OT draft
Arena Release Date: April 15, 2021
Prerelease Date: April 16—22, 2021
Paper Release Date: April 23, 2021
Previous thread
Arena thread
Product info
Where to find previews
Card image gallery
Variant image gallery
Mechanics
Next set: Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Story archive
Premier events schedule
Hidden content
You need to reply to this thread in order to see this content.
Magic: the Gathering is a Trading Card Game, the first of its kind, developed by Richard Garfield and his playtesters for the gaming company Wizards of the Coast in 1993. You and your opponents play the role of dueling
planeswalkers, wizards able to travel between dimensions known as planes to gather unique magic. Using customized decks made up of your spells, the creatures you can summon, your mana bonds with lands, and even other planeswalkers you can call in to help out, you try to defeat your foes.
Last time in Magic, a routine monster hunt on the viking world of Kaldheim uncovered the return of an old threat. Previously thought to be contained on the plane of Mirrodin, the Phyrexians are now making small incursions outside it. Distracted by the planeswalker Tibalt starting a war between Kaldheim's realms, Kaya of the Gatewatch lost track of the Phyrexian praetor Vorinclex. Could the other praetors be on missions of their own?
In any case, we now visit Arcavios's own school of mages, Strixhaven. What's that? Sounds familiar? Well, this is a university and not a boarding school, so there. Strixhaven gathers mages from all across the Multiverse to study in five different colleges. Following the events of Eldraine, Will and Rowan find themselves here, hoping to better understand the nature of their powers.
Strixhaven will feature five tie-in Commander decks and a new set-within-a-set called Mystical Archive. Details are below.
In the Standard format, the following sets will be legal.
- Throne of Eldraine
- Theros: Beyond Death
- Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- Core Set 2021
- Zendikar Rising
- Kaldheim
- Strixhaven: School of Mages
Banned cards in Standard.
GETTING STARTED
Official guide to starting Magic
To see what a game is like, check out
Geek and Sundry's Spellslinger series, where Day[9] battles various geek celebrities, often losing, using simple and easy to follow decks.
For the digital card game, you can play
Magic Arena potentially for free.
It has its own thread.
For the physical card game, there are many ways to get on board. If you go to a local game store (LGS), the owner will give you a simple
Welcome Deck for free, after demonstrating how to play the game. This set has 100-card
Commander decks that can serve as an introduction, though note this isn't for the normal format.
Challenger Decks (
2021 edition) will allow you to compete in Standard tournaments using real decks for, before release, much cheaper than buying the cards individually.
If you want to build your own deck, a
Deck Builder's Toolkit (
Theros: Beyond Death edition) will give you a decent starting collection of cards, including 125 fixed cards, 100 basic lands, four booster packs, and perhaps most importantly, a good box for your cards.
The big thing to look forward to, however, is the
Prerelease event held for every set. Well, not this time, because COVID-19. Your local game store might be doing something online regardless, so check them out.
Find local game stores here.
Arena Release Date: April 15, 2021
Prerelease Date: April 16—22, 2021
Paper Release Date: April 23, 2021
Card image gallery
Variant image gallery
Mechanics
Strixhaven has five colleges, each with their own color alignment and mechanic.
Lorehold
Lorehold is the red-white college focused on anthropology and archeology. Their motto is "Leave no stone unturned."
Prismari
Prismari is the blue-red college focused on the arts. Their motto is "Express yourself with the elements."
Quandrix
Quandrix is the green-blue college focused on mathematics and how it applies to nature. Their motto is "Math is magic."
Silverquill
Silverquill is the white-black college focused on law and leadership. Their motto is "Sharp style. Sharper wit."
Witherbloom
Witherbloom is the black-green college focused on biology. Their motto is "Get your hands dirty."
Mystical Archive
Mystical Archive is a set-within-a-set that contains the hidden knowledge of Strixhaven. These are all reprints that don't go into Standard (if they weren't already there).
Compared to Masterpieces in previous sets, the most important difference is that you are guaranteed to get a Mystical Archive card in a booster pack. This means you should expect these to show up in Limited, and the set is designed around this fact. These have a dedicated slot, so you can potentially get two rares/mythics in a pack. They start at uncommon; there are no common ones. Collector boosters will have at least three Mystical Archive cards.
Japanese boosters will have their own variants; non-Japanese collector boosters will have at least one.
OTHER THREADS
Kaldheim
Zendikar Rising
Core Set 2021
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
Theros: Beyond Death
Throne of Eldraine
Core Set 2020
War of the Spark
Ravnica Allegiance
Guilds of Ravnica
Core Set 2019
Dominaria
Arena on Gaming side
Arena Closed Beta on Gaming side
Rivals of Ixalan
Great Designer Search 3
First Hangouts OT
http://www.**********/forum/showthread.php?t=1424890 - Last GAF thread - Ixalan
RESOURCES
Official articles - Nicknamed the Mothership, these articles are the primary source of news. Recommended columns are Making Magic, written by the head designer, Mark Rosewater (aka MaRo); Magic Story, which tells the story, written by various authors; and Play Design, written by various Magic developers. The other articles generally discuss deck building.
Blogatog - Tumblr ran by Mark Rosewater where he answers questions, updates very frequently.
Drive to Work - Mark Rosewater's weekly podcast about Magic that he literally records as he drives to work. Two episodes are released every Friday.
MTG Reddit - The best place to get new card information. The community sucks, though.
Gatherer - The official method of searching through released cards.
Scryfall - The better search method, with bigger cards.
Game store locator