Coming almost 5 years to the day since Strixhaven: School of Mages we are revisiting the plane of Arcavios. Since we were last year the Phyrexian Invasion happened, so we see the students and professors rebuilding. This set includes 6 new mechanics and 1 new subtype (as well as 2 mechanics we are revisiting,) in the main set. We are also seeing a new set of Mystical Archives which are reprints of powerful Instants and Sorceries which of course will be available to play in Limited to spice things up.
Prepare
The first new mechanic of the set, Prepared, has a card design that looks a lot like others we've seen in the past (think Adventures) but they don't work the same! This time each creature comes with a spell that they can work towards (or PREPARE) to cast. Once a creature uses the spell that they have prepared they become unprepared and have to work to become prepared again.
Repartee
Silverquill's mechanic for this set is fairly similar to their previous "Magecraft" in that it cares about when you cast instants and sorceries, but this time it has to target a creature (including creatures you don't control.) When you do, various things will happen dependent on card to card. Pretty straightforward.
Opus
Prismari's mechanic once again cares about when you cast spells, but this time they don't have to target your dudes. They also are a fan of the big splashy spells, so if you spend five or more mana on a spell you'll get an upgraded version of the effect. The card I've selected here to showcase this mechanic will be a very fun alternate win-con in limited.
Infusion
Witherbloom are once again caring about life-gain. This time the card will always do its baseline effect, but if you've gained life something extra will happen.
Flashback
Lorehold are bringing back a fan favourite mechanic in Flashback. Flashback is incredibly straightforward: if the card is in your graveyard you can cast it for its flashback cost.
Increment
Increment, the Quandrix mechanic, is a lot like Evolve from Gatecrash (from 2013, can you hear me aging through your screen?) Whenever you cast a spell using more mana than the power or toughness of your dude, it gets a counter... and yes, this works they way you want it to with X spells.
Paradigm
For this set's "splashy only on mythic" cycle, we have Paradigm. Paradigm is a super funky mechanic. If the spell resolves, you then exile it. Every single turn after that on your first main phase, you may cast a copy of that card without paying its mana cost. It's safe to say that if you resolve any of these bad boys in limited, you will be winning the game.
Converge
Another returning mechanic is Converge, which cares about how many colours of mana you use to cast the spell. I definitely want to see at least one person at prerelease weekend cast Together as One for all 5 colours.
Book
A possible easter egg for things to come, we have a new subtype for Artifacts with "Book." There is only one card in the whole set with the subtype and it doesn't do a whole lot, but new subtypes like this are always fun to speculate on.
Secrets of Strixhaven prerelease starts 4/17/26 and we have events going ALL WEEKEND long. Come by and sling some spells with us!
