DailyMTG released a sneak peek for Strixhaven today.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/first-lesson-introduction-strixhaven-2021-02-18

The five colleges are enemy colored pairs and focus on different disciplines
LOREHOLD Archeologists
PRISMARI Theater Students
QUANDRIX Mathemagicians
SILVERQUILL Bards
WITHERBLOOM Goth Biomajors

What really stood out to me was all the different races represented in the commands.

We also saw a couple of familiar faces on the product packaging


The "Strixhaven Mystical Archive" was also revealed today, which is basically masterpieces for spells. More noteworthy for the "Art" side of "Art, Flavor, & Storylines" but these are some pretty cards

Well this made me more excited for this set. Remind me of Ixalan where everything kinda feels weirdly mashed together but has a flavorful tie, such as spirits being part of the archeologists/history colleges.

While I'm sitting on the opposite ends of the spectrum and feel like I've lost interest, not least because the twins are fairly disinteresting protagonists.

I guess I like that the set seems more light-hearted in tone at least. The breadth of creature types also might be a perk, but I don't see where I'll have a lot of desire to utilize any of cards. The entire 'college' setting probably massively disqualifies anything I'd use cards for.

Question....



I don't know of the elder dragons Lorehold, Prismari, Quandrix, Silverquill, or Witherbloom and even assuming they are just neo elder dragons like the ones from Tarkir but with Niv's penchant for naming things....their names are dumb if those are names of dragons.

You can always head cannon that it's a translation of their names into a commonly pronounceable speech. As long as it's not contradicted and you recognize it's not actual cannon, it can make things easier to swallow. For example, to me, Vedalken are amphibians.

Also, for some odd reason, I took Silverquill to more like bardic lawyers than primarily bards.

I mostly really like these interpretations especially GU mathematicians/physicists. I appreciate how each of the schools are focused on a real subject (history, drama, math, literature, biology).

I do think 3/5 of the slogans are really bad and don't sound like slogans at all. "Math is Magic"? The UR one is especially bad because it's so straightforward and clumsy for a school about art and expression.

I also think BG life scientists sounds and looks so similar to Golgari, especially with the mention of zombie crocodiles. I think if they even just made it so they don't do necromancy, it would make Witherbloom distinct enough. Mark Rosewater did say that we will see how the schools play distinctly from the guilds, so maybe Witherbloom won't look like upbeat Golgari.

Personally I feel like math is an incredibly strange fit for green, considering it is largely an abstract man-made concept. Tell me part of green doesn't think imaginary numbers and degrees of infinity is nonsense. Green doesn't seek to understand, but to accept. Green can probably accept the scientific process, but theorems and proofs? Nuh-uh.

If you think of mathematics as the language of the universe, it feels like it fits green perfectly. Physics (as applied mathematics) are the rules that determine how nature functions. Green likes exploring and better understanding how the world works. It just doesn't see itself as creating things outside of what already exists. Mathematics may be a little bit more theoretical than pure green typically would do things, but that's the point of color pairs, no? That green-blue is not just green and blue put next to each other but it is green and blue blended together and bending toward each other in ways that may be atypical.

Someone quoted this elsewhere and I thought it was very fitting. It is from Lockhart's Lament, a text about math education:

The first paragraph is blue, the second is green.

I would agree with this if mathematics didn't already feel like the most blue thing in existence. Green doesn't contribute anything. One of the dichotomies that defines the relationship between green and blue to me is that of wisdom vs. knowledge, and math falls squarely into the latter camp. If I wanted to make an UG school type thing, it would probably be like paleontology, or maybe astrology.

So which of these colleges have the jocks?

But seriously, I'm liking the vibe I'm seeing right now... they really went sway around the HP comparisons.

I hope the Elder Dragon founders aren't Nicol's brothers tho. Can't wait to see more.

This seems like a personal feel thing, but to me, mathematics seems to be more about discerning what is true by exploring what is possible using rigid preexisting truths.

To me, applied knowledge is a better representation of blue beyond the cliché of the "knowledge for knowledge's sake" theorist, because blue doesn't just care about knowledge but also about mastery and self-determination. Engineering feels much more blue than just theoretical math. Blue takes what is true and builds new things from it, changes itself and the world with it, and ultimately change what is true. The most fanatical blue, to me, would want to ultimately break the physical laws of the universe to go even further. I just watched this series for the first time, so think Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty.

On the other hand, Daoist philosophy has us understand the world is made up of patterns for which the material reality are simply expressions of more pure truth. Exploring nature through observation and experimentation to better understand how all things are ultimately the same, merely shadows of the unbreakable movement of the universe. I think this is a valid interpretation of mathematics study as a green practice.

Lockhart's Lament actually goes more into how math education falls short of mathematics as a field. He talks about math as an art and how math teaching doesn't capture the aesthetic and intuitive parts of math.

I agree that math as a field is more intellectually rigorous and logic-driven than green is, but that's why Quandrix is green-blue.

Literally nature grows and is set by mathematical patterns and equations. This not only touches green love of nature and how "everything in nature is connected" but also destiny/fate. Math is pre-set, 2+2= 4 no matter what and this how things are. Thats a very green mindset.

There are people that are arguing this and that frustrated me to no end.

One of the best examples of green mathematics is the golden ratio, which turns up on the original art for nature's spiral.

Those "elder dragons" have some pretty on the nose names. "Lorehold"? At least tell me that dragon adopted the name after starting their book collection. Involving elder dragons rarely improves something so I'll be happy if they never actually show up.

I am totally down with mathamancers. I already like them better as representatives of the color pair than the Simic. The Simic just did blue things with a traditionally green medium. These guess feel like a much better blend of both colors.

> shows loxodon
> remembers "triumelephantly" from My Immortal

I love my brain.

Prep houses:

Lorehold

Prismari

Quandrix

Goth houses:

Witherbloom

Poser houses:

Silverquill

Thats on purpose. When they made the enemy guilds they decided to go the rout of enemy colors don't blend and instead use one colors tools for another colors goals. Simic use green tools (nature) to reach blues goals of knowelge and perfection, Orzhov uses the church, bank and "family" to gain power, Izzet uses chaos and impulsive feelings to find knowledge, Golgari use black means (death/undeath) to return the world to nature and Boros use passion and zeal to keep order.

I feel that the Simic nowadays are at least balanced however, they have a hollistic side to them and want harmony with nature.