You'll often hear the idiom, "It's a marathon, not a sprint."

Though for qualifiers of Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven, it actually is a sprint.

Only ten days will have passed between the set's online release and drafts at the Pro Tour in Las Vegas, so there isn't a lot of room for theory crafting.

Players on bigger teams will have the advantage (which they almost always do; Limited testing is just one of the many benefits of being on a testing team), as raw data will be hard to come by. Instead, the players will be forced to use heuristics both at the general Booster Draft level and the Secrets of Strixhaven level to get up to speed as soon as possible.

The good news is that this set, while fully fleshed out and fairly complex, is designed such that instead of the normal ten two-color archetypes, it's focused on five of those color pairs.

This really reduces the workload for archetype exploration, but it's the same number of cards as normal, so players will have to know how those five archetypes work if they want to succeed at the Pro Tour level.

It's no secret that Limited performance is a huge indicator of overall performance at the Pro Tour. If you don't know how to draft a set effectively, your chances of making the Top 8 are slim.

I'll give you the high-level view on each archetype, then break down how I would approach a new format on a short time frame by showing you the archetypes I would focus on first.

Secrets of Strixhaven Draft Archetype Breakdown

Silverquill

Silverquill is the black-white color pair, and it's one of the more aggressive decks in the format. It cares about the repartee ability word, which rewards you for targeting a creature with an instant or sorcery spell.

Inkling Mascot
Killian's Confidence
Wander Off
Dig Site Inventory

Silverquill is well equipped with plenty (sometimes too many) ways to target your own creatures or opposing creatures, with plenty of payoffs to boot. It leans more toward the aggressive side of things but has surprisingly good late-game potential as well.

Prismari

Prismari, the blue-red archetype, does what you think it might do: care about instant and sorcery spells. It introduces a wrinkle with the opus ability word, which pays you off for casting instant or sorcery spells but rewards you even more for casting one that costs five or more mana.

Elemental Mascot
Stress Dream
Tome Blast
Run Behind

The interesting part about Prismari is whether it's meant to be drafted more as an aggressive strategy with creatures that temporarily get bigger or more of a long-game strategy with big spells in the late game. The answer may just be both, as each approach is supported in the set.

Witherbloom

Witherbloom, the green-black pair, is often the archetype that is hardest to define. But in this set it's pretty straightforward. It's a grindy strategy that cares about life gain.

Pest Mascot
Teacher's Pest
Send in the Pest
Burrog Barrage

With lots of ways to make Pests that gain you life (and lots of payoffs for doing so), Witherbloom looks to be a solid midrange deck for the format.

Lorehold

Lorehold is red-white, and that usually means aggression. In Secrets of Strixhaven, it means "aggression plus graveyard-based value." The trick with Lorehold is the whole "Whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard" mechanic, which is a clever way to give you a bonus.

Practiced Scrollsmith
Pursue the Past
Unsubtle Mockery
Elite Interceptor

The thing about Lorehold is that it is a powerful curve-out style of deck that just happens to have this whole graveyard synergy thing built in. It asks very little of you to get that going, and that's a powerful combination.

Quandrix

Oh, my beloved Quandrix. This is the go-big, ramp-and-value archetype. That doesn't always equate to winning, but it does equate to sweet decks. It also has the increment mechanic and a minor theme involving X costs.

Snarl Song
Paradox Surveyor
Studious First-Year
Pterafractyl

With plenty of ramp and big targets to ramp toward, the real question is whether you can have enough interaction to get to that late game. And whether it's likely you'll splash a third color. In Strixhaven: School of Mages Draft, it was more common for players to draft green-blue-red than green-blue, for example.

Five(-ish)-Color Converge

This is not necessarily a fully fleshed out archetype, but there are a number of converge cards in the set, plus a good amount of mana fixing to support a big mana converge deck.

Studious First-Year
Archaic's Agony
Grapple with Death
Sundering Archaic

This deck may end up being an offshoot of the Quandrix deck that uses mana ramp and fixing to fit in the converge payoffs and splashed bombs. Or it might not even be worth it at all to go for a deck like this. Only time will tell.

Where Do We Begin?

This early in a format, it's usually best to start with the most straightforward and aggressive archetypes. It can certainly be tempting to go for the big ramp or cool spells deck, but if you're short on time and need to get your feet under you, a low curve of assertive creatures can serve well when your opponent is trying to figure out whether an artifact or draw spell is good.

For me, I would start with Silverquill and Lorehold.

Fight For Your Right to Repartee

One of the tools that we have come up with on Limited Resources is an approach to drafting that we call CABS theory.

It stands for "cards that affect the board state," and it's the idea that you should only play cards that are creatures, removal spells, or combat tricks.

It's a great tool for newer players who often draft too much "air," meaning cards that aren't necessarily bad but don't affect the board. It's also a nice palate cleanser for intermediate players who get a bit lost trying to draft synergistic decks without finding the right balance there.

It's not the optimal way to draft normally, but it can help right a ship that has gone off its path. And it can be a great learning tool!

It's kind of funny, but the Silverquill archetype is designed to be a CABS deck at heart. The good versions feature mostly creatures, removal spells, and combat tricks. Sometimes these are even found on the same card.

Elite Interceptor
Melancholic Poet
Imperious Inkmage
Scolding Administrator
Inkshape Demonstrator

Any time you see a one-mana creature that looks like it might be even remotely playable, you should pay attention. Elite Interceptor is better than that (and not only for Silverquill decks, more on that in a bit).

Payoff creatures like Melancholic Poet and Scolding Administrator are low-cost creatures that give you upside for killing opposing creatures or pumping yours.

Speaking of removal, this color pair has some of the best in the set.

Last Gasp
Wander Off
Ajani's Response
Render Speechless

Similar to the creatures, cards like Last Gasp, Wander Off, and Ajani's Response are fully playable on their own, but when paired with a bunch of creatures with repartee, it feels like you're getting paid for getting paid.

Render Speechless isn't a removal spell, but it is a great example of a multipurpose card for Silverquill, one that accomplishes something productive while also targeting a creature to trigger repartee.

Speaking of multipurpose tools, there are numerous cards like that for Silverquill.

Quill-Blade Laureate
Spiritcall Enthusiast
Adventurous Eater
Scathing Shadelock

Each of these creatures comes with a card attached that can also target something to trigger repartee. That means you don't have to pile in a bunch of combat tricks in your deck, letting you make more room for creatures and removal spells, the most important part of your deck.

Silverquill has an assertive, straightforward game plan that is well supported and powerful. And that's what I'm looking for in the early part of a format.

Hold Me Closer, Lorehold Dancer

Speaking of straightforward and well-supported, Lorehold has been an early frontrunner in Secrets of Strixhaven. It's not quite the all-in aggressive deck that red-white can sometimes be, but it's got a great mana curve, can win the game quickly, and can also easily transition into the midgame.

While your opponent is messing around with mana-ramp spells, missing land drops, playing tap lands, or casting card-draw spells, Lorehold can play to the board and stomp a slower deck.

Pursue the Past
Elite Interceptor
Unsubtle Mockery
Tome Blast

Much like Silverquill, the key for decks like this is to look for cards that pull double duty. In this case, you want them to be powerful standalone cards that enable the Lorehold theme of having a card leave your graveyard.

Pursue the Past has been an overachiever, and it meets both criteria easily, as flashback is the most straightforward way to get value while triggering your Lorehold cards.

We see Elite Interceptor here again, and that really speaks to its raw power level. Any time you can do something on turn one that affects the game on a real level, your win percentage goes up more than you may think.

Both Unsubtle Mockery and Tome Blast act as removal spells that also fuel graveyard synergies. Unsubtle Mockery lets you surveil, which can put cards with flashback in the graveyard or even just fill the graveyard with cards to be exiled later. And Tome Blast is just the perfect combination, serving as two removal spells in one and triggering your Lorehold cards.

Keeping with the just common and uncommon cards (trust me, the rares in this set are off the charts, too), Lorehold only gets better with the rarity bump.

Practiced Scrollsmith
Colossus of the Blood Age
Living History

If it weren't for the aforementioned bomb rare cards in the set (look up Ark of Hunger if you want to see what I'm talking about), Practiced Scrollsmith could be one of the best cards in the set. Solid stats, card advantage, and it triggers your Lorehold stuff? Ridiculous.

Colossus of the Blood Age hints at a bigger late-game awaiting, and this deck can do that if you don't get the more assertive, low-curve version of the deck.

Living History is like a build-around with a backup plan. You get a 2/2 for two mana, which is okay, but you get this long-term benefit that helps close out games. Nice design there, too.

Keep It Simple

The reality for the players drafting at the Pro Tour is that they are going to have to get familiar with all of the archetypes in Secrets of Strixhaven. They are professionals and are required to put in the time and energy to explore all of these archetypes in a short period of time.

But where should they start?

Keep it simple.

Start with the decks that ask questions rather than the ones that are searching for answers.

Can't wait to see you on the Pro Tour stream where Paul Cheon and I will be covering the draft on Friday, May 1. See you there!

@Marshall_LR