Last week, Wizards of the Coast launched a fresh round of Secret Lair products. This time, they were collaborating with Sony to release a number of lairs themed around various PlayStation franchises. These included classics like God of War and The Last of Us as well as newer favorites like Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima.

Now, at this point it's probably no secret that I'm a tremendous gaming fan. This year alone, I've talked about both Final Fantasy and Sonic the Hedgehog at length in a variety of articles, excitedly gushing about some of my favorite games of all time. At the same time, I've also written before about Street Fighter and Tomb Raider. That's to say nothing about how much I'm eagerly anticipating the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game-themed Commander precon that I can't wait to do an upgrade piece on.

A lot of this comes from being a gamer for over three decades. I've played hundreds of great video games and am a notable collector of them as well - as you can perhaps tell from the image above. Video games were my first true love in the gaming world and provide not only hours of fun, but also no shortage of incredible stories and experiences. It's not just zipping around a level as Sonic or Mario, but you can be immersed in rich worlds that make you laugh, cry, jump out of your seat with terror, and more.

Being a huge fan of Magic: The Gathering, it's always exciting to see how those experiences translate to the cards. This in particular has made going through the various PlayStation Secret Lairs so much fun. I spent so much time with Ellie and Joel in The Last of Us, days with Kratos (and his son), and I even found a bit of silly nostalgia seeing the Twisted Metal Sol Ring.

However, nothing was more exciting for me than seeing the Secret Lair based off Uncharted.

I absolutely love the Uncharted games. I still remember picking up a dual pack of the first two titles during a Black Friday sale while in college. Growing up as a fan of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter - Naughty Dog's first two hit franchises - I was eager to get my hands on these games to try them out. That eagerness grew to a fever pitch when the second one - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - came out to rave reviews.

I played both of them and the reviews didn't lie: they were incredible. Uncharted 2 instantly became one of my favorite games of all time, sitting up there alongside heavy hitters like Chrono Trigger, various Final Fantasy titles, and several titles from The Legend of Zelda series. It lived up to the hype and then some. I was so into it that I even played the online multiplayer mode for a while - something I almost never do with games of this nature.

From there came the anticipation for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, a game I felt let down by, but still loved in its own way. Despite the letdown, I loved these so much that I bought a PlayStation 4 just so I could play Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. That was so good that it came close to matching Among Thieves in its excellence and capped off the series in a profound way.

It's not just the gameplay I love, but the characters and story moments that make it feel that much more epic. It's like a modern-day Indiana Jones, or I suppose a modern day Tomb Raider, with its adventurous archaeologist who stumbles upon mythical lands and artifacts.

Now, it's coming to Magic, and I can't help but feel absolutely giddy about it. As I tend to do with these properties I love to this degree, I went and put together a Commander deck. I've gotta say, I had an absurd amount of fun with it, and I can't wait to talk about it. Let's take a look at a list and start talking about it!

Nathan Drake | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• 1 Hostage Taker
• 1 Laughing Jasper Flint
• 1 Locke Cole
• 1 Locke, Treasure Hunter
• 1 Nightveil Specter
• 1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 1 Rikku, Resourceful Guardian
• 1 Robber of the Rich
• 1 Smirking Spelljacker
• 1 Sower of Temptation
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1 The Scarab God
• 1 Thief of Sanity
• 1 Thieving Skydiver
• 1 Tinybones, the Pickpocket
• 1 Treasure Nabber
• 1 Umaro, Raging Yeti
• 1 Vaan, Street Thief

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Dack Fayden

• Instants (7)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Commandeer
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Outrageous Robbery
• 1 Siphon Insight
• 1 Spell Swindle
• 1 Terminate

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Blatant Thievery
• 1 Chain Reaction
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Vandalblast

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Kiora Bests the Sea God
• 1 Passionate Archaeologist
• 1 Revel in Riches
• 1 Stolen Strategy
• 1 Storm the Vault // Vault of Catlacan
• 1 The Eldest Reborn
• 1 Triple Triad

• Artifacts (18)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Helm of Kaldra
• 1 Helm of the Host
• 1 Midnight Clock
• 1 Mox Amber
• 1 Shield of Kaldra
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Kaldra
• 1 The Immortal Sun
• 1 The Key to the Vault
• 1 The Millennium Calendar
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Treasure Map // Treasure Cove
• 1 Whip of Erebos
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (39)
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Island
• 3 Mountain
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Desert of the Fervent
• 1 Desert of the Glorified
• 1 Desert of the Mindful
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Drossforge Bridge
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1 Haunted Ridge
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Memorial to Folly
• 1 Memorial to Genius
• 1 Mistrise Village
• 1 Mistvault Bridge
• 1 Mount Doom
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Shipwreck Marsh
• 1 Silverbluff Bridge
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stormcarved Coast
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 1 Treasure Vault
• 1 Underground River
• 1 Xander's Lounge

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As I started to work on this deck, I tried to think about what kinds of things I would expect of an Uncharted game and Drake himself. After all, if you're making an entire deck themed around a single franchise, you might as well really lean into it!

The first thing I thought of was the use of theft effects. Nathan Drake is, as mentioned before, very much the type of character you would expect of Indiana Jones. Someone who tracks ancient artifacts and relics as their profession. Perhaps this might be for the betterment of humanity or simply profit. Whatever the case, it makes for an easy place to start deck-building.

A handful of cards quickly jumped out to me right away. Thada Adel, Acquisitor fits this archetype to a tee, and is something I always think about in the context of Commander. Nothing like going into an opponent's deck and taking their precious mana rocks. Soon after that I went to other obvious choices like Dack Fayden, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer; and Gonti, Lord of Luxury. Blatant Thievery also felt like a fairly obligatory inclusion.

What surprised me was just how deep the well could go, though. I hadn't really thought about cards like Dire Fleet Daredevil and Hostage Taker since the days where I played Hazoret Red in Standard, but they feel awesome here. Same with other old classics like Nightveil Specter, its younger cousin Thief of Sanity, Sower of Temptation, and Robber of the Rich.

Ultimately, there were so many great choices I could go with that I just had to cut them. After all, while the treasure hunting is certainly a major part of the Uncharted games, it's hardly the only one. You can easily make an entire deck solely based on these kinds of effects if you want, but I'm choosing to go for a more varied approach that leans into what makes the games so awesome.

The next thing I knew I wanted were the artifacts. In the various Uncharted games, you frequently go in search of treasure as well as lost and fabled civilizations. El Dorado, Shambhala, Iram of the Pillars, and the treasure of Henry Avery. Along the way, you pick up little collectible relics that flesh out the world and give something for trophy hunters everywhere. So, naturally, there has to be artifacts.

Most of these are your pretty standard fare with plenty of mana rocks to go around. But then there's cool artifacts like Blackblade Reforged, Helm of the Host, The Immortal Sun, and The Millennium Calendar - all things you wouldn't be shocked to find on an expedition. Additionally, what kind of treasure hunting expedition would be complete without a copy of Treasure Map // Treasure Cove?

When I was looking for cards that could steal stuff, I also came across another interesting idea. Crown of Empires could allow you to gain control of creatures, and the idea of gathering the full set of artifacts (Scepter of Empires and Throne of Empires) seemed fitting. Ultimately, I felt these were too weak standalone and moved instead to the Kaldra artifacts (Sword of Kaldra, Shield of Kaldra, and Helm of Kaldra). These give you something to shoot for with that collecting subtheme, but can still be individually powerful on their own, making for a fun little game as you play.

Going down this path also made me think about the idea of utilizing Sagas in the deck as well. While you don't collect them the way you do relics, the ancient - albeit often fictional - stories play a big role in pushing the plot of the game along. History becomes alive through these games, and wouldn't it be cool to see something like that reflected in a deck like this? I opted for only two such cards in this deck - Kiora Bests the Sea God and The Eldest Reborn - but you can easily put more of them into here if you'd like.

By this point, I was all in on trying to find ways to make the games work within the context of the deck. The Whip of Erebos reprint in the Secret Lair covers the mutant "zombies" from the first came, but so too does The Scarab God. In Uncharted 2, you run afoul of "yetis" who turn out to be mutated humans, so why not get a yeti in here as well? Sadly, Magic doesn't have many good ones so I ultimately settled on Umaro, Raging Yeti from Final Fantasy.

By comparison, Uncharted 3 left me spoiled for choice. The mythical beings in this game are djinn, though ultimately it's determined that they aren't real but are rather hallucinations caused by a poisoned water supply. Still, Magic has been known for a number of excellent djinn ever since Alpha so there are plenty of options to go with. I ultimately opted for Smirking Spelljacker since it fit the theme of stealing stuff from your opponents, but it's hard to go wrong here.

So, then what about Uncharted 4? Well, unlike the other games in the series, it lacked that mysterious and mythological aspect to it. Instead, it reveled in its set pieces and outstanding story, which came clear to the forefront of my mind as I started filling out the lands and came to Shipwreck Marsh. I think about the various abandoned ships you cross over as you make your way toward Avery's treasure and it hit me like a brick when I saw this land here.

In fact, I continued to have this experience as I was pulling up land after land. Things like Academy Ruins, Buried Ruin, Memorial to Folly, Treasure Vault, and Rogue's Passage could each represent aspects of just about any of the games.

Even certain specific settings reminded me perfectly of the games. For example, Mistrise Village reminded me of the segment in Among Thieves when you come to a village in the Himalayan mountains. City of Brass made me think of Ubar and the Explorers of Ixalan Crumbling Necropolis made me recall that shipyard once again. Heck, even Xander's Lounge calls to mind some of the settings toward the opening of Uncharted 3. And while I ultimately cut it from the deck for not fitting thematically, Endless Sands captures the moment where Drake is stranded in the Rub' al Khali desert and walks across it.

The more I put this deck together, the more it made me tell myself "oh yeah, this is an Uncharted deck all right." As I mentioned throughout the piece, so much was left on the cutting room floor with ideas and card choices I had considered left and right. It's a lot of fun to build out, whether you want to make it true to the games or else build it up on a more strictly mechanical level.

However you build your deck, though, it's sure to make for an awesome time at your next Commander night. Give Nathan Drake a try and head out on your next awesome adventure. Just be sure to watch out for the treacherous double-crossing backstabbers out to get in the way of you and your fun!

Paige Smith

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