Magic returns to the beloved mage school in Secrets of Strixhaven, where players will uncover years of mysteries as they explore its hallowed halls and beyond. The five colleges are back, each with their own unique look, feel, and magic focus. As players improve skills, make academic discoveries, and work to prove which college is the best, they must beware: second-year knowledge comes with greater danger.

Key Dates

Scheduled Events

Prerelease: April 17–23

• Unlimited scheduling within the one-week Prerelease window

Commander Party: May 1–7 and June 5–11

• One event per period, two events per season
• Commander promo: Access Tunnel

Store Championship: May 8–31

• One event during period
• Participation promo: Unearth
• Top 8 promo: Psychic Frog
• Winner promo: Abhorrent Oculus

Magic Presents: Open the Archive: May 22–June 18

• Unlimited scheduling within the period
• Winning record reward: Mystical Archive challenge coin

Season-Long Events

Two-Headed Giant Commander Night: April 24–June 18

• One event monthly during the season
• Commander promo: Access Tunnel

Standard Showdown: April 24–June 18

• One event per week
• Winner promo: Into the Flood Maw

Magic Academy: Learn to Play and Deck Building: April 24–June 18

• Unlimited scheduling. We recommend prescheduling one Learn to Play and one Deck Building event. You can also schedule and report ad-hoc events anytime you use instructional products to teach a new player.

Friday Night Magic: April 24–June 18

• One event per week on Fridays
• Reward: Secrets of Strixhaven Promo Packs

Events and Promo Usage

Prerelease

Scheduling: April 17–23

Prerelease is your community's first opportunity to play with the new set in a casual, fun environment. Players open Prerelease Packs, build decks from the six Play Boosters and included promo card, and then play!

WPN stores can also begin selling all products from the new set during the Prerelease week, giving you a jump on sales before the wider market release. Check out the Prerelease Early Sales Policy for complete details.

Commander Events

Both the Commander Party and the Two-Headed Giant Commander Night events use the Commander promo. WPN Premium member stores will receive foil promo cards and non-Premium members will receive non-foil promos.

Two-Headed Giant Commander Night

Scheduling: one event per monthly during the season, April 24–June 18
Promo reward: one Commander promo per participant, while supplies last

Two-Headed Giant (2HG) Commander Night invites players to partner up for casual two-on-two Commander games. It's an ideal way to help new players or at-home Commander players feel comfortable stepping into store play with a friend.

Commander Party

Scheduling: one event per period, May 1–7 and June 5–11
Promo reward: one Commander promo per participant, while supplies last

Commander Party weaves together gameplay and story in an exciting Commander event. There are two event windows for Commander Party—schedule one event in each window so players have a couple opportunities to enjoy the event.

Store Championship

Scheduling: one event, May 8–31
Promo reward:

• Participants receive the Unearth promo card, while supplies last.
• Top 8 players receive the Psychic Frog promo card.
• Winner of the event receives the Abhorrent Oculus promo card.
• WPN Premium stores only: Top 8 and winner receive one additional non-foil promo printed with your store's name.

Store Championship is a seasonal, in-store event that lets players compete in a structured Standard tournament for prizes.

WPN Premium stores will receive an additional set of Top 8 and winner promos in non-foil, printed with your store's name. Both versions of each promo should be provided to qualifying players; they are not intended to allow you to run a second event.

Magic Presents: Open the Archive

Scheduling: unlimited scheduling, March 27–April 16
Promo reward: one blind-pack Mystical Archive challenge coin for players with a winning record

Mystical Archive Challenge Coins

Magic Presents: Open the Archive is a special Draft event where each player begins with an emblem that lets them spend mana as though it were any color to cast Mystical Archive cards, enabling splashy, flexible gameplay. Players who finish with a winning record earn a blind-pack Mystical Archive challenge coin. Collecting the coins gives players an incentive to return and play again.

Standard Showdown

Scheduling: one event per week, April 24–June 18
Promo reward: one promo card for the first-place winner of each event, while supplies last

Standard Showdown is a weekly event where players compete with Standard decks for a single weekly winner promo card prize. If your store receives more promo cards than there are weeks in the season, you may award them to event attendees at your discretion—just be sure to reserve one for each week's winner during the season.

Magic Academy

Scheduling: unlimited, April 24–June 18
Magic Academy is a two-part event series that introduces new players to Magic: The Gathering using instructional videos that guide players.

Stores in North America can order additional teaching brochures and pocket reference cards via the WPN Marketing Portal.

• In Magic Academy: Learn to Play, players use theMagic: The Gathering | Avatar: The Last Airbender Beginner Box, Welcome Decks, or another starter product to learn the basics and play their first games.
• In Magic Academy: Deck Building, players use six Play Boosters to build a deck and experience Limited-format play.

Friday Night Magic

Scheduling: unlimited on Friday, April 24–June 18
Promo rewards: Promo Pack or additional rewards at store discretion

Friday Night Magic is the weekly heartbeat of in-store Magic play. You can schedule unlimited events every Friday in any format and supported by seasonal Promo Packs distributed at your discretion.

Secrets of Strixhaven Promo Packs will be arriving in your marketing kit.

New and Notable for Secrets of Strixhaven

Digital Reward Added for Magic Presents: Open the Archive

MTG Arena will be promoting the in-store Magic Presents: Open the Archive event and will reward players who participate in at least one of these events with a Ral Zarek avatar in the game. To receive the avatar, players must register for the event using the same Wizards Account they use to log into MTG Arena. The avatar will be delivered to their in-game player inbox within one week of the event.

New Welcome Decks, Rewards, and Player Survey

With the release of Secrets of Strixhaven, Welcome Decks have been updated. Welcome Decks are now 40-card, single-color decks and no longer include 30-card half decks.

When possible, introduce new players to Magic using Welcome Decks through the Magic Academy event system. If time doesn't allow for a full demo, you may still provide a Welcome Deck directly and ask them to complete the QR code survey described below.

Player Surveys

When you give out a Welcome Deck, please invite players to complete a brief survey. Stores in North America will have a printed flyer with a QR code mailed to them separately* that can be displayed to help players access the survey. Stores in other regions can download and print this flyer with the QR code so players can easily scan and participate. Players will need to log in with their Wizards Account, or create one, to complete the survey.

Completing the survey is optional and not required to receive a Welcome Deck, but player feedback is greatly appreciated. Their responses help us understand how these materials are being used and guide future promotional offerings.

* The previous version of this article stated that the flyers would be included in all marketing kits; they are instead being mailed separately to stores in North America and provided as a digital file for printing in other regions.

Welcome Deck Reward Insert

Each Welcome Deck contains one randomly inserted reward that grants either a physical reward or a digital MTG Arena reward. A player must present the reward insert to a store employee to redeem it.

How to Redeem a Reward

1. Log into Wizards EventLink.
2. Select Customer Redemption.
3. Under Select Promotion, check the box for SOS Welcome Program in the Program Name dropdown.
4. Under Customer Details, enter the player's Wizards Account email address in the Email field. If a player doesn't have a Wizards Account, please assist them in creating one.
5. Under Fulfillment Type, select Physical Reward or Digital Reward based on the insert presented.
6. Select Submit to verify eligibility.
7. After eligibility is successfully verified and the appropriate reward has been given, please destroy the redeemed reward insert.

The Physical Reward

Once verified for a physical reward, allow the player to choose one of the six Strixhaven-themed bumper stickers that came in your marketing kit, while supplies last.

The Digital Reward

When a player is successfully verified for a digital reward, three Secrets of Strixhaven packs will be granted to the player's MTG Arena account associated with the Wizards Account email address used for verification. The player will receive a player inbox message in MTG Arena when the reward is ready to be claimed. No physical item is given for digital rewards.

A Reward for Stores

As a thank-you for this extra effort with redemptions, stores that enter two or more players into Wizards EventLink by June 18 to grant Welcome Deck rewards will receive ten additional Welcome Decks with their Reality Fracture marketing kit shipment.

Magic Presents: Open the Archive Event

Magic Presents: Open the Archive is a special Secrets of Strixhaven Draft event running May 22–June 18 that gives stores a fresh, exciting way to engage players mid-season. Players draft with a twist—Mystical Archive cards can be played in any deck, regardless of color—creating powerful, memorable games.

Players who finish with a winning record earn a challenge coin featuring Mystical Archive artwork. The coins are blind packed, so the specific coin artwork they receive will be a surprise. There are five different coins, encouraging repeat play to collect them!

Five College-Themed Prerelease Packs

Secrets of Strixhaven Prerelease features five themed Prerelease Packs, each aligned with one of Strixhaven's five colleges and containing a themed Spindown™ die, a seeded booster pack, and a traditional foil rare or mythic rare from the set. Players choose a college to represent, adding identity and friendly rivalry to the Prerelease experience.

New 60-Card Theme Decks and MTG Arena Rewards

Alongside the Secrets of Strixhaven set release, two new 60-Card Theme Decks—Eerie and Lifegain—arrive as easy entry points into Standard play. These ready-to-play decks are perfect for new players or anyone looking to get into fun games fast, right out of the box. The Eerie deck focuses on enchantments and explosive board states, while the Lifegain deck rewards chaining life-gain effects into a powerful engine. Each deck includes a strong lineup of rare and mythic rare cards, making them great for play and collection building.

Players can get even more from their decks by scanning the QR code included in each that links to an article from the designer with tips on gameplay and ways to upgrade their deck.

Unlock Theme Decks in MTG Arena

New for Secrets of Strixhaven, players who purchase a 60-Card Theme Deck in-store can also unlock a digital copy of that deck in MTG Arena, giving them two ways to play and adding even more value to their in-store purchase.

How to Redeem MTG Arena 60-Card Theme Deck with Purchase

1. Log into Wizards EventLink.
2. Select Customer Redemption.
3. Under Select Promotion, check the box next to SOS 60-Card Theme Deck.
4. Under Customer Details, enter the player's Wizards Account email address in the Email This must be the email address for the account they use to log into MTG Arena. If a player doesn't have a Wizards Account, please assist them in creating one.
5. Under Type, select the corresponding reward for the 60-Card Theme Deck the customer has purchased: Eerie Reward or Lifegain Reward.
6. Select Submit.

Digital rewards are limited to one per player, per deck, and are available only for in-store purchases at WPN locations. If an issue occurs, players may contact Customer Service with proof of purchase for assistance.

North America: Secrets of Strixhaven Set Posters Shipping Automatically

North America WPN stores will automatically receive Secrets of Strixhaven set posters by mid-February—no ordering required. These posters will have Prerelease event dates printed on them and should arrive earlier, giving you more time to display them in-store and start building excitement within your community ahead of the season. This only applies to stores in North America; set posters will arrive in marketing kits in all other regions as usual.

New Promo Packs

A new batch of Promo Packs will be arriving in the Secrets of Strixhaven marketing kit. This supply is intended to last through the next few set releases and until the next shipment arrives later in the year, so plan your distribution with this timing in mind.

Start Scheduling Your Secrets of Strixhaven Season Now

The Secrets of Strixhaven season events are now open for scheduling in Wizards EventLink. The hallowed halls of Strixhaven are about to open for another term, and your store is at the center of the curriculum!

Get the word out across campus with available Secrets of Strixhaven digital marketing assets.