this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
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"I am a draft player and I approve this message"
Mark Rosewater noted it as a positive for Draft in his State of Design article, but that may have been only for less-experienced drafters. Was it disliked among more competitive drafters?
Honestly I don't remember that well how they were received back then, even though I drafted/watched draft streams quite a bit during Strixhaven.
But it's always a very fine line imo. Sometimes having these extra cards can be good for variety and make you draft interesting deck archetypes the format usually wouldn't support. But the more powerful cards the higher the risk the format is defined by bombs.
Strixhaven did have the advantage that the extra cards were instants/sorceries which both meshed well with the theme and a lot of the cards were just efficient removal, which is much better for draft than big bomby creatures or enchantments.
I also think it's reasonable to assume the decision for lower drop rates had very little to do with concerns about draft.