Secrets of Strixhaven is showing us parts of Arcavios that lie beyond the bounds of Strixhaven School, but this is still a set primarily themed around mage academia. The mechanic which really anchors that theme is “prepare” – a new ability which, appropriately, lets creatures learn to cast their own instants and sorceries! On the surface it may look like …
How Will Secrets of Strixhaven Expand Strixhaven’s Mechanics?
I often explain to people that Magic as a hobby is more about studying than it is playing games. You can spend countless hours improving your knowledge, even as a veteran planeswalker – looking up cards, reading about combos, pondering the possibilities of your deck. Perhaps that passion for learning is what makes the multiversal wizard school Strixhaven, and its …
Mechanic Spotlight: Magecraft
Our next set is Secrets of Strixhaven, which releases on April 24th. During our first visit to Arcavios, we were introduced to the Magecraft mechanic. As of this writing, we don’t know yet whether or not Magecraft will be making a return in Secrets of Strixhaven, but even if it isn’t, this article will introduce you to the basics of …
Only 90’s Kids Understand: Are Old-School Mechanics Still Useful?
Magic’s long and unbroken history of development makes it truly unique among strategy games – three decades of evolution and expansion, stretching back towards Antiquities. The constant churn of new cards and new mechanics keeps Magic fresh and current. It also creates something akin to “generations” in its audience. We each discover and learn the Magic of our own time, …
Mechanics of the Eternities
Magic is diverting power to its main thrusters, and preparing to boldly go into a new frontier of genre fiction… space opera! While we’ve had glimpses of advanced tech like robots and rocket launchers since 1994’s Antiquities, and Unfinity added some explicitly interstellar aesthetics to the game, Edge of Eternities is the first time we’ll be exploring the design space …
Manifesting Dread in Duskmourn: House of Horrors
We’re in the midst of Duskmourn: House of Horrors preview season and it releases later this month, on September 27th . The set contains lots of really cool mechanics, but the one that has caught my eye the most is “Manifest Dread.” In this article, I’ll break down how the mechanic works and how I think it’ll perform in the …
The Most Impactful New Mechanics of 2023
During previews and release windows of new Magic expansions, we tend to focus on the impact of their strongest individual cards. But over time, as those cards become familiar parts of the broader metagame, it’s the unique mechanics which come to define that set in the collective memory. Taking the Limited perspective, these mechanics essentially ARE the set – you …







