Magic: The Gathering’s Strixhaven Introduces New Mechanics

A whole bunch of information about the upcoming Magic: The Gathering expansion set Strixhaven: School of Mages has been revealed today by Wizards of the Coast. Given that the set is scheduled to release on April 23rd, it’s not long now until people will be able to see it all for themselves. As with basically every new expansion, Wizards of the Coast is set to add several new mechanics to the popular card game, and we’ve detailed the three major ones announced below: Learn, Magecraft, and Ward.

Learn

Of the three mechanics, Learn is the most unusual. Whenever a card with Learn is played, the player may reveal a Lesson card from outside the game and put it into their hand or discard a card to draw a card. It’s a little less powerful than, say, being able to grab any card at all, but it remains to be seen just how impactful the various Lesson cards introduced in Strixhaven will be.

Magecraft

Magecraft was actually revealed prior to today thanks to early preview cards. In short, whenever the player that owns the permanent with Magecraft on it casts or copies an instant or sorcery, whatever response printed kicks off. In the case of Dragonsguard Elite above, the creature gets a +1/+1 counter each time the mechanic is activated.

Ward

The new mechanic Ward is essentially a way to prevent permanents from being targeted without at least costing the player targeting them something. It also seems like the one most likely to stick around going forward. Specifically, whenever a permanent with Ward is targeted by a spell or ability by an opponent, that spell or ability is countered unless that player pays whatever cost is associated with the mechanic. In the case of Adrix and Nev, Twincasters, the cost would be two colorless mana.

As noted above, Magic: The Gathering‘s latest and greatest expansion, Strixhaven: School of Mages, is set to release on April 23rd. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the popular card game from Wizards of the Coast right here.

What do you think about what we have seen of the Strixhaven set for Magic: The Gathering so far? Are you excited to see more? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming!