10 New Standard Brews with Strixhaven: School of Mages

It’s been a while, but I’m back with a few Strixhaven brews. I have tried to limit the amount of repetition in these decklists with what you can find elsewhere. My aim is to provide sweet new brews with Strixhaven cards as a jumping off point, but at the same time, it is hard to ignore the fact that Adventures is still legal in Standard for a while, and it is unlikely (though I am hopeful) that Strixhaven will provide the tools to usurp the throne (of Eldraine).

Without further ado, here are the brews in a list form as well as commentary for each one after it!

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Orzhov Humans (and Taxes)

[sd_deck deck=”oE3ILZZwp”]

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Humans has always been on the fringe of playability since Ikoria. Strixhaven introduced some very important pieces of the puzzle: Silverquill Silencer, Elite Spellbinder, and Humiliate. The goal of this deck is to disrupt the opponent’s hand and keep them off balance long enough to end the game.

Silverquill Silencer can play a role similar to Meddling Mage in Modern Humans decks (Albeit the lack of Aether Vial is certainly a huge difference). The weakest spot in this deck is still the 1 drop slot, which is currently occupied by Whisper Squad. Humans are pretty common across sets though, so this deck will gain potential options with each new set.

Selesnya Counters (Lurrus)

[sd_deck deck=”nIRieCk1G”]

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The counters deck gets some nice upgrades in the form of Star Pupil and Guiding Voice, which let the deck take a lower to the ground approach. It is difficult to build a sideboard with Lessons, but there are certainly some reasonable targets for guiding voice to push towards an endgame.

Sultai Titan’s Nest

[sd_deck deck=”6vv2UmLGi”]

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While Blex is certainly cute on the front side, Search for Blex is the real upgrade for this deck. Seeing so many cards and being able to put cards into the grave is essential for Titan’s Nest. Curate helps with that as well. Both cards make the deck more consistent at finding Titan’s Nest. Sadly, Titan’s Nest can’t be used to cast Mascot Exhibition, otherwise Nest/Lessons would’ve been a very exciting deck to play.

Mono White Spells

[sd_deck deck=”dXI34FiQw”]

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If uninterrupted, curving Clever Lumimancer into Leonin Lightscribe can lead to some very quick games. Mavinda and Clarion Spirit give the deck staying power. The main issue with this type of deck is the lack of good, cheap spells, but the payoffs for casting many spells in one turn is there.

Temur Song of Creation

[sd_deck deck=”Xy8rUornm”]

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Journey to the Oracle is a really interesting option for landfall strategies. It requires an all-in approach, and Song of Creation combo is a good way to do it. There is some tension between the MDFC lands and Journey to the Oracle, but being able to dump lands into play is a much welcomed upgrade. Expressive Iteration is another great include, being a way to set up the early turns. Another card from the set that is interesting in this type of strategy, but didn’t quite make the cut (due to a lack of ways to trigger it) is Quandrix Apprentice.

Gruul Food

[sd_deck deck=”qQZzC2KLe”]

Editor’s note: There was previously a Jeskai Scrollwielder deck here, but unfortunately the interaction the deck was built off of does not work as well as intended.

This version of Gruul Food goes more all in on The Great Henge with the addition of Bayou Groff. With access to 8 1 drop creatures, it shouldn’t be too difficult to cast it on turn 2. With Groff in mind, we can add Claim the Firstborn (and subsequently Witch’s Oven) to the mix. Groff has 5 power, which helps contribute to the possibilities of a turn 4 Henge.

Izzet Spells

[sd_deck deck=”iSbYVYejh”]

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Strixhaven provides more updates to the standard pool of spells for UR. Expressive Iteration and Curate help this deck dig towards threats more efficiently. Prismari Command rounds out the deck nicely with its flexibility.

Azorius Party

[sd_deck deck=”QMD6PtR3i”]

With the addition of Star Pupil, UW Party now has a 1 drop for each party member. This deck has a simple plan: flood the board and get a full party as soon as possible, which lets you recoup card advantage with either Spoils of Adventure or Nimble Pathfinder. 

Simic Learn

[sd_deck deck=”7RvTkOYyx”]

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This deck is likely worse than Adventures at least until Eldraine rotates out, but using Learn as a card advantage engine is definitely an interesting possibility. All the Learn cards are a form of Fae of Wishes in that they tutor for whatever answer you need in your sideboard. Unfortunately, there is no analogous Edgewall Innkeeper in the Learn archetype. This deck will live and die by its early plays. Adventures have the ability to scale from early to late game, but the Learn cards do not.

Mono Blue Devotion

[sd_deck deck=”yh3cBXpML”]

Another blast from the past, Mono Blue Devotion only received 1 addition in Strixhaven (despite there being 2 cards providing 4 devotion to blue). Kelpie Guide is another way to untap Nyx Lotus. Notably, you can cast it proactively to both contribute Devotion and untap a Nyx Lotus that enters the battlefield tapped.