Magic: The Gathering has launched its latest set Strixhaven on MTG Arena this morning. The tabletop release of Strixhaven will take place next Friday on April 23rd.
Strixhaven: School of Mages is set inside an elite academy for magecraft. They are Lorehold (red/white), Prismari (blue/red), Quandrix (blue/green), Silverquill (white/black) and Witherbloom (green/black).
If you’d like to find out more about any of the schools and take a quick test to find out which one you’d belong in, head to this link. Taking the quiz will score you a code for the card sleeves belonging to your college that you can use in MTG Arena. I got placed into Lorehold College, in case you wanted to know.
Strixhaven introduces three new mechanics, one of which will potentially change MTG a lot going forward.
‘Learn’ is a keyword that appears on Strixhaven cards that lets you go to your sideboard, grab a ‘Lesson’ card of your choosing and place it into your hand. In limited, this means you can have any number of Lessons waiting in your unused pool for you to bring into the game.
‘Magecraft’ is an ability that will trigger whenever you cast an instant and sorcery. ‘Archmage of Emeritus,’ for example, says that you draw a card whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell.
And finally, ‘Ward’ is a protection ability kinda like Hexproof in some ways. Whenever your creature with Ward becomes the target of a spell or ability, an opponent controls the Wards ability counter that spell or ability unless your opponent pays a cost. On some cards, this is simply some mana, while it could be life or something else on others.
‘Modal Double-Faced Cards’ also make a return in Strixhaven. Be on the lookout for the dead of each college being a double-faced card.
You can download MTG Arena now and start playing Strixhaven launch events, including drafts and sealed.