We are officially one full month removed from 2025. As of February 11, 2026, the dust has settled, the FOMO has either paid off or turned into regret, and one thing is clearer than ever. Secret Lairs are getting harder and harder to obtain once that sales window closes. Miss the drop, and suddenly you are at the mercy of resale prices, trades, or that one friend who "just grabbed an extra."

For Commander players especially, Secret Lairs have shifted from novelty collectibles into real deck-defining pickups. Alternate-art staples, mechanically unique commanders, and crossover IPs (or Universes Beyond, well I'm not even sure that's what these SLD drops are called) that actually translate well to EDH have made 2025 a particularly strong year.

Here are my top five Secret Lair pickups from 2025 for Commander. If you have already copped a few, great! If not, keep your eyes peeled for good deals.

Secret Lair x PlayStation: Ghost of Tsushima

This drop was an instant win for flavor and gameplay.

Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima lands as a compelling and lethal Esper commander that naturally leans into Voltron strategies. Equipment, protection, and combat tricks all feel on-theme, and Esper gives you the interaction and resilience Voltron decks often struggle to maintain in longer games. Both of Jin Sakai's abilities to give unblockable or double strike give your opponents a bad time.

The reprints are just as important here.

Ghostly Flicker and Path to Exile are Commander staples that already see play across countless archetypes. Giving them striking Tsushima-inspired art is an aesthetic homerun. This is the kind of Secret Lair that upgrades decks without forcing you to change how you build them.

Secret Lair x God of War: Norse

If Ghost of Tsushima nailed elegance and honor, this drop leaned fully into emotional weight and raw power.

The pairing of Atreus, Impulsive Son and Kratos, Stoic Father opens up a Jeskai experience-counter strategy that feels both thematically aligned to the games and mechanically satisfying. Experience counters let your creatures scale over time while also rewarding you with card advantage, which is exactly where many midrange Jeskai decks want to be.

On the reprint side, Iroas, God of Victory (Freya, Queen of the Valkyries) steals the show. Even outside the crossover context, this is the kind of legendary creature that Commander players actively look for, and the beautiful art treatment pushes it into premium territory.

Secret Lair x Sonic: Friends & Foes

This was one blazing drop.

Sonic the Hedgehog shows up as a fast, aggressive Jeskai commander that thrives on haste and tempo. He encourages proactive play and punishes slow starts, which is refreshing in a format that can sometimes drift toward value piles.

Shadow the Hedgehog is where things get spicy. Acting as a split-second enabler when you use mana from artifacts, he rewards mana rocks, Treasures, and artifact-heavy builds in a way that feels both clever and dangerous.

Secret Lair x Final Fantasy: Grimoire

If you were purely hunting value and playability, this drop was impossible to ignore.

The Final Fantasy: Grimoire Secret Lair was stacked with EDH all-stars. Cyclonic Rift, Damn, and Heroic Intervention are format-defining cards that already live in binders, decks, and trade folders everywhere. Giving them Final Fantasy-themed art was a brilliant move. To be honest, the other Final Fantasy SLD drops (Secret Lair x Final Fantasy: Game Over and Secret Lair x Final Fantasy: Weapons) were also stellar!

Secret Lair: City Styles 2: Dressed to Kill

The first Secret Lair: City Styles already set the bar high by giving us beautiful art for Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Teysa Karlov, and Massacre Girl. And with this second run called Dressed to Kill part of the Winter Superdrop 2025, the art is even more amazing.

The city pop aesthetic is confident, stylish, and immediately recognizable across the table. More importantly, the card selection is excellent for Commander players.

Karmic Guide, Captain Sisay, and Selvala, Explorer Returned are all powerful Commander cards with established homes in multiple archetypes. Whether you are in reanimator, legends-matter, or value-based Green-White shells, these are cards that see real play. Veyran, Voice of Duality and Ninja of the Deep Hours round up this set and those aren't slouches as well.

Secret Thoughts

Secret Lairs are not essential. You can build powerful Commander decks without owning a single one for sure.

But they are one of the best ways to bling out your deck and add a layer of identity to cards you already love casting. When the art, mechanics, and card selection align, Secret Lairs become more than collectibles. They become part of how your deck tells its story.

And if 2025 was any indication, 2026 is already off to a strong start. The new Secret Lair x Fallout that dropped earlier this January sets an excellent tone for the year ahead.