Secrets of Strixhaven is shaping up to be one of the most stacked Magic: The Gathering sets in recent memory — not just because of flashy headliners, but because of the vast potential of the card pool across formats. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was fun and quirky, but hardly dented the game’s meta. Lorwyn Eclipsed had a lot of flavor, but leaned too heavily on typal strategies that forced you to focus on specific creature types to win.
Magic’s new set, however, already feels dangerously deep. Even though many of the cards lock you into specific dual color combos representing the five colleges of Strixhaven (like Witherbloom’s black-green), there are still plenty of powerful new cards in the set that feel primed to become staples for years to come. Even for collectors, there’s a ton of value to be had between the core set’s biggest chase cards and some of the rarer Mystical Archives or Special Guest reprints. Yes, everybody wants the various borderless cards, whether that’s the elder dragons, planeswalkers, or the portal view lands,
Here’s a look at 10 of the best cards from Secrets of Strixhaven that you’ll actually want to play, trade for, build around — or maybe even sell outright because they’ll fetch a solid price. This is by no means a hugely comprehensive list, but when I start ripping packs, these are the cards that I hope to see.
10
Erode
Erode is a brand-new white instant that costs a single mana to destroy a target creature or planeswalker. It’s functionally similar to Path to Exile, in that it’s cheap direct removal that then allows the target to search their library for a basic land card. In the early game, that might be a net-positive for your opponent, but in the late-game, it can feel devastating if it nukes something powerful.
The main difference here is that Erode destroys whereas Path to Exile, well, exiles — and it can target planeswalkers. Even the base version of Erode is already priced at nearly $6, but since it’s legal in standard and white has fewer removal options compared to other colors, it’s bound to become a staple across all formats moving forward. It certainly helps that the art here is pretty rad.
9
Petrified Hamlet
This card is just cruel. Normally, it feels like our lands are mostly safe with a few exceptions. But Petrified Hamlet lets you choose a land card name and disable the activated abilities of all instances of that card except for its mana production. In other words, it nerfs a fancy land into a basic one.
This won’t matter as much in more casual formats, but in highly competitive arenas, a disabler like this is going to be hugely useful. I also imagine that Petrified Hamlet would go great in an Ultima, Origin of Oblivion deck. The Final Fantasy 16 villain blights any land on the board every time it attacks, removing abilities and making it colorless.
8
Eiganjo Dynastorian
Eiganjo Dynastorian comes with the Silverquill Influence precon, and it probably helps explain why that’s the most expensive Commander deck from the set — at least so far. It’s a great showcase of the new Prepared mechanic, which allows an expert mage to come into battle with their signature spell. Once you fulfill the requirements described on the card, they’re considered “Prepared,” and you can pay to cast it. For Eiganjo Dynastorian, that’s Replenish, a card that’s on the Reserved List because it’s considered gently forbidden from use. For four mana, it returns all enchantment cards from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Especially since Eiganjo Dynastorian becomes prepared every time you attack with two or more creatures, you can cast this somewhat frequently — as long as he doesn’t die. This is absurdly powerful in modern Magic when enchantments include a bunch of creatures, auras, and even sagas. That means this card can blow up in enchantment heavy decks, even in Standard. Pair this one up with Yuna, Hope of Spira and it won’t ever matter when your enchantments get destroyed.
7
Bitterthorn, Nissa’s Animus
I’m jealous of anyone who picked up the Lorehold Spirit precon, because it comes with Bitterthorn, Nissa’s Animus. This three-cost, colorless legendary equipment can slot nicely into almost any deck. With the living weapon ability, it creates a creature token and attaches to it (a precursor to the Job Select mechanic from the Final Fantasy set). Then, every time the equipped creature attacks, you can search your library for a basic land card. You usually only see this sort of mechanic on green cards, but since it’s colorless, it can function in all sorts of decks — perhaps best in five-colors, where you need the extra mana ramp.
This is the first time that this card has ever been reprinted since it first appeared in 2023’s March of the Machine Commander deck called Growing Threat. It’s the kind of solid card that fits anywhere you need it, but it’ll be a must-include for any voltron-type decks that include a lot of colors.
6
Ozolith, the Shattered Spire
Another high-value reprint from March of the Machine, Ozolith, the Shattered Spire is the kind of card you might buy an entire precon for — in this case, that’s Quandrix Unlimited.
I’m biased because I love green and +1/+1 counter strategies, but this card is a must-include for any deck like that. It quietly adds extra counters to your creatures or artifacts whenever they are distributed and can even tap itself to add one (which it then upgrades to two).
This card is particularly good for Earthbending decks, especially if you’re running Toph, the First Metalbender as your Commander, positioning artifacts as lands, and then dishing out counters on them. But you’ll get so much use out of it in any kind of counter deck, especially because it’s a two-cost permanent that sits on the battlefield giving you continued value.
5
Emeritus of Woe
Each of the five colors gets their own Emeritus related to some abstract noun. White’s Emeritus of Truce gets an honorable mention from me, since its prepared spell is Swords to Plowshares. But black’s Emeritus of Woe is easily the second-best card in this cycle. It enters prepared and re-prepares if two or more creatures died in the current turn. That gives it access to Demonic Tutor — a card that’s widely banned across various formats and is also considered a “Game Changer.” That means its inclusion in a Commander deck has the potential to push that deck into more elite tiers of competition.
For two mana (one black and one colorless), Demonic Tutor lets you search your deck — for whatever card you want. That grants you an absurd amount of control over the flow of the game. And it doesn’t even require Emeritus of Woe to do anything at all, other than sit there and look deadly.
4
Lorehold, the Historian
I’m not too keen on red-white as a color combo, but Lorehold, the Historian is an undeniable powerhouse that just might make me change my mind if I’m luckly enough to pull one. The longer you read and digest what it actually does, the more broken it seems. Every instant or sorcery card in your hand had a miracle cost of two colorless mana. As long as it’s the first card you draw on any given turn, then you can play any instant or sorcery for only two mana, regardless of its actual cost or color. That alone is powerful, but Lorehold also lets you discard a card to draw a card on each of your opponent’s turns — so you can trigger this ability every single turn in four-player Commander.
Imagine Lorehold as a Commander in a deck full of hugely expensive instant and sorcery cards. Getting him on the board might take awhile since he costs five mana, but the possibilities are staggering. Think about all of the super-expensive spells that you never play because they’re just not feasible. Suddenly, they cost two mana apiece.
3
The Dawning Archaic
I just really love the vibes of The Dawning Archaic, a towering giant monster with no eyes and teeth as big as a grown man’s arm (or bigger, who knows?). It feels primed toward blue-red spellslinging decks but since it’s colorless it can thrive in any spell-heavy strategy, regardless of color. As long as you cast a lot of cheap instant and sorcery cards early-game, its huge initial cost of 10 colorless mana is reduced by one for each of those cards in your graveyard. Once this powerful 7/7 with reach is on the board, it lets you cast any spell in your graveyard for free every time it attacks.
It’s going to be really interesting to see how players build with and around this card, particularly because it works with any color combination. As long as your deck runs heavy on draw and discard, you fill your graveyard up with expensive spells (or cheap ones simply by casting them), then once this big boy hits the battlefield, you can start reigning terror on your opponents by casting those big spells from beyond the grave — for free.
2
Emeritus of Ideation
You knew this one was coming. Emeritus of Ideation is the obvious chase card for Secrets of Strixhaven because its prepared spell is Ancestral Recall, one of the most broken Magic cards ever printed. It’s not exactly flashy or complicated, but it’s obscenely efficient. Pay one blue mana. Draw three cards. It helps that the wizard himself is flying through the air with these flashy red robes, looking like Maester Seymour from Final Fantasy 10 or something.
The blue body is a fair 5/5 that costs five mana and comes with flying and ward of two. So he gets a fair amount of protection from that. While he comes prepared, the re-prepare cost is a bit steep: exile eight cards from your graveyard. That said, if you have a way to blink it back onto the field, then you can avoid that re-prepare cost altogether.
1
Witherbloom, the Balancer
I don’t know if I’ve ever wanted a new Magic card as badly as I want Witherbloom, the Balancer. That probably has a lot to do with my longstanding love of golgari (black-green) as a color combo, or that I’ve invested a lot of time and money into refining my Jenova, Ancient Calamity Commander deck. The affinity mechanic is great in every iteration — affinity for artifacts reduces the cost of a card by one colorless mana for every artifact you control, for instance. In artifact-heavy decks, that lets you cheat something powerful onto the board. There are also a number of cards that have affinity for a specific creature type. These are also great, but limited to typal strategies.
But affinity for creatures? All creatures? As far as I can tell, there’s only one other card with that ability, and it stinks. Witherbloom is rightfully expensive at a cost of six colorless, one black, and one green mana (eight total). But if you have six creatures on the board, suddenly he costs only two mana. A 5/5 with flying and deathtouch is also pretty powerful. But then suddenly he gives your instant and sorcery spells affinity for creatures too? That’s absurdly powerful. Give it to me now.
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