Mechanic Breakdown: Prepare

Tom AndersonStrategy

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?

Tom AndersonStrategy

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 …

Only 90’s Kids Understand: Are Old-School Mechanics Still Useful?

Tom AndersonCommander, Products, Strategy

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

Tom AndersonStrategy

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 …

The Most Impactful Mechanics of 2023

The Most Impactful New Mechanics of 2023

Tom AndersonDesign

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 …