Environmental Sciences MTG Card


Environmental Sciences - Strixhaven: School of Mages
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityCommon
TypeSorcery — Lesson
Released2021-04-23
Set symbol
Set nameStrixhaven: School of Mages
Set codeSTX
Number1
Frame2015
LayoutNormal
BorderBlack
Illustred byJokubas Uogintas

Key Takeaways

  1. Environmental Sciences ensures consistent land drops and a life bonus, pivotal for maintaining play momentum.
  2. Resource acceleration is key, and this card adeptly facilitates timely strategy execution, crucial in many formats.
  3. Despite not being instant speed, its lesson mechanic synergizes with learn for adaptable, surprise plays.

Text of card

Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. You gain 2 life.

First-years quickly learn how the Vastlands earned its name.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Environmental Sciences offers a reliable way to sift through your deck, allowing you to fetch a basic land card, thus ensuring you hit your land drops and maintain a smooth flow of play. Moreover, it grants you a bonus life, which could be the margin of victory in close matches.

Resource Acceleration: By enabling you to pull a land card directly into your hand, Environmental Sciences facilitates a level of resource acceleration that is vital for executing your strategy on schedule, especially in formats that prize land consistency and longevity of play.

Instant Speed: While Environmental Sciences doesn’t operate at instant speed, its positioning as a lesson card gives you the convenience of searching it out at instant speed if you cast a spell with the learn mechanic. This adds an element of surprise and flexibility to your game plan, letting you adapt to the state of the board without losing tempo.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Environmental Sciences forces you to discard a card upon activation which could be detrimental when you’re already behind on card advantage.

Specific Mana Cost: This sorcery necessitates a very particular combination of mana, demanding both generic and School of Mages symbol, potentially complicating its deployment in multi-colored decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost to get the basic land and the life gain, you might find it mana-intensive compared to other options that secure land more efficiently or offer additional benefits for the same or lesser cost.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Environmental Sciences adds flexibility to any deck by offering both mana fixing and life gain—a boon for multicolor decks and those looking to stabilize against aggressive opponents.

Combo Potential: It opens doors for various engine builds, allowing players to efficiently search their library for basic lands, triggering landfall or other abilities that respond to land plays or life gain.

Meta-Relevance: Given its capacity to smooth out mana issues and keep health totals in check, Environmental Sciences is a practical pick in diverse formats where resource management is key to staying competitive.


How to beat

Environmental Sciences is an intriguing sorcery card in Magic: The Gathering that enables players to expand their mana resources and stabilize their game strategy by permitting a basic land search from one’s library and gaining life. Unlike many other land search spells, Environmental Sciences also gifts a small amount of life, nudging the scales in favor of the player using it. It’s this blend of land tutoring and life gain that makes it a unique toolbox option, especially in decks that benefit from the life gain trigger.

To effectively counter this card, disrupting your opponent’s mana base becomes a pivotal strategy. Employing land destruction or spells that limit land searches can hinder your opponent’s ability to play Environmental Sciences effectively. Hand disruption tactics can also work wonders, forcing your opponent to discard the card before they get the chance to cast it. Additionally, fast-paced aggressive decks can capitalize on the slow tempo that comes with setting up Environmental Sciences, often overpowering the opponent before they can make substantive gains from the life and land it provides.

In essence, while Environmental Sciences is undoubtedly beneficial in longer, more drawn-out matches, applying early pressure or strategically dismantling your opponent’s resources can provide a clear pathway to victory against decks that rely on such utility cards.


BurnMana Recommendations

The right cards can turn the tide of any MTG game, and Environmental Sciences is no exception with its mana-fixing and life-gain abilities. If you’re looking to build resilience in your deck or ensure consistent land drops, understanding the nuances of such utility cards can be crucial. From increasing your mana access to tipping the scales with incremental life, Environmental Sciences has the potential to enhance your gameplay significantly. Seeking to refine your deck strategy or shore up gaps in your game plan? Dive into our resources to discover more about optimizing your deck’s performance with smart card choices like Environmental Sciences.


Cards like Environmental Sciences

The card Environmental Sciences is an intriguing utility spell in Magic: The Gathering’s suite of sorceries. It invites comparison to other educational spells, such as Basic Conjuration. Basic Conjuration also allows for card selection, though it digs deeper into the library. What sets Environmental Sciences apart is its additional ability to gain life, coupled with its flexibility in mana fixing by enabling a player to search for a basic land card.

Looking at other educational sorceries, Teach by Example is another relative. It amplifies the effects of casting another instant or sorcery by copying it, although it doesn’t provide the healing or mana fixing benefits. On the contrary, Introduction to Annihilation offers removal utility by exiling a nonland permanent. However, it lacks the life-gain and mana-fixing properties which make Environmental Sciences unique and invaluable in maintaining both player health and mana curve in a game.

Through this comparison, Environmental Sciences demonstrates its invaluable dual purpose, aiding players not only to stabilize their mana base but also providing a much-needed buffer in life total, holding its own as a strategic card choice amongst its peers in the field of educational spells.

Basic Conjuration - MTG Card versions
Teach by Example - MTG Card versions
Introduction to Annihilation - MTG Card versions
Basic Conjuration - MTG Card versions
Teach by Example - MTG Card versions
Introduction to Annihilation - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Environmental Sciences MTG card by a specific set like Strixhaven: School of Mages, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Environmental Sciences and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Environmental Sciences has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Environmental Sciences card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2021-04-16 Although you may want to include Lessons in your sideboard if you’re playing with cards that instruct you to learn, Lesson cards can be included in your main deck like other instant or sorcery cards.
2021-04-16 Lesson is a spell subtype found on some instant and sorcery cards in the Strixhaven set. The Lesson subtype has no special rules associated with it.

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