Magic: The Gathering head designer Mark Rosewater has confirmed that the colleges featured in the upcoming Strixhaven: School of Mages set will contain MTG dual colors in conflict with one another.
Last week, Wizards of the Coast shared a sneak peek of the upcoming magical school-themed set, Strixhaven: School of Mages with a reveal of the five colleges of the most elite university of the Magic Multiverse, the cycle of five new Command cards each associated with one of the five colleges, and the five preconstructed Commander decks. The colleges are tied to color pairs that are considered enemies to one another.
“I can’t talk about the colleges until we get closer to Strixhaven, so I’ll leave you with one last little teaser for you all to chew on. The colleges aren’t built around the similarities of the two colors, but their conflict,” Rosewater said on his Blogatog.
MTG color pairs are either allies or enemies, each having a unique philosophy that they’re built around. “Colors are allied with the two colors on either side of them, and are enemies with the colors across from them,” Rosewater explained in a 2016 article. Enemy colors matched up together have a “core conflict”, Rosewater said.
The conflicts of enemy-colored pairs:
- White/Black: The good of the group vs. the good of the individual. The core conflict “is about how individuals prioritize the decisions they make.”
- Blue/Red: Head vs. the heart with a core conflict of “how we live our lives.”
- Black/Green: Free will vs. destiny. The core conflict “is about the role you play in life.”
- Red/White: Freedom vs. security with a core conflict “about what is best for how we govern ourselves.”
- Green/Blue: Nature vs. nurture. The core conflict “is about identity and how we see ourselves.”
WOTC hasn’t yet revealed how these conflicts will apply to the colleges of Strixhaven, but Rosewater said that the colleges will play differently compared to their equivalent Ravnica guilds.
Strixhaven: School of Mages is set to release for tabletop on April 23. The 87th MTG expansion is expected to release digitally on MTG Arena and Magic Online probably a week before its tabletop release. You can find out more details about Strixhaven here.