Wizards of the Coast recently announced the schedule for the official Strixhaven: School of Mages previews, and Magic: The Gathering fans are excited to find out more about the upcoming Standard-legal magical school-themed set. While some of the cards have already been revealed, most of the set’s 275 regular cards and 63 Mystical Archive reprints haven’t been spoiled yet. You can check out our Strixhaven spoiler section to see what cards have been revealed so far. To get fans hyped up for Strixhaven, Magic head designer Mark Rosewater has shared his usual Duelist-style teasers for the next MTG set, revealing partial information about the cards featured in Strixhaven.
Over on his Blogatog, Rosewater shared card partial descriptions, card text, and creature types you should expect to see in Strixhaven: School of Mages.
Mark Rosewater’s Strixhaven: School of Mages teasers
• a white card with the rules text “draw three cards”
• a planeswalker you know, but not as you know them
• a card featuring Paulo Vito Damo da Rosa’s likeness (for winning the World Championship)
• a spell with three X’s in its mana cost
• introduction of a new evergreen keyword
• a red sorcery that you can have as many copies in your deck as you want
• a futureshifted card (appearing for the first time in a premier set other than Future Sight)
• an MDFC with the same card type on both sides that hasn’t been printed before
• a card sharing something never shared before
• a cycle of enemy dual lands finishing off a ten-card cycle
Here are some snippets from rules text that appear in the set:
• “Search your library and graveyard for up to four creature cards with different names”
• “Otherwise, put a study counter on it.”
• “Whenever a permanent entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability to trigger”
• “untap each creature you control, then tap any number of creatures you control”
• “Pay 10 life:”
• “Repeat this process six more times.”
• “Pests, Bats, Insects, Snakes, and Spiders”
• “Each mode must target a different player.”
• “Whenever an opponent activates an ability that isn’t a mana ability”
• “where X is the number of cards in your library”
And finally, here are some creature type lines from the set:
• Creature – Turtle Druid
• Creature – Bird Warlock
• Creature – Frog Wizard
• Creature – Spirit Dwarf
• Creature – Troll Druid
• Creature – Eye Bat
• Legendary Creature – Vampire Warlock
• Legendary Creature – Orc Shaman
• Legendary Creature – Dryad Druid
• Legendary Artifact Creature – Construct
It looks like Strixhaven will feature a bunch of weirdly-themed and innovative new cards. “A planeswalker you know, but not as you know them” may be The Wanderer, who was first introduced in the 2009 set War of the Spark, or it may also be Ana Iora, a.k.a. Liliana. Multiple cards in Strixhaven will most likely have study counters, so I wonder what kind of new mechanic will use that. It’s also exciting to know that there will be a red sorcery card that you can have as many copies in the deck as you want.
Earlier this year, Rosewater explained why Strixhaven is the 2021 set he’s most excited about, so expect it to feature innovative mechanics. These teasers will surely keep fans wondering before the cards are officially revealed, so let the speculations begin!
Related: Strixhaven: School of Mages Color Pairs Built Around Conflict, Says MTG Head Designer
Strixhaven: School of Mages previews will begin on March 25, 2021 at 9 AM PT, and tune in to Twitch.tv/magic or the official MTG YouTube channel to find out the answers to some of these clues.
Strixhaven is set to release for tabletop on April 23, and it will be released on Magic: The Gathering Arena and Magic Online ahead of that.
