School's Out Early: Strixhaven's Prepared Mechanic Spoiled

As much as us Magic players love to complain about endless spoiler seasons these days, it's exciting to see what new and interesting things Wizards of the Coast cooks up for the upcoming sets. Yesterday, we got a bit of a surprise — some leaked commons from Secrets of Strixhaven were posted to reddit's r/magicTCG and there are some cool little tidbits in here. I won't go through all of them, but there are some highlights:

• The return of Converge and Grandeur, two less-common mechanics from Battle for Zendikar and Future Sight respectively. The spoiled card with Grandeur is the seventh card in Magic's history to have the mechanic
• A new mechanic called Opus for the Prismari which removes the copy-inclusive nature of Magecraft but offers extra value for expensive spells (5 mana value or more)
• A black-green Soul Sisters variant (though much froggier) that triggers on your own creatures only
• Repartee, a narrower version of Heroic or Valiant that triggers on any creature regardless of controller, but only with targeted instants or sorceries — this will be the Silverquill mechanic
• A hint at a new mechanic called Prepared, with very little indication as to how it functions

New mechanics are always fun to speculate about, and I want to take a stab at Prepared. First, let's take a closer look at the card that refers to this brand new mechanic:

The term "prepared" is an interesting choice for a spell-related ability for one specific reason: Dungeons & Dragons. For those of you who aren't fans of tossing around the clicky-clacky math rocks, the Wizard class in Dungeons & Dragons' 5th Edition (also owned by Hasbro, by the way), or its 2024 revision, is able to choose a list of spells for every day. This list is known as the Wizard's "Prepared Spells."

Now, a single creature having an entire laundry list of spells to cast would be pretty difficult to convey on a single printed card (get back in the corner, Garth One-Eye) and not the easiest concept to balance. There is one other feature that Wizards have access to, though, that I propose may be the key here.

The Spell Mastery feature from 5e's 2024 revision reads as follows, courtesy of D&D Beyond:

You have achieved such mastery over certain spells that you can cast them at will. Choose a level 1 and a level 2 spell in your spellbook that have a casting time of an action. You always have those spells prepared, and you can cast them at their lowest level without expending a spell slot. To cast either spell at a higher level, you must expend a spell slot.

Ignore all the D&D-y stuff in there about spell levels and spell slots and focus on the actual ability for a second. Wizards are allowed to choose spells that they have permanent access to, and always have those spells prepared — there's that word again — and ready to cast at a moment's notice. How would this ability express itself on a Magic card if this is the nod that I suspect it may be?

The Adventure subtype card frame is the best possible comparison. This is what a creature card with prepare might look like. This frame allows a creature to come with an associated instant or sorcery printed right in its rules text without creating too many memory issues. They can even remove the mana cost from the Adventure half of the card and tie the cost into an activated ability on the creature itself. Here is a mockup for what I think may be the rules text for this mechanic, assuming that any cost for the prepared spell will be paid for by whatever ability prepares the creature:

, : This creature becomes prepared. (If this creature is prepared, you may cast its prepared instant or sorcery. Timing rules still apply. If you cast a spell this way, this creature becomes unprepared as the spell resolves.)

If this is similar to what the actual mechanic ends up looking like, what does Prepared allow you to do? It allows you to split the cost of casting a spell across multiple turns, similar to Foretell. It requires an extra upfront cost in the form of the creature's mana cost, but it carries a body with it. I expect that a creature with a Prepared spell would not be costed aggressively. If anything, it would likely be understatted for its cost to balance out the fact that it has a repeatable spell stapled to it.

This also lets you bank a spell you might otherwise discard to hand size, or present interaction on the board to coerce your opponent into removing it. For example, if a creature came with a Prepared counterspell, an opposing player would be incentivized to remove it so they don't have to worry about their big spell being countered, which would open the door for you to cast another creature knowing there is one less removal spell to worry about.

Finally, Biblioplex Tomekeeper presents a third possible benefit. It might be one of several ways to cheat on prepare's normal mana cost. Using a flicker spell suite with the Tomekeeper could let you repeatedly prepare a creature's spell, or remove the prepared condition from an opponent's creature, which either forces them to use their spell at an awkward time (if it's an instant) or cause them to lose their mana investment.

Applications of Magical Study

Here are some additional ways to take advantage of this proposed Prepared mechanic:

• Magecraft-style triggers for instants and sorceries, like Storm-Kiln Artist, Archmage Emeritus, Displacer Kitten, and more are all triggered by casting your creature's Prepared spell, which gives a consistent way to get these triggers even when you're running out of gas in your hand
• Casting a Prepared spell contributes to the storm count of the turn, allowing you to squeeze some extra mileage out of cards like Grapeshot and Mind's Desire
• If the ability to cast a Prepared spell printed on a creature is an activated or triggered ability, you can use effects like Illusionist's Bracers, Battlemage's Bracers, or Strionic Resonator to copy the casting of the Prepared spell
• The ability to continuously trigger cast-only Spellslinger pieces like Talrand, Sky Summoner or Young Pyromancer, which do not interact well with copy-based spell mechanics

Strixhaven is one of my favorite sets in all of Magic and I'm so excited that we get to see its return very soon. What do you think about the proposed Prepared spell ability I came up with? Do you think it might be expressed a different way? Ping me in our Discord server with your ideas, I'd love to hear your opinions!

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When Ben Alban-Berth isn't taking awkward promotional selfies and casting Craterhoof Behemoth on empty boards, he plays roguelikes and Dota 2 and promises people that he will finish his novel soon (he won't).

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