Last week, Wizards of the Coast officially revealed the five colleges of Strixhaven: School of Mages set, Quandrix (blue/green), Prismari (blue/red), Lorehold (red/white), Silverquill (white/black), and Witherbloom (black/green), and because each college is associated with a two-color combination in Magic: The Gathering, fans are already comparing them to the enemy-colored guilds of Ravnica (Simic, Izzet, Boros, Orzhov, and Golgari) because of their design. However, according to Magic head designer Mark Rosewater, mechanically are completely different.
“We’ll get into more detail as we get closer, but the colleges are not play wise the same as the equivalent guild,” Rosewater said on his Blogatog.
Are Golgari and Witherbloom different?
On a separate blog post, Rosewater said that the black/green Strixhaven college Witherbloom is not exactly the same as the black/green Ravnica guild, Golgari. “There is a little aesthetics overlap, but mechanically they are completely different,” Rosewater explained.
It’s easy to see the similarities between the colleges and guilds, but there are clear differences we already know such as how Quandrix is about math while the Simic guild is more about science and experimentation. It would be interesting to find out more about how the colleges are mechanically different, but we’ll have to wait until WOTC reveals more information about the upcoming set.
Strixhaven: School of Mages is scheduled to release for tabletop on April 23. The 87th MTG expansion is expected to release digitally on MTG Arena and Magic Online probably a week before its tabletop release. You can find out more details about Strixhaven here.
