The newest expansion set for Magic: The GatheringStrixhaven: School of Mages, is set on the plane of Arcavios and features the Multiverse's most elite university of all. It's split into five distinct schools, each based on an enemy color pair, that share many exciting card cycles and some legendary creatures on top of that. Where can these powerful cards be put to use?

Many of these fancy cards (especially the multicolored ones) are a great choice for sessions of booster draft Limited, but that's not all. Some of these cards will find their way into Standard, or perhaps even the competitive Modern format. Of course, Strixhaven's best cards are sure to make waves in the massive Commander format as well. Which cards will be chosen for the format?

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Strixhaven's Legendary Creatures in the Commander Format

strixhaven commander cards mtg

When a new expansion set releases, its cards can be added to the Commander format in one of two ways: either as the commander of a deck, or as a part of the 99-card deck. Naturally, splashy legendary creatures are all potential new commanders, and Strixhaven has more than a few to offer. In fact, this set rivals the Theros block and the Dominaria set for the sheer density of legends, with more than one cycle to choose from. There are five legendary uncommon "student" creatures in this set, such as Zimone and Quintorius, though they may pale in comparison to the rare and mythic rare legends. These students are promising, but it's the elder dragons and professors who are sure to ace the entrance exam into the Commander format.

Strixhaven boasts a five-card cycle of mythic rare Elder Dragon creatures, with one fitting into each school. They are all worth considering as new commanders. In particular, Beledros Witherbloom takes the lead among the five dragons. As of this writing, Beledros Witherbloom is the commander of 638 different decks, which is impressive, considering how new that card is. A 4/4 flying body is useful for a black-green deck, especially since that color combination isn't known for having many efficient fliers.

This dragon can make a disposable Pest creature token on every player's upkeep, not just the controller's upkeep, and in a four-player game, that adds up fast. In the Commander format, it's no big deal to pay 10 life all at once to untap all lands. At the cost of 10 life, the player can double their land-based man for the turn, enabling some massive plays -- and the Commander format is known for its huge, game-winning cards and effects.

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Beledros Witherbloom isn't alone. Extus, Oriq Overlord has inspired a total of 789 decks as of this writing, taking advantage of its incredible magecraft trigger. Casting or copying instants and sorceries means returning non-legendary creatures from the graveyard to hand, which can be a formidable way to resist enemy removal spells or make repeated use of sacrifice effects. If so desired, the flip side can be used in a black-red deck, making a massive and terrifying Avatar creature token.

Galazeth Primsari, the blue-red Elder Dragon of Strixhaven, has inspired just over 500 decks and is well-suited to an Izzet deck that makes a lot of artifacts, including Treasure tokens. Galazeth's new deck will make Treasures all over the place and tap them each turn to cast huge spells and other cheap artifacts, including low-cost Equipment cards like Lightning Greaves, wcan also tap for mana. Even if an Equipment card taps this way, it is still perfectly usable for the equipped creature. This deck also has spells that synergize with instants and sorceries, such as Young Pyromancer and Snapcaster Mage.

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Other Strixhaven Spells in the Commander Format

strixhaven commander cards 2 mtg

Strixhaven has plenty of spells worthy of the Commander format, either because they offer a unique and new effect, or because they are simply a highly efficient version of existing spells and effects common to the format. For example, Solve the Equation serves as a budge version of Mystical Tutor. While Solve the Equation is a sorcery and costs {2} more, it puts the tutored spell right into the caster's hand, rather than on top of the library. Players who can't or won't get Mystical Tutor can easily grab Solve the Equation for cheap and tutor up a game-winning combo or spell at their leisure in blue-based decks. Commanders such as Galazeth Prismari and Vega, the Watcher are sure to enjoy this card, among others.

Wandering Archaic is a colorless, non-artifact Avatar, one of the few colorless, non-artifact creatures outside the notorious Eldrazi tribe. It can slot into any deck, and not just for that 4/4 body. It's another "tax" card in the same vein as Rhystic Study or Tithe, requiring opponents to pay mana during a certain event to avoid giving Wandering Archaic's controller a bonus.

In this case, if an opponent casts an instant or sorcery and doesn't pay up {2} right away, Wandering Archaic's controller can copy that spell and choose a new target, a wild and thematic way to punish players who play their spells on curve. No one wants their fancy spells copied, so they are sure to wait until {2} is available, which will slow things down for the opponents. Practically any Commander deck can run this.

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Culling Ritual is a sorcery that's bound to make waves in black-green aristocrats decks, such as Beledros Witherbloom's deck or decks built around Grismold, the Dreadsower or Gyome, Master Chef. It destroys all non-land permanents with mana value/converted mana cost 2 and lower, and adds any combination of black and green mana to the mana pool as those permanents are destroyed. This can easily ruin a token-based deck's board state, and if the caster has disposable creature tokens, they can harvest even more mana from Culling Ritual and cast a massive spell from the mana. Death really does fuel new life after all.

A handful of other Strixhaven cards are also promising to become Commander format staples, such as the vicious removal spell Fracture. Costing white and black mana, Fracture can destroy any target artifact, enchantment or planeswalker at will, allowing Orzhov-colored cards to deal with a wide variety of troublesome non-creature cards (such as Rhystic Study, Ghostly Prison and various Equipment cards).

Storm-Kiln Artist is a mono-red Dwarf Shaman that's rapidly appearing in many red-based decks that love instants and sorceries, and those extra Treasure tokens made with each magecraft trigger are bound to fuel many huge spells in later turns. Archmage Emeritus, meanwhile, is a simple but highly effective blue Wizard for the format, drawing a card with each magecraft trigger to build up some formidable card advantage over time.

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