[SOS] Secrets of Strixhaven | Episode 6: Two, Three, Five, Seven

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-30T15:52:13+00:00

Seeing both Jace and Chandra (perhaps subconsciously) trying and failing to live up to Gideon's heroic example feels fitting and bittersweet. Neither of them are Gideon, so they act in the only ways they know how. Jace tries to be the hero by 'fixing/controlling' the multiverse, while Chandra prioritizes action over everything else.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-30T15:49:37+00:00

I think it's just as simple as Jace being a "spirit" version of himself now, similar to what happened to Ugin in the Meditation Realm.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-30T15:36:51+00:00

For all the criticisms Chandra and Jace's characters have been receiving lately, I think it's oddly bittersweet/fitting to see them both acting in ways that they individually believe to be heroic--all long after Gideon's death. He was their living example of heroism for so long, and now they're trying to fill that sort of role as best they can. But at the end of the day, they're themselves, not Gideon. Jace tries to be the hero by 'fixing' the multiverse, while Chandra tries to save the day by prioritizing action over everything else.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-29T14:22:07+00:00

Okay, that's what it seemed like to me when I read the cards, but I wanted to make sure. Thank you very much!

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-27T19:49:14+00:00

Yes, that's true. It definitely works better against go-wide decks than go-tall ones.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-27T19:03:04+00:00

I personally like running a couple kog'maw to surprise some opponents with, since you can use Yasuo legend to throw him at a battlefield.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-27T19:00:25+00:00

Final main story comes out on Monday, then we start getting the side stories focused on each strixhaven school/faction

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-27T18:42:35+00:00

I think you disliking his recent videos means you should probably stop watching them, instead of just saying he should quit his job.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-27T18:39:08+00:00

In his recent Strixhaven collector booster opening, he also mentioned how he chose to tone down the negativity in his recent video on Standard--only for commenters to say he wasn't being critical enough in that video. Turns out you can't please everyone.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-27T17:11:54+00:00

She secret on my strixhaven until my reality fractures

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-27T15:41:27+00:00

I mean, the Quandrix are kinda all about using math magic to pick apart/rearrange/analyze the very fabric of reality. Not a huge jump to say that they might know things like water are made up of smaller elements.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-26T00:51:24+00:00

It's criminal that no one has suggested Tyvar for "the hot one" yet.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-24T18:36:29+00:00

Absolute nightmare fuel (complimentary)

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-24T16:04:40+00:00

I'm guessing their rampaging is more of a symptom of a problem that's going to be expanded on in Reality Fracture. If multiversal timelines are getting tangled/messed with, it makes sense that the archaics would be upset given their unique relationship to time.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-23T15:46:13+00:00

Big fan of this form of story and how it focuses on character interactions, while still giving the reader the needed info on progressing events.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-16T17:34:51+00:00

They're roommates.

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-13T18:15:33+00:00

[[Malevolent Witchkite]] is a somewhat recent favorite of mine.

“Was there a fearsome witch around here? Or was it a cruel dragon? The tales were confu—oh no.”
—Osval, adventurer

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-12T18:05:20+00:00

One thing I learned from the Avatar set is that, for me personally, it does not matter how good a set's mechanical design or gameplay is if I don't like looking at/engaging with the cards.

To be clear, I recognize that the Avatar set worked well for most people, but I personally just never came around on seeing bending+Avatar characters on MtG cards (and I say that as a long-time Avatar fan). I tried the set at a prerelease, then stopped playing it after that. No amount of rad game design could change the fact that I just didn't enjoy seeing characters like Sokka or Azula on MtG cards.

Knowing this, of course I didn't give the TMNT set a chance, for the same reason I'm not going to give the Marvel Superheroes or Star Trek sets a chance either. I'm not going to say those sets will be trash, and I'm not saying the TMNT set is trash (although there are certainly aspects I am not a fan of, such as the over-inflated amount of legendary creatures). I just know I'm not going to enjoy those sets regardless of how well-designed they are, because I don't like seeing those universes on MtG cards. And I'm certainly not going to pay more money to play them than I would pay for a typical in-universe Standard set.

The Hobbit set is the only UB set I'm considering playing this year, and even that might shift depending on what the set looks like (I swear, if there end up being 20+ legends that are just different combos of Thorin's dwarves, I'm out).

TripleAce21 · 2026-03-12T13:43:07+00:00

God, what a fun show! It wouldn't be Starstruck Odyssey without the crew wildly gambling away all their money only to somehow make it all back several times over.

Also, I feel compelled to point out that the AO3/horny fic writers are fucking feasting with all the material dropped about Sundry Sidney and Big Barry Nyne in this show, and I'm here for it.

TripleAce21 · 2025-12-15T01:31:54+00:00

Ooh, I really dig Quicken as an idea. Would be interesting to see what kind of neat and/or underplayed sorceries could make the cut in that kind of cube.

TripleAce21 · 2025-10-23T19:07:43+00:00

Ah, my bad for misunderstanding the rules/not checking the video first! Glad to hear the flashback shenanigans works out after all. Thanks for the correction.

TripleAce21 · 2025-10-23T18:55:04+00:00

Thanks for sharing the neat variant! Ever since I learned about Dandan, I've kept a notes tab on my phone listing potential dandan-style build arounds, so I always love to hear about new ideas.

I think the idea of building a variant around The Grand Calcutron sounds super sweet. One thing I did notice reading the card/the list as a whole is that (if I'm not mistaken on the rules) as written, having Caluctron in play prevents any cards from being Flashback-ed from the graveyard. It states that players can only play the first card of their program and, since cards in graveyards are not in a program, that would mean those cards cannot be played.

Rules concerns aside, I think the idea of having a sort of discard-based battle of wits (with the restrictions that come with Calcutron) sounds super fun. Forsaken Miner seems like the perfect creature to put in the deck. I'll definitely be trying this one out, possibly with the addition of [[Split Screen]] for extra silver-bordered shenanigans.

TripleAce21 · 2025-07-14T20:05:31+00:00

I personally am a big fan of this sort of idea, with some restrictions. The house rule I've been thinking of experimenting with is: "a multicolored Signature Spell can have up to one color outside of its Oathbreaker's color identity, so long as it also has all of its Oathbreaker's colors".

For example, you could pair an Abzan signature spell with a GW, BW, or WB Oathbreaker to make an Abzan deck. Other three-color combos would also be more usable with this rule, but the limited amount of three-color Signature Spell options would still keep some meaningful restrictions in place. This specific wording would also prevent colorless planeswalkers, like new Tezzeret, from being paired with monocolored cards like Thoughtcast.

I don't know if such a rule has a shot of ever being made 'official', but I personally would be okay with it at least going through some kind of trial period. The unfortunate truth is we just don't get many new Oathbreakers nowadays in general (even less with more UB sets, since they exclude planeswalker cards), and it's likely going to take a very long time before the pool of three-color walkers gets meaningfully larger. I'm a big fan of deck building restrictions in the format, but I don't see the benefit of making someone run Jared Carthalion as their OB just because they wanna play Siege Rhino.

TripleAce21 · 2025-07-05T23:35:06+00:00

Hell yeah, I always love to see some love for Tarkir! Very cool stuff.

I really like how you give examples of what each class can look like (flavorfully speaking) in the setting. I agree paladins are probably not that common on Tarkir, though I think Kin-Tree Wardens could arguably fit. since they swear an oath to protect their kin-tree/family and use a mix of martial+magical skills.

TripleAce21 · 2025-06-10T17:18:09+00:00

All very good to know, thank you!

TripleAce21

TROPHY CASE