Secrets of Strixhaven Prerelease Guide

Calling all wizards, mages, and spellslingers! Secrets of Strixhaven is on the horizon, and the greatest academic minds from across the Multiverse are joining together to cast a spell on Magic players across the globe. Join us for the field trip of a lifetime at your local game store's Prerelease events starting on April 17, 2026, where you can play with the set ahead of its official release. Doing homework early has never been this fun!

When you register for a Prerelease event, you'll receive a Secrets of Strixhaven Prerelease Pack. Each Prerelease Pack is themed around one of Strixhaven's five colleges. Each Prerelease Pack contains the following:

• 5 Secrets of Strixhaven Play Boosters
• 1 Secrets of Strixhaven college-themed booster
  • Each college-themed booster contains cards from among the college's two colors.
• 1 Traditional foil promo card
• 1 Deck box
• 1 Spindown die (matches the Prerelease Pack's college)

You'll assemble a 40-card sealed deck using the contents of your Prerelease Pack and any number of basic lands. Then, you'll engage in some friendly debate and play against your fellow Prerelease attendees. Prereleases are casual, relaxed events, so don't be afraid to ask questions and test out new strategies!

It's time for an introductory course to Secrets of Strixhaven Prereleases. Over the course of this article, you'll learn about deck building, the core strategies in Secrets of Strixhaven, and get some tips on how to make your Prerelease truly magical. Prerelease events begin on April 17, 2026. Register for your local game store's Prerelease events now and preorder Secrets of Strixhaven from your local game store, TCGplayer, Amazon, and elsewhere Magic is sold.

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How to Build a Prerelease Deck

Your Prerelease Pack will be themed around one of the five Strixhaven colleges. Each college is focused on two of Magic's colors. Each college has its own theme, strategy, and aesthetic. Any college can make for a viable deck, so there's no wrong answer for what to pick (unlike in a finals exam).

Each Secrets of Strixhaven Prerelease Pack contains a college-themed booster with cards from among that college's colors. For example, your Witherbloom Prerelease Pack will have more black and green cards to support that college's delightfully macabre studies. Some local game stores will let you pick your Prerelease Pack and others will distribute them randomly, so check with your Prerelease organizer for details.

Start by opening your Play Boosters and college-themed booster, then look for top-tier threats that you'll want to run in your deck. Threats are any cards that, fittingly, threaten to win the game through sheer power. These can be massive creatures, value-generating planeswalkers, or flashy sorceries from the Mystical Archive. Most threats will be rare or mythic rare cards, so look for those cards when you're opening your Prerelease Pack.

You'll likely be able to find one or two threats in one of your Prerelease Pack's colors. Since there are five supported color pairs in Secrets of Strixhaven, deciding on one of your colors opens you up to one of two other colors. If your first color is blue, your other color should be red (for a Prismari deck) or green (for a Quandrix deck). Find your best starting color, then follow the rest of your sealed pool for your second color.

Removal is the second major component of your deck. These cards help answer your opponent's cards, either by taking them off the battlefield or preventing them from hitting the board in the first place. Damage-dealing effects, cards that dole out stun counters, and spells that destroy creatures outright are prime examples of removal.

Remember that your opponent will likely have plenty of removal in their deck. We've included a list of key removal spells in Secrets of Strixhaven below. You can reference this list when building your deck and during your games. Try to anticipate what removal your opponent might have in their deck. If you're sitting across from a Prismari-playing opponent, they likely have one or two copies of Heated Argument in their deck.

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Select a mana symbol to see key removal spells.

Once you've found your threats and removal, that should be everything you need to assemble your Prerelease deck. Your threats, removal, and lands should make up just over half of your deck. Since you've decided your deck's colors, the rest of the deck-building process is simple as long as you keep an eye on your mana curve.

The Mana Curve in Secrets of Strixhaven

The mana curve is one of the most fundamental lessons of Limited Magic. This is a way of balancing the mana values of the cards in your deck. You want a handful of low-cost cards to ensure you can cast spells early in the game in addition to a handful of high-cost spells that can finish off the game. Your average sealed mana curve should look something like this:

• 1 Mana: 1–2 cards
• 2 Mana: 7–8 cards
• 3 Mana: 5–6 cards
• 4 Mana: 3–4 cards
• 5 Mana: 2–3 cards
• 6 Mana: 0–1 card
• and 17 lands!

You can calculate the mana value of a card by adding up the mana symbols in a card's mana cost. For example, Primary Research has a mana value of 5 because its mana cost is . Teacher's Pest, which costs , has a mana value of 2.

Notably, creatures like Joined Researchers let you cast prepared spells. While these creatures offer additional flexibility, you shouldn't count those prepared spells on your mana curve. A spell needs someone to read it, after all! Think of prepared spells like activated abilities rather than cards on your mana curve.

You don't need to be a Quandrix prodigy to understand spell with variable X costs (though it helps). Some spells allow you to cast them for a variable amount of mana, noted by the in their mana cost. When placing these on your mana curve, think about the average amount of mana you're likely to spend to cast them. While the card Wild Hypothesis technically has a mana value of 1, maybe you want to cast it for in most games. That means you should count it as a card with a mana value of 3.

Secrets of Strixhaven Draft Archetypes

Each two-color college in Secrets of Strixhaven has its own strategy that runs throughout the set. These strategies are known as draft archetypes. By building your deck with an awareness of your college's draft archetype, you'll be able to identify cards that support your strategy and push you toward victory. Each archetype also highlights one of the mechanics in Secrets of Strixhaven, so be sure to brush up on your knowledge ahead of the event.

Here's a brief description of each draft archetype in Secrets of Strixhaven, some key cards, and some tips on how to build that archetype. It's like a course catalog, but for Magic!

Silverquill Repartee Aggro

Cards with repartee want you to target creatures. Complement your own creatures with combat tricks like Interjection or take a more venomous tone by targeting your opponent's creatures with removal spells. Silverquill decks will want a careful balance of creatures to target and spells to target them with, which makes creatures with prepared spells like Scathing Shadelock especially valuable.

Prismari Opus Spellcasting

Bigger. Brighter. Bolder. The opus mechanic wants you to cast lots of instants and sorceries. If you cast a spell for five or more mana, you get a bonus for taking such a creative risk! Because this deck cares about high-cost spells, you'll want cards that produce additional mana like Abstract Paintmage and Rapturous Moment. Cards with in their mana cost are also beneficial, as they can be cast early on or later in the game for the full benefit of your opus cards.

Witherbloom Lifegain Swarm

Turn your life into your opponent's death with the infusion mechanic, which cares about when you gain life. One of the easiest ways to gain life is with Pest tokens, as those can put pressure on your opponents by attacking while triggering your infusion cards. Pestbrood Sloth and Lluwen, Exchange Student are both skilled at sourcing Pest tokens. Just don't ask where they found them.

Lorehold Flashback Excavation

Your opponents will be history when you send them into the past with flashback spells. The most direct approach is to cast a spell like Duel Tactics from your hand, then cast it from your graveyard. If you discard a flashback card to Pursue the Past for value, you can still cast it from your graveyard. Assemble a team of archeologists like Owlin Historian and Garrison Excavator that trigger when cards leave your graveyard to win the game.

Quandrix Incremental Value

Green creatures plus blue spells equals a power draft archetype! The increment mechanic adds +1/+1 counters to your creatures when you cast spells with a greater mana value than their power or toughness. Deploy Cuboid Colony early on, then add counters to it with massive spells. This archetype is incredibly efficient at growing its creatures, so look for evasion effects like Emil, Vastlands Roamer and Encouraging Aviator to circumvent your opponent's blockers to win the game.

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Start your education at your local game store with Secrets of Strixhaven Prerelease events beginning on April 17, 2026! No matter what year of Magic studies you're in, this is your chance to head to campus with your gaming community. Register for your local game store's Prerelease today and secure your spot at Strixhaven University.

Secrets of Strixhaven releases worldwide on April 24, 2026. This set is available for preorder now from your local game store, TCGplayer, Amazon, and elsewhere Magic is sold.