Improvisation CapstoneImprovisation Capstone | Art by Marta Nael

With the release of Magic’s newest set, Secrets of Strixhaven, bearing down on us, spoilers are rampant – as are expectations for this wonderfully intriguing return to the premier magical school on the plane of Arcavios.

While myriad new and returning keywords from the set have been making headlines, there is one in particular that has Magic fans old and new utterly captivated: paradigm.

What Is Paradigm?

The paradigm keyword can be found on expensive (six- and seven-mana) sorceries with the Lesson subtype, one of each color, with splashy effects such as returning a nonland permanent from your graveyard to the battlefield, casting spells with total mana value of four or less from the top of your library for free, or creating a token copy of a creature you control.

Take a peek at the spoiled cards boasting the paradigm keyword:

• Decorum DissertationDecorum Dissertation
• Echocasting SymposiumEchocasting Symposium
• Improvisation CapstoneImprovisation Capstone
• Restoration SeminarRestoration Seminar
• Green paradigm card not revealed yet

What’s notable about these mythic rares is that after casting them, you can then cast a copy of each spell at the beginning of your first main phases for the remainder of the game – in perpetuity and without paying its mana cost. Sweet!

Paradigm Harkens Back to a 21-Year Old Mechanic

Surely, Magic oldheads will recognize this ability’s similarity to an old keyword found on five notable sorceries from 2005’s Saviors of Kamigawa: the dreaded and widely reviled epic.

While the idea of not being able to cast a spell for the remainder of the game (don’t worry, lands are okay!) might not sound that appealing, the spells must surely be extremely powerful due to this utterly insane limitation, right?

Sadly not; whether due to power creep or bad design, the spells boasting epic are epically bad, and they are mostly not worth casting in the first place. Check them out:

• Endless SwarmEndless Swarm
• Enduring IdealEnduring Ideal
• Eternal DominionEternal Dominion
• Neverending TormentNeverending Torment
• Undying FlamesUndying Flames

An Epic Fail

In fact, Magic bigwig Mark Rosewater once said that the epic keyword was the mechanic with the “least design space.” It’s hard to argue with MaRo on that front, as not being able to play anything for the remainder of the game is definitely a tough pill to swallow, especially when the payoffs are simply not that grand.

Even the best card from the cycle, Eternal DominionEternal Dominion, costs a staggering , which you could surely employ to do better things in any format – such as cast Mind Over MatterMind Over Matter while leaving up enough mana for a RewindRewind, thank you very much.

The worst of the bunch are the black and red sorceries, Neverending TormentNeverending Torment and Undying FlamesUndying Flames, respectively. The former is, ultimately, an eminently slow selective mill deck, and the latter randomizes your damage output while milling yourself out in the process by exiling cards from the top of your library. Yikes.

Enter Paradigm, the New and Improved Epic!

First off, the Secrets of Strixhaven cards with paradigm remove the backbreaking limitation of not being able to cast spells for the remainder of the game, but retain the “cast a copy of the spell each turn" clause – making these cards eminently more playable than the antiquated and truly terrible Kamigawa sorceries with epic.

In particular, the idea of being able to double and even triple up the tokens created with blue’s card in this cycle, Echocasting SymposiumEchocasting Symposium, is a juicy one, whether that means Standard payoffs or Commander decks built to turn one copied creature into a real problem.

Red’s entry in the cycle, Improvisation CapstoneImprovisation Capstone, also looks like a juicy build-around in Commander, particularly in shells that care about casting stuff from exile or simply turning repeated bursts of cheap spells into value.

White’s paradigm sorcery is Restoration SeminarRestoration Seminar, which looks to be among the strongest in this writer’s eyes, though that is, of course, subjective. Commander players in particular should take note, as repeatedly returning a nonland permanent each turn can get obnoxious in a hurry.

Black’s Decorum DissertationDecorum Dissertation is less flashy than some of the other paradigm cards revealed so far, but it may wind up being one of the more annoying to play against over time. Repeatedly making a player draw two cards and lose two life is not the kind of effect that screams “mythic rare bomb” at first glance, but in longer games it starts to look like the sort of incremental drain-and-draw engine that black mages are more than happy to weaponize.

Of course, in a pinch, you can always target yourself with this if you're needing to dig for that answer to a teetering board state.

Either way, these cards seem poised to spark experimentation across multiple formats, with some especially intriguing implications for Commander.

Commander Applications So Far

In Commander, these cards look less like one-shot haymakers and more like long-game engines, even if their chunky mana costs mean they will need the right shell to really sing. That tension is part of what makes them interesting; each one asks whether the first cast is worth the trouble, then rewards you every turn after that if the answer was, unequivocally, “Yes.”

Echocasting Symposium

Echocasting SymposiumEchocasting Symposium is probably the easiest one to picture in a Commander game. Making a token copy of your best creature once is fine; doing it every turn is how boards get out of hand in a hurry. The obvious homes are decks that already reward token multiplication or enter the battlefield (ETB) triggers abuse, but even a fairly straightforward blue value deck could do plenty of rude things with repeated copies of the right creature.

Our early data already shows the card popping up next to new commanders like Rootha, Mastering the MomentRootha, Mastering the Moment and other spell- and value-oriented shells, which tracks with the idea that this one has the highest “something dumb yet game-winning will happen eventually” ceiling.

Some good commander options for Echocasting Symposium are:

• Adrix and Nev, TwincastersAdrix and Nev, Twincasters
• Riku of Two ReflectionsRiku of Two Reflections
• Rootha, Mastering the MomentRootha, Mastering the Moment
• Brudiclad, Telchor EngineerBrudiclad, Telchor Engineer

Improvisation Capstone

Improvisation CapstoneImprovisation Capstone may be the most interesting build-around of the three. Exiling cards from the top of your library until you hit total mana value four or greater and then casting the cheaper hits for free is exactly the kind of text Commander players love to break with deckbuilding discipline.

The front half already asks you to think about curve, but the repeat casts make that puzzle much more enticing. It's not hard to imagine this doing real work in Spellslinger decks, exile-casting shells, or any red deck that likes turning repeated free casts into mana, cards, or damage over time.

Pair Improvisation Capstone with these commanders:

• Prosper, Tome-BoundProsper, Tome-Bound
• Neera, Wild MageNeera, Wild Mage
• Ashling, RekindledAshling, Rekindled
• Pantlaza, Sun-FavoredPantlaza, Sun-Favored

Restoration Seminar

Restoration SeminarRestoration Seminar, meanwhile, may wind up being the sneaky Commander favorite. Returning a nonland permanent from your graveyard to the battlefield is already a powerhouse effect. Doing it again every turn gets oppressive fast if your deck is built to trade resources, loop value pieces, or recur haymakers that are annoying to answer once, let alone three times.

It's not the flashiest paradigm card revealed so far, but it may be the one that asks the least from you while still threatening to take over a game if left unchecked.

Intriguing choices to combine with Restoration Seminar:

• Osgir, the ReconstructorOsgir, the Reconstructor
• Tameshi, Reality ArchitectTameshi, Reality Architect
• Ertai, the CorruptedErtai, the Corrupted
• Ghen, Arcanum WeaverGhen, Arcanum Weaver
• Lorehold, the HistorianLorehold, the Historian

Decorum Dissertation

Decorum DissertationDecorum Dissertation may be the sneakiest Commander card in the cycle so far. On its face, “target player draws two cards and loses 2 life” does not look especially terrifying for five mana, but paradigm changes the math pretty quickly.

In the right deck, repeatedly pointing this at yourself turns it into a steady source of cards with a fairly trivial life-payment rider, while pointing it at an opponent can become a weirdly effective political tool or a slow-burn way to keep the pressure on. It's not as explosive as Echocasting SymposiumEchocasting Symposium or as immediately abusable as Restoration SeminarRestoration Seminar, but it may be one of the easiest paradigm cards to slot into a black deck that already likes trading life for cards.

Run Decorum Dissertation in decks with these commanders:

• Queza, Augur of AgoniesQueza, Augur of Agonies
• Nekusar, the MindrazerNekusar, the Mindrazer
• Sheoldred, the ApocalypseSheoldred, the Apocalypse
• Vilis, Broker of BloodVilis, Broker of Blood

A New Paradigm for Magic

Paradigm is exactly the kind of mechanic that gets more interesting the more you poke at it. These aren’t cards that slide neatly into every deck, but they do deliver flashy, repeatable payoffs that beg to be tested across formats — Commander very much included.

They might turn into niche build-arounds or grow into full-on long-game engines. Either way, they look like the sort of spells brewers will be itching to break.