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Strixhaven, the all-new Harry Potter-ish map expansion for Magic: The Gathering, is almost here, and we’ve received a small collection of maps to reveal.
Strixhaven launches in Magic: The Gathering – Arena and Magic Online on April 15, and then a week later in stores, in these cute shiny aluminum packages, starting April 23.
It’s Harry Potter-ish because Strixhaven is a school for mages, which is also divided into various internal houses, or colleges in this case. Each is themed around Magic’s long-standing colors.
Lorehold, the archaeomancy college, is white; Prismari, the elementary arts college, is red; Quandix, the college of numeromancy, is blue; Silverquill, the college of eloquence, is black; and Witherbloom, the college of life and death, is green.
A video explaining Magecraft’s important new Strixhaven mechanic.
The cards we have received are from Silverquill School. They’re the masters of the word, and they are also apparently very stylish, just like me, in pajamas and cardigans.
The cards are Academic Probation, Ageless Guardian, Beaming Defiance, Dueling Coach, Semester’s End, and Thunderous Orator.
Academic probation is arguably the most interesting because it involves one of Strixhaven’s new ideas: a lesson. These are cards you can draw from outside your deck during battle! You do this by using a Learn card, which gives you the option of either discarding a card and drawing a new one, or taking a lesson.
The other big new mechanic is Magecraft, which is an ability that triggers whenever you use or copy a sorcery or snapshot spell. The ability can make the creature more powerful or pull a map at you – there are many variations – but Magecraft is the trigger aspect of it. And when you consider the number of occasions to use witchcraft or moments and copy them, you can begin to imagine the possible chain reactions. There’s also Ward, a creature-based spell / ability counter that opponents must pay mana or health to negate.
There’s a more comprehensive overview of Strixhaven on the official Magic: The Gathering website, and there’s a list of Strixhaven cards as well.
Additionally, an additional set of Mystical Archives cards will be released alongside Strixhaven and contained in Strixhaven booster packs. These cards are reprints of spells from Magic’s past, and they’re beautiful, each brought to life with new artwork, it seems.
Magic: The Gathering – Arena is the free online version of Magic, and it’s pretty good. It is also now available on iOS and Android.
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