Secrets of Strixhaven Mystical Archive Limited Ratings
Akroma's Will
AI Rating: 4.5Pro Rating: 4.5
You do need a board, but once you do, this is just always really, really good. Both modes basically allow you to attack with everything you have without worrying about the consequences.
Angel's Grace
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 0
This is a glorified fog in Limited.
Armageddon
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 0
There's no way to break the symmetry on this in the format, so you generally come out behind.
Duty Beyond Death
AI Rating: 1.6Pro Rating: 2
This format isn't quite as good at going wide as Tarkir: Dragonstorm, but there will still be boards where this is backbreaking.
Helping Hand
AI Rating: 3.2Pro Rating: 1
Even with the Lorehold graveyard stuff, this is just too narrow of a card.
Hop to It
AI Rating: 2.8Pro Rating: 3
Rabbits don't matter in this format, but getting 3 1/1s for three mana does.
Prismatic Ending
AI Rating: 3.2Pro Rating: 2
This can be flexible, but only if you work really hard, and it'll still never be efficient.
Repel Calamity
AI Rating: 4.4Pro Rating: 3
This can kill most of what you need to kill at a very good rate.
Reprieve
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 3
This gives you really great tempo in most situations.
Requisition Raid
AI Rating: 2.5Pro Rating: 1.5
This format is pretty short on artifacts and enchantments, so it's mostly the mass buff mode, and that doesn't seem good enough.
Return to the Ranks
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 1.5
You're just not going to do something insane with this even at it's best, and it takes a lot of work to do anything at all.
Brain Freeze
AI Rating: 2.5Pro Rating: 0
There's no Underworld Breach in this format, so it's useless.
Cyclonic Rift
AI Rating: 4.6Pro Rating: 5
Overloaded this is an absolute bomb since it's one-sided mass bounce at instant speed, and casting it the other way early isn't terrible.
Daze
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 2.5
Free counterspells are sweet, even if this one is a little narrow.
Deduce
AI Rating: 2Pro Rating: 2.5
This won't be as good as it was in the past, since there's not an artifact or clue deck in this format, but there are spell decks and this gives you a 2-for-1 in the end.
Disdainful Stroke
AI Rating: 3.2Pro Rating: 2.5
This is maindeckable in an instant and sorcery format like this one. There will be lots of expensive spells.
Flusterstorm
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 1
This is a really narrow counterspell that won't even always counter what you need it to.
Force of Will
AI Rating: 4.3Pro Rating: 3
A free counterspell is nice to have in your back pocket, but you do have to 2-for-1 yourself to do it. Hardcasting it works with Opus, though!
Pongify
AI Rating: 2.1Pro Rating: 0
You 2-for-1 yourself using this on your opponent's stuff, and you use up a card and a small upgrade when you use it on your own.
Preordain
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 3.5
This is one of the best card draw spells in the game, in Limited or otherwise. Seeing three cards for one mana is awesome.
Sleight of Hand
AI Rating: 2.3Pro Rating: 3
In a format with Opus this kind of card draw + selection is going to play quite well.
Spell Pierce
AI Rating: 2.1Pro Rating: 1.5
This is less narrow in this format than in most, but it's still only really good early.
Stock Up
AI Rating: 3.6Pro Rating: 4
This was insane in Aetherdrift and it will be here too. Getting the two best cards in your top five is just incredible, especially in a spell format.
Ad Nauseam
AI Rating: 2.1Pro Rating: 0
This is just way too finicky to work in Limited consistently enough for it to ever be playable. You can't build a deck like you can in 60-card formats where this just always draws your whole deck.
Bitter Triumph
AI Rating: 4.5Pro Rating: 3
This is good removal, though Black has surprisingly few ways to take advantage of discard in this format.
Culling the Weak
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 0
Rituals are very bad in Limited, and this one wants you to go down even more cards.
Dismember
AI Rating: 3.9Pro Rating: 4
This is excellent removal you can technically play in any deck.
Feed the Swarm
AI Rating: 3.3Pro Rating: 3
This is quality removal, and Witherbloom can offset the downside.
Living End
AI Rating: 2.9Pro Rating: 0
This is really bad when you actually have to Suspend it.
Locust Spray
AI Rating: 1.8Pro Rating: 2
This doesn't do a ton, but it's a cheap way to trigger Repartee and sometimes it'll kill something.
Sheoldred's Edict
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 2.5
You're mostly going to choose the first mode, and it won't always kill what you need it to -- but it will kill something!
Smallpox
AI Rating: 1.8Pro Rating: 0
This is symmetrical and it's not worth shooting yourself in the foot.
Stargaze
AI Rating: 1.6Pro Rating: 1.5
This is really slow and painful, but it can dig you pretty deep.
Vampiric Tutor
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 0
This is card disadvantage in Limited and the cards you can tutor up in Limited aren't powerful enough for that to be what you want to do.
Zombify
AI Rating: 1.4Pro Rating: 1.5
It's always hard to consistently get 4 mana's worth back with this.
Abrade
AI Rating: 3.9Pro Rating: 3
This is weaker in this format than in most since there aren't many artifacts here. Still good removal, though.
Big Score
AI Rating: 2.1Pro Rating: 1.5
This mostly just has you spin your wheels, and doing that for 4 mana is brutal, even when you get treasure back.
Brotherhood's End
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 1.5
This is mostly just going to be the first mode, and that can be good in the right spot -- but there are also lots of spots where it either doesn't hurt your opponent enough or it hurts you too much.
Bulk Up
AI Rating: 1.6Pro Rating: 0
This was really bad in Foundations, and it will be here too. It's basically only a good trick when a big creature gets through unblocked.
Burst Lightning
AI Rating: 3.9Pro Rating: 4
This is great every time we see it. The base mode can trade up, and the kicker mode keeps it relevant all game long -- and it will trigger maximum opus in this format.
Crackle with Power
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 5
Red doesn't seem as good at ramping in this set as in original Strixhaven, but this is still a game-winner at 8 mana, and a good removal spell at 5.
Empty the Warrens
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 1.5
Casting one spell and then casting this is passable, but you shouldn't expect much more than that.
Jeska's Will
AI Rating: 5Pro Rating: 0
Neither mode is very good individually. You need lots of mana to use the cards it exiles.
Monstrous Rage
AI Rating: 2.6Pro Rating: 3
This is a great trick that often wins combat and wrecks the opponent while leaving a permanent buff behind, and triggering Opus stuff at the same time makes it even better.
Pyretic Ritual
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 0
Using a card for a temporary mana boost loses games in Limited, partly because you are setting yourself up for a 2-for-1, and partly because it's pretty bad if it's not in your opening hand.
Return the Favor
AI Rating: 1.7Pro Rating: 2
There are plenty of things to copy and redirect in this format, but it's still pretty situational.
Subterranean Tremors
AI Rating: 4.6Pro Rating: 2.5
If you can pay 8 for X, this just wins you the game. Probably is, 9 total mana is often unreachable in Limited, so you have to lean on the Earthquake effect.
Awaken the Woods
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 3.5
This helps you go wide and ramps your mana and it's an X spell. All of that sounds appealing, especially in Quandrix.
Berserk
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 2
This is a sweet trick in the right spot, and can also be a really bad removal spell, but neither of those things make me want to play it with regularity.
Crop Rotation
AI Rating: 2.7Pro Rating: 0
There are no lands in this format that it's worth 2-for-1ing yourself for.
Giant Growth
AI Rating: 1.6Pro Rating: 2
This trick can win most combats when deployed safely, but it's not so good against removal.
Glimpse of Nature
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 1
You need to cast at least two creature spells after you cast this, and that's a big ask.
Knockout Maneuver
AI Rating: 3.3Pro Rating: 3.5
Green decks can always leverage this nicely, and it even makes your creature a much better attacker.
Pick Your Poison
AI Rating: 1.2Pro Rating: 1
There are too many board states where every mode is irrelevant.
Royal Treatment
AI Rating: 2.6Pro Rating: 2.5
This trick can blank removal quite nicely and win combat sometimes too.
Shamanic Revelation
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 3
This is a bit of a win-more, but sometimes if you have like two big creatures you can still be behind, and the life and cards can help you.
Shared Roots
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 1.5
Using up a turn and a card on Rampant Growth isn't great, especially when you have it stapled to a common creature in the format.
Triumph of the Hordes
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 3
This can win the game when you cast it a decent chunk of the time. But, sometimes you have a board state where it's irrelevant.
Veil of Summer
AI Rating: 3.9Pro Rating: 0.5
This is sideboard material, and not even that good in the sideboard since you'll never run into someone in Blue/black.
Bring to Light
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 0
You have to work hard with this to get your mana's worth, and even when you do it's not like you have super powerful cards or situational things to grab that can change the game. This isn't 60-card magic.
Culling Ritual
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 2
It's hard to break the symmetry here, even with the mana, as you simply don't have something to use it on with regularity.
Deflecting Palm
AI Rating: 0.9Pro Rating: 0
Your opponent isn't going to fireball you for 20 in this format. Redirecting one damage source from yourself to your opponent just isn't worth a card 99% of the time.
Expressive Iteration
AI Rating: 2.9Pro Rating: 4
This ends up feeling like a two mana draw two more often than not.
Fracture
AI Rating: -0Pro Rating: 0
This will rarely have targets in this format.
| Card | Pro Rating | AI Rating | APA | Picked | ALSA | Seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
ss-mythic|White|Instant
|
4.5 | 4.5 | 2.50 | 2 | 2.50 | 2 |
|
ss-rare|White|Instant
|
0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 6.00 | 1 |
|
ss-mythic|White|Sorcery
|
0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 1.80 | 5 |
|
ss-uncommon|White|Instant
|
2 | 1.6 | 10.40 | 10 | 6.75 | 105 |
|
ss-uncommon|White|Sorcery
|
1 | 3.2 | 5.92 | 12 | 5.16 | 88 |
|
ss-uncommon|White|Sorcery
|
3 | 2.8 | 7.12 | 16 | 5.44 | 81 |
|
ss-rare|White|Sorcery
|
2 | 3.2 | 6.00 | 1 | 4.80 | 6 |
|
ss-uncommon|White|Instant
|
3 | 4.4 | 2.67 | 3 | 4.00 | 6 |
|
ss-rare|White|Instant
|
3 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 2.00 | 2 |
|
ss-uncommon|White|Sorcery
|
1.5 | 2.5 | 8.00 | 13 | 5.97 | 104 |
|
ss-rare|White|Sorcery
|
1.5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 6.00 | 1 |
|
ss-rare|Blue|Instant
|
0 | 2.5 | 8.00 | 1 | 4.29 | 8 |
|
ss-mythic|Blue|Instant
|
5 | 4.6 | 2.00 | 1 | 0.00 | 1 |
|
ss-rare|Blue|Instant
|
2.5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 3.17 | 6 |
|
ss-uncommon|Blue|Instant
|
2.5 | 2 | 9.38 | 8 | 5.33 | 79 |
|
ss-uncommon|Blue|Instant
|
2.5 | 3.2 | 6.00 | 6 | 5.46 | 92 |
|
ss-mythic|Blue|Instant
|
1 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 1.00 | 1 |
|
ss-mythic|Blue|Instant
|
3 | 4.3 | 3.00 | 1 | 3.00 | 2 |
|
ss-rare|Blue|Instant
|
0 | 2.1 | 9.00 | 1 | 6.33 | 4 |
|
ss-rare|Blue|Sorcery
|
3.5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 2.00 | 3 |
|
ss-uncommon|Blue|Sorcery
|
3 | 2.3 | 8.70 | 10 | 5.69 | 99 |
|
ss-uncommon|Blue|Instant
|
1.5 | 2.1 | 9.22 | 9 | 6.27 | 108 |
|
ss-uncommon|Blue|Sorcery
|
4 | 3.6 | 5.00 | 1 | 1.00 | 2 |
|
ss-mythic|Black|Instant
|
0 | 2.1 | 9.00 | 1 | 4.80 | 6 |
|
ss-uncommon|Black|Instant
|
3 | 4.5 | 2.33 | 3 | 2.57 | 8 |
|
ss-rare|Black|Instant
|
0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 5.11 | 10 |
|
ss-rare|Black|Instant
|
4 | 3.9 | 4.00 | 1 | 4.00 | 1 |
|
ss-uncommon|Black|Sorcery
|
3 | 3.3 | 5.67 | 3 | 4.17 | 9 |
|
ss-mythic|Black|Sorcery
|
0 | 2.9 | 7.00 | 1 | 3.00 | 3 |
|
ss-uncommon|Black|Instant
|
2 | 1.8 | 9.92 | 12 | 6.69 | 109 |
|
ss-rare|Black|Instant
|
2.5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 1.00 | 1 |
|
ss-rare|Black|Sorcery
|
0 | 1.8 | 10.00 | 1 | 6.00 | 11 |
|
ss-uncommon|Black|Sorcery
|
1.5 | 1.6 | 10.45 | 11 | 7.41 | 121 |
|
ss-mythic|Black|Instant
|
0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 1.00 | 1 |
|
ss-uncommon|Black|Sorcery
|
1.5 | 1.4 | 11.00 | 9 | 6.14 | 114 |
|
ss-uncommon|Red|Instant
|
3 | 3.9 | 4.00 | 1 | 2.80 | 6 |
|
ss-rare|Red|Instant
|
1.5 | 2.1 | 9.00 | 1 | 9.00 | 2 |
|
ss-rare|Red|Sorcery
|
1.5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 3.00 | 5 |
|
ss-uncommon|Red|Instant
|
0 | 1.6 | 10.40 | 5 | 6.73 | 120 |
|
ss-uncommon|Red|Instant
|
4 | 3.9 | 4.00 | 3 | 3.75 | 4 |
|
ss-mythic|Red|Sorcery
|
5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 2.00 | 1 |
|
ss-rare|Red|Sorcery
|
1.5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 5.20 | 6 |
|
ss-mythic|Red|Sorcery
|
0 | 5 | 1.00 | 1 | 2.67 | 3 |
|
ss-uncommon|Red|Instant
|
3 | 2.6 | 7.77 | 13 | 5.90 | 87 |
|
ss-rare|Red|Instant
|
0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 |
|
ss-uncommon|Red|Instant
|
2 | 1.7 | 10.33 | 9 | 6.68 | 102 |
|
ss-mythic|Red|Sorcery
|
2.5 | 4.6 | 2.00 | 1 | 2.00 | 1 |
|
ss-mythic|Green|Sorcery
|
3.5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 6.00 | 1 |
|
ss-mythic|Green|Instant
|
2 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 3.80 | 5 |
|
ss-rare|Green|Instant
|
0 | 2.7 | 7.50 | 2 | 6.31 | 17 |
|
ss-uncommon|Green|Instant
|
2 | 1.6 | 10.38 | 13 | 7.38 | 124 |
|
ss-rare|Green|Sorcery
|
1 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 9.00 | 2 |
|
ss-uncommon|Green|Sorcery
|
3.5 | 3.3 | 5.82 | 11 | 3.71 | 61 |
|
ss-uncommon|Green|Sorcery
|
1 | 1.2 | 11.50 | 4 | 7.18 | 114 |
|
ss-uncommon|Green|Instant
|
2.5 | 2.6 | 7.60 | 5 | 5.39 | 86 |
|
ss-rare|Green|Sorcery
|
3 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 6.00 | 1 |
|
ss-uncommon|Green|Sorcery — Lesson
|
1.5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 4.33 | 3 |
|
ss-mythic|Green|Sorcery
|
3 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 2.00 | 1 |
|
ss-rare|Green|Instant
|
0.5 | 3.9 | 4.00 | 1 | 6.89 | 11 |
|
ss-rare|Blue|Green|Sorcery
|
0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 4.00 | 1 |
|
ss-rare|Black|Green|Sorcery
|
2 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 3.67 | 3 |
|
ss-rare|White|Red|Instant
|
0 | 0.9 | 12.50 | 2 | 5.17 | 15 |
|
ss-rare|Blue|Red|Sorcery
|
4 | 2.9 | 7.00 | 2 | 3.33 | 6 |
|
ss-rare|White|Black|Instant
|
0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 7.67 | 3 |
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About Limited Ratings
- 5.0 The absolute best you can get.
- 4.5 Incredible bomb, but not unbeatable.
- 4.0 Good rare or top-tier uncommon.
- 3.5 Top-tier common or solid uncommon.
- 3.0 Good playable that always make the cut.
- 2.5 A solid playable that rarely gets cut.
- 2.0 A good playable, but is sometimes cut.
- 1.5 Filler card but sometimes gets cut.
- 1.0 Not good filler and often gets gut.
- 0.5 Almost Unplayable and mostly sideboard material.
- 0.0 Not playable at all.
AI Limited ratings are gathered with data from MTGA Assistant, while Nizzahon Magic provides the Pro ratings. The key difference is that the Pro ratings and comments are made before the set officially releases, while the AI ratings dynamically update with new data. It would be best to use the Pro ratings as guidance as sets are released and the AI Ratings a couple of weeks after release. Here is an explanation of how we score the cards: