Lorehold Previews Make History with Secrets of Strixhaven

Posted on April 3, 2026

Secrets of Strixhaven previews march on. We got our first real look at the set with the Debut Stream, followed by Commander coverage and Prismari-focused previews.

Now we're going back to the past, or exploring the past at least, with previews focused on the College of Lorehold. We've got plenty of awesome Red and White cards to explore, so let's dive right in.

Who Are The Lorehold?

The Lorehold are the historians of Strixhaven. Their founder, Velomachus Lorehold, encourages his students to uncover the secrets of the past to see how they might better the future.

Frequently, you can expect to find these students on archaeological excavations or reanimating the spirits of the deceased to learn about those who came before.

Quintorius Kand, the Loxodon student of Lorehold, has been on quite a journey himself. His spark ignited and he became a Planeswalker during the storyline of March of the Machine, and has been travelling around the multiverse. Now, he studies the Coin Empire and the dangers that they herald.

If you'd like, you can read all about it in today's side story.

Powerful New Spells

Unlike yesterday, no new Legendary creatures appear to have been previewed so far. Instead, we've been treated to some really powerful spells.

If you've played Modern, Commander, or Cube at any point in the last few years, chances are you're quite familiar with the power of Path to Exile.

Erode - previewed by Tori of the Vast - is fairly similar to other famous one-mana removal spells, but it differs in allowing you to hit Planeswalkers as well as Creatures. The trade-off is the target isn't exiled, which doesn't get around Indestructible. However, if one of your Creatures has Indestructible, say Ketramose, the New Dawn, you can simply point Erode at that Creature to ramp yourself.

Given the pedigree of Path to Exile, there's no doubt this is going to be an instant staple in several formats.

Collider showed us another sweet Rare card with Suspend Aggression. This provides a very unique take on removal, flicker, and card advantage all in one neat package. You can exile cards to replay them for additional effects or remove a threat in your way from sending through a lethal attack.

MTGGoldfish also had the pleasure of previewing a really sweet uncommon in Borrowed Knowledge. This allows you to either refill your hand in a way that gets better the more cards your opponents have or it allows you to effectively mulligan your existing hand. The former is especially great when facing off against a Control deck, as it will often allow you to empty your hand early and then use this to refill as the game goes on.

Rise From Your Grave

While all of those cards are strong in their own right, let's not forget the core element of Lorehold: pulling stuff out of your graveyard.

Naturally, your goal is to find excellent payoffs for doing so. Garrison Excavator, previewed by Chinese website yystv, generates tons of 2/2 creatures the more you pull cards out of your graveyard.

While this has been the only new payoff option revealed thus far, we've gotten to see plenty of ways to enable these effects.

Practiced Scrollsmith, another card revealed by Tori of the Vast, is a great example of this.

A three-mana 3/2 with First Strike is already a fantastic rate, but what makes it even better is its enters ability. With this, you can exile a Non-Creature spell from your graveyard and then cast it that same turn. Can you imagine recasting Erode off this?

The Lorehold bring back the classic Flashback mechanic which allows you to recast a spell from your graveyard one time for a (usually) different cost. This provides a way to have cards leave your graveyard while continuing to play up the Instant and Sorcery theme of the greater set.

Two cards with Flashback were previewed today. One of these was Group Project, previewed by weixin, and the other being a Japanese card previewed via Japanese Wizards socials.

Group Project allows you to create a token on the front half and then tap a bunch of creatures to flash it back and do it again. If you're a Pauper fanatic like me, this might look a bit like Battle Screech.

While we've yet to receive an official English name on the Japanese card, we do have a rough translation of what it does. The card creates two 2/2 Spirit tokens and if you cast it for its Flashback cost, you can also put a +1/+1 counter on each Spirit you control.

If you're not satisfied with flashing back these spells, why not Flashback any spell? In fact, the new card aptly titled Flashback allows you to do just that.

This awesome new spell proves a one-mana Recoup without its own alternate Flashback cost. Using this you can easily recast any of the powerful spells your deck has already spent, which can become all the better the deeper your card pool gets.

Last but not least, is this powerful Mythic Rare previewed by TokyoMTG.

Once again, we do not yet know the official English name, but we do have the translation for the ability. This is the second in the cycle of Mythic Lesson cards with the new Paradigm mechanic that was first introduced with Improvisation Capstone.

Paradigm acts as a fixed version of the Epic mechanic from Saviors of Kamigawa, allowing you to recast it turn after turn for free but without the restrictions Epic spells had before. In this case, the spell allows you to return one permanent card from your graveyard to the battlefield every turn, which can completely turn the tide in games that go long.

Prepare Yourself

As of the time of writing, only a single card with the new Prepare mechanic has been previewed for Lorehold day. Still, it's a doozy of a card all the same.

Emeritus of Conflict is the second card revealed from the Emeritus cycle. The other card previewed by Collider, this card allows you to cast the mighty Lightning Bolt in Standard.

Unlike many other Prepare cards, however, it does not come in Prepared, meaning you need to work at it to make it happen. If you can pull it off, you're sure to dish out some pretty heavy damage.

Conclusion

The first week of Secrets of Strixhaven previews has come to a close. We still have one more week left with plenty of sweet cards yet to be revealed.

Things pick back up next week with a day featuring the College of Quandrix. We'll also get to see all the remaining cards from the Mystical Archive, with Silverquill and Witherbloom previews closing out the week before the entire set is revealed.

Want to find out more about Secrets of Strixhaven? You can check out the additional official resources below for more information. If you're looking to pick up some of these sweet cards, you can also head over to the CoolStuffInc Secrets of Strixhaven page to lock in your preorders now.