Was It Worth It To Buy The Angels Secret Lair Commander Deck? | A Magic: The Gathering...Thing 

No worries Prof. My original opinion was that Commander was long ,plodding ,and with lots of cards I normally wouldn't give a second look at. That said, watching your channel has expanded my thinking ALOT! I've even taken on the project of building the sliver swarm pre conn from Commander Masters via the singles market.

Out of curiosity, what was your first char in BG3? A wizard by any chance?

they never are worth it.

and the standard version is like a third of the price

Instead of complaining don’t buy it. It’s a great secret lair!!

@@mitchellgalle2703 I'll do both, thank you.

@@mitchellgalle2703 oh no, people want the expensive product to be expensive for a reason. the absolute and total horror, i want my 150 dollar secret lair deck to be worth the 150 dollars. how terrible of me, wanting to get my moneys worth out of a card game I enjoy and love to play. You sound like one of those fucks that said the same thing about commander masters too, aren't you

Well, we can complain and also not buy it. 😘@@mitchellgalle2703

At least a deckbox that will fit sleeved cards. I hate how all the precons come with a box that's almost big enough to hold a single sleeved deck or just the deck but not the tokens. Instead I end up having to go out and buy a cheap deckbox on top of any precon I buy. It can't be that much harder to make a box that fits. I doubt that anyone at wotc thinks customers are putting the cards inside the box without sleeves. They just don't care.

they'd probably use that as an excuse to raise the price another $50

Seriously how much is it to ask for sleeves and a box. At this price.

They should bring back the old deck boxes.

This one actually fits the entire deck in single sleeves. I actually use it as my deck box for this deck.

My boi Kytheon... At least he got to ride a colossal demon on his way out.

This is how I feel. I also feel like the deck is SIGNIFICANTLY better than other precons I’ve played. Sure the value of the cards in total dropped to 220, but they fell because of the reprint. This deck would have cost 300 without the reprinted cards

yeah ive been really enjoying it too

It's better than an Ur-Dragon deck I built myself, loaded with expensive dragons and lands. I think this is agood product compared to the Commander Masters preconds. Glad I didn't buy any of them and got this instead.

@@mattiasbystedt1332 the only Master Commander deck I bought was the Planeswalkers party. I did make my own Sliver deck based off of Gravemother and I want some of the Eldrazi cards, but I completely understand. They were just way too expensive

I collect angels as a tribe so this was absolutely one of the most epic things I've bought this year. Also you're right this plays very nicely out of the box.

Charging that much for a deck that doesnt have Avacyn. Ugh, and i still want it haha

on cardtrader for 219... I'm the one person that's trying to sell it for 160. i just want my goddamned money back (and even then i'd probably lose out cuzz of post costs)

​@@dudemetslagroom8065I dont see that listing? Did you actually get it off ypur hands?

Scalpers are barely human and should be ignored and avoided like the plague. Wait a month and the prices on all these cards will drop under 200 for the deck (the SLD art included) just like it did with the cute to brute deck.

I got it....replaced half of it with upgrades.....I have regrets

thank you!! terminal online nature of the designers has polluted the flavor of mtg.

Lol, “meta humor from the intern who still likes Rick and Morty” goes hard

I proxied & upgraded the deck & use Giada as commander, and it's very strong. Monocolor, lots of discounts, and built-in tribal ramp = turn 4 windmill slam Serra's Emissary, it rules.

I’ve only gotten one game in with it ((most friend pods exist at a much lower interaction level than I do so it would be unfair to step in with an entire deck of flying)) but even when hoping to hit the Meld and missing it was fun.

@@LazarusIsBackBaby How many cards you have changed from original list?

For real, that’s what secret lair decks should be. Release a really special deck once a year. Make it have lots of cool art, foils, proper mana base, the works….and let it be some ludicrous amount like $200 or so. If you make the product worth it and don’t ram secret lairs down our throat, it would feel special and it would move quickly.

It was available almost a month. So very long time for this type of secret lair deck.

I only use bruna and gisela because my playgroup allows me to use them as partners. Otherwise I'd use giada too

@@fate3071 oh that sounds really cool. Though I can imagine getting both out at the same time to meld being hard to do. I've yet to do it successfully in my pods.

@PerryTheOneArmLegend that's exactly why my friends let me use them as partners. It's already hard enough to meld them, and if the one I'm not using as Commander gets exiled then I will never meld them that game

@@fate3071 yeah that's fair. How long does it take for you to ramp them out?

@@PerryTheOneArmLegend I haven't played many games with this deck yet, but I used to have them in the 99 of a different deck that I played all the time

Panorama lands used to be a more common, appearing in Lorwyn, Scars of Mirrodin and Kamigawa ( not sure which one)

I noticed that and it made me with they made them full art. It would have looked so much cleaner and made even the basic plains feel a bit more special

That used to be a thing they did all the time.

Yeah, Gloomhaven's fantastic! Never regretted spending $150 for mine; the variability is just so unique and genre-defining

Nice machine error, you got a bonus chicken tendie

Yeah I was very luck to buy it.

​@@yokoyokome5281why are you lucky? You purchased a product. That's it. FOMO does not make it less so. It should be a privilege for a company to make a product worth your money, not for you to have the privilege of buying a product.

"At least he didn't leave a mark when he hit me this time"

That’s coping hard. They literally did something fucked up and bad and now you’re praising them for not doing that, and that this time they only made it an expensive and low value product

Thats the way to thing, consumer!

I mean, are you talking about the 5 single new artwork out of 100 cards of a 150$ deck? Prof did talk about how the art looked cool and nice, but you can't make a selling point out of that once the price tag is so high. Do really just buy singles at that point.

It is a beautiful artwork. Court of Grace specially may be my favorite, with that flavor text too. "For a time, she was Radiant"

Giada, font of hope is the creature you're refering to

a review would be usless because the deck is not on the market anymore at the time the video is released. that was his point at the beginning

I think the problem with that is the specifc costs of the alternate art cards won't be set until a little after release, so whatever Prof releases at the time of release will in no way reflect a good assessment, unless you only take the value of regular art cards, which is definitely a different value altogether.

I understand that, but how often is the Alternate Art card lower value than the regular art? So if we know, at the very least, that the value of the CARDS are good then we can believe the value of the deck only goes up from there.

i was also confused when prof said it sold out immediately. i bought it early but still saw it available for sale weeks after i bought it

Yeah I don’t know when it sold out but I know it was still in stock when the following secret lair released, so it was at minimum available Aug 10 - August 29. While it should be up longer than 2.5 weeks, it wasn’t sold out immediately. I know it doesn’t change anything about the product but I think the accuracy is important to not instigate FOMO impulse buying for future secret lair commander decks.

No upgrades? I upgraded mine but I’m not sure the people I’ve played with were considerate enough to play something more of this precon’s power level with me, even upgraded, after I told them what I was playing lol.

😅😮😊

Who do you run as the commander?

@@Zondac I chose Gisela as the commander to have the meld ready. Bruna is more of a conditional spell, that I don't want to cast just for the meld. Giada, which is also in the deck, might be a better option due to her mana ability. But I like Gisela more because she plays very well with the lifegain theme of the deck.

@@schrottinator I already run a deck that's very very close to this (with cosmic elixir and a few other key items as the deck struggles a bit with drawing), and I haven't really been that successful in getting the melds, basically just puts a much bigger target on a 2-for-1 in my pod at least, my deck also struggles with protecting it... Giada or even Lyra I feel would run a bit smoother, if the lifegain is a core part of your win con with the angel of destiny and whatnot... It's fun to play, but I just can't make it be anything more than "And here's another Timmy spell!"

@@Zondac I don't really care that much for the meld. Having a four drop that can reliably deliver the 4 life, as 3 and 4 are important thresholds, is more important to me. The meld is more of a nice to have and I wouldn't want to waste Bruna's cast trigger just to meld. This deck is meant for a long game. Commanders like Giada and Lyra make the deck faster and more consistent and with that far smoother. I also think that Giada would be the "right" choice. I only play Gisela out of preference. The life gain is only a subtheme and while I won with an Angel of Destiny wearing a Commander's Plate, i think Angel of Destiny is more of a fun gimmick. The real threat comes from the token creation. The deck has a lot of room for improvement and I'm sure I gradually will upgrade it, but it's fun to play and unlike the "Cute to Brute"-deck it functions as a deck and can win as long as your are willing to commit yourself to long and grindy games. Personally I would prefer some more interaction and protection. Also it takes some time to setup your boardstate and a surprising amount of planning to not end up playing one splashy spell per turn and then sitting there for a turn cycle with an empty hand. I also often wished to have an Evolving Wilds or Terramorphic Expanse to shuffle/thin my deck after scrying. I also pick prefer to play the deck in pods that are lower in power level.

@@schrottinator Seems we got pretty similar reads on the deck then actually, I just wanted to hear if anyone had a different opinion about it in case I had missed something obvious! Thanks man

Well all money you spend on a computer game is lost. When you have played this deck till you are bored with it you can even sell it for a profit, that to me is money wisely spent.

@@reviewmirror591 Remember the good old days when you could re-sell a computer game?

That would mean Wizards would print value in a premium product. So that just wont do/s I agree this list is asssss

@NyxTheScary akroma isn't even value tho. she's a bulk rare but she's one of the most iconic angels in all of magic. I could understand not putting avacyn cause of value but no excuse for akroma

@@konata8657 i got Akroma and Avacan confused lmao.

Also, they put Giada in the 99 when it's the best Commander for the deck, a premium angel deck should have her as the general.

Hair loss treatments have pitched themselves that way for decades, there was even an MST3K bit about it in the 90s. It's no different than razor or makeup brands calling themselves body positive.

I do too! First secret lair purchase and it plays pretty well!!!! :)

Calling it the best secret lair precon when it's only the third one they have done isn't saying much lol

​@somedude5254 there is 3 total secret lair decks.

@RageAgainstTheTards you are right, thank you! I forgot about the Cute to Brute one, but even then my point still stands with only 3

​@@somedude5254I see your point, but I honestly think it'll be hard to beat this deck. Out of the deck it holds it's own against other really good decks. I played it against the heads I win deck and I stomped it.

My pleasure

Yeah it really is a solid deck list. I was shocked by his reaction to this. Especially considering how much more consistent it is than heads I win tails you lose