Only a few hours are left until the Secrets of Strixhaven pre-release, and I am really looking forward to this set. And as you probably expect, it’s not only the Magic: The Gathering angle that excites me. The original Strixhaven: School of Mages set is one of the few MtG sets that has an official D&D supplement!
This will not be an in-depth review of either of the MtG Strixhaven sets, or the D&D supplement. Just a short blog post before the Secrets of Strixhaven pre-release. I might share some more thoughts and comments after getting beaten by people who actually spend their time playing with the cards, instead of ogling the art and speculating about the worldbuilding.
School of Mages
The basic premise of Strixhaven is that of a magnificent magical university, where gifted students study the magic arts under the supervision of powerful, ofthen quirky tutors. It’s often being compared with a certain young adult book series, and it’s fine if your have to quickly explain the new set to your MtG-free friends. That’s where your should stop, however, because further enforcing this shortcut explanation would be wrong. Yes, the themes are similar. Star Trek and Star Wars also both take place in space, and you don’t want to tell their fanbases that they’re the same.
Strixhaven, and the plane it is located on, Arcavios, were made by a competent team of writers and designers. The worldbuilding is probably the result of conscious planning and combined effort, and not an amalgamation of afterthoughts and ad hoc explanations made canon. It is also the product of a modern society, and I mean this in the best possible sense. From what I’ve seen so far Strixhaven is a vibrant, well designed setting. Built with multiple storylines in mind, so for example there’s no emphasis on a single college, with others being merely second-rate scenery. Each college has its merits, and I would be hard pressed to choose as a wide-eyed student from another plane. Witherbloom or Quandrix? That’s the question. The colleges are of course tied to the five-colour MtG cosmology, but I can easily see Strixhaven make sense ported to other settings as well. You can try it out yourself thanks to the official D&D supplement Strixhave: A Curriculum of Chaos.
D&D supplement worth its price tag?
First a disclaimer – I do not own the supplement and can only comment the list of contents and store descriptions. Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos is over 200 pages long, available both in print and as a digital resource. After Lorwyn: First Light I would definitely pick the print. A PDF would be preferable, but Wizards apparently don’t do those. Either way it’s a lot of content. Most of the page count is supposedly taken by the four adventures present. There should also be over 40 bestiary entries, some general Arcavios and Strixhaven lore, and of course some player options. The owlin species, some feats, backgrounds, and spells. I firmly believe there’s more in this book than what we got in Lorwyn: First Light.
Seeing all the attention Strixhaven is getting it seems to me that Lorwyn has gotten the short end of the stick. The brief summary of the Strixhaven D&D supplement, as well as other stuff (more magic story entries, even a novel!), lead me to the assumption that Lorwyn-Shadowmoor isn’t as beloved as Wizards presented. They probably have it backed by market research data, but for us fans it is a sad realization. It’s ok, though. The Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks were great, and they will continue to be regardless of how much love Wizards put into their revival.
Let the lessons begin
As I said before, I’m really looking forward to Secrets of Strixhaven. There’s a lot of nice cards that I can’t wait to play on Saturday. I still have to finish reading all the story entries, but I’ll get to it soon. The story’s good, I might even get the novel. I’m also thinking of actually getting Curriculum of Chaos someday. That’s a lot of stuff I might be doing, when I should be working on the things I have on my desk. I will probably post some playable D&D content soon, but for now please excuse this really bloggish post. Between my paying work and personal life there’s been little time for this lately. Leaving a comment or sharing an article you like would be the perfect feedback, so don’t hold back and go for it!