Last updated on October 8, 2025
Kratos, God of War | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve
Secret Lair‘s been doing some strange stuff lately. Or ever since its induction into Magic, if we're being honest. It's the perfect place for experimentation, since players can opt out of them as they see fit, unlike some product (sorry Star Trek fans). There's a good bit of controversy surrounding the inclusion of mechanically unique cards in Secret Lairs, but whether they should or shouldn't exist is secondary to how awesome some of the cards can be.
We've got another batch of those coming this month with the Secret Lair x PlayStation Super-drop, featuring iconic Sony video game icons on unique legendary MTG cards.
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Iroas, God of Victory | Illustration by Joshua Raphael
There are seven new Secret Lairs being dropped later this month, on October 27, each of which highlights characters from a beloved PlayStation franchise and puts them front-and-center as the face of their own drop. They're all mechanically unique legendary creatures that'll eventually get in-universe versions down the line, and they're each surrounded by a bunch of reprints that further flesh out the characters and the games they're from in Magic card form.
They'll all be playable in Eternal formats, with Commander being the main focus for the new-to-Magic cards. You can expect 10 new commanders across seven different drops, each bringing something new or interesting to your EDH table.
Ellie & Joel — The Last of Us Part I
Ellie, Brick Master and Joel, Resolute Survivor headline the first drop from the first The Last of Us game. They showcase the new rework of partner, which is a nice addition to these micro-mechanics that only work with other cards of the same kind (friends forever, doctor's companion, etc.). “Survivors” can only be paired with other survivor partners, which currently includes these two and the other partner pairing from the sequel.
Together, little Ellie and Joel make an aggressive Jund pairing that cares about tokens. Ellie creates the tokens for all players, and Joel pays you off as they die. It's not a common theme for Jund, though Ellie's a little lackluster without the partner. Joel's actually enough of a payoff that you could just run this as a solo commander, but two commanders in the command zone has proven its worth time and time again.
Abby & Ellie — The Last of Us Part II
Having Abby and Ellie occupy the same command zone is a little strange, but it adds up when you factor in Abby, Merciless Soldier‘s ability that hands it off to another player. Ellie, Vengeful Hunter is a painful, resilient sac outlet, and has some serious burn potential with a high enough life total and some fodder on board.
Remember that all the survivor partners are interchangeable, so you might even pair the two Ellies together, or let Abby and Joel coexist in harmony like they did in The Last of Us II.
Kratos, God of War — God of War: Greek
Kratos, God of War embodies the bloodthirsty god-killer quite well. It's as red as it gets, and cares only about attacking and taking opponents out. Triple red in the casting cost is also perfect when you consider how many people will pair this with Purphoros, God of the Forge, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, and other devotion cards worthy of a god.
Kratos & Atreus — God of War: Norse
Kratos took a tonal shift in 2018's God of War and the Ragnarok sequel, but his god-killing ways never died, as evidenced by his second card, Kratos, Stoic Father. Accompanied by Boy! Atreus, Impulsive Son, this Father & son duo racks up experience counters as gods get into combat or die off, which converts into +1/+1 counters for your board and some pretty impressive card draw from Atreus.
This Jeskai pairing looks a little clunky, but it also looks like a great alternative to “gods-matter” if you're tired of pretending like your Esika, God of the Tree / The Prismatic Bridge deck is in Bracket 3. There are so many gods in Magic at this point that you should have no problem building a gods deck in a 3-color pairing.
Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter — Uncharted
No offense to the Uncharted series, but Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter‘s the least exciting new commander of the bunch. “Grixis theft commander” isn't all that enticing, and half this textbox is just a rider that lets you use stolen cards in a way that makes sense.
It's not like this is a horrendous card or anything, but a 3/2 first striker isn't even guaranteed to get a clean attack in, and you still have to pay mana to cast the card you're stealing. You can't play lands with the ability, and you must cast the chosen spell immediately, so you still have to have mana up when the trigger resolves. It's also rubbing up against similar commanders like Evelyn, the Covetous and Don Andres, the Renegade.
Aloy — Horizon: Into the Forbidden West
Aloy comes from the Red Head Redemption series… no wait, that's not right. Horizon, that's the one.
A Simic legend that cares about artifact creatures is novel, and discover is a fairly powerful mechanic, so there's a lot to love here. It's another clunky-looking commander, but you can get the attack trigger the turn you play it, so it's almost like Aloy, Savior of Meridian has an ETB of sorts. This one's incredibly intuitive and gives Simic a pretty fresh-feeling commander to build towards.
Jin Sakai — Ghost of Tsushima
Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima looks super fun. It incentivizes you to send solitary attackers at each opponent, either making them unblockable, or giving them double strike for the turn. The Ghost of Tsushima protagonist is also a saboteur, drawing a card whenever it connects. If you don't have a clear attack, make them unblockable and get your card. And if someone's wide open, give it double strike and draw two cards, all while granting those same choices to other attackers taking on other opponents solo.
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1 Comment
I’m just a little bit annoyed that Nathan Drake doesn’t have colors matching Lara Croft. Would have been fun to do a deck with them together.
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