Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast (WotC) and IGN, check out the firs two cards previewed from the Stranger Things Secret Lair drop — Chief Jim Hopper and Eleven, the Mage!
The Stranger Things Secret Lair drop will contain eight mechanically unique cards and will be part of the October Superdrop, which will include six other drops available for preorder on October 18. The first two cards we get to see are Chief Jim Hopper and Eleven, the Mage. Both are Legendary Creatures with the friends forever ability, which functions like partner from previous Commander products, but notably doesn’t allow you to pair them with partner cards, only friends forever cards (You can have two commanders if both have friends forever).
Chief Jim Hopper is a 4/4 Human Soldier with menace for 2RW. On top of the friends forever ability, whenever he attacks, investigate once for each nontoken attacking creature. For Boros players looking to build something not revovling around equipment, Chief Jim Hopper gives you the chance to take a different angle in deck building. Of course, he can also join up via friends forever with Eleven, the Mage or potentially other characters from the popular Netflix show, to create other synergies.
Eleven, the Mage is a 3/5 Human Wizard for 1UBR that increases your maximum hand size to eleven. Whenever Eleven, the Mage attacks, draw a card and a lose a life. Then if you have eleven or more cards in your hand, you may cast an instant or sorcery spell form your hand without paying its mana cost. Eleven looks to be an interesting take on a Grixis spells matters deck, as attacking immediately provides card advantage and if you can find a way to keep your hand full of eleven cards, free spells in Commander go can a long way.
The other six cards in the Stranger Things Secret Lair drop will be previewed today on Weekly MTG, which airs on twitch.tv/magic at 5:30 PM ET/2:30 PM PT. The eight mechanically unique cards will eventually appear in Magic set boosters as part of The List with different names, but be treated the same as their Universes Beyond versions similar to the Godzilla cards from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.
What do you think of Chief Jim Hopper and Eleven, the Mage? Which one do you want to build a deck around?