Class is back in session, and we’re returning to Strixhaven University in Secrets of Strixhaven to continue our magical education. The five colleges are back, and whether you’re still undeclared or pursuing an advanced curriculum, there’s much to discover. But secrets lie within and without, for we’re also venturing beyond campus out into the world of Arcavios like never before. It’s time for Secrets of Strixhaven Mechanics 101. Everyone, please take your seats.
Prepare
Some creatures in this set arrive on campus prepared to give you an advantage in your duels. New preparation cards offer access to an extensive repertoire of famous incantations from the past and soon-to-be-famous spells from the present.
0162_MTGSOS_Main: Studious First-Year
Each preparation card has a two-part frame, like frames you may have seen before on cards with an Adventure or an Omen. Most of the card is made up of the creature and its characteristics: its name, mana cost, type line, power, and toughness. The left side of the text box houses the creature’s abilities.
The inset portion in the lower right is the prepare spell. It has its own name, mana cost, type line, and text box. You might recognize a few of them, such as the Rampant Growth that Studious First-Year has studiously, uh … studied. There are also some new spells in the mix.
No matter where a preparation card is, it has the characteristics of the creature. If you’re searching your library for a creature card or returning a creature card from your graveyard to your hand, you can find Studious First-Year just fine. I mean, she’s a Bear. Hard to miss. But if you’re searching for a sorcery card, you can’t find this card. The card isn’t a sorcery card no matter where it is.
So, we’ve mapped out preparation cards. Fantastic. But we’re on paragraph five. How do they work? Many creatures with prepare spells enter prepared. We’re going to talk about creatures here, but really, prepared is a designation that any permanent can have. If a creature with a prepare spell becomes prepared, a copy of its prepare spell appears in exile. This copy stays there until one of three things happens. One, you cast it. This is the best outcome for you. Two, the prepared creature leaves the battlefield. Three, the prepared creature becomes unprepared. There are some cards that can make this happen. If either of the last two things happens and you haven’t cast the copy of the prepared spell from exile yet, the copy disappears and ceases to exist.
Casting the copy of the prepared spell works just like casting any other spell. You have to pay its cost, and you have to follow the timing rules put in place by its card type. If it’s a sorcery like Rampant Growth, you can cast it during your main phase if the stack is empty. But if it’s an instant, perhaps a very famous instant …
0045_MTGSOS_Main: Emeritus of Ideation
… then you can cast it whenever it’s convenient. If you cast a prepare spell from exile, the prepared creature becomes unprepared, meaning it loses the prepared designation.
Emeritus of Ideation’s last ability is a good example of how a creature can become prepared again. However, a creature can’t become prepared if it’s already prepared. You’ll never be able to create more than one copy of a prepare spell in exile. You’ll need to cast the copy of the prepare spell (or have that copy cease to exist because the creature becomes unprepared some other way) before you can gain access to another copy.
Strixhaven students sometimes change majors, so there’s one special situation that’s worth mentioning. If you control a prepared creature and another player gains control of it, the player who controls the prepared creature is the one who now can cast the copy of the prepare spell from exile.
Repartee (Silverquill)
The silver-tongued scholars of Silverquill wisely wield words in a feverish frenzy fashioned to flabbergast friends and fell foes. A few well-aimed spells, and your hapless opponents will be left speechless.
0182_MTGSOS_Main: Conciliator’s Duelist
The ability word repartee highlights triggered abilities that trigger whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell targeting a creature. Each repartee ability has a different effect, so you’ll have to read the words of each one carefully, much to the delight of the Silverquill students among you. If you cast a spell that targets multiple creatures, repartee abilities will trigger only once. If you cast a spell that targets a creature and multiple repartee abilities trigger at the same time, you can have those abilities resolve in any order you want. The last one you put on the stack will be the first one to resolve. Repartee abilities always resolve before the spell that caused them to trigger.
Opus (Prismari)
What is a game of Magic if not a grand performance? It’s time to show your opponents the height of your art, the culmination of your brilliance, and the beginning of their downfall.
0180_MTGSOS_Main: Colorstorm Stallion
The ability word opus highlights triggered abilities that trigger whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell. Each opus ability has an initial effect and an additional or alternative effect if you spent five or more mana to cast the spell that caused the opus ability to trigger.
Opus abilities will consider all mana you spent on the spell, not only mana that went toward the mana cost. If that spell had any additional costs, that mana counts. It won’t count mana you may have spent outside of casting the spell, though, such as mana spent on ward costs to ensure the spell wasn’t countered.
Just like repartee abilities, if multiple opus abilities trigger at the same time, you can have those abilities resolve in any order you want. The last one you put on the stack will be the first one to resolve. Opus abilities always resolve before the spell that caused them to trigger.
Infusion (Witherbloom)
Strixhaven offers courses in just about every field of study in the Multiverse. But the students of Witherbloom believe they’ve figured out a fundamental truth: if you haven’t got life, you haven’t got anything.
0207_MTGSOS_Main: Old-Growth Educator
Infusion, another ability word, highlights abilities that care in some way if you’ve gained life this turn. Infusion is used in a variety of ways—to give a spell an additional or alternative effect, determine whether a bonus applies, or see if a triggered ability will have an effect, like on Old-Growth Educator.
Infusion abilities don’t care how much life you’ve gained over the course of the turn as long as you gained life somewhere along the way. It also doesn’t matter if your life total is lower than it was when the turn started. Say you begin a turn at 12 life, gain 3 life, then take 5 damage. You’re now at 10 life, which is sad for you, but you did gain life, so at least your infusion abilities will be happy.
Flashback (Lorehold)
Staying true to their school, the inquisitive students of Lorehold dug up a keyword from the past. Learn from your very recent history and watch it repeat itself.
0204_MTGSOS_Main: Molten Note
Flashback is a keyword ability that appears on some instant and sorcery spells. If a card with flashback is in your graveyard, you may cast it. If you cast it this way, you pay its flashback cost rather than its mana cost. As that spell leaves the stack—usually because it resolves, but sometimes because it doesn’t resolve or is countered—you exile it instead of putting it anywhere else like your graveyard.
Flashback doesn’t change when you can cast a spell, so sorceries with flashback are still confined to your main phase. Also, mana value is always calculated using mana cost only, no matter what you pay to cast a spell. Molten Note’s mana value is 2 if you cast it using flashback because X will be 0 in that case, although you’ll have spent eight mana to cast it, and that’s what the effect cares about.
You can cast a card with flashback from your graveyard no matter how it got there. You don’t need to have cast it initially. You can discard it, mill it, or find some other way to get it there. Lorehold expeditions are happy to find it all the same.
Increment (Quandrix)
Normally, when you go one on one with another mage, you got a fifty-fifty chance of winning. But you add Quandrix to the mix, and your opponent’s chances of winning … well, they probably go down drastically.
0183_MTGSOS_Main: Cuboid Colony
Increment is a keyword that represents a triggered ability found on creatures. Whenever you cast a spell, if the amount of mana spent to cast that spell is greater than the power or toughness of the creature with increment, you put a +1/+1 counter on the creature.
You compare the amount of mana spent to the creature’s stats two times. First, check just after you cast the spell to see if increment should trigger at all. If the amount of mana wasn’t enough, the ability won’t trigger. If the ability does trigger, do the comparison again as increment would resolve to see if the amount of mana is still greater than the creature’s power or toughness. If the check fails this time because the creature’s stats have increased, the ability won’t do anything. You won’t put a +1/+1 counter on the creature.
Just like with opus abilities, increment will consider all mana you spent to cast a spell. If that spell had any additional costs, that mana counts. It won’t count mana you may have spent outside of casting the spell, though, such as mana spent on ward costs to make sure the spell wasn’t countered. The numbers don’t lie, and they spell disaster for your opponent.
Paradigm
Now that we’ve explored each college’s signature mechanic, let’s broaden our perspective. Some lessons serve as archetypal examples that future generations may benefit from for years to come. Or, you know, that we’ll just repeat ourselves over and over and over again.
0120_MTGSOS_Main: Improvisation Capstone
Paradigm is a new keyword that appears on a cycle of sorceries and gives them true staying power. The first time a particular spell with paradigm resolves for you, you exile it. From that point forward, at the beginning of each of your first main phases, you may cast a copy of it without paying its mana cost. Casting each of these copies is optional, and you’ll have the opportunity to cast one on each of your turns no matter what happens to the previous ones. For example, if one of the copies is countered, next turn’s triggered ability will still serve you up another.
Each card with paradigm also has the returning subtype Lesson, which previously appeared with the keyword action learn. Learn isn’t returning in this set. While the five Lessons here will play well with earlier cards that interact with that subtype, Lessons aren’t a featured mechanic in Secrets of Strixhaven.
Converge
While the colleges often stick to their areas of academic focus, it can pay off for them to branch out. The returning ability word converge highlights spells that count the number of colors of mana used to cast those spells or, for permanents, the number of colors of mana used to cast the spells that became those permanents.
0002_MTGSOS_Main: Rancorous Archaic
The number of colors of mana spent to cast a spell is always between zero and five. Make sure to include all mana spent to cast it, including any additional or alternative costs you paid, but as you may know by now, don’t include any mana that wasn’t spent to actually cast the spell, such as mana spent on a ward cost to make sure a spell wasn’t countered.
If you cast a spell without paying its mana cost, you probably didn’t spend any mana to cast it, unless there was some additional cost involved. The number of colors of mana spent to cast the spell in that case will be zero. Similarly, if the spell is copied, no mana was spent to cast the copy, so the number of colors of mana spent to cast it is zero.
Book
Some extra credit before you go. There’s a new artifact subtype debuting in this set: Book.
0248_MTGSOS_Main: Diary of Dreams
After a thorough review by the Biblioplex’s Department of Library Sciences, a few existing cards will receive updates to be classified as Books. Stay tuned for a future Oracle update for all the specifics.
Secrets Unlocked
It’s almost time to head back to school. Secrets of Strixhaven previews are being handed out right now, and the set releases on April 24. Secrets of Strixhaven is available for preorder from your local game store, TCGplayer, Amazon, and elsewhere Magic is sold. Class dismissed. I’ll see you at the Prerelease!