With Strixhaven around the corner, I thought it would be a great time to lay down some predictions and some hopes for this Wizarding school set. Why you ask, well because it's fun to speculate of course! Now as this is a Color Philosophy and Lore channel website we will stick to those avenues of the game, so no predictions on what will be printed or what to expect from the products themselves. This will be speculation based on the setting itself. So, if that sounds like your jam, and how could it not be, then sit down get comfortable, and let's discuss the future set of Magic: the Gathering in Strixhaven.
Color Based Set
My first and primary prediction, or hope really for Strixhaven, is that this will be a set focused on the color Pie. Now you might be thinking that, well of course Dice, you would hope for a color-focused set, and while that’s true I do believe that this is the perfect set to implement a focus on color Philosophy. Now we do know that there will be 5 houses within the school of Strixhaven and honestly, if that isn’t a big enough hint then I don’t know what is. But what exactly would that look like?
Well, at first I believed that Strixhaven would be broken down into five houses, one for each color, and for a while that satisfied me until a friend over on Twitter made the suggestion that it could be based on the five Shards, and well that clicked instantly with me. Like a bolt of inspiration I yelled "Of course, that’s it!" (Shoutout to November Lima)
For one, mono-colored houses, while fine, would be far too simple and honestly too one note. What would a Black house be? Just necromancy and death? A blue house? I mean isn’t that just a school. So, for the sake of creating dynamic houses, it would have to apply at least 3 colors, as 2 would create 10, so Shards fit nicely.
Also, Ikoria was a light Wedge set, so I think it reasons that the Magic team would utilize the chance for a Shard set within that standard year. The only issue comes from the game itself, with too much mana fixing things get silly, but that’s not our focus. Think of how cool that would be, having a fresh representation of the Shards when applying each to a school setting. There is just a lot of potential there.
Harry Potter
This is an obvious one and I didn’t really want to bring it up but there will be a ton of Harry Potter references in here. Nothing to direct but there will be some very obvious pieces pulled from Harry Potter and renamed for the Strixhaven.
I guarantee there will be pictures that are alive, a big sentient deadly tree (Womping Willow), and a sport that is played by wizards at the school.
I don’t want to drag this aspect on too long as, I am sure you figured as much yourself and even the Professor brought it up briefly in his video, none the less it had to be pointed out. I do think that it's fine to draw some inspiration here but really, I think this is their chance to create a unique wizarding school set in the multiverse. There is just so much at their disposal and simply recreating someone else’s art would be a disservice, but I am not holding my breath.
Kasmina
In War of the Spark, we were introduced to a new Planeswalker in Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor. Before this set, we had no idea who she was and yet the team made sure to feature her instead of giving that spot to another known Planeswalker and I believe that was on purpose, as a sort of easter egg for the future.
I would say, given her title on her debut card, that she will be a headmaster or prominent teacher at the school of Strixhaven. We can see on her Planeswalker card that she literally creates Wizards, in that she has pupils whom she takes from novices to full-fledged wizards. Honestly, I really do like this nesting of an easter egg as a way to set up future sets.
To what capacity she will play in the story, is hard to say, but I think it will be a major role. I think that there will be returning faces that come to the school and perhaps some unexpected teachers. Who? It's hard to say at this point but I would bet money that Kasmina will be one such Headmaster or Teacher.
War of the Spark(ish)
My final prediction is that we will see much more than the standard 3 Planewalksers this time around. Now don’t worry it won't be to the same extent that it was in War of the Spark, but we will see at least 5, one for each house. If my predictions about Kasmina are right, then I think it would be odd to have one such Planeswalker teacher or Headmaster and not have additional ones for each house.
I know that there is a lot of fear when it comes with the over-saturation of Planewalkders but that’s a gameplay problem, from a Lore standpoint I think this is the sort of set where it would be surprisingly interesting.
I normally don’t advocate for too many Planeswalkers and I do think some sets could be better without them, from a Lore perspective, but Strixhaven is not one of them. I would love to see what a school of the multiverse could be and honestly, it wouldn’t make sense if it weren’t populated by those who could travel between Planes.
Well, that covers my predictions for Strixhaven, I for one am apprehensively excited, it really could go either way. Be sure to sign in and leave me a comment if you have your own theories or if you just want to tell me that I am way off. (You won’t be added to any email list it’s simply a matter of creating a username)
With that, I’ll catch you in the multiverse Bye!
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