Highlights
- Secret Lair drops cause mixed emotions among Magic: The Gathering fans due to limited availability and high demand.
- Recent changes to Secret Lair, such as limited prints, have led to frustration and quick sell-outs of popular drops like Monty Python.
- Despite enjoying unique art treatments, fans are anxious about competing for upcoming drops and resent the current system.
Ask one hundred people how they feel about Magic: The Gathering’s limited-edition Secret Lair range, and you’re going to get a hundred different answers. To some, it’s the worst thing Magic has ever done, to others, it’s always fun and exciting to see what exclusive cards and inventive art treatments come next.
Personally, I’m somewhere in the middle; I’ve bought plenty of them, but passed on even more. Luckily for me, lots of upcoming Secret Lair drops are right up my alley. Unluckily, I have a snowball’s chance in hell of actually getting any of them, and that really sucks.
Ever since its debut, Secret Lair was a direct-to-consumer way to get cards. Wizards would offer unique art treatments that would never be reprinted again, and, as long as you pre-ordered them within the few weeks they were available, you’d get the cards. They were printed to demand after the preorder window shut, which meant you’d often be waiting months for your cards to arrive, but you’d have no difficulty actually getting your hands on them. Eventually...
Earlier this year, Wizards decided that system was too easy. Ostensibly in the name of getting people their cards quicker, Secret Lairs are now limited. The cards are already printed and sat in a warehouse, so you could receive your cards mere days after buying them, rather than months. All very well and good, but Wizards is currently doing an awful job at gauging demand.
This recently bit everybody on their collective arse with the launch of the Magic x Monty Python drops. Two sets of cards based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, they were great cards with fantastic art for one of the most beloved comedy movies of all time. And it totally sold out in less than an hour.
I was there on time to get the drops. I entered the queue. I waited 45 minutes to get to the front, only for Secret Lair’s system to throw a wobbly and kick me back to the main page to queue all over again. After two attempts I finally got to the checkout page, only to be told the show was already over, and they’d sold out.
This isn’t a new thing. Hatsune Miku drops have sold out, and even the 2023 30th Anniversary Countdown Collection that cost £150 was all bought up within minutes (I got that one though, go me). Wizards has had years of their drops selling out and upsetting players who couldn’t get their hands on them. It should know how to avoid this extremely predictable scenario, but it just doesn’t.
While Wizards says the changes to Secret Lair were implemented to deliver cards quicker, there’s undoubtedly an element of cashing in on FOMO.
After my headache trying to get Monty Python, I’ve got zero hope that I’ll actually manage to get the upcoming drops I’m interested in.
To All The Drops I've Ever Missed
The first is the 2024 Festival in a Box. Tying into the MagicCon events held in various cities around the world, this drop is a fantastic deal. Three Collector boosters, a Chibi Secret Lair that always appreciates in value, a set of promo cards – including the adorable Dutch Swords to Plowshares I missed out on by having to pull out of attending MagicCon Amsterdam – and, best of all, an entire booster box of Mystery Booster 2.
I’m really excited about it all, but am I going to get it? I’ll try, but who are we fooling?
The other drops are the . Alongside the An Exhibition of Adventure drop that includes good-value cards like Goldspan Dragon and Ponder with stunning art, there’s also going to be drops based on Astarion and Karlach from Baldur’s Gate 3. Maybe I could’ve cinched the one drop, but going up against thirsty Astarion fans is nigh-on impossible, I’ve got no chance.
As I mentioned, I like Secret Lair. There've been plenty of misses, but, on the whole I like the idea of unique art treatments and unknown artists getting their chance to shine, especially when it comes with valuable cards or something I can use to jazz up one of my decks.
The sole reason I made my Goreclaw, Terror of Qal-Sisma deck was because I bought the 90’s Binder Secret Lair drop that has him all pink and fluffy. I’m gay, I like bears, it had to be done.
What I don’t love is the anxiety of knowing I’m going to throw myself into a scrum hoping to maybe get the chance to buy something. I’m fully aware I’m part of the problem, and that, if we all voted with our wallets and stopped clamouring for these drops, Wizards would go back to print-to-demand. But that’s never going to happen.
Scalpers are going to flip Mystery Booster 2 and people are going to be left out of getting Karlach and Astarion, and I’m going to sit in a queue for an hour and hate every second of it just for my chance at a chibi Orvar. Wizards has made the entire Secret Lair experience so much worse than it needs to be for the most cynical of reasons, and I don’t know how much longer people are going to care enough to sit through this rigmarole.
Magic: The Gathering
Created by Richard Garfield in 1993, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) has become one of the biggest tabletop collectible card games in the world. Taking on the role of a Planeswalker, players build decks of cards and do battle with other players. In excess of 100 additional sets have added new cards to the library, while the brand has expanded into video games, comics, and more.
