What is Arcavios in MTG? Returning Aircraft Explained

Magic: The Gathering Players who enjoyed exploring the sorcery and magic behind Strixhaven will be excited to hear that Wizards of the Coast is returning to the academy plane, Arcaviosby 2026.

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

The Arcavios Plane in MTG Explained

Arcavios is an aircraft in MTG which 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 each other, they coexisted. Areas known as snarls were formed, created by channels of overlapping mana, and from these snarls came five dragons.

These dragons, born of mana and magic, were initially suspicious of the otherworldly “mortals” who sought to study Arcavios’ magic, but years passed and after much conflict during what became known as the Blood Age, the dragons chose to allow others to study magic through discipline. Thus, Strixhaven University was born.

If you don’t know Strixhaven, think Harry PotterIt’s Hogwarts, but… more. Five colleges form the academy, with promising mages each coming to learn a specialty at their respective campuses. The end goal: peace through magic on the two continents of Orrithia and Galathul.

From a MTG point of view, the Strixhaven set focused on sorcery and instants, with magic tapped into by characters through the leylines of the world itself. The keywords Learn, Magecraft, and Ward made some debuts here, while the bulk of the set revolved around five color combinations tied to each of Strixhaven’s colleges: Lorehold (red-white), Prism (blue-red), Quandrix (green-blue), Silver pen (white-black), and Faded bloom (black-green).

What can we expect from the Return to Arcavios set?

Little more is known about the contents of Back to Arcavios not yet, but according to designer Mark Rosewater there will be lots of Strixhaven in store for the set“Sailing (the new Arcavios set) is a return to Strixhaven,” he said when asked on his blog in 2023 if Back to Arcavios will contain everything about the magical academy.

But Arcavios is more than just the academy. Many different breeds Arcavios is inhabited by everything from elves and giants to humans, Kor, and angels – even the five original elder dragons are still alive and roam the continents, though they are said to have little to do with Strixhaven anymore.

Therefore, expect a deeper dive into the aircraft and its surroundings rather than just Strixhaven reprints and more untold threads of the magic school. We’ll know more about the set before its release in 2026.