Where Secret Lair x The Last of Us Part I asked how far you'd go to protect someone, Secret Lair x The Last of Us Part II asks what's left of you once you do.

This drop bleeds with obsession. It turns loss into motion, vengeance into mechanics, and morality into a line you can't uncross. Every card echoes that descent as each is a slow, furious march toward redemption that never arrives. (Well, except that Cordyceps Infected Token. Ugh.)

The Vengeful and the Merciless

Two new Partner-Survivors lead the story's second act: Ellie, Vengeful Hunter and Abby, Merciless Soldier. Where Joel and Ellie once represented endurance, these two embody consequence. Strangely enough, and if you've played the game you know why, you can partner Abby, Merciless Soldier with the other drop's Joel, Resolute Survivor as they both have Partner-Survivors in their text boxes. Don't know why you'd want to do that though. Anyway, let's discuss this drop!

Ellie, Vengeful Hunter

Ellie is pure hate and rage, weaponized. Her ability trades flesh for fire, life for vengeance. Every sacrifice fuels her wrath, and the cost only makes it feel more personal.

She's a Rakdos commander that rewards sacrificial efficiency - you don't waste anything; every creature, every life point, every ounce of pain becomes damage. She's the kind of deck that bleeds on purpose. At the same time, she gains indestructible which ensures she lives through almost anything your opponents can throw at her.

Key cards for Ellie's deck:

• Mayhem Devil - every sacrifice burns another target; together, they turn combat into a crime scene.
• Dictate of Erebos (Ellie's Rage) or Grave Pact - forces opponents to lose something every time you do, closing the moral loop.
• Ophiomancer or Bitterblossom - a perfect resource engine, providing a steady victim for Ellie's knife every upkeep.
• Vraan, Executioner Thane - drains the table for every death you cause, turning vengeance into inevitability.

Ellie plays like an emotional landslide (much like the video game): once she starts falling, no one climbs out unscathed.

Abby, Merciless Soldier

Abby's design is brutal and brilliant: you give her away. She's power through guilt - a living reminder of consequences you can't control. The Infected you spawn on cast are your immediate reward; the 4/4 body you hand over is the burden you bear.

Her Gruul color identity screams aggression, but her play pattern is psychological warfare. She turns politics into punishment - a gift your opponents can't refuse. Do they throw her away and let her die only to let you recast her and get even more tokens? That's the fundamental question asked every time you bring Abby, Merciless Soldier as one half of your commander partner pairings.

Key cards for Abby's deck:

• Tempt with Vengeance - floods the board with hasty tokens that feed both your offense and your sacrifice outlets.
• Greater Good - a cathartic outlet once you reclaim or copy Abby; sacrifice her for cards, story, and symmetry.
• Warstorm Surge - makes every Infected explosion another scar across the table.
• Blasphemous Act - the narrative reset button: when all else fails, burn everything.

Abby's gameplay mirrors her story - you act, they react, and in the end no one's clean.

The Complete Drop

Dictate of Erebos ("Ellie's Rage")

The emotional centerpiece. Every death becomes mutual, every casualty another confession. In gameplay it locks tables out of creatures, but in flavor it's Ellie's spiral... a truth she can't unlearn: pain demands payment.

Mycoloth ("Cordyceps Rat King")

A nightmarish reprint that turns devoured bodies into endless spawns. It's the infection at its purest...grotesque abundance born of decay. Drop this into a token or sacrifice build and watch the world rot beautifully.

Cordyceps Infected Token

The fungal foot soldiers connecting both drops. They start as 1/1s but represent inevitability - what happens when vengeance keeps breeding.

Cycle of Vengeance

What made The Last of Us Part II unforgettable wasn't victory; it was recognition. You watch two people destroy themselves to justify what they've already lost. This drop plays the same way as the further you push, the less you can stop.

Ellie, Vengeful Hunter trades everything for power. Abby, Merciless Soldier spreads destruction even when she's out of your hands. Together they turn Commander into a table-wide morality play about cost.

When you sleeve up Ellie and Abby, you're not only building a deck - you're telling a story about what vengeance leaves behind. And when the last life point falls, maybe you'll understand why no one ever really walks away. Personally, I can't wait to sleeve up a few decks and Ellie, Vengeful Hunter paired with Joel, Resolute Survivor seem like a match made in a hellish post-apocalyptic world.

This article wraps up my work on the Playstation Superdrop from Secret Lair. If you haven't yet, read through my article for an overview of the entire drop too!