Magic: The Gathering’s next wizard university set feels like going back to school, because we sure are going to have to learn a lot of mechanics

There’s a quiz on the Secrets of Strixhaven site to figure out which of the magical university’s colleges you belong to. Ignore that traumatic memory of the time every millennial was telling us they were Hufflepuff. It’s a heads-up that this set’s focus is on differentiating those colleges, making the factions even more important than they were in the first Strixhaven set. I’m Silverquill, apparently.

Each college isn’t just a pair of colors, it’s also a signature mechanic. Witherbloom (green/black) is the college where they study life and death—they’re half hippy, half goth—and so Infusion is triggered whenever you gain life. It can have a variety of effects, like Poisoner’s Apprentice giving someone unlucky -4/-4 when it enters. But again, only if you already gained life that turn, making it a fun play for your second main phase after weakening someone in combat.

The artsy theatre kids of Prismari college (red/blue) have a mechanic called Opus that likewise has different effects, but always the same trigger. In this case it’s casting an instant or sorcery spell, with the twist that the effect is more powerful if you set it off by casting something worth five or more mana. The more dramatic your performance, the more powerful your magic.

Their studious opposites are the math geeks of Quandrix college (blue/green), whose keyword is Increment. It appears on creatures and means any time you cast a spell with a mana cost higher than that creature’s power or toughness, it gets a +1/+1 counter. If you’re the kind of person who wants Magic to have even more math than it already does, Quandrix is the college for you.

Lorehold (red/white) is the history college, and so their mechanic isn’t new, but rather dug up from Magic’s past. Flashback goes all the way back to Odyssey from 2001, though it’s reappeared several times since. Cards with Flashback can be cast from the graveyard, though usually at a higher cost, as if being unearthed with arcane archaeology. Which is Lorehold’s whole deal.

The word wizards of Silverquill (white/black) have abilities labeled Repartee, and it’s another one with varied effects but the same trigger. In this case, it’s casting an instant or sorcery spell that targets a creature. (Like the original Strixhaven, this set is one where instants and sorceries matter, to play up that real “we’re casting spells” vibe rather than the “we’re controlling armies of little guys” vibe Magic often becomes.) Multiple Repartee effects might go off at once, giving that authentic feeling of being swarmed by a mob of keyboard warriors because you misspoke.

Huh, maybe I don’t want to be Silverquill after all. Is Witherbloom still accepting applicants? Secrets of Strixhaven arrives in Arena on April 21, and in tabletop Magic on April 24.