Magic The Gathering's newest set, Strixhaven, is barely a month away and the head designer of the game Mark Rosewater has graced us with some hints about what to expect from some of the upcoming cards. Of course, because he's Mark Rosewater, most of the hints were as simple and clear as a quantum-physics class held beneath the Citarum River.
Magic: The Gathering - Strixhaven Teaser
The upcoming Magic The Gathering set Strixhaven has been known about for quite a while. Just last month we got a few spoilers, and a decent look at the design of the packaging to whet our appetite for the release. So far we know that it's going to be about a plane filled with a giant magic school split into several houses, each with their own specialization and a slice of the color pie (that sounds familiar for some reason). Mark Rosewater has just given us some very interesting bits of information, but to save our excitement, he didn't actually reveal any of the cards properly.
First up, we now know that there's going to be a new evergreen keyword coming to the game, although we don't know much else about it. What we do know is that it has appeared in the game before as a regular card effect, and that it's not something players already use as slang. Whatever the new keyword is, being evergreen means it's probably going to present a change at the core of the game, since evergreen keywords never rotate out and typically end up being used in most sets.
Drawing Cards, But Not In Blue?
The other really interesting Strixhaven card Rosewater revealed is a white card that allows the player to draw three cards at once. Typically "draw a card" is typically something associated with blue magic that prioritizes adaptability and efficiency, but apparently, the R and D team have been looking at ways of getting draw effects into white while still making them appropriate for white mana's more controlled and defensive style of play, and fitting that White is fifth at card draw. This is apparently important for the color as it is a key problem with it in the most played format according to R&D - Commander.
There are also a few interesting tidbits heading to Magic The Gathering with the release of Strixhaven next month. A red sorcery that allows any number of copies in any given deck sounds interesting, especially given red's penchant for burn spells. There's also going to be a futureshifted card for the first time since Future Sight, meaning a new card with that awesome alternate layout. We were even given some full creature types to expect, so look forward to running into a Turtle Druid, a Frog Wizard, and (my personal favorite) a Spirit Dwarf. Here's a list of some of the other teasers
- A planeswalker you know, but not as you know them
- A card featuring Magic World Champion victor Paulo Vito Damo da Rosa (PV)
- A Spell with 3 X's in its mana cost
- A dual-faced card with the same card type on both sides that hasn't been printed before (so, not Land/Land or creature/creature)
- A card that shares something never shared before
- A cycle of enemy dual lands finishing off a 10 card cycle
Some snippets were also shared by him from rules text:
- "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”
More information on Strixhaven is expected to arrive this week, starting on March 25th so keep your eye out for spoilers coming for Strixhaven in the near future. If you want to see more of what Rosewater was saying you can see the reveals out on Maro's blog if you feel like trying to decipher the enigma code any time soon.
