We’re back at it again with another card preview for Magic: The Gathering (MTG) and this time, we have the lovely “Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius” from the upcoming Outlaws of Thunder Junction Expansion, thanks to our friends at Wizards of the Coast.

Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius is a 2-cost Legendary Creature card that has a focus on the new “Plot” mechanic that will arrive in the Outlaws of Thunder Junction Expansion and will open up strategies relating to deliberately placing your Spells in exile or graveyard.

To summon this cuddly-looking grizzly bear druid, you would need a green mana and a blue mana, totaling up to 2 costs and it would have a stat of 2/3.

The effect and card text of Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius is as follows:

Spells you cast from your graveyard or from exile cost 2 less to cast.

Plotting cards from your hand costs 2 less.

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“Learning stops only when you close your mind off to wander.”

To understand at least the bear minimum of what this card does, we need to explain the new “Plot” mechanic first.

“Plot” is a new keyword to be added in this upcoming Wild West-theme expansion, and is derived from the term “plot and scheme”, essentially the idea is to plan ahead. This is an alternate cost mechanic that allows you to pay a cost up front and exile a card from your hand. The exiled card will then become plotted, and on future turns, you may cast a plotted card from exile without paying its mana cost.

Simply put, this is a mechanic that allows you to set up future turns with whichever strategy you have in mind, knowing that a Spell is available without any further mana investments.

Moving back to “Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius”, its effects are ongoing and reduce the cost to initiate the “Plot” mechanic from your hand by 2 less mana. Furthermore, it even reduces the costs of Spell casts by 2 if done so from your exile or graveyard.

This enables expensive cards to be set up a lot easier and opens up a whole new strategy where removing Spells and sending them to the graveyard or exile early may be beneficial for mid to late-game combos. With such a potent effect, this also makes Doc Aurlock a high-priority threat where its ongoing presence shifts the game state drastically.

And that’s it for this round’s card preview! Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius will be available as part of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, the one hundredth expansion for MTG, available April 19th, 2024. Our thanks to Wizards of the Coast for letting us check out this card ahead of the set’s release!