Strixhaven Rumor Foreshadows Return of Duskmourn Supervillain

Last updated on February 2, 2026

Valgavoth, Terror Eater | Illustration by Antonio José Manzanedo

What is Secrets of Strixhaven even about? We've got rumors of a reverse-dimension Strixhaven school on Arcavios, Tam, Mindful First-Year supposedly pulling some strings behind the curtains, white Liliana, and apparently Valgavoth's involved somehow too? What's next, Aclazotz is the leader of the Fomori and invading Arcavios to hunt down Kasmina? Wouldn't be too surprising at this point.

But wait, back it up… Valgavoth's in Strixhaven 2.0? According to one of many recent leaks, it looks like we have reason to believe the Duskmourn big-bad will show up in some capacity. Though there's also plenty of reason to doubt the validity of the rumor.

The Leak

Yes, that's the leak we're talking about. This goes way above the usual potato-camera resolution, and yet somehow there's still some information to be gleaned here.

So first thing's first: There's some debate as to whether or not the winged creature in the art is Valgavoth. It certainly looks like it at a glance, but there's a chance this is some archaic creature native to Arcavios (the plane on which Strixhaven exists), and just happens to be a symmetrically illustrated winged demon of sorts. Certainly if you look at Valgavoth, Terror Eater, you'll see an uncanny resemblance between the composition of the two cards, but the details of this blue card are too blurry to confirm anything. This post on r/MTGRumors posits that Marina Vendrell is visible in some card art as well, which would make sense given her ties to Valgavoth and Duskmourn.

That said, people have cast doubt on this being Valgavoth. It's possible the appendages in this new card art are just extra arms, and not wings at all. Plus, archaics have this sort of gem motif, where they all have a crystal floating around their heads, which could explain the orange whatever in the center of this card art. Plus, archaics are just a part of the plane already, so it'd make total sense to see them in different forms during a revisit.

It would make sense to see Valgavoth some time soon, regardless of setting. He was introduced over a year ago and the plotline of Duskmourn was clearly setting him up as some sort of multiversal bad guy. He even showed up as a driving force (hehe) behind one of the teams in Aetherdrift, so he's meant to play some sort of lasting role in the story.

Notably, this card has no power/toughness box, so it's clearly an instant or sorcery of some kind, so being blue also doesn't refute the possibility of this being Valgavoth, who has so far been on black and black/red cards, and shows up on a green card, Valgavoth's Onslaught.

What About the Card?

Valgavoth's Onslaught | Illustration by Lie Setiawan

You can only pull so much from an image like this, but people have definitely tried. The mana cost is clearly with some amount of generic mana as well, and it appears to be an instant. Most people have landed on “Wisdom of the Ages” as the card's name, and there are a few guesses as to what it might do.

At the very least, the last line of text looks like it reads “Exile card name.” That text is usually reserved for two types of blue spells: modern-day extra turn spells, or blink spells that can create loops with recursion creatures. An extra turn spell would be quite befitting of a card named Wisdom of the Ages, but this is all speculation so far.

All these questions an more will be answered soon enough, as Secrets of Strixhaven releases in April this year. And it seems increasingly likely that we'll have more of the set leaked far in advanced.

So is it Valgavoth in the art or not? I'm sure there's some betting going on over on Kalshi already… Personally, I've got my money on Fleem in disguise.