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Magic: Secrets of Strixhaven – All Mechanics Explained

Master the rules of the new MTG set. This guide explains Prepare, Paradigm, and all of the mechanics in Magic’s Secrets of Strixhaven.

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Magic: The Gathering is returning to a familiar setting later this month with the release of Secrets of Strixhaven. Players can study up on all the new and returning mechanics now to prepare ahead of the pre-release and launch events.

All Secrets of Strixhaven New and Returning Mechanics

Like every Magic set, Secrets of Strixhaven will feature a mix of evergreen, new, and returning mechanics. This set is themed around a magic school setting and each of the school’s five houses has their own trademark mechanic.

Before we dive into exactly how each mechanic works, here is the full list of featured mechanics in Secrets of Strixhaven:

Repartee (Silverquill)

Infusion (Witherbloom)

New preparation cards offer access to a load of famous incantations from the past and soon-to-be-famous spells from the present. Many creatures with prepare spells enter prepared.

If a creature with a prepare spell becomes prepared, a copy of its prepare spell appears in exile. This copy stays there until one of three things happens. One, you cast it. Two, the prepared creature leaves the battlefield. Three, the prepared creature becomes unprepared.

Casting the copy of the prepared spell works just like casting any other spell. You have to pay its cost, and you have to follow the timing rules put in place by its card type. If it’s a sorcery like Rampant Growth, you can cast it during your main phase if the stack is empty.

If you control a prepared creature and another player gains control of it, the player who controls the prepared creature is the one who now can cast the copy of the prepare spell from exile.

Repartee (Silverquill)

The ability word repartee highlights triggered abilities that trigger whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell targeting a creature. Each repartee ability has a different effect, so you’ll have to read the words of each one carefully.

If you cast a spell that targets multiple creatures, repartee abilities will trigger only once. If you cast a spell that targets a creature and multiple repartee abilities trigger at the same time, you can have those abilities resolve in any order you want. The last one you put on the stack will be the first one to resolve. Repartee abilities always resolve before the spell that caused them to trigger.

The ability word opus highlights triggered abilities that trigger whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell. Each opus ability has an initial effect and an additional or alternative effect if you spent five or more mana to cast the spell that caused the opus ability to trigger.

Opus abilities will consider all mana you spent on the spell, not only mana that went toward the mana cost. If that spell had any additional costs, that mana counts.

Opus abilities always resolve before the spell that caused them to trigger.

Infusion (Witherbloom)

Infusion is another ability word. This Witherbloom ability word highlights abilities that care in some way if you’ve gained life this turn.

Infusion abilities don’t care how much life you’ve gained over the course of the turn as long as you gained life somewhere along the way. It also doesn’t matter if your life total is lower than it was when the turn started.

Flashback is a keyword ability that appears on some instant and sorcery spells. If a card with flashback is in your graveyard, you may cast it. If you cast it this way, you pay its flashback cost rather than its mana cost.

You can cast a card with flashback from your graveyard no matter how it got there. You don’t need to have cast it initially. You can discard it, mill it, or find some other way to get it there.

Flashback is a very popular and powerful mechanic, so many players are likely very excited to see its return.

Increment is a keyword that represents a triggered ability found on creatures. Whenever you cast a spell, if the amount of mana spent to cast that spell is greater than the power or toughness of the creature with increment, you put a +1/+1 counter on the creature.

Just like with opus abilities, increment will consider all mana you spent to cast a spell. If that spell had any additional costs, that mana counts.

Paradigm is a new keyword that appears on a cycle of sorceries. The first time a particular spell with paradigm resolves for you, you exile it. From that point forward, at the beginning of each of your first main phases, you may cast a copy of it without paying its mana cost. Casting each of these copies is optional, and you’ll have the opportunity to cast one on each of your turns no matter what happens to the previous ones.

Each card with paradigm also has the returning subtype Lesson, which previously appeared with the keyword action learn.

The returning ability word converge highlights spells that count the number of colors of mana used to cast those spells or, for permanents, the number of colors of mana used to cast the spells that became those permanents.

The number of colors of mana spent to cast a spell is always between zero and five. Make sure to include all mana spent to cast it, including any additional or alternative costs you paid.

If you cast a spell without paying its mana cost, you probably didn’t spend any mana to cast it, unless there was some additional cost involved. The number of colors of mana spent to cast the spell in that case will be zero. Similarly, if the spell is copied, no mana was spent to cast the copy, so the number of colors of mana spent to cast it is zero.

Book is a new artifact subtype. A few existing cards will receive updates to be classified as Books. This new subtype doesn’t have any immediate rules implications on its own, but it’s likely something other cards will reference in the future.

That should be just about everything players need to know to wrap their heads around the mechanics featured in Secrets of Strixhaven. Be sure to check out the full set spoiler ahead of the pre-release to get a better idea of all the cards in the set.

Magic: The Gathering’s Secrets of Strixhaven set releases April 24, 2026. Pre-release events will begin on April 17.

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