Secrets Of Strixhaven Release Date & Prerelease Details
With the full set releasing on April 24 of this year, Secrets of Strixhaven has plenty to look forward to, no matter which of the setting's five colleges you're interested in jumping into first. Returning to a more classic fantasy setting after some surprisingly successful sci-fi outings, Secrets of Strixhaven brings back some iconic characters from the previous releases of the setting with some new yet familiar playstyles.
Thankfully, if you don't want to wait to get your hands on some Secrets of Strixhaven cards, the pre-release will start between April 17 and April 23, depending on your local retailers. On top of the physical release, MTG Arena players will also get access to the set a little earlier on April 21, with more card previews rolling out until April 9.
Secrets of Strixhaven is also notably the last in-universe MTG release until October when Reality Fracture releases, as the next two drops will be Universes Beyond collaborations with Marvel Super Heroes in June, followed by The Hobbit in August.
Secrets Of Strixhaven Products And Pricing
Secrest of Strixhaven also continues the newer tradition of offering several different prerelease packs to choose between, with 5 individual options themed after each of the five color combo houses that Strixhaven operates under. With the prerelease options for Silverquill, Prismari, Witherbloom, Lorehold, and Quandrix, each booster box offers 5 standard Play Boosters, 1 college-themed booster, and a traditional foil promo card alongside the standard deck box and spindown die.
The prerelease packs will be available during the same prerelease window between April 17 and 23.
On top of the Play Boosters, MTG's Secrets of Strixhaven has all the offerings you'd expect from a standard set release as well to satisfy any newcomers and veterans alike, with the various offerings and prices being the following:
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Play Booster: $5.49
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Collector Booster: $26.99
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Commander Deck: $49.99
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Bundle: $57.99
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Codex Bundle: $89.99
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Draft Night: $89.99
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60-Card Theme Deck: $23.99
One of the more standout products comes from the premium Codex Bundle release, which offers two Collector Boosters, 6 Play Boosters, 2 out of 6 possible borderless foil promo cards, 20 traditional foil basic lands, and 1 oversized spindown counter, all wrapped up in a themed box set shaped like a book.
It also wouldn't be a classic MTG set release without an assortment of pre-constructed commander decks to choose from. The decklists for each can be found in a recent blog post on the official Wizards of the Coast website.
Aside from being playable right out of the gate with each deck themed after one of the five Strixhaven houses, the decks have reprints of staples like Land Tax, Flickering Ward, and Faerie Mastermind.
Secrets Of Strixhaven Set Details
If you're planning on pulling boosters to add to your collection, you'll also want to keep in mind the four distinct set codes being introduced in Secrets of Strixhaven.
The most common type you'll come across is the standard SOS symbol legal in all formats, followed by the SOC commander set code, SOA mystical archive set code, and the SPG special guests set codes that are legal in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage sets, respectively.
Individual cards are also legal where already available in other formats.
Given that you can pull SOS, SOA, and SPG cards from standard Play Boosters, Wizards of the Coast also ensured that any of the card types pulled will be playable in the Secrets of Strixhaven Draft and Sealed formats on release.
Secrets Of Strixhaven Card Details
Alongside plenty of excellent reprints, Secrets of Strixhaven also brings several new mechanics that play into its scholarly theme, with the first of which being Prepare. Allowing your cards to hit the battlefield running, Prepare will activate a secondary spell ability attached to a creature.
Prepared abilities take the form of pre-existing spells like Rampant Growth or Ancestral Recall, to name a few, offering even more utility from a single card alone. To top things off, some cards even offer conditions that let them prepare themselves again after entering the battlefield, allowing you to unleash the same spell multiple times in a match, which could have great commander potential down the line.
All 5 Secrets of Strixhaven color combos also get their own unique mechanics as well to help set them apart from each other, with all the abilities from the individual schools listed below:
Ability
Description
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Repartee (Silverquill)
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Exile up to one target creature when you cast an instant or sorcery spell targeting a creature, which is returned to the battlefield under its opponents' control at the next end step.
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Opus (Prismari)
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This creature gets +1/+1 until the end of turn whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, if five or more mana was spent on the spell, create a token copy of this creature.
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Infusion (Witherbloom)
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When this creature enters, put two +1/+1 counters on them if you gained life this turn.
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Flashback (Lorehold)
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You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost, then exile it.
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Increment (Quandrix)
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Whenever you cast a spell, if the mana spent is greater than this creature's power or toughness, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
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As if the previous six mechanics weren't enough, Secrets of Strixhaven also offers a few more general abilities to spice up the set. Paradigm allows you to permanently reap the benefits of tagged sorceries by exiling them after casting and lets you play it on each of your following main phases entirely for free after its first cast.
While Paradigm offers plenty of staying power for some incredibly influential spells, the new Converge mechanic is a much simpler affair. This simply offers a +1/+1 counter for each color mana spent to cast them, allowing you to get up to 5 counters in total depending on your deck. A new Book artifact type has also been introduced as well, which uses page counters to gain access to additional abilities.
Although the amount of new mechanics and sheer level of choice between the various color types can be a little overwhelming at first, Wizards of the Coast also offers a short personality quiz to help you figure out which Secrets of Strixhaven college might be the best for you on the official website.
Release Date
August 5, 1993
Created by
Richard Garfield
Video Game(s)
Magic: The Gathering, Magic the Gathering Commander, Magic: The Gathering - Battlegrounds, Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012, Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014, Magic: The Gathering Arena
Character(s)
Jace Beleren, Chandra Nalaar, Liliana Vess, Garruk Wildspeaker, Nissa Revane, Ajani Goldmane, Nicol Bolas, Teferi, Gideon Jura, Sorin Markov, Ral Zarek
English (US) ·