Secret Lair Commander Deck · upgraded

HatsuneMiku

A Selesnya token and lifegain deck, rebuilt to end games. Every creature that enters gains you life, every life gained grows your team, and then the team runs over the table. This is the full manual: a guide you can read in steps, every card with rulings, the combos, the numbers, and a real game to practise against.

Bracket 3 · Upgraded
~295€ total
24 upgrades
3 infinite combos

Start the guide Play a game

100: cards, 34 lands, 13 of them Miku-art basics
3.3: average mana value of the nonland cards
T7–9: typical kill turn at a 4-player table (median 9 in the speed test)
6.5–7: out of 10 on the old power scale

How the deck wins

One engine, four beats

1
Creatures enter
Tokens from Hero of Bladehold, Adeline, Elspeth, Grand Crescendo and populate. Each one is a separate trigger.
2
You gain life
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, Soul Warden and Prosperous Innkeeper turn every body into a lifegain event.
3
The team grows
Archangel of Thune, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Nykthos Paragon and Cathars' Crusade turn those events into +1/+1 counters.
4
Overrun or combo
Craterhoof Behemoth, Overwhelming Stampede and friends end it. If the board stalls, the combos win anyway.

The guide

Learn it track by track

Sixteen short chapters, from the deck in 60 seconds to the trickiest rules questions. Your place is saved on this device.

The guide · 16 tracks

Step by step

Tap a track to read it. Each one ends with the next.

Combos & kills

How to actually win

The deck has three ways to end a game: a wide attack with a pump spell (most games), one of the infinite combos (when the board stalls or you need to win at instant speed), and Halo Fountain's alternate win. Tell your table about the infinite combos before you play: Bracket 3 allows them late in the game, but some groups don't.

Combo 1Infinite damageHeliod + Walking Ballista

+

You need: Heliod on the battlefield (it doesn't need to be a creature), Walking Ballista with at least two +1/+1 counters, and {1}{W}.
Total mana: 7 to 9 across one or more turns: Heliod 3, Ballista 2 to 4, lifelink 2.
Speed: Instant. Everything after casting Ballista can happen on an opponent's turn.

Have Heliod, Sun-Crowned out. Cast Walking Ballista with X=2. With Trostani or Soul Warden out, X=1 is enough: Ballista entering gains you life, and Heliod puts a second counter on it.
Pay {1}{W} for Heliod's ability: Walking Ballista gains lifelink until end of turn.
Remove a counter from Ballista: it deals 1 damage to an opponent. It still has a counter left, so it survives.
Lifelink gains you 1 life. Heliod triggers and puts a +1/+1 counter back on Ballista.
Ballista is back where it started. Repeat step 3 until every opponent is dead.

Why two counters and not one?

If Ballista has one counter and you remove it, it becomes a 0/0 and dies before the ping resolves. The damage and lifelink still happen, but Heliod's trigger has no Ballista to target, so the loop ends. With two counters, Ballista survives each ping.

What if they respond?

If someone tries to kill Ballista in response to the lifelink activation, remove its counters in response and ping anyway. If Heliod gets exiled or bounced mid-loop, you keep whatever damage you already dealt. Heliod's indestructible, so destroy effects do nothing to it.

How do I find the pieces?

Finale of Devastation for X=3 puts Heliod directly onto the battlefield. Don't use Finale for Ballista: it enters with zero counters and dies.

Combo 2Infinite lifeSpike Feeder + Heliod, Thune or Cleric Class

+oror

You need: Spike Feeder with at least two counters (it enters with two), plus one of the three engines. No extra mana.
Speed: Instant, and free. You can do it in response to a board wipe.
Win with: Aetherflux Reservoir (50 damage per 50 life), or Archangel of Thune's infinite counters and an attack.

Remove a +1/+1 counter from Spike Feeder: you gain 2 life (3 with Cleric Class).
The engine triggers. Heliod or Cleric Class puts a counter on target creature: pick Spike Feeder. Archangel of Thune puts a counter on every creature you control, including Feeder.
Feeder has its counter back. Repeat as many times as you like.
With Archangel of Thune, every loop also grows your whole team by +1/+1. Stop at any size and attack.
With Aetherflux Reservoir out, pay 50 life for 50 damage to each opponent in turn.

Why two counters?

Removing the last counter is part of the cost, so Feeder dies as a 0/0 before the life arrives and the engine has nothing to put the counter back on. Loop with two or more and it survives every time.

Is infinite life a win on its own?

No. It makes you nearly impossible to kill by damage, but you still need to finish. The payoffs in this deck are Aetherflux Reservoir, Soul of Eternity (its size is your life total), Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn (that many counters at end of turn), and Archangel of Thune growing the team.

What protects it?

Shalai, Voice of Plenty gives your other creatures hexproof, which covers Feeder, Thune and Ballista. It doesn't cover Heliod while Heliod isn't a creature, or Aetherflux Reservoir (an artifact). Keep Grand Crescendo or Rootborn Defenses up against wipes.

Alt winFifteen untapsHalo Fountain: untap fifteen, win the game

For {W}{W}{W}{W}{W}, tap Halo Fountain and untap fifteen tapped creatures you control, and you win. The creatures need to be tapped first, so the timing is: attack with fifteen or more creatures without vigilance, then activate it right after attackers are declared, before blockers can kill any of them. Convoke (Hour of Reckoning, Dazzling Theater // Prop Room) also taps creatures, and so does Springleaf Drum.

Watch out

Intangible Virtue gives your tokens vigilance, so they won't tap when they attack.

Overruns

Lethal calculator

Most games end with a wide attack and a pump spell. Put in your board and see which finisher kills. It assumes your attackers aren't blocked, so treat it as a best case.

Game plan

How to pilot it

You're the midrange deck at the table: faster than the control players, slower than the combo players. Ramp early, build an engine in the midgame, and end it in one big turn. The whole game is about sequencing: lifegain sources before the creatures that trigger them, bait before your best threat, and protection held up before you commit.

Turns 1–3Soundcheck

Play a mana source every turn: Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Nature's Lore.
Drop cheap engines early: Soul Warden, Cleric Class, Ajani's Pridemate, Voice of the Blessed.
A good turn 3 is Adeline, Resplendent Cathar or, off a mana creature, Trostani.

Turns 4–6The build

Land Trostani, then the payoffs: Archangel of Thune, Hero of Bladehold, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Cathars' Crusade.
Attack with Adeline and Hero every turn, at the player with the fewest blockers.
Keep Grand Crescendo or Rootborn Defenses mana open once your board is worth protecting.

Turn 7+Encore

Count lethal with the calculator, then cast the overrun precombat.
If the board is stalled, go for a combo: Heliod + Ballista or Spike Feeder.
Finale of Devastation at X=10 or more is a Craterhoof by itself.

Practice

Opening hand trainer

Draw seven from the real 99 and see whether it's a keep. Your first mulligan in multiplayer Commander is free.

Keep

3 or 4 lands with at least one ramp piece.
2 lands plus Sol Ring or a mana creature and cheap plays.
Anything with Trostani castable by turn 4.

Mulligan

0 or 1 land, even with ramp.
6 or 7 lands.
Only 5+ mana spells. Don't mulligan to find combo pieces: the deck wins without them.

Example

A good draw, turn by turn

A sample goldfish with no interaction from opponents, to show how fast the engine snowballs.

T1
Forest, Elvish Mystic
1 creature
T2
Plains, Arcane Signet, Soul Warden
2 creatures, 4 mana next turn
T3
Sunpetal Grove, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice (+1 from Warden)
Engine online, 41 life
T4
Plains, Hero of Bladehold (+4 Trostani, +1 Warden), Intangible Virtue
46 life
T5
Land, Archangel of Thune (+4, +1: two counters on everything). Hero attacks: two Soldiers enter, each gains 2 and 1 more, four more counter waves.
Your older creatures carry six counters each
T6
Overwhelming Stampede or Beastmaster Ascension and swing
At least one player dead

Sequencing

Ten habits that win games

Lifegain first, bodies second. Soul Warden, Trostani and Innkeeper only count creatures that enter after them.
Populate at the end of the opponent's turn. Trostani's ability works at instant speed. Hold the mana, bluff, and still get the token.
Bait before the Angel. Hero of Bladehold and Adeline must be answered. Once they've eaten removal, Archangel of Thune lives longer.
Skip small Nykthos Paragon triggers. It works once per turn and it's optional. Wait for a big gain.
Order Hero of Bladehold's triggers. Make the tokens first, then battle cry, so the Soldiers get +1/+0.
Don't overextend into a wipe. Keep a token maker in hand, or hold Grand Crescendo or Rootborn Defenses.
Clamp your 1/1s. Skullclamp on a Citizen or Soldier is two cards for one mana. Intangible Virtue turns this off.
Hour of Reckoning is yours. It only kills nontoken creatures. When your board is tokens and theirs isn't, it's one-sided.
Save Swords and Path. Use them on combo pieces and commanders, not on the first creature you see.
Announce the combo turn clearly. Walk the table through the loop, state how many times you repeat it, and move on.

Matchups

Reading the table

Against control and board wipes

Commit two or three threats at a time, not your whole hand. Voice of Resurgence punishes instant-speed removal on your turn, and Grand Crescendo cast at the end of their turn rebuilds a board from nothing. Elenda's Hierophant leaves tokens behind.

Against combo decks

You have no counterspells, so your answer is pressure and removal. Attack the combo player early, and save Beast Within, Generous Gift and Swords to Plowshares for their key piece. Walking Ballista can snipe small combo creatures.

Against aggro and voltron

Your life total is a resource. Chump block with tokens, keep gaining, and use Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile on a suited-up commander. Shalai, Voice of Plenty stops targeted burn at your face.

Against artifacts and enchantments

Break Down, Sundering Growth and Excavation Technique handle rocks, equipment and stax pieces. Sundering Growth also populates.

The setlist

All 100 cards

Tap any card for its full entry. NEW marks the 24 upgrades.

Out of the box

The 25 cards that came out

What each upgrade replaced from the sealed deck, and why it had to go.

Glossary

Every keyword in this deck

What each term means, and which of your cards use it.

Filter the glossary

FAQ

Questions people ask about this deck

Setting up the table…

Opening the Arena…

Piano roll

The whole deck as a score

Every nonland card is a note: its lane is its role, its position is its mana value. Tap a note to open the card.

Mana curve

The levels

Nonland cards by mana value. X costs count as 0 plus their fixed symbols. Tap a bar to list its cards.

66 nonland cardspeak at 2 mana

Card types100 cards

Colors

Pips against sources

How much each color is asked for in mana costs, and how many of your lands and mana cards make it.

Roles

What the 99 do

A card can fill more than one role, so the bars add up to more than 99.

Money

Where the upgrade budget went

Speed test

How fast it kills

5,000 simulated solo games of the final 100 cards against three opponents at 40 life, with no blockers and no removal. Real games are slower, so read these as a ceiling. Tap a bar for the details.

Games won by the end of turn…median turn 9

How the games endedwith combos

The combos add only a few points. The deck wins by going wide and growing its creatures with lifegain triggers.

What the test assumes

You go first with no draw on turn 1, take one free mulligan, and keep 2 to 5 lands. Colors are ignored, and a simple AI casts the best card it can afford, holding Stampede, Triumph, Craterhoof and Return of the Wildspeaker until they win that turn. Removal never gets cast, so 8 cards do nothing here. A skilled player would do a bit better; real opponents make it slower.

Against real opponents

Miku against the bots

Games played by the same engine as the Play tab, with bots on every seat: Miku against three random precons, and against three random Bracket 4 decks that block, remove and counter.

Draw odds

What are the chances?

Exact odds from the real 99: how likely you are to see a card, or a group of cards, by a given turn.

Opening hands

Lands in your first seven

34 lands in 99 cards. How often each count shows up in a fresh seven.

Strength

A solid Bracket 3

That's "Upgraded" in the official brackets, roughly 6.5 to 7 on the old 1 to 10 scale. Strong at a casual or upgraded-precon table, nowhere near cEDH. This is a judgement from reading the list, not from tested games.

Why it's strong

Two compact infinite combos, and Finale of Devastation can fetch the pieces.
Five single-card finishers once a board is out.
Real ramp: Sol Ring, two Signets, four mana creatures and three land-ramp spells.

What holds it back

A 4-mana commander that isn't a threat alone. Games end around turn 7 to 9.
Light interaction and no counterspells, so fast combo decks can race it.
Thin card draw: mostly Skullclamp, Camaraderie and Shamanic Revelation.

Before you sit down

Bracket 3 allows two-card infinite combos as long as they aren't early-game ones, which fits here. Mention Heliod + Walking Ballista at the pregame talk, since some tables ban any infinite. Game Changers limits change over time, so check the current official list against this deck before a bracketed event.

Your other deck

Miku vs Etrata

They're close, and both are Bracket 3. The upgraded Miku deck is slightly ahead at about 6.5 to 7, with your Etrata, Deadly Fugitive deck at about 6 to 6.5. Miku hits harder once it's set up. Etrata is faster, more interactive, and would give Miku a hard time head to head. This comes from reading both lists, not from playtesting.

MikuEtrata

Finishers

Craterhoof, Overwhelming Stampede, Triumph of the Hordes and Beastmaster Ascension each end the game by themselves once you have a board. Etrata's closers (Wound Reflection, Unstoppable Slasher, Strixhaven Stadium) need a few turns of hitting first.

Ramp

Miku has mana creatures, land-ramp spells and rocks. Etrata runs rocks only.

Recovering from a wipe

Trostani, Elspeth and the token makers rebuild quickly.

Speed

Etrata costs 3 mana instead of 4 and starts cloaking cards from turn 4. Trostani does little until turn 5 or 6.

Interaction

Etrata runs 4 counterspells, spot removal and Toxic Deluge. Miku has no counterspells and only one wrath.

Card flow

Gix, Mask of Memory, Key to the City and Night's Whisper give Etrata much more card draw than Miku, which relies mostly on Skullclamp.

Evasion

Etrata's assassins get past blockers. Miku mostly has to swing into boards.

Combos

About even. Mindcrank + Duskmantle Guildmage and Heliod + Walking Ballista each take about 7 mana across two or three turns. Ramses adds a second win condition to Etrata on top of that.

1 v 1

Etrata is favoured

It can counter or kill Trostani and the overrun cards.

4-player pod

Miku is favoured

Its overruns can knock out several players in one swing, while Etrata hits one player at a time.

This compares the 22-swap Trostani list. The Azusa deck in the Shop tab is the plan for a stronger Miku deck.

Your record

Your games against the bots

Saved on this device when you finish a game in the Play tab.

Budget · 300€ cap

What it costs

~297€of 300€

Sealed deck ~200€24 upgrades ~97€Left ~3€

If you pay for the deck	Buy	Total
~200€	All 24 upgrades	~297€
~230€	Rows 1 to 22, skip Triumph of the Hordes and Craterhoof (put back Crested Sunmare and Idol of Oblivion)	~294€
250€+	Rows 1 to 20: the cheap core plus both combo pieces	~302€

Sealed price: a copy sold on eBay.de for 199.90€ on 3 Sep 2026; US listings run $255 to $280. The EU reprint wave ships in June 2027, so prices may stay high until then. Singles prices are MTGGoldfish USD × 0.85, because Cardmarket couldn't be read automatically. Check each card on Cardmarket before buying: it's usually the same or cheaper.

The 24 swaps

Cut this, add that

In buying order, starting with the sealed deck. Stop when the budget runs out. Tap a card name for its wiki entry, or the price to search Cardmarket. Tick what you've bought and the total updates against the 300€ budget. Your ticks stay on this device.

Later

Next upgrades after 300€

1

Card draw first

Sylvan Library, Guardian Project and Welcoming Vampire fix the deck's biggest weakness. Cut Vorinclex and a slow lifegain card.

2

Then protection

Heroic Intervention (~10–16€) and Teferi's Protection. Teferi's Protection is on the Game Changers list, so it counts against Bracket 3's limit.

3

Alternates if a price is off

Akroma's Will, Moonshaker Cavalry, Lightning Greaves, Felidar Sovereign, Avenger of Zendikar, Exemplar of Light.

The second deck

The road to Bracket 4: Azusa

This deck stays your Bracket 3 deck. For a Bracket 4 Miku deck, the plan is a separate mono-green lands deck led by Azusa, Lost but Seeking, printed as Miku, Lost but Singing. It plays extra lands every turn and wins with Dark Depths and Thespian's Stage, which make a 20/20 indestructible flyer. You buy it in stages, and each stage is a playable deck. Prices are estimates, so check Cardmarket.

0now~297€
This precon and its 24 swaps
Bracket 3 Trostani
1~150€
Miku Azusa, Craterhoof, the Dark Depths + Thespian's Stage combo and its tutors, and every card under about 9€. Fill the 9 empty slots with Forests or cards borrowed from this deck (Vorinclex, Cultivate, Farseek, Finale of Devastation, Krosan Verge).
Playable Azusa
2~133€
Exploration, Field of the Dead, Sylvan Library, Strip Mine, Birds of Paradise, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Heroic Intervention, Castle Garenbrig, Scute Swarm
Strong Bracket 3
3~330€
Scapeshift, Crucible of Worlds, Burgeoning, Green Sun's Zenith, Boseiju, Wasteland and more, plus the Game Changers Natural Order, Worldly Tutor and Seedborn Muse
Bracket 4 (5 Game Changers)

Stages 1 to 3 add up to about 615€ on top of today's 300€. Beyond that, Chrome Mox, Ancient Tomb, Survival of the Fittest and Gaea's Cradle cost a lot for a small power gain, so they only make sense if you move to cEDH.

Azusa shopping list

Buy it stage by stage

Every card in each Azusa stage with its estimated price. Tick cards as you buy them. Prices are MTGGoldfish USD × 0.85, so check Cardmarket before buying.

Other Miku Secret Lair cards

Worth the bling?

Only green, white and colorless cards are legal here. None of them is worth the Miku premium inside a 300€ cap: the normal printings do the same job for 1 to 4€. The deck already comes with Miku versions of Trostani, Archangel of Thune, Shalai, Soul Warden, Halo Fountain, Finale of Devastation, Vorinclex and more.

Card (Miku name)	Miku price	Normal	Verdict
Elspeth Tirel (Miku, Divine Diva)	~55€	~3€	Good card, buy the normal one
Sol Ring (Digital Sensation)	$45–125	~1.5€	Already in the deck
Elvish Mystic (bonus card)	~42€	<1€	Buy the normal one
Command Tower (bonus card)	~$90	<1€	Already in the deck
Chord of Calling	~11€ foil	~6€	Optional creature tutor
Beloved Princess (bonus card)	~3€	<1€	Cheapest Miku bling, weak card
Azusa, Freyalise, Giada, Harmonize	$14–80	<5€	Off-plan for this build