Following the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles release, the next Magic: The Gathering set returns to one of its own beloved worlds. Secrets of Strixhaven brings players back to the magical academy that first appeared five years ago. This time, we get to see more of the world beyond the school, as students explore dangers like the Fields of Strife and the massive, mysterious creatures called archaics.

The new set is still built around the five schools that defined the original Strixhaven release, and I’m excited about the two new cards I get to reveal — both of which show off advanced magic from Quandrix, Strixhaven’s math-focused college. The original Strixhaven was a fun blend of flavor and factions, and I’m looking forward to exploring it in more depth with the new set.

It may be hard to believe that an editor like me would identify a bit more with cards harnessing Silverquill College’s word magic, but the math-centric mechanics of Quandrix were fun to me during the original Strixhaven set, and my new preview cards have certainly renewed my interest. (Maybe that’s enough interest to make a double-major?)

Here are my two Quandrix-themed preview cards and why they’ve got me pumped for Secrets of Strixhaven, which comes out in full on April 24.

Echocasting Symposium

First up in the new set of cards is Echocasting Symposium, part of the cycle of mythics with the new Paradigm mechanic. If you resolve a spell with Paradigm, you basically get it for free on each of your next turns. In this case, the free spell lets you (or another player) create a copy of one of your creatures. 

You could use the Paradigm effect to double, then triple and quadruple up mill effects by copying a card like Exhibition Tidecaller, forcing your opponent to quickly dump the cards in their library into their graveyard. But the really fun thing to do is churn out copies of Emeritus of Iteration and give yourself more ways to cast its prepared version of Ancestral Recall. Is your opponent likely to let the Emeritus sit around to be copied? No, and you may just win on the spot if you manage it, but Quandrix is all about imagining what could be, so let’s just enjoy the idea.

Note that Echocasting Symposium has the Lesson subtype, but Lessons are only featured on the cycle of Paradigm cards. 

Mind into Matter

Mind into Matter lets you draw into permanents like creature, enchantment and planeswalker cards and plop them directly onto the battlefield. If you’re behind, you’re trading your turn to hopefully draw into something you need and cheat something out onto the field. If you’re ahead, you either get to press your advantage or hold up a piece of insurance in case your opponent disrupts your game plan. Either way, it’s a fun flavor that fits well with the Quandrix concept.

Collecting Secrets of Strixhaven

Both cards are also available in other treatments, with Mind into Matter getting a standard borderless version. Echocasting Symposium is available in the borderless field notes treatment — one of only 12 cards from the set. The field notes art shows a Quandrix student sketching out how to create the copies with fractal magic.

Secrets of Strixhaven comes out later this month, with prereleases happening the weekend of April 17, and the set being released on April 24. Bundles and booster boxes are available for preorder, as are the five commander decks, led by returning students from the original Strixhaven set.