Mood Swings is Mark Rosewater's new trading card game where every card is a mood or emotion. It is designed to be playable straight out of the box with no prior card game experience required. This complete beginner's guide covers how the game works, what every card element means, how scoring works, how rounds are won, and what some of the cards actually do so you know exactly what you are getting into before your first game.

Mood Swings is a standalone trading card game designed by Magic: The Gathering head designer Mark Rosewater. He first came up with the concept in 1998 and spent 28 years trying to get it made. It finally debuted at MagicCon Las Vegas in May 2026 and goes on sale June 1 exclusively through Secret Lair for $25. Here is everything you need to know about what Mood Swings is, how it plays, and why it took nearly three decades to get here.

Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven takes place May 1 to 3 at MagicCon: Las Vegas with a $500,000 prize pool and the world's best players competing in Standard and Limited. Izzet Prowess owns nearly a quarter of the winner's metagame. Mono-Green Landfall is right behind it. Izzet Lessons wants to get Monument to Endurance online and end the game with it. And Dimir Excruciator is here to ruin everyone's afternoon with a combo the format was not prepared for. Here is the full breakd

Blech, Loafing Pest is a three-mana black-green legendary Pest from Secrets of Strixhaven that turns every life gain trigger into a board-wide counter pump for five creature types simultaneously. Gain life constantly, grow your creatures into a threatening wide board, and win through combat before your opponents figure out that the dopey-looking Pest in your command zone has been quietly making everything else enormous. This guide covers the full strategy and five must-includ

The Secrets of Strixhaven Mystical Archive brings back 65 classic instants and sorceries with stunning new artwork across English and Japanese treatments. Some of these cards are worth cracking packs for on playability alone. Others have received artwork so good that they deserve a spot in your deck on aesthetic merit. This list ranks the top 10 by both criteria combined, because a great card that also looks incredible is worth talking about twice.

Silverquill, the Disputant is a four-mana Elder Dragon from Secrets of Strixhaven that gives every instant and sorcery you cast Casualty 1, meaning every spell becomes two spells if you have a creature to spare. Build a wide token board, copy your removal, double your card draw, and win by making every spell count twice. This guide covers the full strategy and five must-include cards with direct TCGPlayer buy links.

Picking your Secrets of Strixhaven college at prerelease is the first decision you make before a single card hits the table. Each of the five colleges plays differently, rewards a different kind of player, and comes with a different mechanic that either clicks immediately or makes your brain hurt for three rounds. This is the honest, playstyle-first guide to which college you should actually pick, from someone who has made the wrong call at enough prereleases to know what all

The Secrets of Strixhaven Emeritus cycle puts five of Magic's most iconic spells onto mythic rare creatures, one per color. Each creature has a different way to become prepared and a different spell waiting on the right side of the card. Some of them are genuinely broken. Some of them are disappointingly conditional. Here is every Emeritus card ranked from worst to best, with an honest breakdown of what each one does, how easy it is to use, and which formats it actually belon

Witherbloom the Balancer is an Elder Dragon from Secrets of Strixhaven that gives every instant and sorcery you cast affinity for creatures, meaning your whole deck gets cheaper the more creatures you have in play. Build a wide token board, point discounted spells at the problem, and close out with Torment of Hailfire for whatever X ends up being when you have fifteen creatures. This guide covers the full strategy plus five must-include cards with direct TCGPlayer buy links.

Secrets of Strixhaven gives each of the five colleges its own exclusive mechanic for the first time, and each one plays very differently from the others. This is a full breakdown of Repartee for Silverquill, Opus for Prismari, Infusion for Witherbloom, Flashback for Lorehold, and Increment for Quandrix, with real interaction examples, rules clarifications straight from the team, and an honest take on which mechanic is going to matter most in your games.

The MTG Paradigm mechanic from Secrets of Strixhaven is getting nowhere near the attention it deserves. Cast a sorcery once, exile it, and from that point forward you get a free copy at the start of every single one of your turns for the rest of the game. It cannot lock you out of casting other spells, copies keep coming even if countered, and it is optional to trigger. This is a complete breakdown of how Paradigm works, why it is more powerful than people realize, and what i

The Prepared mechanic is the biggest talking point from Secrets of Strixhaven and most players still have questions about how it actually works. Straight from the people who built it, including Executive Producer Athena Froehlich and Senior Game Designer Daniel Holt, here is a full breakdown of what Prepared does, how creatures become prepared and unprepared, which iconic spells are attached to which creatures, and what the Reserved List actually has to do with any of it.

The MTG bracket system is Wizards of the Coast's official framework for rating Commander deck power levels on a scale of 1 to 5. Updated in October 2025, it now includes five brackets from Exhibition casual to cEDH, adds expected turn counts per bracket, removes tutor restrictions, and refines the Game Changers list. The system runs on an honor code and is designed to help players find balanced games before anyone shuffles up. Tools like the Manabox bracket checker make self

Zaffai and the Tempests is a freshly leaked Izzet legendary from Secrets of Strixhaven that lets you cast one instant or sorcery from your hand for free once per turn. In a format where mana is the most precious resource on the table, that ability is an engine waiting to happen. This guide covers what the card does, why it is going to be a Commander staple, and the must-include cards that make the Zaffai and the Tempests Commander deck sing, with direct TCGplayer buy links.

Baylen, the Haymaker is one of the most unique token commanders in Magic: The Gathering, rewarding you not for making tokens bigger or making more of them, but for converting your token army into mana, card draw, and a trampling rabbit the size of a small building. This guide covers everything you need to know to build your Baylen the Haymaker Commander deck, from flooding the board on turn three to closing games with a commander who has somehow become a 13/12 with trample.

You pick up a Magic card, see a symbol that looks like two mana colors awkwardly sharing a circle, and think, "What the hell is that?" You are in very good company. Hybrid mana is one of those mechanics that seems simple on the surface and then reveals unexpected layers the moment you try to build a Commander deck around it. It has also become the source of one of the most heated format discussions the Commander community has had in years. So let's get busy untangling this me

Krang, Utrom Warlord, is one of the most powerful colorless Commanders coming out of the MTG TMNT set, and building around him correctly makes for one of the most satisfying artifact decks in Commander. This guide covers everything you need to know, from ramping into a nine-mana legendary brain in a robot suit to closing games with an indestructible, flying, trampling army that your opponents simply cannot deal with. Let's build the Krang Utrom Warlord Commander deck the righ

You cracked open a Commander precon, played a few games, and got politely stomped. We've all been there. The good news is you don't need to drop $200 to make your deck actually competitive. In this guide, we walk you through exactly how to upgrade a Commander precon on a budget, from identifying the cards dragging your deck down, to cheap swaps that punch way above their price tag. Whether you're working with $20 or $50, there's a real upgrade path waiting for you.

Leonardo and Michelangelo make one of the most deceptively powerful partner Commander combinations in the TMNT Magic set. Leo grows your entire board every time a token enters. Mikey creates a Food token every time you attack, which automatically triggers Leo. Every turn. For free. Add Ocelot Pride, Hardened Scales, and Doubling Season to the mix and the math gets genuinely offensive. This is a full deck guide covering strategy, must-include cards, and how to close out games

Magic: The Gathering has more formats than most new players realize — and picking the wrong one can kill your enthusiasm fast. This guide breaks down every major MTG format for beginners, from the social chaos of Commander to the budget-friendly brilliance of Pauper. We cover what each format costs, how long games run, and who each one actually suits. Whether you want competitive play or a casual night with friends, we'll help you find your perfect starting point.