Secrets of Strixhaven spoiler season got off to a massive start and has discreetly just kept delivering. While things kicked off with tons of extremely splashy Elder Dragons, cards revealed on subsequent days didn’t really seem to compare. While a lot less splashy, however, many of these cards are still extremely powerful in their own right. Between some Primari bombs and a Lorehold mythic, these MTG cards looked positioned to make a splash in multiple formats.
MTG Restoration Lesson
Card Name: Restoration Lesson
Mana Value: 5WW
Card Type: Sorcery – Lesson
Rarity: Mythic Rare
Card Text: Return target nonland permanent in your graveyard to the battlefield. Paradigm (Then exile this spell. After you first resolve a spell with this name, you may cast a copy of it from exile without paying its mana cost at the beginning of each of your first main phases.)
The second card in the Paradigm cycle, Restoration Lesson delivers the holy grail of reanimation spells. Returning a nonland permanent to the battlefield for seven mana is a bad deal, but getting to do that every turn quickly makes up for it. Even getting two meaningful targets with this recurring spell makes this seven mana well spent. Get three, and you’re burying your opponent in advantage.
While this is exciting for many Reanimator Commander decks, Restoration Lesson is the weaker of the two Paradigm cards we’ve seen so far. After all, on top of needing the mana to cast this card, you also need to have permanents in your graveyard worth resurrecting. Improvisation Capstone, on the other hand, only needs to be cast to create value. Still, this game-ending spell could create a new archetype in Standard, and will likely appear in a wide variety of Commander decks.
MTG Resonating Lute
Standard-legal four-cost mana doublers have caused a lot of problems in the format’s history. Both Wilderness Reclamation and Fires of Invention were banned for various reasons, cementing them as power outliers that had to be brought back into line. Resonating Lute offers a worringly similar template, but Standard, as a whole, is much more powerful now.
Like the two four-cost cards before it, Resonating Lute’s viability is reliant on finding a card that can abuse the instant and sorcery mana it creates. Fortunately, Jeskai Revelation quickly answers the question in the most obscene way, offering a win condition, removal, and refill. Partner that with cards like Ill-Timed Explosion, which doubles as a board wipe and card draw, and Resonating Lute’s sheer mana can dominate the battlefield. The Lute’s incidental card draw is just the cherry on top, pushing the artifact even more towards a card-draw-heavy control build.
Frankly, Standard has everything this Lute needs to excel, but whether this mana doubler will be good enough to compete is another question. A few Burst Lightnings are likely enough to slow Badgermole Cub decks down, but competing with Izzet Lessons is another question entirely. Regardless, Resonating Lute adds another potential archetype to Standard, and will be something that Spellslinger EDH players absolutely adore.
MTG Tramautic Critique
Talking about spells that work well with Resonating Lute, Traumatic Critique has a lot of MTG players really excited. Frankly, this pairs perfectly with what the artifact is trying to do, offering a win condition that doubles as card filtering in the early game. Since Traumatic Critique will always replace itself at worst, the card can easily two-for-one opponents for just a few extra mana. It can also serve as an enabler for cards like Restoration Lesson by discarding your resurrection-based payoffs.
Considering that players would already try Traumatic Critique without the optional X investment, this card’s future looks bright. Critique may be restricted to lower power formats, however, since cards like Orcish Bowmasters completely ruin the instant. Even if you remove the Bowmasters with this card, it will still punish your draws.
MTG Mana Sculpt
While players already saw Mana Sculpt thanks to a Whatnot leak, consider this your confirmation that the card will officially appear as a rare in Secrets of Strixhaven. Offering a Standard legal Wizard Typal Mana Drain, it’s almost certain that some MTG players are going to try to make this work. Easily an upgrade to multiple popular Wizards Commanders, like Adriv and Nev, Twincasters, there are also a few good Standard Wizards to pair with this instant. Dark Confidant, Thundertrap Trainer, and Tishana’s Tidebinder are just a few of the surprisingly notable cards that can turn Mana Sculpt on. Valley Floodcaller could even use this card to generate a ton of extra mana to kickstart their Firdoch Core Combos.
All of these Secrets of Strixhaven spoilers look incredibly playable, despite some of these cards having mediocre first impressions. Mana generators and expensive, infinite value engines tend to partner well with one another, meaning that this set has a chance to revolutionize Standard once again.
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