“Aye, I’m castin’ ere!” With another cardboard foray through NYC behind us, Magic: The Gathering’s third set of 2026 is upon us. Secrets of Stixhaven welcomes players back with a return to beloved Strixhaven University. As MTG themes go, a set that’s back to that essence of fantasy with a dash of wonder, much like Lorwyn Eclipsed. Gone are the turtles, pizzas and ninjas for we’re in the hallowed halls of magic and study. So is the magic still there, or has it faded since last visit?
When one thinks of Magic: The Gathering it’s impossible to separate it from fantasy. Clearly, that can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, and I’ll be the first to say I love a Universes Beyond romp here and there but returning to the in-universe sets is always a welcome treat. Secrets of Strixhaven is that warm welcome with the promise of magic, wizardry and a dash of whimsy.
Strixhaven University centres on 5 distinct colleges named after their founding elder dragon:
Lorehold – College of Archaeomancy
Lorehold is the white-red contingent of researchers and historians. To them, the past is paramount to discoveries and battles ahead.
Prismari – College of Elemental Arts
Prismari are the artisans, skilled with the elements as expression. Their creativity is something to behold across red and blue.
Quandrix – College of Numeromancy
Quandrix is the math house. Green and blue. Need I say more?
Silverquil – College of Eloquence
Silverquil sees white and black interwined through the art of words. Style and competitive to match.
Witherbloom – College of Life and Death
Witherbloom is the green black college, life and death. What nature gives, nature may take away.
Now should you at this point wish to compare Strixhaven University to another magic school that shall not be named, that’s on you. Strixhaven stands on its own, and I think it’s important to note that this set builds it’s own thematics in a way that gives it a breadth that isn’t contained within Strixhaven University.
The Art of MTG Secrets of Strixhaven
Seeing Strixhaven come to life across the cards in the set is really something. Fantasy and MTG go hand-in-hand, and seeing magic and spell casting at the forefront is exactly what I crave in an original set.
Secrets of Strixhaven’s headliner is none other than Emeritus of Ideation, showcased in a retro frame-themed full art. The double rainbow foil really hits with Mark Poole’s art, yet as a serialised card this one only appears in collector boosters. I’m actually surprised we didn’t see each Emeritus card from each college receive the same treatment.
And it also wouldn’t be a magical university without a library or even an archive to call upon. Mystical Archive treatments return, and they are as stunning as ever. When I was cracking into the set I was consistently in awe of each of these treatments. Each play booster comes with at least one of these. The style feels like something sacred, like ancient paintings or illustrations of what was. I adore these immensely, and I think they are easily my favourite treatment of the entire set.
A close follow-up would have to be the field notes treatment. As a set about a magically adept college, the thought of students’ diagrams coming to life as cards feels quite wonderful. Each feels a lot more detailed than we tend to see on the field notes style of card. Studying these is a treat.
Each of the sets full-art basic lands also showcases the sets magic theme with castors calling forth each mana colour.
Secrets of Strixhaven Mechanics
From the outset, the tonal whiplash of TMNT to Secrets of Strixhaven is only lessened by how good the set gets the magical college theme right. The set leans on those tropes of what it feels like to be a student of magic in such a cool way, teasing at that emotion of study and knowledge.
Prepared
Bags packed and ready for the day or battle ahead? Prepare allows cards to cast a copy of their spell. Each of these cards features a dual textbox with a spell that can be cast so long as it is prepared. Just like any other spell, you must pay it’s cost to activate the spell. For some cards they only become prepared when entering but Emertius of Ideation, for instance can become prepared again thanks to its ability.
Seeing cards with staples like “Swords to Plowshares” and “Rampant Growth” as spells they can reactivate once prepared again is so functional despite costing mana.
Paradigm
As students of Strixhaven will tell you, each lesson can be applied elsewhere. Paradigm allows you to play lesson cards again after being resolved. Once exiled, Paradigm allows you to cast a copy of the spell for no mana! I loved these but they can be pretty costly to get out so don’t expect them to become engines in the early game.
Converge
But what of each mana colour in this magical college? Converge encourages players to cast and then count the mana colours they used to gain an added ability. While I love this it’s tricky to gain that value with these cards within limited formats but as a card for play in decks with a broader mana pool it’s valuable.
Now onto the Colleges of Strixhaven, in the set each features it’s own mechanic!
Lorehold loves history, so it’s fitting they carry Flashback. If a card with flashback is in your graveyard you may cast it for it’s flashback cost. Casting it this way means you exile it after. I really loved this on Antiques on the Loose. Gaining tokens and then having a trigger for tokens across your spirits works great. Worth building with some other spirit cards as well.
Silverquil are masters of words and rightly so. Repartee wants you to keep casting – every instant or sorcery you cast that targets another creature, this activates. If you’re picking on your opponents’ creatures, this is really easy to trigger multiple times in a turn. Big fan.
Prismari will always put on a show, so expect Opus to turn some heads. Much like Repartee, Opus triggers when players fuffill a certain action that varys depending on the card. While thematic, I was less of a fan of many of these cards having an end-of-turn timer. Doing something cool but temporary doesn’t hit the same.
Witherbloom are masters of life and death, and Infusion is an extra reward for gaining life. I really liked Infusion but it’s useless if you don’t have a life gain engine ticking away each turn so keep this mind if you’re looking for that value.
Quandrix love math so if you like counting, Increment’s has you counting mana used during casts. This felt much better to Opus, however you’ll want to be casting bigger spells for that continued value.
The Silverquil Influence Commander Deck
As the resident precon deck fan, I was stoked when WOTC shared that Secrets of Strixhaven would feature five separate commander decks – one for each college. I also love my fae boy Killian so Silverquil Influence had to be mine. When I first got back into MTG I actually started out with an aura enchantment deck, so it was nice to pick another one up that runs that much differently.
Killian, Decisive Mentor – a 2/3 commander leads the deck rewarding you for casting enchanments by letting you tap and goad an opponent’s creatures. As an added bonus, when creatures with an aura you control attack, you draw a card. Being rewarded for using those auras on your opponents’ boards feels great, even if you have to think ahead at what that aura might enable. Still having the card draw feels like a nifty trade for the risk, and if you keep casting enchantments, you can goad those scary creatures away so easily.
Back-up commander Scriv, the Obligator – a 2/3 inkling bird has flying and deathtouch. When it enters or attacks you create white contract aura token on an opponent’s creature. The aura gives it +2/+0 until the end of the turn, only if it’s attacking an opponent. If they attack you they instead loose 2 life. While I played less of Scriv, it was great having it on the board as an attacker to net me some extra aura tokens while running Killian.
Sharing those auras around your pod is really whats going to keep you in for the long game and get that value as you play. There are however some you’ll like want to keep on your side the board like Gift of Immortality and Eldrazi Conscription. While the latter is worth 8 mana, it’s really best to bring this out in the later game when your opponents are swinging your way more. Annihilator is a nasty way to solve some problems when you need to keep the group humble as well.
Piloting Silverquil Influence took some getting used to but the synergy here is great. I like it thanks to the lower cost of many of the auras present in the deck. It feels functional, especially early on with a good opening hand. Once Killian is on the board you have a card draw engine itching to start pulling from your library.
Seeing a juicy reprint of Land Tax hit the board is excellent here as well if you’re feeling a little light on mana. Really useful to catch up to someone who’s racing ahead, and even better to have a copy of this. Eriette of the Charmed Apple also rolls so well in this deck. Completely stopping creatures enchanted by your own aura’s is crazy at play and I would’ve loved to run this on the decks’ backup commander. Breena, the Demagogue is also a really valuable creature on your board. The ability to add counters based off life and attacking really helps you keep pace with the board, given how many aura cards are moving to other players. Inkshield is also a great backup if you’re about to get smacked and lose the best parts of your board. The added bonus of 2/1 tokens for each one point of damage really means you’ll wanna save it for those bigger hits.
My dark horse in the deck however had to be Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor. With this on the board, you can basically score free enchantments. I was shocked when I read the card as I was sleeving up the deck. Having this in your opening hand, 3 lands while running Killian is like the golden ticket.
As precon decks go Silverquil Influence is a great twist on auras. If you’re looking to pit your opponents against each other and feel really smart when the auras start flying for free, this one’s for you! Across the board, the synergy out of the box is undeniable. If you’ve also played aura decks before this is a nice spin on that strategy as well.
Final Thoughts
Secrets of Strixhaven is exactly the type of set I appreciate from Magic: The Gathering. With each college defined around a style and even packing a mechanic, there’s a lot of value in this set. The Mystic Archive treatment really hits it to, especially if you’re a fan of cards with that defined style. Once again as an original set MTG hits the mark and has left me eager to keep exploring the other colleges in Strixhaven
The Silverquill Influence commander precon especially hits the spot with Killian at the helm. Making your opponents strong and fight each other is a lot of fun if you can time it right to avoid getting hit yourself. Running auras as an offensive strategy feels new and encourages you to think about the dynamic of each of your opponents’ boards. If this deck is any indication of the others’ focus on synergy, I think I’ll be looking into them before long.
Magic: The Gathering – Secrets of Strixhaven is available now at your local game store or TCG stockist.
NextPlay received 10 Play Boosters of Magic: The Gathering – Secrets of Strixhaven cards for the purposes of this review. Silverquil Infuence was purchased by the writer.
