What is Arcavios in MTG? Returning plane explained

Magic: The Gathering players who loved exploring the sorcery and magic behind Strixhaven will be excited to know Wizards of the Coast is heading back to the academy’s plane, Arcavios, in 2026.

Return to Arcavios is one of four “Return” MTG sets planned in the Metronome arc, and it’s been a hot minute since we found ourselves exploring the plane in the TCG. Here’s what we know about the plane in MTG and a little about what we can expect to see in Return to Arcavios.

The Arcavios plane in MTG, explained

Arcavios is a plane in MTG that was first introduced in Strixhaven: School of Mages back in 2021. It began when two separate planes of existence merged and overlapped, but instead of destroying one another, they coexist. Regions known as snarls were formed, created by conduits of overlaid mana, and from these snarls came five dragons.

These dragons, born of mana and magic, originally distrusted outside “mortals” that wanted to study the magic of Arcavios, but years passed and after much conflict during what became known as the Blood Age, the dragons opted to allow others to study magic through discipline. Thus, Strixhaven University was born.

If you’re unfamiliar with Strixhaven, think Harry Potter‘s Hogwarts but… more. Five colleges make up the academy, with promising mages all attending to learn a specialty on their respective campuses. The end goal—peace through magic across the two continents of Orrithia and Galathul.

From an MTG standpoint, the Strixhaven set focused more on sorceries and instants, with magic tapped into by characters through the leylines of the world itself. The Learn, Magecraft, and Ward keywords made appearances here, some for the first time, while the majority of the set revolved around five color pairings tied to each of Strixhaven’s colleges: Lorehold (red-white), Prismari (blue-red), Quandrix (green-blue), Silverquill (white-black), and Witherbloom (black-green).

What can we expect to see in the Return to Arcavios set?

Little more is known about the contents of Return to Arcavios yet, but according to designer Mark Rosewater, there will be plenty of Strixhaven in store for the set. “Yachting [the new Arcavios set] is a return to Strixhaven,” he said when asked on his blog in 2023 whether Return to Arcavios will feature anything about the magic academy.

But there’s more to Arcavios than just the academy. Many different races inhabit Arcavios, from elves and giants to humans, Kor, and angels—even the five original elder dragons remain alive and roam the continents, although they supposedly have little to do with Strixhaven anymore.

As such, expect a deeper dive into the plane and its surroundings instead of just Strixhaven reprints and more unpulled threads from the magic school. We’ll know more about the set ahead of its release in 2026.