Strixhaven, the overall book, is a disappointment.  As we all knew it would be, for an M:tG product that's obligated to be a bunch of cardboard-cutout Faction warfare lore where five arbitrary factions have to all heckin' hate each other to a completely illogical level becuz Color Warz.  But the entry for the 'Cuddly Strixhaven Mascot' has me feeling fuzzies I didn't know a bad M:tG book could make me feel.

In short, and without copy/pasting: the Cuddly Strixhaven Mascot is a Common wondrous item that is supposed to be a plushie of your college's obligatory color-coded Magic: the Goosening critter.  You can stick it to your arm or shoulder where it'll cling until you take it off, which is weird.  But the best part, and the reason it put a smile on my face?  Once per long rest, if the plushie is on your person, you can choose to gain advantage on a saving throw against fear.  Your favorite stuffed toy can literally magically stave off fear for you...a little bit.

I read that, and my girlish insides melted into syrup and a smile sprung up on my face, because **** yeah someone's beloved childhood toy can help stave off fear.  It doesn't always work, and its magic is small and fragile...but even the smallest, most fragile magic can sometimes make all the difference.  The thought that a tough, battle-hardened adventurer might still take comfort from the horrors they endure in the worn, tear-stained fabric of a childhood buddy, invested with a spark of real magic through many years of love, legitimately brings a tear to my eye and can make a character all the more real.  At least, when done properly and not for shitty memes.

Will definitely be homebrewing a more generically applicable, less Strixhaven-flavored version of this for use in non-Color Warz games.  I encourage others to do so, as well.  It's just a fun, whimsical, heartwarming little boost I was straight-up not ready for in the latest edition of 'Adventures in Colorcide: the Monetization'.

Aw thats nice

To be fair, Theros was an interesting book, for a M:tG setting. At least 1/3rd of the M:tG books I thought were an interesting purchase.

I mean, yeah, it's a neat touch, the stuffed animal. In general deeper characterisation is good and baking human traits that might be unexpected in the archtypical heroic adventurer is a smart idea and goes a long way to make a character sheet feel like a living person with independent hopes and fears and ideas.

What happens if the child student hero* loses the, we're basically talking about what psychologists call a comfort object?

I mean, it's an interesting addition, enabled by the parody of "college culture" (that experience itself more a fictional construct that most people's actual experience of post secondary ed, heck real life competitive university's lean into Harry Potter to draw students in their marketing) Strixhaven works at, and the "twee trajectory" I think some can recognize between this book and WBtW - not that that trajectory is the only tangent D&D is travelling, I mean VRGtR dwells on umcomortable ground, and Fizban's is an effort to push "traditional D&D metaphysics and metaplot" in a way we haven't seen in a bit ... but will probably see more of as we keep hearing "multiverse" getting spoken of.  The stuffy angle I'm guessing was pulled from some of the designs in Kids on Bikes and other 80s nostalgia TTRPGs too.

Anyway, wondrously statting a comfort object is fine, I don't see why we don't do the same with some holy symbols and cameo lockets.  The comfort object draws its power from the bond it represents, and there's plenty of ways to put that energy into play.  I could see using these toys as a way to encourage folks to take a better look at the trinkets catalogs that keep popping up in sources and adventures.

These things also used to be called "transitional objects" but there's a greater occurrence of permanence with them in a lot of modern psychologies, so the game's sort of reflecting more zeitgeist with some of these moves. 

 *The PC is then caught into a cycle of playing Bandersnatch in a cross marketing deal between WotC and Netflix.  Sorry if that spoiled anyone who hadn;t gotten around to seeing that Black Mirror episode over the past few years.

With my DM Hat on, I wouldn't have any issue with turning most any trinket important to someone's character into a common magic item with an appropriate minor ability.  Basically a 'quirk', from the DMG's chapter on creating/tuning magic items (by the way, that "quirks" section of the DMG is an incredibly useful tool for DMs who want ways to make their magical items feel much more unique and grounded in the world).  A cameo locket bearing the face of a lover might provide once-a-day advantage against being charmed, a holy symbol granted by a cleric's beloved mentor may ward their sleep and prevent them from suffering nightmares, so on and so forth.

As for losing that object?  That would be super rough, if the player is playing at all appropriately.  If an object is dear enough to've developed minor magic, losing it would be a bad blow.  The character is effectively taking on a potential vulnerability in exchange for a minor power, which is a bargain I'm willing to make with players.  The stuffed toy resonated with me, but you do have a point - all of these would be cool ways to help pin more character into a character.  Provided one can trust their players to play to the spirit of the item, and not just treat it like a button they can push for occasional mechanical advantage.

I've been head homebrewing a "Vanity Mirror of Affirmations" where if you say your daily affirmation, you've got some resistance to psychic damage for the day.  It's not fully thought out, but I figured I'd have some sort of scale from a pocket/cameo/compact style mirror to a "Mirror mirror on the wall" type thing that would be more powerful ... the problem of course is that the confidence the mirror and affirmations are bestowing may be illusory, which take you down a rabbit hole that doesn't tie up neat mechanically and I don't know if I want to end up with what might be magical narcissism mechanically, so work in progress.