Something I've sort of noticed is that because the enemy color pairs are usually philosophically at odds with one another, enemy color pairs seem to be often represented as "means and ends" in the sense that one color represents the means to achieve the other color's ends, and one thing that Strixhaven seems to do is reverse the means and ends of the ravnican guilds. For instance Orzhov is white means (formalized systems of debt, a ritualized quasi-religious organization) to black ends (power, wealth, immortality), whereas Silverquill, being the college of lawyers, politicians, debate club members, ect, instead uses black means to white ends. I think this is why Lorehold works so well, in that turning the means and ends on its head makes it so you have to almost avoid combat entirely when designing for their cards.
I quite like this way of looking at it! seems to ring really true! Izzet was using intellect for aggression, whilst prismari is using emotion for self-expression.
@@Sheriff_K More or less. I don't doubt "fractal" as their college's token was coincidental. Fractal patterns occur frequently in nature, as well as applying to math. Essentially where Simic is "Applied Biology", Quandrix is "Theoretical Nature", aka math.
Quandrix isn't Nature vs. Nurture. It's "we invented math" vs. "we discovered math." There, I have engaged with the content and rewarded it via the algorithm.
I do always wonder what the difference between invention and discovery is... so I guess I'm Quandrix at heart. (I am a Simic, aka UG, player, so it checks out.)
I really like this format of video essay. It's clear you're knowledgeable and opinionated on the topic and that you've done your research. It's a bit of a shift from your product review content, I really like it. Well said!
I like how you put things into perspective as far as the history and lore of magic. It really helps new magic players like myself understand why some things are the way they are and how they’ve come to change in this instance with the new set. Thanks prof
Cracks me up because both ways of portraying Red/White are me. I’m a soldier who has a graduate degree in anthropology specializing in archaeology and I practice HEMA with a current focus on understanding early longsword through Fiore dei Liberi’s (about) 1400 AD manuals.
Out of the 5 colleges, I think Lorehold is the most successful at being able give more tools for Boros and even potentially shifting how Wizards could change its card design for those colors
@@grimreaper0 I wouldn't say less tools, since I think the other colleges expanded minor established themes in their color pairings, except for Quandrix. Quandrix is basically Simic. Witherbloom is life gain and sacrafice, where as Golgari is Graveyard matters. Izzet is spellsling, but cheap spellsling, where as Prismari is casting big spells and making 4/4 elemental tokens. Orzhov is lifegain and aristocrats, where as Silverquill is politics. For those three colleges, those themes existed before Strixhaven, but weren't fleshed out like they are now.
@@jasonkorf7700 I wouldn't say quandrix is basically simic as much as simic and quandrix both use 1/1 counters and somewhat care about having different creatures. quandrix is more into token generation and go wide effects. fractals are just go-wide amass
Granted they've never had a Commander that cared about tokens and usually defaulted to Ezuri, but token make and synergizing with plus one plus one counters is pretty established in Simic. This does lead me to a gripe. I'm annoyed that Wotc continues to push obscene Simic cards/Commanders. Naya and Selysnia are the primary token generating decks and they've now printed two Simic Commanders that are vastly superior to the Naya and Selysnia ones. There's a reason why players complain about the color pie. We see how adamant Wotc are about the Boros section of the color pie and the complete disregard of it on the Sultai colors.
I think part of the reason Quandrix went back to +1/+1 counters again is because the last time Simic tried to be different, it gave us Hydroid Krasis, Uro and Oko the Broko.
+1/+1 counters were moreso in silverquill's lane tho, quandrix has the ramp/8 lands package to cast big fractals the fact that the fractals use +1/+1 counters makes me wish there was more room for silverquill/quandrix decks in limited that didnt have to go 4c. best you can do is like an abzan or bant deck with some cute stuff but that's kinda tough to pull in the enemy pair heavy environment
Hydroid Krasis and Uro are _very_ Simic; While hydras in general are not too common on ravnica, a sink for all the mana you'll be generating in Simic that creates a +1/+1 stacked monster is mechanically in line with what they like to do. Uro is just a big Coiling Oracle, which is also a quintessential Simic card. Oko may be the closest thing to an "alternative" mechanical identity for Simic, but the ability he's most loved/hated for, his +1, is reminiscent of Rapid Hybridization and Incubation/Incongruity, both very Simic cards.
With this video Id say that Firesong and sunspeaker were likely a proof of concept for Lorehold. At least to the point that Wizards wanted to try something other than Combat for Boros.
Love to see a video on all the colleges like this one explaining it's differences and creation as well Very good Boros I mean Lorehold has definitely got better with this direction
I personally want to see a red/black revamp that isn’t just “evil”. I love rakdos but I would love to see an interpretation of red/black as morally neutral or even hero aligned
Well actually in aether revolt you see just that, the renegades are mostly red black if memory serves correctly and the actual villains were in esper colors (dovin being azorius, kambal orzhov, and tezzeret dimir) and it represented them building whatever they wanted however they wanted Consulate be damned, it didn't matter if the aether they used was technically stolen, stealing from a police state didn't concern them
@@IAmebAdger and this is a great setup for a discussion of the nature of evil that I'm not prepared for, but most importantly the thing about the rakdos is that outside of their riots that spill into the streets and cause chaos they're mostly willing participants in the rituals, unless I'm mistaken. Granted captive audience is a card but someone's gotta give the boros a job to do
@@tempestandacomputer6951 "Maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way " It's a common phrase, noone really knows for sure where it comes from. Many link it to the film "Stand by Me", even though the phrase isn't used in it (the phrase for sure fits the film's theme, though)
White also used to be able to recur creatures... I hope Wizards remembers one day that this is still part of white's identity without limiting it to low lower or low mana cost like they have been
@@anthonydelfino6171 cor me salty but after reading too many comments by MaRo about how half of Whites cards are "not on theme" I'm sure he thinks reanimation should be phased out of White.
@@newtpondskipper should someone tell him how half of green for the past several years have not been "on theme" and to shut up about making a stink now that white is just reclaiming part of its own identity?
its very interesting how lorehold focuses so much on the graveyard, since sultai is usually considered to be the most graveyard focused color combination, and lorehold is the exact opposite colors
Exiling from the graveyard for the most part seems like a mechanic Lorehold can latch on to, in lore Sultai is bringing back the dead while Lorehold is about about bringing history back such as artifacts.
I saw the exile Artifact and create token copies fits really well of fake/replica artifacts of real world treasures while the real stuff is lost or locked away in a museum. Lorehold is very much "That belongs in a Museum!"
I would like to see a Sultai vs Lorehold/Boros graveyard matters commander match to see how well it holds as a viable theme for RW in MTG history. I bet it could have surprising results if we consider things like escape, flashback or jump-start
The problem with Quandrix isn't that it failed to distance itself from Simic, it's that Simic already did too much in the last few years there's very little to explore in the color pair.
Even if the other colleges don’t offer quite as much, I don’t think it’s exaggeration to say that Lorehold is one of Magic’s greatest successes in years.
I'd say in terms of creativity and expanding the idea of what color pairs do, it is probably their biggest success since Khans of Tarkir when they had to create identities for the wedge color groupings. The problem is that even when we're not on Ravnica the overwhelming majority of two color cards still mechanically function like they're still on Ravnica, so it's like we never left. Lorehold, however, feels very distinct from Boros, making it more successful than even all the other colleges in this set
@@anthonydelfino6171 I'd definitely agree with this. Witherbloom for example doesn't feel very different from Golgari. As it seems, "Life vs. Death" and "Life in Death" are very hard to differentiate mechanically. However Lorehold really captivated me, both flavorwise because I am a big fan of ancient history and archeology, and mechanically because it feels so fresh for the color pair.
@@DerMauls Witherbloom, Quandrix, and Prismari, I'd argue, all feel too similar to their Ravnican guilds. Only really Lorehold and Silverquill managed to do something new and interesting. Prismari is still red-blue "instants and sorceries matter" Quandrix is still green-blue +1/+1 counters, and Witherbloom seemed like it started out as the guild of gaining and paying life, which would be interesting, but couldn't resist doing some graveyard and reanimation stuff.
@@anthonydelfino6171 Yeah I definitely agree with you, I just thought Witherbloom was the best example because like you said, it seemed to go in another direction but in the end still just felt like Golgari.
@Anthony Delfino i don't see them like this, izzet was a color of multiple low cost spells (3 to 4 mana) and prismari is all about going big spells. Simic was about counters and flash most of the time and quandrix is about going huge on board. Whiterbloon i agre that still feels golgari And silverquill for me looks like a white aggro with black splash.
I, for one, see this as Magic's greatest success in the past year or so. The fun I've had with Lorehold playing with my roommate's cards is the closest I've been to buying new cards and building a new Commander deck since a few of WotC's recent nightmares. While it might not grab everyone (roommates included), I fell in love with the college immediately and would love to see this continued into the future.
I would love this, Rakdos sacrifice seems to be an archetype they keep pushing and it always seems to fall flat in limited, without the engines you can make in constructed. Needing the combination of "things that want to be sacrificed", "things capable of reliably sacrificing other things", and "payoff for sacrificing other creatures", makes it harder to get a deck to play out consistently. Maybe something like effects related to non-combat loss of life, like drain effects or pinging, would be a new avenue to explore as a theme?
@@hamlet8179 that... Vampires and werewolves... I dont think either of those are red black are they? Wolves are red green Vampires are white black and maybe blue?
Honestly, having been a new player and boros having been my first few decks, I noticed this issue right away. As time goes on, you start to understand the value of card advantage, hilarious shenanigans, and genuine decks that allow for you to enjoy the game with fellow magic enthusiasts. Lorehold has a special place in my heart. Wizards has officially made my childhood. BTW, you videos are amazing and informative. Keep up the amazing work!
Man the Production Value of this Video is trough the Roof, love it! I also love the way, they changed boros to something other than just smash face and it totally works, even better then expected :)
Oh 100%. Izzet has just been spellslinging and azorious is just slow bois. Fliers is more flashy and interesting. Foretell was also amazing for azorious although it splashed into esper territory
I do really like Brudiclad's take on Izzet, focusing on token copies and creature combat. Izzet gets plenty of spellslinging and a fair chunk of artifact support, I think good ol' creature combat would be a refreshing direction to take the pair. Prismari nailed the aesthetics, but didn't really do much mechanically to separate itself, I feel, and admittedly making the UR faction combat focused in the mage guild set would be awkward, even if it focused on combat tricks.
I've always like RW in Limited and Standard ever since Apocalypse. I think Lorehold gives RW a boost in Commander as well as new playstyles for Constructed. I really like the concept of white returned cards from the grave mixed with red's rummage card draw.
I’m a brand new player, started playing less than a month ago. My first deck was the Osgir, the Reconstructor precon, I love the Red/White combo and the artifact themes in the deck, I can’t wait to get into the game more.
I'm currently working on a version of the deck that's focused on cheating out huge artifact creatures with stuff like sneak attack or reanimate spells :)
@@jacobjensen7704 I build mostly around artifacts but I slapped a couple of cool artifact creatures in there like Wurmcoil Engine. Like I said it’s my first deck ever so I took a lot of inspiration from a few different TH-camrs!
@@forrestwalker5450 that's sweet dude. Enjoy playing around with it! Boros will just keep getting new toys as the sets keep coming out, so you've got a lot to look forward to!
Very educational.... I really like how this fits the elder dragon's purpous of bringing their combined wisdom together. No enemies based on color, or species type. Even the colleges are allies.
I think Wizards evolved their color hosing strategy. For example Veil of Summer is relatively new and a great example of how they’re doing color hosing now.
These are the videos of yours I love the most: casting a trenchant eye over the history of Magic and making known the revision of shortcomings. Absolutely fantastic work, sir, and I await your ensuing content!
As someone who had Boros as his favourite color pair since ever, if the ideals and flavor of Heroism, Altruism and "Saving the World" are upheld, I'm happy with whichever mechanics come =)
10 Years ago the thing that amazed me the most about MTG was the flavor of the cards, even today still make me reflect and question a lot of things. And I've never seen the Lawbringer before, love the flavor of the card!
Lorehold: "Let's do an entirely new thing and not just be Boros rehashed."... Prismari, Quandrix, and Witherbloom: "Let's just be our Ravnican guilds rehashed."... Silverquill: "Well somebody needs to be Boros rehashed."
Hey Prof! Great video! I'm currently working on a Boros Reanimate...yes, you read that right, with Mila and Lukka, I'm itching to do something other than attack over and over again
I'm surprised they didn't start this in Kaldheim tbh. The idea of Einherjar, or warriors chosen by the Valkyrie to fight for the gods would have fit perfectly in red/white with "Spirit Warriors"
Do more! Do more! (Which is to say, please do more comparisons of the other colleges with their respective guilds, outlining what makes their color pair different, and what WotC attempted to do in order to bring them together in their respective colleges, in Strixhaven. :)
I agree! When I first saw the Lorehold Commander deck and Osgir I was overjoyed at his abilities and what the deck had in it. Love how he can ramp by making copies of mana rocks, or even the artifact lands that you sac with his first ability, or pitch to impulsive draw cards like cathartic reunion, ect.
I really like how Strixhaven reinvented the color combinations, I feel like that's something the Magic story needed. I especially like Silverquill's focus on communication, but Lorehold's cool too. I understand why red-white has been historically aggro and combat-focused, since that fits the playstyle that the individual colors are supposed to have. However I think that this new mechanic based around using your graveyard for extra board presence in the midgame could work too and would be a fun new way to play.
First of all: great video as always, Professor, always a delight to watch content of this quality. And I do have to agree that Lorehold is by far the best change in these colour pairs. Quandrix IS Simic, even having cards like "Growth Spiral, but bigger" Witherbloom's core idea "Life vs Death" is extremely close to Golgari's "Cycle of Life, Death and Undeath" Prismari averts being Izzet 2 by focusing on art (even though Prismari Command is very, very close to just being a bigger Izzet Charm) Silverquill has a nice thematic distance from Orzhov, but boils down to making spirit tokens, which was a thing Orzhov did I just hope they really do keep this new idea in mind instead of just giving us more "Boros Smash!", but more cards like Firesong and Sunspeaker.
I love how they combined daretti and teshar and built the precon around artifact reanimation, found a way to make the white parts of selesnya populate cards and red impluse draw also work with it. Super happy with osgir as a deck
I love the buff to red white, and the fact we have a new playstyle with Lorehold (that I've been enjoying a lot of!) but I can't help but add these cards to my combat-focused red white vehicle deck.. Still I'm hoping they expand more into this playstyle as I love the colour combo a lot
I'm really glad that Strixhaven reworked how those colors worked. I will probably use the college names instead of guild names when referring to those decks. White became better as a color and it reshaped my ideas for a control deck.
white was always a good color, people just misunderstood it white was never ment to be a main color, its the perfect secondary support color cause it basically makes any other color better
@@sharktenko267 There was a time in the game where Green was the worst color and white the most powerful. Neither color is a support only color. They all stand on their own and should stand on their own.
Very cool intro! The logo fading in from the background was neat! Also, great video as always! I'm very happy for what comes of Boros as a color combo in the future, as they are my favorite guild and colors and pairing!
Actual simic cards from the guild in Ravnica sets are mostly garbage. Go look at the original Ravnica Simic cards or even a lot of the new ones. They are just mediocre creatures with ways to spam +1/+1 counters on them. They've just printed some recent broken UG cards over the last several years that have nothing to do with Simic in lore or mechanics. Stuff like Uro, Oko, and Kinan.
Quandrix makes perfect sense, it's the explanation of nature through mathematics. It still has ramp/counters from simic, but now you really have to think about what "numbers" are available. Rather than pumping up your creatures blindly, a quandrix player has to really think about what numbers are on those creatures for maximum benefit. The perfect contrast of nature/theory and green/blue.
Always loved red/white but struggled to make it really work. I got Lorehold Legacies and It’s great. Excited to see what’s in store for this colour pair.
One of the few times I'm glad I'm a millenial: my college experience allowed a ton of people with different backgrounds to tolerate and listen to each other's points and learn to empathize with each other. Today's generation only wants to learn what they already believe. Damn kids, get off my lawn.
fantastic musical choice. The production was great. The lorehold legacies deck is really a blast. Discarding cards with faithless looting, only to copy them with Osgir or recover them with Reconstruct History feels fantastic. The flavor is A+ as well.
@@tttyyy949 yes, that’s why I used the conjunction “or.” These activities refer to things one can potentially do with cards discarded to faithless looting.
Makes me so good about choosing Lorehold as my college of choice! I loved the magic Indiana Jones flavor and the interesting play style it led to. Just a fun archetype that I hope they continue to support. I really feel like some super fun decks can be made.
I agree. The Lorehold cards stood out to me the most when looking over previews because of how much it mixed up Red and White's gameplay while still being perfectly in the color pie. Everything is stuff they can do, it's just oriented towards a new gameplay style. I dig it. Also, I think it's safe to say that we call the two-color pairs the names of the Ravnica guilds as _slang_ names. Everyone knows that calling Underworld Coinsmith an "Orzhov" card doesn't mean it's a part of the literal Orzhov guild. Orzhov is just useful shorthand for "White/Black". Useful and easier it is too, compared to hearing a deluge of color names when trying to discuss color pairs. (That poll where Boros appears twice should have had Gruul in second place.)
It'd be interesting to see a future set that applies the same idea of Strixhaven to allied-color pairs, focusing on the conflict between those colors rather than their agreements (For example, how Black uses knowledge as a mean of control and manipulation while Blue goes more to a collective knowledge direction)
Not only were Osgir and Quintoirius amazing new commanders for Lorehold flavor, but so were the rest! The spirit theme that Lorehold helped at to the history theme! Hofri Ghostfore is an amazing example! Sure it's a token aggro deck, but it still cares about things dying and coming back! Or even Velomachus Lorehold, the Elder Dragon of the set. A spellslinging type commander in Boros, not unlike Feather. Seeing these commanders come in and NOT need to be some combat/equipment value deck is amazing! They are all a breath of fresh air, and we lovers of Boros may finally see playstyles that don't require equipping creatures for value or gaining extra combat steps for....value. Another great video Professor, keep up the great work!
The bar graph at 3:28 has boros on it twice and shows it in second place. I think it's selesnya or gruul in that spot. Love your work. Not trying to under cut your point.
Couldn't agree more. I was not initially excited to play the Red/White Strixhaven Commander deck, but now it's my favorite one. FINALLY red/white does something other than attack, equip, enchant, etc.
I first started playing when my friend got me onto Tabletop Simulator and handed me a basic red deck. Then I hopped into MTG Arena and White's tutorial showed me the epic power of Lifegain and +1/+1 counters. So Red-White has been my colour pair of choice ever since, which means I'm always happy to see it get new options of any kind.
![ค้างคืนโรงเก็บกระสวยอวกาศร้างกลางทะเลทราย [Around The World Ep. 3]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E5bWZQhABJE/mqdefault.jpg)
Red/white may have come dead last in the poll, but it's good to see white/red is second most popular
I caught that too. I think there is a mistake. Red Green is missing.
LMAO
Yeah I noticed that too
Same, gruul is the missing one anyone that wants to know :)
@@GRAEMEMCFORLIFE I was gonna post this too!
Something I've sort of noticed is that because the enemy color pairs are usually philosophically at odds with one another, enemy color pairs seem to be often represented as "means and ends" in the sense that one color represents the means to achieve the other color's ends, and one thing that Strixhaven seems to do is reverse the means and ends of the ravnican guilds. For instance Orzhov is white means (formalized systems of debt, a ritualized quasi-religious organization) to black ends (power, wealth, immortality), whereas Silverquill, being the college of lawyers, politicians, debate club members, ect, instead uses black means to white ends. I think this is why Lorehold works so well, in that turning the means and ends on its head makes it so you have to almost avoid combat entirely when designing for their cards.
I quite like this way of looking at it! seems to ring really true! Izzet was using intellect for aggression, whilst prismari is using emotion for self-expression.
So that means instead of using science to further nature and evolution, Quandrix uses nature to further their understanding of science?
@@Sheriff_K More or less. I don't doubt "fractal" as their college's token was coincidental. Fractal patterns occur frequently in nature, as well as applying to math. Essentially where Simic is "Applied Biology", Quandrix is "Theoretical Nature", aka math.
This is an astute observation!
Quandrix isn't Nature vs. Nurture. It's "we invented math" vs. "we discovered math." There, I have engaged with the content and rewarded it via the algorithm.
exactly
In an abstract sense, that's the same thing as nature and nurture.
@@HeartfireGames In an abstract sense, everything is just kicker.
@@the40inchtaco life, the universe, and all things in it, are just complex forms of stacking
I do always wonder what the difference between invention and discovery is... so I guess I'm Quandrix at heart. (I am a Simic, aka UG, player, so it checks out.)
“What does this Color pair do?”
“Bore us.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. What does Boros do?”
I really like this format of video essay. It's clear you're knowledgeable and opinionated on the topic and that you've done your research. It's a bit of a shift from your product review content, I really like it.
Well said!
I like how you put things into perspective as far as the history and lore of magic. It really helps new magic players like myself understand why some things are the way they are and how they’ve come to change in this instance with the new set. Thanks prof
Cracks me up because both ways of portraying Red/White are me. I’m a soldier who has a graduate degree in anthropology specializing in archaeology and I practice HEMA with a current focus on understanding early longsword through Fiore dei Liberi’s (about) 1400 AD manuals.
Epic!
ok, that’s cool
That’s awesome!
Out of the 5 colleges, I think Lorehold is the most successful at being able give more tools for Boros and even potentially shifting how Wizards could change its card design for those colors
I agree, I think that the other 4 colleges offered way less tools for Boros.
@@grimreaper0 I wouldn't say less tools, since I think the other colleges expanded minor established themes in their color pairings, except for Quandrix. Quandrix is basically Simic. Witherbloom is life gain and sacrafice, where as Golgari is Graveyard matters. Izzet is spellsling, but cheap spellsling, where as Prismari is casting big spells and making 4/4 elemental tokens. Orzhov is lifegain and aristocrats, where as Silverquill is politics. For those three colleges, those themes existed before Strixhaven, but weren't fleshed out like they are now.
@@jasonkorf7700 I wouldn't say quandrix is basically simic as much as simic and quandrix both use 1/1 counters and somewhat care about having different creatures. quandrix is more into token generation and go wide effects. fractals are just go-wide amass
Granted they've never had a Commander that cared about tokens and usually defaulted to Ezuri, but token make and synergizing with plus one plus one counters is pretty established in Simic.
This does lead me to a gripe. I'm annoyed that Wotc continues to push obscene Simic cards/Commanders. Naya and Selysnia are the primary token generating decks and they've now printed two Simic Commanders that are vastly superior to the Naya and Selysnia ones. There's a reason why players complain about the color pie. We see how adamant Wotc are about the Boros section of the color pie and the complete disregard of it on the Sultai colors.
We obviously need to get more powerful blue and green cards. The color combo is SO underpowered
"If you're from Witherbloom, why are you white?"
"Oh my God, Killian. You can't just ask people why they're white!"
This joke didn’t get enough appreciation, but I see what you did there. Kudos.
You can’t join Quandrix, it’s social suicide!
"On Wednesdays we wear black."
Also Silverquill students would totally make a burn book, no doubt about it. Who's Regina George here? I gotta know.
This feels like a Rhystic Studies video
Note this was written by Patrick Lickman, and it's very representative of his style. Check his content out on his TH-cam channel MelvinMTG.
That's high praise even for someone as accomplished as the Professor.
I've been needing more Rhystic studies lately
@@sethhale8828 I believe he is working on a Kaldheim/Norse mythology video
Who?
It's notable that there are some interesting artifact effects in Red/White in Kaldheim, specifically with Dwarves and Dwarf artifacts.
that one dwarven vehicle commander just got way more attractive to me!
Now I want Prof to do a video on the other colleges of Strixhaven
I think part of the reason Quandrix went back to +1/+1 counters again is because the last time Simic tried to be different, it gave us Hydroid Krasis, Uro and Oko the Broko.
hydroid krasis wasn't too broken
Does seem like WotC has spent the last couple years trying to get Simic right. 😅
+1/+1 counters were moreso in silverquill's lane tho, quandrix has the ramp/8 lands package to cast big fractals
the fact that the fractals use +1/+1 counters makes me wish there was more room for silverquill/quandrix decks in limited that didnt have to go 4c. best you can do is like an abzan or bant deck with some cute stuff but that's kinda tough to pull in the enemy pair heavy environment
Hydroid Krasis and Uro are _very_ Simic; While hydras in general are not too common on ravnica, a sink for all the mana you'll be generating in Simic that creates a +1/+1 stacked monster is mechanically in line with what they like to do. Uro is just a big Coiling Oracle, which is also a quintessential Simic card. Oko may be the closest thing to an "alternative" mechanical identity for Simic, but the ability he's most loved/hated for, his +1, is reminiscent of Rapid Hybridization and Incubation/Incongruity, both very Simic cards.
Quandrix is Simic with instants and sorceries, but muuuuch slower than Simic creature-based mechanics.
Who would win:
-an entire army of boros troups with all types of strenght/power
-one massacer girl
Not if the Boros brings one very quiet fairy (Hushbringer).
@@OrigamiPhoenix Gotta love how the Legion has Initiative. :)
Boros pulls out a counterspell
Easy Boros troups always bring anthems. No 1/1’s here to start the massacre.
@@bloodfest8510 Can't have sh*t in Detroit
In the graph at 3:29, the second one at 12.7% is a duplicate of Boros and I assume it was meant to be Gruul.
No. White Red is obviously way more popular than Red White.
Lol I noticed this too
Yea same.
I was staring trying like hell to figure out which was missing.
Its supposed to be Green/ Red. That one is missing.
With this video Id say that Firesong and sunspeaker were likely a proof of concept for Lorehold. At least to the point that Wizards wanted to try something other than Combat for Boros.
Love to see a video on all the colleges like this one explaining it's differences and creation as well
Very good Boros I mean Lorehold has definitely got better with this direction
I personally want to see a red/black revamp that isn’t just “evil”. I love rakdos but I would love to see an interpretation of red/black as morally neutral or even hero aligned
There's a great opportunity for that to be true if we get Phyrexia again, what with Elesh Norn being the de facto leader.
Well actually in aether revolt you see just that, the renegades are mostly red black if memory serves correctly and the actual villains were in esper colors (dovin being azorius, kambal orzhov, and tezzeret dimir) and it represented them building whatever they wanted however they wanted Consulate be damned, it didn't matter if the aether they used was technically stolen, stealing from a police state didn't concern them
Idk if you can call Rakdos evil either, they just seem like hedonists who are into spectacles.
@@IAmebAdger and this is a great setup for a discussion of the nature of evil that I'm not prepared for, but most importantly the thing about the rakdos is that outside of their riots that spill into the streets and cause chaos they're mostly willing participants in the rituals, unless I'm mistaken. Granted captive audience is a card but someone's gotta give the boros a job to do
How about heroes in a mythological sense ? If there's one thing black and red share, it's Hubrys, after all
Maybe the real solution to Boros’s problems was the friends we made along the way.
Im trying, but i don't remember what this references.
@@tempestandacomputer6951 "Maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way "
It's a common phrase, noone really knows for sure where it comes from. Many link it to the film "Stand by Me", even though the phrase isn't used in it (the phrase for sure fits the film's theme, though)
Real solution to Boros's problem is to think beyond Ravnica.
Maybe the thing it references was inside us all along?
That's what Boros is all about. Meeting new people and kick them in the face with a horde of first striking hobgoblins.
White used to be the color of artifact recursion. I'm happy to see them going back to that
They got to give something to white after giving away all it's other mechanics.
White also used to be able to recur creatures... I hope Wizards remembers one day that this is still part of white's identity without limiting it to low lower or low mana cost like they have been
@@anthonydelfino6171 cor me salty but after reading too many comments by MaRo about how half of Whites cards are "not on theme" I'm sure he thinks reanimation should be phased out of White.
@@newtpondskipper should someone tell him how half of green for the past several years have not been "on theme" and to shut up about making a stink now that white is just reclaiming part of its own identity?
Um... White was the og *enchantment* recursion color. For all things artifact, you need to look at blue.
its very interesting how lorehold focuses so much on the graveyard, since sultai is usually considered to be the most graveyard focused color combination, and lorehold is the exact opposite colors
Exiling from the graveyard for the most part seems like a mechanic Lorehold can latch on to, in lore Sultai is bringing back the dead while Lorehold is about about bringing history back such as artifacts.
Reanimating creatures is what sultai do best, but as seen with Reconstruct History red white can have everything *except* creatures and lands.
I saw the exile Artifact and create token copies fits really well of fake/replica artifacts of real world treasures while the real stuff is lost or locked away in a museum.
Lorehold is very much "That belongs in a Museum!"
I would like to see a Sultai vs Lorehold/Boros graveyard matters commander match to see how well it holds as a viable theme for RW in MTG history. I bet it could have surprising results if we consider things like escape, flashback or jump-start
The twist is that Lorehold cares about leaving graveyards so its compatible with GY hate/checking
The problem with Quandrix isn't that it failed to distance itself from Simic, it's that Simic already did too much in the last few years there's very little to explore in the color pair.
Quandrix theme is to "count" stuff, which is not at all special.
Even if the other colleges don’t offer quite as much, I don’t think it’s exaggeration to say that Lorehold is one of Magic’s greatest successes in years.
I'd say in terms of creativity and expanding the idea of what color pairs do, it is probably their biggest success since Khans of Tarkir when they had to create identities for the wedge color groupings. The problem is that even when we're not on Ravnica the overwhelming majority of two color cards still mechanically function like they're still on Ravnica, so it's like we never left. Lorehold, however, feels very distinct from Boros, making it more successful than even all the other colleges in this set
@@anthonydelfino6171 I'd definitely agree with this. Witherbloom for example doesn't feel very different from Golgari. As it seems, "Life vs. Death" and "Life in Death" are very hard to differentiate mechanically. However Lorehold really captivated me, both flavorwise because I am a big fan of ancient history and archeology, and mechanically because it feels so fresh for the color pair.
@@DerMauls Witherbloom, Quandrix, and Prismari, I'd argue, all feel too similar to their Ravnican guilds. Only really Lorehold and Silverquill managed to do something new and interesting.
Prismari is still red-blue "instants and sorceries matter" Quandrix is still green-blue +1/+1 counters, and Witherbloom seemed like it started out as the guild of gaining and paying life, which would be interesting, but couldn't resist doing some graveyard and reanimation stuff.
@@anthonydelfino6171 Yeah I definitely agree with you, I just thought Witherbloom was the best example because like you said, it seemed to go in another direction but in the end still just felt like Golgari.
@Anthony Delfino i don't see them like this, izzet was a color of multiple low cost spells (3 to 4 mana) and prismari is all about going big spells.
Simic was about counters and flash most of the time and quandrix is about going huge on board.
Whiterbloon i agre that still feels golgari
And silverquill for me looks like a white aggro with black splash.
I, for one, see this as Magic's greatest success in the past year or so. The fun I've had with Lorehold playing with my roommate's cards is the closest I've been to buying new cards and building a new Commander deck since a few of WotC's recent nightmares. While it might not grab everyone (roommates included), I fell in love with the college immediately and would love to see this continued into the future.
I'd love to see the Rakdos color pairing revisited and given another path to walk.
I would love this, Rakdos sacrifice seems to be an archetype they keep pushing and it always seems to fall flat in limited, without the engines you can make in constructed. Needing the combination of "things that want to be sacrificed", "things capable of reliably sacrificing other things", and "payoff for sacrificing other creatures", makes it harder to get a deck to play out consistently.
Maybe something like effects related to non-combat loss of life, like drain effects or pinging, would be a new avenue to explore as a theme?
And selesnya. Overcosted bois and lifegain is what mono white was already doing!
I wonder
Could they make rakdos into an exile based archytype
And finally add cards that add from exile to hand?
Because then were cooking with mana
Rakdos madness/discard will hopefully be returning later this year in Inistraad
@@hamlet8179 that... Vampires and werewolves... I dont think either of those are red black are they?
Wolves are red green
Vampires are white black and maybe blue?
Edit: For the poll, I just checked the website, 2nd place was taken by Red Green not White Red as was depicted here.
He placed boros twice on the chart
Actually, it’s just so popular it got 2 places on the list
Process of elimination wouldve gotten you there quicker
Honestly, having been a new player and boros having been my first few decks, I noticed this issue right away. As time goes on, you start to understand the value of card advantage, hilarious shenanigans, and genuine decks that allow for you to enjoy the game with fellow magic enthusiasts. Lorehold has a special place in my heart. Wizards has officially made my childhood.
BTW, you videos are amazing and informative. Keep up the amazing work!
Man the Production Value of this Video is trough the Roof, love it!
I also love the way, they changed boros to something other than just smash face and it totally works, even better then expected :)
If there is another color pair that would appreciate a redefinition, I think Izzet and Azorius would benefit from it the most.
Oh 100%. Izzet has just been spellslinging and azorious is just slow bois. Fliers is more flashy and interesting. Foretell was also amazing for azorious although it splashed into esper territory
I do really like Brudiclad's take on Izzet, focusing on token copies and creature combat. Izzet gets plenty of spellslinging and a fair chunk of artifact support, I think good ol' creature combat would be a refreshing direction to take the pair. Prismari nailed the aesthetics, but didn't really do much mechanically to separate itself, I feel, and admittedly making the UR faction combat focused in the mage guild set would be awkward, even if it focused on combat tricks.
I've always like RW in Limited and Standard ever since Apocalypse. I think Lorehold gives RW a boost in Commander as well as new playstyles for Constructed. I really like the concept of white returned cards from the grave mixed with red's rummage card draw.
Lorehold has been by far the most fun of the colleges to play. Boros Man must be quite pleased.
i am. its like a summer of 2001 again.
3:31 "Boros is dead last"
Wait a second... who is second?
Well... white / red! And NOT red / white! Obvious! ;-)
Gruul
Lorehold
Yeah, this is intend to be Gruul
Sorob
I’m a brand new player, started playing less than a month ago. My first deck was the Osgir, the Reconstructor precon, I love the Red/White combo and the artifact themes in the deck, I can’t wait to get into the game more.
I'm currently working on a version of the deck that's focused on cheating out huge artifact creatures with stuff like sneak attack or reanimate spells :)
@@jacobjensen7704 I build mostly around artifacts but I slapped a couple of cool artifact creatures in there like Wurmcoil Engine. Like I said it’s my first deck ever so I took a lot of inspiration from a few different TH-camrs!
@@forrestwalker5450 that's sweet dude. Enjoy playing around with it! Boros will just keep getting new toys as the sets keep coming out, so you've got a lot to look forward to!
Same here. New Magic player started in June ‘21 and Osgir is my first Commander. Love him!
Very educational....
I really like how this fits the elder dragon's purpous of bringing their combined wisdom together. No enemies based on color, or species type. Even the colleges are allies.
I think Wizards evolved their color hosing strategy. For example Veil of Summer is relatively new and a great example of how they’re doing color hosing now.
These are the videos of yours I love the most: casting a trenchant eye over the history of Magic and making known the revision of shortcomings.
Absolutely fantastic work, sir, and I await your ensuing content!
As someone who had Boros as his favourite color pair since ever, if the ideals and flavor of Heroism, Altruism and "Saving the World" are upheld, I'm happy with whichever mechanics come =)
I played with the Lorehold precon last night and was pleasantly surprised by the flow and value engines. Excellent improvements. 👍
This video was edited and and narrated well. Great video Prof.
Thanks for this one, Prof.
I've got to say, I am really loving both the mechanics and flavour of Lorehold! If Wizards keep this up in future sets, I will be very happy! 😁
10 Years ago the thing that amazed me the most about MTG was the flavor of the cards, even today still make me reflect and question a lot of things. And I've never seen the Lawbringer before, love the flavor of the card!
A good way to start my day with some coffee and good ole prof discussion.
The editing was so great on this!
Lorehold: "Let's do an entirely new thing and not just be Boros rehashed."... Prismari, Quandrix, and Witherbloom: "Let's just be our Ravnican guilds rehashed."... Silverquill: "Well somebody needs to be Boros rehashed."
AHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahahahahahahahahAHHAHAHAhahahahahahahahahahahah
Hey Prof! Great video! I'm currently working on a Boros Reanimate...yes, you read that right, with Mila and Lukka, I'm itching to do something other than attack over and over again
I'm surprised they didn't start this in Kaldheim tbh. The idea of Einherjar, or warriors chosen by the Valkyrie to fight for the gods would have fit perfectly in red/white with "Spirit Warriors"
Do more! Do more!
(Which is to say, please do more comparisons of the other colleges with their respective guilds, outlining what makes their color pair different, and what WotC attempted to do in order to bring them together in their respective colleges, in Strixhaven. :)
My sense of community is going to be getting multiple Mindslavers.
creating a community where everyone agrees with what i think, by force if necessary.
Mindslavers... God-Pharoah's Statue... oh my God I'm going to become a Boros control player now.
Isn't Mindslaver legendary though?
@@pendularnuncius2618 yeah, but that's EXACTLY how red/white would do it.
This video is great. Loved how prof’s voice matched with the edition. Also, super informative and newb friendly
I've loved Lorehold! It's such a breath of fresh air.
I agree! When I first saw the Lorehold Commander deck and Osgir I was overjoyed at his abilities and what the deck had in it. Love how he can ramp by making copies of mana rocks, or even the artifact lands that you sac with his first ability, or pitch to impulsive draw cards like cathartic reunion, ect.
I really like how Strixhaven reinvented the color combinations, I feel like that's something the Magic story needed. I especially like Silverquill's focus on communication, but Lorehold's cool too. I understand why red-white has been historically aggro and combat-focused, since that fits the playstyle that the individual colors are supposed to have. However I think that this new mechanic based around using your graveyard for extra board presence in the midgame could work too and would be a fun new way to play.
A “Rhystic Studies Sam” vibe from this. Nice video, Prof!
I was going to say the same thing! I like Profs sillier videos, but this was also great.
First of all: great video as always, Professor, always a delight to watch content of this quality.
And I do have to agree that Lorehold is by far the best change in these colour pairs.
Quandrix IS Simic, even having cards like "Growth Spiral, but bigger"
Witherbloom's core idea "Life vs Death" is extremely close to Golgari's "Cycle of Life, Death and Undeath"
Prismari averts being Izzet 2 by focusing on art (even though Prismari Command is very, very close to just being a bigger Izzet Charm)
Silverquill has a nice thematic distance from Orzhov, but boils down to making spirit tokens, which was a thing Orzhov did
I just hope they really do keep this new idea in mind instead of just giving us more "Boros Smash!", but more cards like Firesong and Sunspeaker.
It's a pretty safe bet that the Forgotten Realms set will keep some Lorehold ideas because if the adventure themes of the game.
I really enjoyed this video. I'm actually interested to hear the professor talk more about design choices across MTG's history :o
I'm hoping that the stuff we have now with "exile a card from your graveyard to do X" becomes the standard for white remembrance + red impulsive draw.
I love how they combined daretti and teshar and built the precon around artifact reanimation, found a way to make the white parts of selesnya populate cards and red impluse draw also work with it. Super happy with osgir as a deck
The professor: these commanders push boros players to the same thing: attack for value.
Me: *looks at Velomachus Lorehold*
I love the buff to red white, and the fact we have a new playstyle with Lorehold (that I've been enjoying a lot of!) but I can't help but add these cards to my combat-focused red white vehicle deck..
Still I'm hoping they expand more into this playstyle as I love the colour combo a lot
I'm really glad that Strixhaven reworked how those colors worked. I will probably use the college names instead of guild names when referring to those decks. White became better as a color and it reshaped my ideas for a control deck.
white was always a good color, people just misunderstood it
white was never ment to be a main color, its the perfect secondary support color cause it basically makes any other color better
@@sharktenko267 There was a time in the game where Green was the worst color and white the most powerful. Neither color is a support only color. They all stand on their own and should stand on their own.
@@CalebDenn I disagree I think certine colors were ment for support and some were ment to be the main colors
@@sharktenko267 tell that to Mark Rosewater. In his podcast he has gone into details about each color and what they are
@@CalebDenn ok mark can say what he wants but he didnt create magic soooo
Very cool intro! The logo fading in from the background was neat! Also, great video as always! I'm very happy for what comes of Boros as a color combo in the future, as they are my favorite guild and colors and pairing!
3:29 Simic back then was the second most unused color pair; look at it now!
Actual simic cards from the guild in Ravnica sets are mostly garbage. Go look at the original Ravnica Simic cards or even a lot of the new ones. They are just mediocre creatures with ways to spam +1/+1 counters on them. They've just printed some recent broken UG cards over the last several years that have nothing to do with Simic in lore or mechanics. Stuff like Uro, Oko, and Kinan.
@@LC-wv7tz I like spamming+1/+1 counters on creatures, also evolve did it in a creative way
This is an incredible video essay, and it answers a lot of questions I still had regarding the set as a whole; thank you Prof!
I love this style of video. The Prof in the style of Sam/Rhystic Studies, more of this please!
Quandrix makes perfect sense, it's the explanation of nature through mathematics. It still has ramp/counters from simic, but now you really have to think about what "numbers" are available. Rather than pumping up your creatures blindly, a quandrix player has to really think about what numbers are on those creatures for maximum benefit. The perfect contrast of nature/theory and green/blue.
At 3:30 Boros is also on second place, I think it was supposed to be Gruul?
Yeah it was. Just a error that the editor made. I just noticed it myself.
Always loved red/white but struggled to make it really work. I got Lorehold Legacies and It’s great. Excited to see what’s in store for this colour pair.
I have no proof of this amazing coincidence, but as I was sleeving a deck while watching, I got to Thrilling Discovery right at 7:45 in the video.
Oh, this commander deck. Osgir is one of my favorite commanders in years.
"...a college is an appropriate place for healthy debate."
me who saw someone broke a door storming out: Whoops, wrong college.
One of the few times I'm glad I'm a millenial: my college experience allowed a ton of people with different backgrounds to tolerate and listen to each other's points and learn to empathize with each other.
Today's generation only wants to learn what they already believe. Damn kids, get off my lawn.
@@KetsubanSolo
Stop believing what Fox News tells you
fantastic musical choice. The production was great.
The lorehold legacies deck is really a blast. Discarding cards with faithless looting, only to copy them with Osgir or recover them with Reconstruct History feels fantastic. The flavor is A+ as well.
@@tttyyy949 yes, that’s why I used the conjunction “or.” These activities refer to things one can potentially do with cards discarded to faithless looting.
I'm really glad boros is getting some support, but as a feather player,I hope they don't lose their combat king identity
They added so many good cantrips for her to use in this set. It's getting to the point I have to pick and choose what I run in the deck now.
Really cool! Love learning about the decisions behind world building things like the colleges!
This essay gave me some Rhystic Studies vibes.
Great vid!
I am so so impressed by this video. the production feels good and it feels very polished. great job!
LETS GOO!! New vid.
Great video! I enjoyed the edit very much! It has pictured the information simple and clean and made it so much more enjoyable to listen.
I would love the Prof going over the implications of the other colleges and how they effect commander and the game as a whole going forward.
Wonderfully put prof, succinct and yet deeply informative! Loved it, and love where boros could be headed in the upcoming sets.
Makes me so good about choosing Lorehold as my college of choice! I loved the magic Indiana Jones flavor and the interesting play style it led to. Just a fun archetype that I hope they continue to support. I really feel like some super fun decks can be made.
I agree. The Lorehold cards stood out to me the most when looking over previews because of how much it mixed up Red and White's gameplay while still being perfectly in the color pie. Everything is stuff they can do, it's just oriented towards a new gameplay style. I dig it.
Also, I think it's safe to say that we call the two-color pairs the names of the Ravnica guilds as _slang_ names. Everyone knows that calling Underworld Coinsmith an "Orzhov" card doesn't mean it's a part of the literal Orzhov guild. Orzhov is just useful shorthand for "White/Black". Useful and easier it is too, compared to hearing a deluge of color names when trying to discuss color pairs.
(That poll where Boros appears twice should have had Gruul in second place.)
Now they introduced Strixhaven, their students can go into the world and now be lorehold in the world and it would make sense in-world.
This style of video was very well done! Loved the editing and general vibe.
Love you proff!
Back at ya! :)
It'd be interesting to see a future set that applies the same idea of Strixhaven to allied-color pairs, focusing on the conflict between those colors rather than their agreements (For example, how Black uses knowledge as a mean of control and manipulation while Blue goes more to a collective knowledge direction)
"Pun absolutely intended." I was not prepared for that, neither was my coffee nor my nose.
This is one of the best video styles you've done in ages. More like this please!!
Me before watching this video: Orzhov forever, Witherbloom for now. Me after this video: all hyped up about Lorehold!
Not only were Osgir and Quintoirius amazing new commanders for Lorehold flavor, but so were the rest! The spirit theme that Lorehold helped at to the history theme! Hofri Ghostfore is an amazing example! Sure it's a token aggro deck, but it still cares about things dying and coming back! Or even Velomachus Lorehold, the Elder Dragon of the set. A spellslinging type commander in Boros, not unlike Feather. Seeing these commanders come in and NOT need to be some combat/equipment value deck is amazing! They are all a breath of fresh air, and we lovers of Boros may finally see playstyles that don't require equipping creatures for value or gaining extra combat steps for....value. Another great video Professor, keep up the great work!
Not that it's likely to come up again, but Anthony pronounces his last name "A lawn, gee."
This video was so well edited, I'm really impressed!
“And with a few exceptions, the color pairs are now treated equally.”
Simic says “hello,” and also says “I win the game.”
Professor: I don't like how they didn't give Simic anything new.
That's because Simic can already do everything, Professor.
@@graveraven39 true story.
The bar graph at 3:28 has boros on it twice and shows it in second place. I think it's selesnya or gruul in that spot. Love your work. Not trying to under cut your point.
Gruul it was ment to be Gruul
Friendship ended with ❌ AURELIA ❌
Now QUINTORIUS is my best friend
Your production quality only gets better and better, well done Professor ! :)
Whoever created that image for the poll forgot Gruul exists. It's okay, I forget about them a lot too.
Couldn't agree more. I was not initially excited to play the Red/White Strixhaven Commander deck, but now it's my favorite one. FINALLY red/white does something other than attack, equip, enchant, etc.
They are all treated equally...
Laughs in all the broken simic cards printed over the past years.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact they printed fucking aesi, which basically reads 'hello i'm simic as a card'
I first started playing when my friend got me onto Tabletop Simulator and handed me a basic red deck. Then I hopped into MTG Arena and White's tutorial showed me the epic power of Lifegain and +1/+1 counters. So Red-White has been my colour pair of choice ever since, which means I'm always happy to see it get new options of any kind.