Prepare in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Last updated on September 27, 2026

Emeritus of Ideation | Illustration by Evyn Fong

Ahem.

“So prepare for the chance of a lifetime.
Be prepared for sensational news.
A shining new era is tiptoeing nearer.
And where do you feature? Just listen to teacher!”

I had to. And I shall not apologize. Some teachers are as dry as Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but me? While I like to be a goofball, at the end of the day, I know that all my charges will… be prepared.

Prepared spells are a fun innovation in the line of mechanics that provide two-for-one value in our card slots, like MDFCs, adventure cards, and omens. They also allow designers to reprint powerful cards in a more balanced context, or reprint Reserved List cards that wouldn’t otherwise be as accessible.

How Does Prepare Work?

Jadzi, Steward of Fate | Illustration by Martina Fackova

Prepare cards are a kind of split card in Magic. The main part, and the part that tells you the mana value of the card, is the creature. The second part, in the bottom right corner of the frame is the spell that you can cast while a creature is prepared.

Prepared is just a state that a creature can be, like how a permanent can be exerted or a case enchantment starts unsolved and becomes solved. There’s no “prepared counter” to proliferate or anything; a creature is prepared, or it isn’t.

Some creatures enter prepared, while others have activated or triggered abilities that allow you to prepare them. Once they’re prepared, you can cast the spell on the right side of the rules textbox with normal timing restrictions.

For example, once Joined Researchers is prepared, you can cast its Secret Rendezvous at sorcery speed; because it’s an end step trigger, you won’t be able to cast it until your next turn without a flash enabler. As for Skycoach Conductor, it enters prepared, and its spell is an instant, so you can cast All Aboard whenever you have priority.

The History of Prepare in MTG

Prepare was introduced in 2026’s Secrets of Strixhaven set as one of the set’s marquee mechanics. It appeared on cards of every rarity, including a full cycle of mythic mono-color Emeritus creatures and 2-color legendary creatures for Tam, Sanar, Abigale, Kirol, and Lluwen, characters we met in Lorwyn Eclipsed.

Prepare is one of the few main SOS mechanics to appear in the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander decks. Each deck has a mono-color and a 2-color rare that uses the prepare mechanic.

Prepare returned in the next multiverse set, Reality Fracture, which is partially set at Hexhaven, the Echoverse reflection of Strixhaven. It appears on a handful of cards, including two cycles that share prepared spells with each other to reflect Hexhaven’s regimented approach to magical instruction. The FRA set also introduced Codie, Ravenous Codex, a 5-color commander that copies prepared spells and prepares all your creatures at once.

Does Prepare Cast from Exile?

Yes! You cast the noncreature spell from exile, so it has synergies with cast-from-exile payoffs like The Thirteenth Doctor and Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald.

Do Prepared Spells Trigger Prosper, Tome-Bound?

No. Prosper, Tome-Bound only cares about actual cards that you play from exile. Prepared spells are copies that you create in exile, not cards. You could only trigger Prosper if you cast the creature with the prepared spell from exile, like through impulse draw or the discover mechanic, for example.

Does Every Prepare Creature Enter Prepared Already?

No, they don’t. Any creature that doesn’t enter prepared has an activated or triggered ability that prepares it.

How Can You Re-Prepare a Creature?

Biblioplex Tomekeeper, Skycoach Waypoint, and Hexhaven Dueling Arena have abilities that prepare a creature again. Codie, Ravenous Codex allows you to prepare all of your creatures for .

Some creatures like Encouraging Aviator have abilities that allow you to prepare them. Other creatures can be “reset” if they leave the battlefield and re-enter as a new permanent.

Do Timing Restrictions Apply to Prepare Spells?

Yes. You can only cast the creature part at sorcery speed unless it has flash, while you can cast the prepared spell at sorcery or instant speed depending on that spell’s type.

Can You Counter a Prepared Spell?

Yes! A prepared spell is a spell like any other that you can copy, redirect, or counter.

If You Counter a Prepared Spell, Is the Creature Still Prepared?

No. The moment you cast the spell, whether it resolves or is countered, the creature becomes unprepared.

Why Do Some Reality Fracture Creatures Have the Same Prepared Spell?

According to Gavin Verhey’s Good Morning Magic channel, the matching prepared spells on common and uncommon hybrid creatures in Reality Fracture represent the strict, militaristic culture of Hexhaven. This isn’t a magic school that encourages exploration but a military academy that teaches discipline and structure.

What Card Type Is a Prepare Card in the Graveyard?

A prepared card is a creature in all zones, in addition to its different creature types. It doesn’t count as a sorcery or an instant anywhere except when the copy of its spell is on the stack, and even then, the creature itself remains on the battlefield. Just the spell goes to the stack.

Do Prepare Cards Count for Delirium?

Yes, but prepare cards only count as creatures toward delirium. They don’t count as an instant or sorcery.

What Does Unprepare Mean?

Unprepare means to remove a creature’s “prepared” state. If you unprepare an opponent’s creature with Biblioplex Tomekeeper, your opponent can’t cast that creature’s prepared spell until they prepare that creature again.

Can You Unprepare an Opponent’s Creature?

Yes! The easiest way in Secrets of Strixhaven is with Biblioplex Tomekeeper, which has a modal enters trigger that prepares or unprepares a creature. In Reality Fracture, you can unprepare your opponent’s creatures if you enchant them with Infinite Coursework. It won’t become prepared through its own abilities, but your opponent can still prepare the creature with outside help like Hexhaven Dueling Arena.

Prepare vs. Adventures

Prepare and adventures are sort of weird mirror versions of each other. They use similar frames, but the order in which you use the permanent spell vs. the instant or sorcery is different.

With prepare, you have to cast the creature first. With adventures, you can cast the spell, and it goes to exile as it resolves. You can then cast the permanent from exile later. So for example, if you cast Fertile Footsteps to ramp, you can cast Beanstalk Giant later from exile. Omens work similarly, but you shuffle them back into your library when the noncreature spell resolves.

It’s a lot easier to reuse a prepared spell than it is to use an adventure. Some, like Bramble Familiar and Hildibrand Manderville have abilities that make them self-looping, but most don’t.

Another key difference is that adventure is also a spell subtype, so there are specific cards that interact with them like Storyteller Pixie, Sentinel of Lost Lore, or Beluna Grandsquall.

Gallery and List of Prepared Cards

Secrets of Strixhaven Prepared Cards

• Eiganjo Dynastorian
• Dirgur Focusmage
• Stensian Sanguinist
• Naktamun Lorespinner
• Yavimaya Bloomsage
• Defacing Duskmage
• Eccentric Pestfinder
• Inspired Skypainter
• Lorehold Archivist
• Striding Shotcaller
• Elite Interceptor
• Emeritus of Truce
• Honorbound Page
• Joined Researchers
• Quill-Blade Laureate
• Spiritcall Enthusiast
• Campus Composer
• Emeritus of Ideation
• Encouraging Aviator
• Harmonized Trio
• Jadzi, Steward of Fate
• Landscape Painter
• Skycoach Conductor
• Spellbook Seeker
• Adventurous Eater
• Cheerful Osteomancer
• Emeritus of Woe
• Grave Researcher
• Leech Collector
• Scathing Shadelock
• Scheming Silvertongue
• Blazing Firesinger
• Emeritus of Conflict
• Goblin Glasswright
• Maelstrom Artisan
• Pigment Wrangler
• Strife Scholar
• Emeritus of Abundance
• Infirmary Healer
• Studious First-Year
• Vastlands Scavenger
• Abigale, Poet Laureate
• Kirol, History Buff
• Lluwen, Exchange Student
• Sanar, Unfinished Genius
• Tam, Observant Sequencer

Reality Fracture Prepared Cards

• Bloodline Recollector
• Carnivorous Cultivator
• Diviner of Victory
• Emergency Phytomedic
• Fatehold Chronologist
• Hallway Heckler
• Heartwood Crafter
• Konstrari Improviser
• Paradox Shaper
• Pompous Battlemage
• Prudent Fateseer
• Pyre Rhymer
• Semester Foreseer
• Stingerquill Voxmancer
• Theorix Metamage
• Variable Chaser
• Vigorbloom Vanguard
• Void Extrapolator
• Whiplash Wordsmith
• Woodwork Prodigy

Cards That Interact with Prepared Spells

• Biblioplex Tomekeeper
• Hexhaven Dueling Arena
• Infinite Coursework
• Codie, Ravenous Codex

Best Prepared Cards

#10. Carnivorous Cultivator

A 2-mana 2/3 with deathtouch is already a playable creature, but Carnivorous Cultivator adds a saboteur trigger that fishes lands out of your graveyard, perfect for resetting fetch lands like Evolving Wilds and Windswept Heath. The prepared spell entombs a land to set up the saboteur trigger, or mass land reanimation spells if that’s your thing.

#9. Variable Chaser

You know, I’m something of a—

Nope, not going there.

Wheels are always useful, and this one is symmetrical and political, attached to a 3-mana 2/3 blue wizard body with flying and prowess. Yeah, Variable Chaser will find its way into some decks; personally, my dream is to have this out with Harmonic Prodigy and Bria, Riptide Rogue.

#8. Studious First-Year + Blazing Firesinger

While not the most explosive, these two get by on the ubiquity of their prepared spells. Rampant Growth gave ramp its name, and many creature decks would be happy to run both it and Studious First-Year. Seething Song is a really good ritual, especially with spellslinging cost reducers, and Blazing Firesinger can be a budget replacement or act as your proxy while you’re playtesting.

#7. Pyre Rhymer

One of powerful things about prepared spells is when you can slap them onto a prowess creature just like Pyre Rhymer. Its prepared spell is a color-shifted High Tide, which can provide the explosive burst of mana you need to close out a game. Pretty much any Izzet, Rakdos, or Grixis spellslinger deck should consider this, but I wonder if it has a home in other mana-hungry, noncreature decks. You’ll cast a lot of spells in a Feather, the Redeemed deck, or you can slap a lot of mods onto Valduk, Keeper of the Flame, for example.

#6. Scheming Silvertongue

If Decorum Dissertation is one of the better prepare cards as a repeatable Sign in Blood, the fact that it’s Scheming Silvertongue’s prepared spell should indicate something. I like the flavor that you have to gain more life than you’d lose if you target yourself with the spell to prepare it, especially considering that the creature is a vampire. Most students I’ve met drink coffee or energy drinks, but to each their own.

#5. Grave Researcher

Grave Researcher certainly makes an impact in reanimator decks, especially since its upkeep trigger helps to prepare it in more way than one. Surveil triggers in general can also help delirium decks and lots of other builds that want to use the graveyard for value, so you don’t even need to care about your ability to prepare the Reanimate.

#4. Eiganjo Dynastorian

A 3-mana body that gives you repeatable Retethers is really good, but Eiganjo Dynastorian is even better because you get to reanimate any kind of enchantment. It has a home in go-wide aura decks, but you can play it with stax pieces, enchantment creatures, and sagas, including summons from Final Fantasy.

#3. Yavimaya Bloomsage

Maybe it’s my own sauropod leanings, but Yavimaya Bloomsage is perfect for battlecruiser decks to bring out more and more beefy threats. You’ll only prepare its Channel on your end step, though, so it needs to survive until your next turn before you actually get the mana advantage. That still represents a lot of ramping potential; if you can trade in most of your life total to ramp into your win condition, that’s a fair bargain when it doesn’t backfire.

#2. Bloodline Recollector

Repeatable card draw is already incredibly good, but it’s how Bloodline Recollector gives it to you that reveals all of the places you can consider it. Token decks are an obvious fit, whether you’re sacrificing them for value or they die in combat (myriad won’t work, but mobilize will). If you want to use your opponents’ creatures as study buddies, edicts, sweepers, and spot removal are your friends.

The prepared spell, Ancestral Craving, is cheap, instant-speed card draw, but “target player” means you can drain an opponent or fatten their hand before you make them discard it. The only thing holding this back is that the Recollector doesn’t enter prepared.

#1. The Emeritus Cycle

Ancestral Recall is banned in Commander for a reason, but strap it to a 5-mana body like Emeritus of Ideation and you start to get into a fairer territory.

Emeritus of Conflict gives you a payoff for casting three spells per turn; something that’s neat is that you could prepare it on your turn, then use the prepared Lightning Bolt as your first spell during an opponent’s turn en route to prepare the Emeritus again.

Emeritus of Abundance makes elf decks and other rampy green creature decks more grindy, and it creates infinite combos involving extra turn spells.

Emeritus of Truce’s Swords to Plowshares is harder to reuse outside of blink, bounce, and reanimator decks, but alongside airbend? Watch out.

While Demonic Tutor is a really good prepared spell to have, Emeritus of Woe has to survive your opponent’s turn after it becomes prepared. Top end, you get to tutor with this multiple times. Low end, you force your opponent to take a turn off from their own game plan to deal with this vampire.

Semester’s End

Void Extrapolator | Illustration by Valera Lutfullina

Flavorfully, this one’s a tougher mechanic to envision in sets that aren’t related to Strixhaven/Hexhaven. It feels a lot more tied to a learning environment, but I’m sure I could come up with ways to tie it to preparations for an adventure or a battle. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Echoverse returned in a Modern Horizons set or something like that, but it doesn’t mean that Hexhaven or prepared spells would be part of it.

Which of these is your favorite prepare creature? What do you think of the mechanic overall and its use in Secrets of Strixhaven and Reality Fracture? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

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