Magic: the Gathering is going back to school with the upcoming Strixhaven: School of Mages set based on the in-universe college of Strixhaven. This school is split up into five competing campuses, but as expected, this set's mechanics and keywords can help unite the schools to a degree. There has to be some common ground.
Many classic Magic effects are present in this set, from effective removal spells and card-draw effects to generating unique creature tokens and using combat tricks. This time around, even the basic concept of mana ramp is getting an academic boost, and some draft players can reap unexpected benefits from kick-starting their manabase. How can it be done?
For the most part, it's the green-blue Quandrix school that is aggressively ramping its mana, though the black-green Witherbloom school can also boost its mana in thematic ways. A handful of notable Quandrix cards will get extra lands onto the battlefield quickly, as well as using regular mana dorks or similar effects. Eureka Moment will draw two cards to generate a bit of card advantage, then the player can put a land card from the hand onto the battlefield, even if the player already played a land card for the turn. This is like a miniature Urban Evolution from the Gatecrash set several years ago.
Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy and Quandrix Apprentice are both part of uncommon cycles in the Strixhaven set, and they love getting extra lands. Zimone can cheaply put a land from the hand onto the battlefield tapped, and the Apprentice's magecraft ability allows it to search the library's top three cards for a land card and put it into the hand. The Quandrix player aims to have eight or more lands on the battlefield, and with honor students like these around, hitting that goal should be easy. Emergent Sequence is a cheap green sorcery that gets a land from the library and puts it into the battlefield, then makes a Fractal creature token.
Accomplished Alchemist represents Witherbloom's mana ramp, a creature that can tap for one mana of any color as a standard mana ramp effect. But if the Witherbloom player is living up to that school's reputation for gaining life, then the Alchemist's second ability can be used to add much more mana to the mana pool. Imagine sacrificing three or four Pest tokens and gaining 1 life from each one in an aristocrats build, and tapping Accomplished Alchemist to add four mana to the mana pool. That's what the cycle of life and death is capable of.
A few Quandrix cards care about the player having eight or more lands, with Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy being both a source of extra lands and the payoff for having those lands. Zimone's second ability will generate card advantage in a hurry if the player reaches their eighth land, and the payoff doesn't end there. Augmenter Pugilist is a 3/3 with trample, merely acceptable for {1}GG, but this Troll Druid will swell into a massive 8/8 if the player has eight or more lands, which can push damage easily. In addition, Leyline Invocation may be costly, but if the player has a lot of land, then not only can they afford this six-drop sorcery, but the resulting Fractal creature token will have a lot of +1/+1 counters placed on it.
Other cards in the Strixhaven set fit these colors and can reward the player for having abundant mana at their disposal. Exponential Growth is effective for Quandrix and Witherbloom decks alike, doubling a creature's power a few times according to how much X ends up being. It really is exponential growth, and targeting Augmenter Pugilist will result in a truly gigantic finisher. Other creatures with trample, flying, menace or other forms of evasion are also good targets.
Body of Research has quite the mana cost, but using plenty of mana ramp cards will allow the Quandrix player to get three blue sources and three green sources, then tap them to cast this mythic rare sorcery and make a colossal Fractal token. Such a huge creature is bound to gobble up a chump blocker each turn, putting constant pressure on the opponent. If the opponent fails to offer another blocker, then they are bound to take lethal damage to the face.
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