Lesson

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Lesson
Spell Type
(Subtype for instant/sorcery spells)
Introduced	Strixhaven: School of Mages
Last used	Avatar: The Last Airbender
Storm Scale	5
Scryfall Statistics
cards

Scroll icon

Lesson is a spell subtype seen exclusively on sorceries and instants. It was introduced in Strixhaven: School of Mages. It is closely connected to the learn mechanic. It returned for Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Description

Lesson is a spell subtype found on some instant and sorcery cards. The Lesson subtype has no special rules associated with it.

When learning you may reveal a Lesson card from outside the game and put it into your hand. This makes it share qualities with wishes. There is a wide variety of Lesson cards to represent a wide variety of areas of study, e.g., token generation, removal, card draw, etc. Lesson cards are marked by the depiction of a scroll in the upper left corner.

If you want, you can also play a Lesson card in your deck, but in that circumstance, it can't be fetched by learning. Lessons are weak by design, though, so do so at your peril.

History

In Strixhaven, Lessons only appeared on sorceries. In Strixhaven booster packs, there was a dedicated slot for common or rare Lessons, but if there was a rare Lesson, that would be the rare for the booster. Uncommon lessons appeared like any other uncommon.

Mystery Booster 2 featured a white-bordered reprint of Environmental Sciences, and two test cards with the lesson type: Pyromancy 101 and There-theyre-their. The latter is the first Instant with the Lesson subtype. The 2025 Las Vegas Unknown Event featured the Twenty Lessons test card that allows the player to cast a random Lesson card without paying its mana cost.

Avatar: The Last Airbender frames much of its story using lessons and teaching, but the set has no cards with learn. As such, the set's Lessons spells are much more powerful without the tutoring effect and is referred to like a normal subtype.

Rules

From the Comprehensive Rules (September 19, 2025—Marvel's Spider-Man)

• 205.3k Instants and sorceries share their lists of subtypes; these subtypes are called spell types. The spell types are Adventure, Arcane, Lesson, Omen, and Trap.

Rulings

• If a card is brought into the game from outside the game, it will stay in the game until it ends or until its owner leaves the game, whichever comes first.
• If you bring a card into the game from outside the game in a Constructed tournament (or a Constructed game played under tournament conditions), you may select only a card from your sideboard. In casual Constructed games, the card comes from your collection.
• If you bring a card into the game from outside the game in a Sealed Deck or Booster Draft event, you may select only a card that is in the card pool that you built your deck from.
• The official Commander rules don't include sideboards, but if you're using them anyway or casually allowing players to get cards from their collections, cards you bring into the game from outside the game can't share a name with any card in your starting deck.
• If instructed to learn, you may do nothing. Discarding a card and putting a Lesson card into your hand are both optional.
• Although you may want to include Lessons in your sideboard if you're playing with cards that instruct you learn, Lesson cards can be included in your main deck like other instant or sorcery cards.

Example

Example 1

First Day of Class
Instant
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it and it gains haste until end of turn.
Learn. (You may reveal a Lesson card you own from outside the game and put it into your hand, or discard a card to draw a card.)

Example 2

Necrotic Fumes
Sorcery — Lesson
As an additional cost to cast this spell, exile a creature you control.
Exile target creature or planeswalker.

Gallery

• 
  Lesson card with the depiction of a scroll in the upper left corner