It's time to go back to school once again as we return to the plane of Arcavios with Secrets of Strixhaven. This brand new set marks the second in-universe release of 2026. As such, it also brings with it something that has become a staple of every non-Universes Beyond set for the past few years: Special Guests.

Special Guests are a small subset of cards that have been included in each of these sets since The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Most of the time these include either ten or twenty cards, depending on the set, and appear rarely in Play Boosters and Collector Boosters.

The Special Guests return once more for Secrets of Strixhaven, bringing back ten classic cards for the set. Each one is themed around a different element of Strixhaven, with many showcasing classic cards through the means of art and lectures rather than being the subjects themselves.

Today, I'm going to take a look at all ten of these Special Guest cards that you might find poking out of your next Secrets of Strixhaven Boosters. Let's check them out.

Returning Cards From Strixhaven

Naturally, with a return to Strixhaven it feels almost obligatory that some cards from the original Strixhaven: School of Mages make their return as Special Guests. This has become quite common among Special Guests, providing an opportunity to give some fan favorites the royal treatment with fancy new artwork.

Archmage Emeritus

Archmage Emeritus has become a staple of just about any spellslinger Commander deck. Any Instant or Sorcery spell you cast is another card drawn.

That turns into a serious value engine in just about any deck that can totally overwhelm opponents in card advantage. Why would you turn down the prospect of playing something like that in your 99?

Naturally, this made it a standout choice to bring back once again here as a Special Guest. Not only does it invoke some feelings of what made the classic Strixhaven so good, but it does so without leaning too much into a specific school.

Adrix and Nev, Twincasters

At least one card opted to lean into a specific school, however.

Adrix and Nev, Twincasters was the face commander for the Strixhaven-linked Commander 2021 Quantum Quandrix deck. Players love getting to double up on tokens, so getting a Commander that would do it for you was a surefire hit.

Even now it remains quite high among the most popular Commanders list on EDHREC. Additionally, it ranks highly among the cards first introduced in the set for Commander as a whole.

Naturally, this made it a great inclusion for the Special Guests of this set, especially with Nev returning in Secrets of Strixhaven Commander once again. The pair have replaced the Quandrix deans from the original Strixhaven, as they were killed during the Phyrexian Invasion in March of the Machine.

Codie, Vociferous Codex

Codie, Vociferous Codex has become a fan favorite ever since its initial printing in Strixhaven: School of Mages. Since then, it's provided Commander players a fun build-around with modest amounts of popularity, currently ranking just outside the top 300 Commanders on EDHREC.

This Special Guest printing highlights something new to Secrets of Strixhaven: the Book subtype for Artifacts. Naturally, Codie is a living book, so it's only fitting that it receives a small errata to showcase this change as a Special Guest. It also is a perfect example of exactly what made the original Strixhaven such a fan favorite, which is all the more reason to make a return.

Let's Go To The Library

One of the core elements of Strixhaven as a school is The Biblioplex. This ancient library holds just about every spell ever conceived from across the multiverse and truly leans into the power of the library as a font of information. After all, what school wouldn't be complete without doing some pouring over countless textbooks and tomes?

Naturally, this theme is one of the elements that Wizards leaned into with the set's Special Guests. There have been some truly stellar cards themed around the concept of a library that are fairly well represented on this list.

Library of Leng

Library of Leng presented quite possibly the biggest surprise in the entire list of Special Guests for this set. Most of the other cards are pretty typical fare or are something that has shown up elsewhere in some form or fashion in recent years.

That couldn't be farther from the truth for Library of Leng. This oddball way to both give yourself no maximum hand size and put cards back on your library rather than discarding has become a fan favorite in the Commander era. However, it hasn't seen a true, tournament-legal printing since Fifth Edition nearly 30 years ago.

To see it make a return here is a wonder, but great for those who enjoy this odd little card all the same.

Magus of the Library

Library of Alexandria is one of the most famously powerful cards in all of Magic. As a result, it became the subject of one of the cycle of Magus Creatures in the Time Spiral block.

These Creatures had a different theme for every set of the block. In the first set, Time Spiral, the Creatures riffed on powerful Artifacts. Future Sight, the final set, made its Creatures based on a set of intense Enchantments. Planar Chaos, the middle set that messed with the color pie, took its Creatures' abilities from several mighty Land cards.

Thus, we got Magus of the Library in Planar Chaos, alluding to the classic Library of Alexandria. It's a great card for the Secrets of Strixhaven Special Guests as it represents someone who tends the Biblioplex as a librarian might in real life.

Library of Alexandria

But wait, the actual Library of Alexandria itself gets an inclusion among the Special Guests as well. Well, on MTG Arena, anyway.

As it happens, Library of Leng is an extremely complex card with some weird judge rulings behind it. This led to the Arena team opting to go for an easier to implement card in its place. The client already had Library of Alexandria programmed in for Powered Cube and now it can show up in Timeless as well.

If you're a fan of Historic, I'm sorry to say the card has been banned prior to release. Try out Timeless instead and give it a whirl.

Sylvan Library

Finally, what lineup of library-themed cards wouldn't be complete without the addition of Sylvan Library.

Powerful Wizards

In addition to the Strixhaven and Library themed cards, there are also a series of Wizards. After all, there are wizards all over Secrets of Strixhaven and the card Mana Sculpt cares whether or not you have one in play. So why not focus on them a bit?

Archaeomancer

Archaeomancer returns for another reprint once again. This fun little Wizard previously showed up in a Secret Lair release and multiple Eternal-legal releases as well.

Players love buying back spells no matter what format you're playing. I personally love kicking Rite of Replication targeting it in Commander and making enough tokens to buy the Rite of Replication and four other spells back. Even just grabbing something simple like a Counterspell or Swords to Plowshares can go a long way, however.

The card has also become a mainstay of the Pauper format thanks to the amount of value you generate with various Flicker effects. Casting a Ghostly Flicker with two of them or an Ephemerate on one lets you buy back the Flicker spell itself and another spell, allowing you to lock down the game. The archetypes using this have fallen off in recent years, but it always has its fans, and this provides players with an awesome fancy way to bling out their decks.

Dualcaster Mage

It might seem rather quaint by today's standards, but when Dualcaster Mage first released in Commander 2014, it had a ton of hype behind it.

Early Commander precons had a huge lean toward including cards aimed at Legacy play. For example, the original Commander 2011 decks included Flusterstorm and Scavenging Ooze for this purpose. Similarly, Commander 2013 had True-Name Nemesis and Baleful Strix. So, when Commander 2014 dropped, players felt this would be the next in this trend.

As it turned out, Dualcaster Mage was just fine, which is great news because it's an awesome card. Copying spells is always awesome, and Dualcaster Mage presented a great way to do so for both Commander and Cube.

Oh, and that lady on the right looks awfully familiar. Is that Professor Vess looking good in an unusual white outfit for a change?

Grim Haruspex

Grim Haruspex represents yet another fan favorite Commander staple, providing card advantage as your Creatures die. That's exactly the sort of thing you'd expect to see from Witherbloom, celebrating the value of both life and death alike.

While it's not possible to draw cards off of tokens, that's not a problem if you build your deck appropriately. Aristocrats - or decks with a prominent Creature sacrifice theme - are known for being full of ways to sacrifice the same Creature over and over again. Cards like Bloodghast, Nether Traitor, and Bloodsoaked Champion all come to the battlefield repeatedly, allowing you to generate more and more value from them.

Grim Haruspex has largely used the same art variations since its initial printing in Khans of Tarkir and its alternate art Ugin's Fate promo. This is the first new art to make it to print since then, with the only other versions being exclusive to MTG Arena or else in the cancelled Monster Hunter Secret Lair release. As such, this provides players with a great new version to put into their favorite deck.

Murmuring Mystic

The last card, Murmuring Mystic, represents another fan favorite of Pauper, Commander, and Cubes alike. The more spells you cast, the more tokens you generate, making for a Creature that can completely take over a game if left unchecked.

This has made it an especially great finisher for a variety of Tempo/Control decks in Pauper especially. Once you lock down the game enough, you can easily protect your Murmuring Mystic. As you do, you'll cast more spells which trigger it and give you a means of closing out a game in short order.

Conclusion

The Special Guests sub-set continues to provide some cool cards that you might not otherwise get to see reprinted. The offerings with Secrets of Strixhaven are a touch more meager than previous sets, with many being new printings of cards that you can already pick up for an already modest rate.

Nevertheless, the flavor is extremely rich, building further on the lore behind what makes this fan favorite setting so magical. It even gives some strange cards like Library of Leng an unusual opportunity to shine and reach a new audience.

All of them are pretty great, though. If you see one in your next Secrets of Strixhaven Draft night, I highly recommend picking it up and trying to make it work.

Paige Smith

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