MTG Secrets of Strixhaven: Best Commander Staples for the 99

What cards from Magic: The Gathering's Secrets of Strixhaven deserve a spot in your Commander deck's 99? The set is packed with a wide range of interesting spells, creatures, and utility options.

In this article, I'll highlight the best Secrets of Strixhaven cards to consider including in your Commander decks.

Flashback

Flashback is a red instant that gives an instant or sorcery in your graveyard flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to the target card's mana cost.

This instant's name is quite literally self-explanatory in this case. It grants an instant or sorcery in your graveyard the flashback mechanic so you can reuse it. Despite its simplicity, it has high potential impact for spellslinger decks. It's also incredibly mana efficient, costing only a single red mana.

As a result, Flashback provides great utility in any spellslinger deck with red.

Ark of Hunger

Ark of Hunger is a new Red/White artifact introduced in Secrets of Strixhaven. It deals 1 damage to each opponent and gains you 1 life when one or more cards leave your graveyard. It's a flavorful payoff to Lorehold decks in this set that reward you for moving cards out of your graveyard.

Ark of Hunger's activated ability lets you mill a card then lets you play that card this turn. This helps enable this artifact's first ability.

Ark of Hunger is a great addition to decks that care about having cards leave your graveyard.

Resonating Lute

Resonating Lute is another new artifact from Secrets of Strixhaven. It gives your lands the ability to tap for two mana of any one color. This mana can only be used to cast instants and sorcery spells.

Resonating Lute acts as a powerful ramp tool for spellslinger decks, effectively letting your lands produce double mana for instants and sorceries. This makes it easier to cast more expensive spells much earlier. It also lets you draw a card if you have seven or more cards in your hand. While conditional, card draw is always valuable in a format like Commander.

This artifact is a great addition to red and blue spellslinger decks that care about casting expensive spells.

Cauldon of Essence

Cauldron of Essence is the third new artifact from Secrets of Strixhaven that's worth including in commander decks. This Black/Green artifact functions as a Zulaport Cutthroat, draining each opponent whenever a creature you control dies. It works as a payoff for Aristocrat strategies in Commander.

Cauldron of Essence's activated ability lets you sacrifice a creature to return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield. This is great for reanimating the stronger creatures in your graveyard.

The artifact is a strong fit in Aristocrat decks that value sacrifice payoffs and reanimating creatures.

Pensive Professor

Pensive Professor, a 0/2 blue Wizard, is the final card from Secrets of Strixhaven that I'm including in this list. This creature has Increment, the Quandrix mechanic in this set. It gets a +1/+1 counter whenever the mana you spent casting a spell is greater than its power or toughness. This professor's base power of 0 means that you'll trigger its Increment ability at least once.

Pensive Professor's second ability lets you draw a card when it gets one or more +1/+1 counters. This synergizes well with its first ability, giving you card advantage when its Increment ability triggers. It also works well with effects that proliferate. Card draw is valuable in Commander so that you'll constantly have options to work with.

Pensive Professor is a great addition to decks built around +1/+1 counters and proliferation.

Secrets of Strixhaven offers a strong mix of Commander options, from spellslinger payoffs and graveyard tools to sacrifice engines and +1/+1 counter synergy pieces.

Each card supports a different archetype, but all lean into value, resource loops, and incremental advantage.

While not every card fits every deck, most Commander builds will find at least a few solid inclusions worth testing from the set.

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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 2:53 PM.