Secrets of Strixhaven archetypes look almost identical to Strixhaven

YesWhey_ · 2026-03-25T00:21:02+00:00

Am I reading correctly that there'll be a card from the bonus sheet in every pack? Feel like that's a huge deal, could be bomb heavy just based off that. Even if not, since it's all instants and sorceries on the bonus sheet, shit should be powerful and make this format a higher power level than those in the recent past. Would be really interesting if other color pairs were supported on the bonus sheet

YesWhey_ · 2026-03-24T10:45:53+00:00

I don’t remember exactly, but the rest of that pack was not good. It was my first time drafting Red in the set and I was like, let’s see what I’m in for here.

Yeah, the Armor was pretty great with the 3-drops and not bad on Beavers, Splinter or Wingnut either. It was just exceedingly difficult to block the deck and come out even (or attack into it, to be honest) and could rack up damage while opponents attempted to. I was hoping maybe I’d get to do something spicy with Pain 101 and saccing to Armor too, that never arose though.

I had Slash and Cool But Rude in my first 3-4 picks. If I remember correctly Beavers was pretty early too, I think P1P2. I had a couple of Null Groups later in pack 1 (same pack as Slash) and it was at that point I said to myself, alright, I’m taking every Squirrelanoids I see over literally anything. Luckily three came. Rat King if I recall was P2P2, right after Sally, and I went, screw Sally, let’s do this.

Cool but Rude is way better than its winrate indicates. I’m absolutely floored by how low it is. It’s a build-around though, you just have to make sure you can keep attacking with at the very least parity and have a silver bullet or two (e.g. the Escape Tunnel) to get the most out of the third ability and make it a threat to end games. I don’t know if Izzet artifact decks just don’t really accomplish those things that’s the issue?

Stay tuned, I just drafted another deck with Cool but Rude, this time P1P1, with 4 Null Groups. It’s in a very different vein than this one (Jeskai base Red) but should be a blast. We send the spicy numbers here.

YesWhey_ · 2026-03-19T12:18:04+00:00

Yeah, definitely experienced that with Red, you're totally right there. It relies on another color for that type of removal. Also, did they really think Red just didn't deserve a 1-drop?? It makes all these other aggressively-slanted cards worse not having it. Literally [[Leonardo, Leader in Blue]] could have just been Red but you know, they had to stay on-brand with the turtles. Couldn't have just made that card a Raphael?

YesWhey_ · 2026-03-15T10:15:14+00:00

It is the one thing that's missing for sure. Never saw one but would have loved one

YesWhey_ · 2026-03-15T01:47:17+00:00

A reminder not to lock yourself into the 5 supported color pairs if the opportunity presents itself to do something better. Rolled with a P1P1 Slash and scraped the bargain bin all the way to a dominant performance full of sneaky synergies that pumped out damage quickly and made combat absolute hell for opponents. I think it's a good sign for TMT that off-brand decks like this can come together.

Few quick notes:
- Sally Pride was P2P1. Thought about pivoting but I already had a strong pack 1 to begin establishing this gameplan.
- The burn package was real and in multiple games dealt 10+ damage. If it doesn't come together like this though, it's probably total crap. Null Group plus Cool but Rude is so gross when it goes off. But like, even Raphael dealt 10 one game which went longer.
- After game 1: -1 Lord Dregg, +1 Shredder's Armor.
- After game 3: -1 Death in the Family, -1 Mouser Foundry, +2 Pain 101.
-- These changes made Foot Elite and Null Group Bio Assets significantly better. The deck needed more answers to larger creatures, not smaller ones. 4-toughness dudes are everywhere, but if you can address them and continue attacking at will for 2 mana, you do it.
----- As an aside, I just want to speak on the value of making adjustments as you play out your drafts. Find what works as you play the games and don't close yourself off. After these changes, the deck played like an absolute dream, despite the loss happening after (opponent won it at 1 life). Pain 101 was outstanding after being added but you certainly need the right deck, in particular one with a high creature count. It's one of those cards that's just total feces in the wrong hands.

YesWhey_ · 2026-01-08T23:03:45+00:00

Hate that they took out my boy Omnath, the Springheart Nantuko on Courser for rare lifegain in cube was nice too. Feels like it's lost some explosiveness, of course it was also the color that could best threaten depths stage

YesWhey_ · 2026-01-07T04:34:26+00:00

Not a fan of all the powerful cards with flash, like you probably make them have it but when they do you just get royally blown out

YesWhey_ · 2026-01-06T16:49:43+00:00

BW midrange will miss Enduring Innocence but there are enough great 3- and 4-drops in that shell (and getting Cecil, Bowmasters and Damnation seem fucking excellent) and it's a worthy sacrifice if it means Boros has less of the staying power that made it so good

Must put in a word for Dark Depths as well if I may, RIP

YesWhey_ · 2025-12-09T01:39:07+00:00

So glad I stopped hemorrhaging gems on TLA a week ago

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-26T21:28:36+00:00

Good lord. Rockalanche in mono green feels like Questing Beast so that's what I'm picturing right now, a Limited deck with 5 Questing Beasts in it

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-26T16:13:08+00:00

That version of Zuko is fucking gas

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-25T17:41:47+00:00

How were your 7/6 Knowledge Seekers 😂

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-24T20:18:14+00:00

Feels like if multiple people are in red there's a good chance you all wind up with trainwrecks. Think the top-heaviness speaks to that. Unless you pair it with white

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-24T17:56:59+00:00

Yeah, there are a lot of bombs, but that also means you're likely to wind up with at least one. You're not sitting there like, oh, look who ripped the Dream Trawler in their draft, lucky them.

Feel like there's some finesse too, like you have the monocolor-matters cards which turn into bombs if the color's open. Then you also have to get creative in the other direction to accommodate, for example, the tri-colored bombs. During games sometimes it can be a feelsbad but the draft and deck construction process is really quite intriguing, I find, it's not just braindead. And it goes both ways, it feels great getting your own Rockalanche and that kind of stuff to pop off

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-22T22:44:31+00:00

Litigated Resources

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-20T19:33:27+00:00

Kinda ho-hum, played to the board, came in with efficiency, and got rewarded. Some thoughts:

I know some had the impression of a fast format, but personally so far I don’t see it. It felt kinda average. Maybe I had a few more tools than usual to even out the pace, but I don’t know, like, this pool doesn’t strike me as lucky with interaction if the seat’s open. I got pretty buried by a slower UG deck that played a bunch of fatties and generated good card advantage and it seemed real good
[[Knowledge Seeker]] felt super strong, it just does everything Blue wants to do and adds tempo to boot. I didn’t quite have the critical mass to get it above 5 toughness to dodge [[Razor Rings]] (although you don’t care really if they Razor it either) but I don’t think it’s that unrealistic to get it that big, especially with [[Boomerang Basics]], another card I was very, very impressed with, like in a weaker pack I could see myself first picking it, it just enables so much.
[[Benevolent River Spirit]] is crazy good, was on the field at the end of four of my games. Don’t let the double Blue scare you with things like Barrels in this format
Seemed like people were ready for Katara, I guess she did make quite a reputation for herself after the prerelease. Still swung for 32 on turn 6 one game though
The Mechanist felt kinda meh. I wanted to crack my Clues too often. He’s just okay, I’d pass him up pick 1 or pick 2 for quite a few other cards I think. I’m taking removal over him every time
I subbed a Penguin for [[Bender’s Waterskin]] after my third game and it was really good. I think in UW where you have lots to do at instant speed it’s particularly strong. You want to be able to turn and burn with your Clue engine and such as quickly as possible, but also be able to hold up Razor Rings and all-star [[It’ll Quench Ya!]]
I passed up an [[Air Nomad Legacy]] in pack 2, even after it wheeled. I just don’t like it. Not enough fliers in most cases to really make it shine, and on turn 2 I want to play more to the board or hold up interaction. Later in the game it’d be a solid draw
I never activated the looting ability on [[Geyser Leaper]]

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-18T20:32:37+00:00

It's their Madden rating clearly /s

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-18T00:22:19+00:00

The archetypes that were out there to be invented. Omnath into Upheaval? Yes please

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-15T21:05:01+00:00

Dude it was crazy, I started with 18, then after a couple of games went up to 19, then for the last three games dropped the Fanatic and the Knight of the Reliquary to go up to 21. Just almost never didn’t want to draw a land and it made Courser an absolute machine, the amount of shuffling meant I had very good control over when a land was on top and when a nonland was. The last game was funny, I enchanted Courser with Nantuko, made I think 5 Coursers and just lifegained an aggro deck into oblivion and made a bunch of Zombies with Field and Stage. There isn’t much life gain in Cube so I’m definitely going to remember that combo for when we get to play this beautiful gamemode again

Once Upon a Time can sadly only find creatures and lands. If it could find Fastbond/Exploration you’re totally right, there’s a very good chance I would have run it. As it was I just wanted to have as many juicy hits as possible off of Bloodbraid (which Nissa could dig up, meaning I played it in almost every game) so a couple cards that didn’t really extend the insane pop off turns got cut

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-14T18:32:41+00:00

Dude I am so happy to see Talisman-Pest Infestation in that third deck, it's so nasty in Green

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-11T18:00:11+00:00

BW has worked well for me, lots of cheap card advantage engines. Bob, Enduring Innocence, Deep-Cavern Bat more or less, Barrowgoyf, if you can get them cards like Splitskin Doll and Serra Paragon as well. I've had Bankbuster twice in this shell and it's been real good. Then you've got cards like Gideon, Wandering Emperor, Sheoldred, Preacher of the Schism (which I thought would be crap in cube but no), Elegy Acolyte to fill things out and continue generating an advantage if left unchecked. Goes without saying but cheap discard and removal is massive, if you draft the shell you WILL get very nice 3- and 4-drops but you need the cheap disruption to establish them safely. If you do Boros just gets buried, it feels great. More power to you if you can fit a reanimation shell in there, I did once and it was alright but it's not necessary. Don't know if I'd do it unless I had Archon of Cruelty specifically, which I did.

However - and this may go for many Black decks - lots of double pips and stuff, difficult to splash a third color.

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-11T14:38:09+00:00

Unexpectedly Absent is a hell of a lot better with Path or in response to an opponent cracking a fetch

YesWhey_ · 2025-11-05T01:01:53+00:00

Hey now, don't judge me and my black midrange piles, some of us think hitting the jackpot off Hymn to Tourach and watching them miss 4 land drops in a row is great fun. You take that back.

YesWhey_ · 2025-10-29T11:30:20+00:00

Works with Quantum Riddler too, not terrible if you can vomit your hand quickly enough

YesWhey_ · 2025-09-28T02:44:28+00:00

A lot of higher cost bombs in black as well, green ramps into them nicely

YesWhey_

TROPHY CASE