Every Secret Lair Commander Deck In MTG Ranked From Worst To Best

Secret Lair is an extremely divisive aspect of Magic: The Gathering, largely due to the unnecessarily limited nature of its releases. It’s making headlines again for several reasons, including botched releases like The Zeta Set and a relentless schedule that puts out at least one product each week.

Still, whether you’re looking to get your hands on an official Secret Lair Commander deck printing during its on-sale window, or via the secondary market.

9

20 Ways To Win (2024)

17 Ways Too Many

We kick off our Secret Lair Commander deck rankings with 20 Ways To Win, and it’s pretty obvious why, just from the name. We’re all for alternative win conditions and surprising your opponents with a non-traditional way to end a game, but a deck built around fitting as many win conditions into a 100-card deck does provide the end product you’d expect.

This deck isn’t hugely fun to play with or against, and while it’s a noble idea to build around winning at any cost, it’s gone too far in pursuit of the gimmick and isn’t very memorable as a result.

All that being said, this isn’t a bad Commander deck by any stretch of the imagination; it’s just one that, for the most part, will lead to slow, methodical turns if you start thinking about the various ways you can win. It’s also very frustrating to set yourself up for an alternative win condition only for an opponent to destroy the related enchantment or reset your progress. In moments like this, you’ll just wish you were playing with a deck that aims to win in a traditional way, like basic or Commander damage.

8

Heads I Win, Tails You Lose (2021)

A 50/50 Shot At Success

How much you enjoy playing with the Heads I Win, Tails You Lose deck will largely come down to how much you enjoy luck as a major factor in your success. This deck uses coin flips to determine a number of abilities and outcomes, and if you’re on a bad streak, you won’t have much fun.

On the other hand, hit a hot streak, and you’ll be the biggest threat at the table, so it really is a case of fate deciding what kind of game you’re going to play.

Not every card in this deck has the flip-a-coin mechanic tied to it, but there are far more than we would have imagined, even when the name of the deck lets you know exactly what to expect.

Some cards add an extra risk/reward element: you pick how many times you flip a coin, and whenever you lose a flip, you take a punishment, such as losing life.

As a Commander precon, this deck will draw intrigue from the other players at your table, but it feels a bit gimmicky, and we wouldn’t recommend it as a usual Friday Night Magic go-to unless you’re fine with how little control you often have over outcomes.

7

Odds & Ends (2026)

Value Isn’t Everything

Next up is Odds & Ends, a deck built around Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign, a Sphinx who will let you cast spells off the top of your deck for free when she attacks, provided they have an odd mana value. This means almost the entire deck is built around odd spells, and it includes valuable reprints like Esper Sentinel and Sensei’s Divining Top.

Still, despite being one of the more valuable Secret Lair decks, its overall composition and strategy is a bit of a stretch, so it falls into the lower echelon. Still, it is a fun deck to play; just don’t expect it to be nearly as competitive as some others on this list, mainly because it’stoo one-dimensional.

6

Everyone’s Invited (2025)

Everyone But You

In the middle of the pack, we’re putting the Everyone’s Invited deck from 2025. This Secret Lair Commander precon leans into creature types, with almost all types accounted for, and plenty of Changelings to pad out the rest of the deck.

It’s a creature-heavy deck, as expected given the theme, but aside from some really useful enchantments, the other spells are a little basic, which hurts the deck’s overall adaptability.

Still, Everyone’s Invited is a fun deck to play with and would be a great deck even for players new to the format, as it’s fairly straightforward to play with and focuses on damage as the main win condition rather than muddying the waters, a fault we already highlighted with the 20 Ways To Win deck.

5

Hatsune Miku (2026)

It’s All About The Performance

This next deck takes a slight detour; it doesn’t have a snappy name and is instead built around a collaboration with Hatsune Miku. Still, this Selesnya deck is quite straightforward, being built around Angels, Life Gain, and the Populate mechanic.

The plan is to overwhelm your opponents while gaining life consistently, creating a gap that’s extremely intimidating to overcome. If we overlook the Hatsune Miku card art, which will be hit or miss depending on your association with the character, the deck prioritizes playability over trying to make headlines with notable reprints.

4

Raining Cats And Dogs (2024)

Figuratively And Literally

This pet deck is, as you’d expect, dominated by cat and dog creature types, with changelings filling some of the gaps in the 34-strong creature pool. It’s yet another creature-heavy Secret Lair Commander deck (with more still to come), but one that’s solid all around, with strong enchantments, instants, and sorceries to back up your legion of pets.

This deck has everything you need for a competitive Commander deck: brute-force damage, plenty of card draw potential, solid ramp and cost reduction, and enough creature diversity to keep your opponents on their toes.

The deck includes new double-faced versions of five cards, each with a cat side and a dog side, plus lands and tokens reimagined to fit the theme.

3

Angels: They’re Just Like Us But Cooler And With Wings (2023)

This Is One Tribe You Don’t Want To Mess With

You have to go back to 2023 to find the first mono-colored Secret Lair Commander deck (spoiler alert, the other one tops this list), and it just so happens to be one of the best decks to come out of the service. Oh, and one of the most valuable, too.

This deck isn’t as creature-heavy at first glance, given that there are only 26 creature cards compared to 20 artifacts, but there are so many ways to create additional token creatures in this deck that the 26 permanent cards will feel like way more when in active play. The instants and sorceries are a little basic, mostly revolving around targeted removal or board wiping of specific card types, but that’s to be expected from Mono-White.

This deck shines in the inherent power and strength of a good angel deck. They’re a frustrating creature to deal with at the best of times, thanks to their flying nature and the strength in numbers they show through card abilities. The good news, if you’re playing against this deck, is that once an angel is off the battlefield, it typically stays off, so you won’t have to worry about constant resurrections.

Part of the deck’s strong value comes from the sheer volume of special art cards and foils. This has made it one of the most valuable Secret Lair decks to this day, further aided by the limited nature of the service.

2

From Cute To Brute (2023)

Kill ‘Em With Cuteness

Arguably, this is the most “traditional” Secret Lair Commander deck, using multiple mana colors and revolving around a clear, concise strategy: cast creatures to build them up and deal massive damage. Despite being creature-heavy, the deck has layers, and the more you play it, the more you’ll understand and appreciate its nuances.

This deck also leans heavily on cards from one of my favorite periods in Magic, with Kaldheim, Strixhaven, and Innistrad sets all featuring prominently.

The deck’s themes and mechanics are also a lot of fun to play and mesh well, with transforming cards, double-sided cards, token generation, graveyard nullification, card draw, and more.

It may not be the most valuable or unique Commander deck, but we love how easy it is to get to grips with, and it’s more than capable of winning battles against some much stronger decks on paper.

1

Goblin Storm (2026)

All-Out Aggression

There is admittedly a little recency bias in ranking Goblin Storm as the best Secret Lair Commander deck, but we’re certain that time will be kind to this decision. Mono-colored Commander decks aren’t overly common, but there’s an argument that Red is the best color for building one.

This deck combines Goblin creatures with Storm, which lets you copy certain spells and choose new targets. It’s a strange combination, since Storm is typically associated with Izzet decks, but it works here thanks to the deck’s sheer aggression and the generally low costs of most spells.

It’s sheer aggression, plus the ability to rebuild from board wipes thanks to the low cost of creatures and ways to give them Haste, making it a nuisance to play against but incredibly fun to play. It’s also great for new players because it’s easy to navigate any Commander match when all you’re worried about is red mana and smacking opponents in the face.

A unique aspect of this deck is that some Goblin cards feature artwork by Wizard of the Barge, a popular artist known for their fantasy-inspired cartoon style. Not all cards in the deck are redesigned, but those that are have become hugely valuable, and thus a popular target for proxies.