"The Legendary Flyers (Not That Kind)" Secret Lair Turns Cards Into Band Flyers

The Legendary Flyers (Not That Kind) Secret Lair is part of the "Festival in a Box: Minneapolis 2023" product that allows players who can't physically make it out to the Magic Con a chance to partake in the festivities at home. The Festival in a Box product contains a few booster boxes, promo products, and a foil version of the Legendary Flyers Secret Lair, which is the topic of today's article. If you're interested in checking out the Festival in a Box you can find it here.

But back to the topic at hand, The Legendary Flyers (Not That Kind) Secret Lair comes with four Legendary creatures in the style of band advertisement flyers. That's why the "Not That Kind" is there - It means that "flyer" is not referring to a creature with flying. Not only is the aesthetic and style of the cards awesome but the creatures getting this treatment are awesome too. WOTC knocked it out of the park with this one. So, let's take a look.

The Cards

Phage the Untouchable

If this is the first you're seeing of Phage the Untouchable, welcome. She's a seven-mana 4/4 that kills whatever she touches - Players included. Yep, she essentially has "player deathtouch." The only catch here is the "When Phage the Untouchable enters the battlefield, if you didn’t cast it from your hand, you lose the game." clause. This basically means she can't be cheated into play. Or at least that was the intention.

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However, in Commander, there are ways to get around this with things like Stunning Reversal or Torpor Orb. You can even turn it into a win condition by forcing it on opponents with Endless Whispers and causing them to lose the game on the spot. Or you can just keep it simple and use Whispersilk Cloak and Dauthi Embrace to swing for lethal.

Phage is a lot of fun to play and this new version looks stellar. If I saw this flyer and wasn't familiar with the band I would assume it was some sleazy punk band. In fact, the lettering for Phage looks almost identical to the Cramps and they certainly fit that bill. 10/10 from me on this one.

Yisan, The Wanderer Bard

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard is the, oddest inclusion, in my opinion. The other three cards seem to share a similar vein (which Yisan falls slightly outside of) to me but maybe that's just me. Perhaps to others, he's right at home here. Either way, he is here and we're going to talk about him all the same.

He offers you a repeatable way to tutor out creatures each turn. Considering you'll be paying three mana for the activation that's usually all you'll pay to go and grab creatures with a mana value equal to the number of verse counters on Yisan. As far as this new art version goes, it has a very crust punk/hardcore vibe band vibe to me. If you're familiar with bands like Amebix or Nausea you'll probably see what I mean.

Alela, Artful Provocateur

Alela is one of the most popular esper commanders to come out in recent years and it's easy to see why - She's a beast. And a versatile one at that. You want to do Faerie Tribal? Got it. Flying Tribal? Done. A Token build that will create Faeries whenever you cast your Anointed Procession, Intangible Virtue, and Spear of Heliod? Alela can do it all. Furthermore, you'll create tokens for casting things like Sol Ring that you'd be playing anyways. And finally, you're in colors that have great card draw and interaction/removal.

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As for this flyer treatment, well, I think Alela is on the bill for a black metal show. The lettering is pretty similar to what you'd see in the logos for classic stuff like Mayhem, Burzum, and old-school Behemoth. If you're a fan of Faeries, Flying, or black metal style logos, this one is for you. Enjoy.

Sen Triplets

Sen Triplets is a very unique commander for several reasons. It makes opponents reveal their hands to other players, allows you to cast opposing spells as if they were yours, and makes opponents unable to cast spells on your turn. When you combine all of these things, you've got a recipe for some very interesting games of commander. You'll often find yourself in a position where you're in control of the game, in a strange way.

Another cool element of playing Sen Triplets is that there are no clear-cut ways to build the deck - There are no particular abilities or mechanics that point you in a direction or otherwise limit deck building, which is cool. You can get very creative with Sen Triplets builds. The only thing you'll be somewhat locked into is playing lands that can produce any color of mana.

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The reason why is that Sen doesn't have a "you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast these spells" clause. So, if you don't have access to whatever colors your opponents are playing somehow, you won't be able to cast their spells. This means lands like Exotic Orchard, City of Brass, and Mana Confluence are all going to be your friend. Along with mana rocks that produce any color.

As far as the new art treatment goes, it's one of my favorites from the secret lair drop. I love the contrast of dark and light and the about of surface area that's solid black. I would love to see this one in foil in person. From a musical/flyer point of view, it's sort of ambiguous to me. If I had to pick a genre, I'd say some high-energy trash/hardcore bands like Power Trip or Nails.

Conclusion

You never know what WOTC is doing to do next when it comes to Secret Lair drops. There's everything from artist-themed drops to cards that look like they are Costco products and everything in between. Now, we can check "band flyer versions" off the list. While it wasn't something I had ever thought about, I'm glad they made these. As someone who loves going to shows, I think these are cool and there are some great cards here as well. Comment down below and let me know what genres/bands each card reminds you of.