Magic: The Gathering is once again inviting another franchise to play on its turf, hot off the heels of the recent Final Fantasy collab. This time, a certain world-renowned hedgehog and his companions are being made into seven brand-new cards through a Secret Lair Superdrop. Players will be able to use Sega’s iconic characters in the Commander, Vintage, and Legacy formats, but Commander may be where Magic: The Gathering fans run into them the most.
It’s hard to tell just how well these Sonic cards will perform until fans have had time to play with them, but the new cards seem to be built with Commander in mind. Each one has some unique strengths as the commander in the deck, and some have connections that might make them great to have around in the Commander format even if they’re not the Commander themselves. These connections and details make the Sonic Secret Lair cards not only fun to play, but absolutely perfect for the characters they represent.
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Magic: The Gathering’s Care Towards the Sonic Franchise Has Created Some Very Intriguing Cards
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog plays exactly as fans would expect him to: hitting hard and fast while putting an emphasis on speed. He demands a deck built around flash and haste effects, making each one stronger every time he manages to deal damage. His card hides an Easter egg of sorts that’s made clearer by the Ring Treasure Token also found in the Secret Lair drop. With Sonic, any damaged creature with flash or haste drops tapped Treasure tokens just like he drops his rings when damaged.
The color identity Sonic has makes it so he can easily feature his close friends Tails and Amy in his decks. This works well because almost every creature card in the Sonic Secret Lair drop has haste on it, adding to Sonic’s effect, and the blue hedgehog usually brings Tails and Amy with him on adventures. Knuckles, Shadow, and Dr. Eggman serve their own purposes as commanders that make them candidates for decks of their own in ways that suit the characters far better than if they were just thrown under Sonic’s command.
Shadow the Hedgehog
The hedgehog mercenary Shadow has brought a fair bit of attention to himself with his introduction to Magic: The Gathering. Like Sonic, he plays on flash and haste, but with a focus on drawing cards rather than generating tokens. Shadow’s Chaos Control ability is the most important to how he plays, though, as split second takes away most other players’ chances at countering any spells Shadow’s side casts. Constantly doing his own thing while using his unique Chaos energy to handle things faster than most can blink, Magic captures almost everything about Shadow the Hedgehog in one simple text box. Shadow’s special Deadly Dispute reprint also helps capture his willingness to get things done, even if he needs to make sacrifices to do it.
Shadow’s color identity makes him hard to pair with the rest of the set, especially with Sonic himself. However, this is likely done on purpose, because both hedgehogs’ effects make them great rivals on opposing sides of the battlefield. While Sonic and Shadow can work together when needed, Shadow has proven he likes testing and challenging the blue blur when the two meet in racing games or the Olympics. Having these two be rivals in Magic: The Gathering fits their connection far better than being in the same deck would, only highlighted further by the similar poses they strike on their respective cards.
Miles “Tails” Prower
Magic: The Gathering‘s vehicles being the focal point of Tails’ card makes total sense. As seen in the Tornado, Sonic’s Biplane Weatherlight reprint, Tails is usually the one flying the blue blur’s airplane in the games, and he’s also its regular mechanic. Tails can usually be found creating inventions and tinkering with almost anything he can get his hands on. It makes sense that Tails in the world of Magic would gravitate towards machinery and vehicles, modifying them in ways just like the flying counters he can add already do.
Tails may be a prominent Sonic character, but he isn’t entirely one to handle things in a way that a commander might. His card design at a glance is so open-ended that there’s no clear idea as to what is possible with him. Other, more strategic cards like Dr. Eggman, Knuckles, or even Amy might be a bit more fun to build decks for at the start. With the release of sets like Aetherdrift earlier this year, or Magic: The Gathering‘s huge historical card library to pick from, there may be a diamond in the rough that’ll help Tails stand out in a big way in the Commander format. His effect may be intriguing, but other cards might steal the spotlight away from him.
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Dr. Eggman
Out of the many formats that Magic: The Gathering offers, Commander is the clear go-to for Dr. Eggman. The description mentions a villainous choice of making opponents pick between discarding or allowing the player to gain a mechanical ally. Due to how this effect plays out, Dr. Eggman will easily turn players into the archenemy of the match in a loud and boisterous way, which is exactly how Dr. Eggman operates.
Dr. Eggman is such a prominent villain because he has a cartoony, dramatic presence while also executing his plans in a cold and calculated way. He demands presence and control everywhere he goes, and that now includes Magic: The Gathering command zones. If players want to be the main antagonist of the game in the exact same way, they have the perfect way to pressure opponents with a card of Eggman himself.
Knuckles the Echidna
Out of all the Secret Lair Sonic cards, Knuckles has the most keywords attached to him. These keywords help him to manage two attacks right away while dealing excess damage to players. Every time Knuckles’ team damages an opponent, his player can create a Treasure token. The trick to this feature is that the guardian of the Master Emerald has a unique Magic: The Gathering win condition where players automatically win if they have 30 artifacts, which includes Treasure tokens.
Knuckles’ card might not be as deeply true to his character as everyone else’s cards in this set, but it makes up for it with a rather potent combo to build on. The echidna’s pure Red color identity is very true to his personality, but the card focuses most on his treasure hunter hobby that was introduced in Sonic Adventure 2. Despite this, Knuckles’ card is the one most likely to make waves due to how his design helps players reach a daunting but tempting alternate win condition if players build with it in mind.
Amy Rose
As the last mechanically unique creature card of the Sonic Secret Lair set, Amy has a lot of potential. She has haste, just like her friends do, but what’s more, Amy has an effect on her attack that allows players to attach equipment to her immediately and potentially gets a power boost off of her. Interestingly, her card doesn’t say that it has to be equipment the player controls, sparking speculation that she could steal equipment off other players.
This isn’t indicative to Amy herself as a whole, though. The pink hedgehog usually sticks to her trademark Piko Piko Hammer exclusively, which is being reprinted as Hammer of Nazahan. Still, Amy is known for being quick on her feet, and this may be how Wizards of the Coast chose to adapt that fact about her. No matter what, Amy is about to power up her friends with some interesting new hammers and weapons from across Magic history.
Super State
Finally, the Super State card is a legendary enchantment card that allows players to give a creature flying, trample, first strike, haste, and 9/9 power and toughness. It has a mana cost of seven, which clearly represents the seven Chaos Emeralds needed to turn Super in Sonic games. This is likely why the card is colorless as well, as each Chaos Emerald is its own color. This card has a lot of eyes on it as its effect and colorless nature make it a great enchantment that can be used on almost any Magic: The Gathering creature.
Super State is perhaps best used on Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, and their set companions, but the possibilities are endless. Llanowar Elves, Shivan Dragon, and even Cloud Strife can all be made into Super versions with one card. Once Super State is accessible, there will likely be plenty of builds that try to make the best of it wherever possible, and it helps that the Sonic Secret Lair is reprinting an Amy version of Open the Armory to search for it. The Super State card is the icing on the cake of a very fun set that embraces what makes Sonic so special. There isn’t much more fans could ask for from a Magic: The Gathering collaboration with the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
- Original Release Date
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August 5, 1993
- Designer
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Richard Garfield
- Player Count
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2+
- Age Recommendation
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13+