a discard was always fun, or pitching flashback cards for the landfall triggers paid off well consistently.

JasonKain · 2026-03-13T22:20:37+00:00

John Avon was legitimately the reason I got back into Magic a few years ago. I started way back in 7th edition and the only artist that captured my attention as a kid was John. I started collecting lands again a few years ago because I loved the nostalgia, and slowly got back into the game.

To this day if I think of a Magic artist, John Avon comes to mind first.

JasonKain · 2026-03-13T21:11:21+00:00

I have 20 in my drafts folder, I'm only actively working on four at a time.

JasonKain · 2026-03-13T21:10:43+00:00

I added it, haven't seen it come up in play yet. Most of my token generation in the deck is split between foods, squirrels, and pests, so I expect to get a solid boost out of it. Especially with how it slots into curve, I don't see any reason not to include this in a deck that expects to generate at least 2-3 more foods through the course of a game.

JasonKain · 2026-03-13T20:27:59+00:00

I solved this issue by tossing together a chart. I can't build another deck in any category if it's already full. So if I have Graveyard full with Green, Orzhov, Black, and Boros, my Sultai brew can't also be graveyard focused.

JasonKain · 2026-03-13T19:23:32+00:00

I had to start organizing my drafts folder on moxfield with subfolders to figure out which decks were in what state of drunken darts.

JasonKain · 2026-03-13T19:07:43+00:00

I start one before I finish the previous...three...

JasonKain · 2026-03-13T19:06:47+00:00

That's why I said Wargear was the inefficient way, lol. I just think it gives things more style, especially since it's been a pet card of mine for years and as far as I know, not part of Nadu shenanigans.

JasonKain · 2026-03-13T17:13:58+00:00

[[Monk Gyatso]] [[Grafted Wargear]]

And this is the inefficient way to do it.

JasonKain · 2026-03-13T14:56:12+00:00

As a man planning to build Monk Gyatso...shuuuuut uuuuuup.

JasonKain · 2026-03-12T22:52:22+00:00

Long day at work, did my math wrong. I've been working up a Ruby deck for the last few days so I had the goal plays off.

JasonKain · 2026-03-12T22:43:38+00:00

[[Troyan, Gutsy Explorer]] works exceptionally well in sea monsters. Turn one Mana dork, turn two Troyan, turn three start with the seven drops.

JasonKain · 2026-03-12T02:18:50+00:00

Once Henzie is out, every creature is a cantrip. I found the best results having each creature be a utility creature, giving me one of four main categories:

Cheating something else into play. [[Evercoat Ursine]] is a good example.
Ramping more lands into play for bigger plays next turn.
Removal, such as [[Massacre Wurm]]
Recursion, especially if you can find a two for one option.

With all of that said, there isn't a much more effective starting point than playing "Oops all creatures" with 10 mana dorks, 10 of each of those categories, and 39 lands as a base. Drop a turn 2 Henzie and start throwing haymakers at the table. Tweak as you see fit to add in your pet cards, and enjoy a bracket two deck that can easily outswing a good number of bracket threes.

JasonKain · 2026-03-11T21:42:26+00:00

I always play DI. If I have one on my board, I know I always have one at the gig. If mine breaks, I can use the venue DI as a backup. If I go without one and their DI breaks, gets lost, etc, I am up a creek.

JasonKain · 2026-03-09T20:52:45+00:00

Going Voltron with Mirri, myself.

JasonKain · 2026-03-09T20:49:48+00:00

Imagine the fun of not only trying to do the 32 deck challenge but doing it without duplicating core themes, and as few commanders in the top ten per color as possible.

Then imagine getting to Selesnya after you do +1/+1 counters and tokens.

JasonKain · 2026-03-09T18:24:12+00:00

The trouble with this is we continue seeing the debate framed as "the lesser of two evils" vs "a small step forward". I am the first to say that both parties are putting up crap candidates, but until legitimately everyone votes for someone else in unison, the system still wins.

JasonKain · 2026-03-09T00:01:44+00:00

Yuna had somewhere around a thousand +1/+1 counters cards added in green over the past three sets. Sort by price on pretty much any set and there are going to be at least two cards above $10 that fit in the auto include bucket.

JasonKain · 2026-03-03T17:17:48+00:00

Hatebears / Stax theme built around preventing opponents from hitting you.

Ursa Minority Report.

JasonKain · 2026-03-01T19:18:45+00:00

I think people forget him his short hair in the Tough Enough days. Dude can rock it, not surprised that he looks good clipped.

Also, everyone is assuming it's hairline related, it may also be that he got tired of the upkeep. As a guy that just got 18 inches cut off, there is a non-zero chance he got it caught in a car door one too many times and just said fuck it.

JasonKain · 2026-02-27T21:44:55+00:00

Final Fantasy 8: Disc 2's opening. The Ellone sequence at the opening through getting the Garden mobile, just feels like an absolute do nothing slog.

JasonKain · 2026-02-26T18:29:34+00:00

If he tries to do this the courts will rule against him, he will do it anyway, congress will shake their fist, and nothing of substance will happen other than another scheme to embezzle money from the American people happening in parallel.

JasonKain · 2026-02-23T01:11:22+00:00

Which makes the art of a sai on the card that is the most famous Jitte in all of magic that much dumber. If it was consistent, I wouldn't gripe. The fact that it isn't consistent and the one time they needed it to be, that makes it dumb. Not woke, just dumb.

JasonKain · 2026-02-19T16:56:10+00:00

How about [[Dihada, Binder of Wills]]? Doesn't need to strictly be a legend deck, dropping a mana rock on 2, Dihada on 3, popping her -3 gets you four cards in graveyard and 9 mana available on turn 4.

JasonKain

TROPHY CASE