Here we are, with previews coming up, a set releasing next week, and now there’s a Secret Lair Superdrop to contend with. There are eight drops in this go-round, and they go on sale at 9 am PST/12 noon EST On Monday, February 10.
There is a wide variety of art going on here, from the most basic to gorgeous borderless, IP crossovers, and one that verges on copyright infringement. Secret Lairs are most profitable when you focus on the home runs and avoid the ones that do nothing but linger on shelves. Let’s talk about all 8, and do some figuring on what is worth buying.
Secret Lair x Hatsune Miku: Winter Diva
| Card Name | Price Range | EDHREC decks |
| Giada, Font of Hope | $1-$80 | 18k as commander (#17 all time) and 30k as card |
| Youthful Valkyrie | Bulk to $2 | 21k |
| Counterspell | Bulk to $500 | 1,078,000 (not a typo) |
| Swan Song | $9 to $63 | 413k |
| Brago, King Eternal | $2 to $10 | 8k as commander, 39k as card |
| Scrying Sheets | $5 to $40 | 9225 decks |
We also have seen that Beloved Princess is the bonus card for this drop, which is very on-theme. It’s got almost no Commander usage, and while it will go for a couple bucks to Miku collectors, it’s not super relevant to whether this drop will sell well.
This drop will sell very well. The Mana Foil Giada is gorgeous, and this should be a worthy contender. Brago is a great theme, but the standout here is the Swan Song. This is a super popular card in regular and CEDH alike, and there has not yet been a special version of the one-mana counter. If this was a regular, non-Miku drop, I would be a fan of the drop just for that reason, as the only foil is the Theros pack foil. There is a previous Secret Lair version from Ornithological Studies, but that was non-foil only.
However, this is the last Miku drop. The first was all gas, the second very popular, and the third was weird. Quickly sold out of English foil, English nonfoil took a little longer but did sell out, and the two Japanese-language versions are still available on the site. Ouch.
I think that the third drop being mediocre planeswalkers plus an increased quantity printed led to the current situation. I fully expect the English versions to sell fast here, and the Swan Song should be the most profitable card of the batch.
Aether Drifters
| Card Name | Price Range | EDHREC decks |
| Parhelion II | 50¢ to $3 | 31k |
| Mechtitan Core | Bulk to $3 | 22k |
| Reckoner Bankbuster | $1 to $4 | 27k |
| Smuggler’s Copter | $1 to $20 | 47k |
| Peacewalker Colossus | Bulk to $2 | 22k |
I have to admit I love this concept. It’s a racing set, and this is amazingly replicating the look of a Hot Wheels blister card, down to the price tag as power//toughness and the printed cutout for hanging displays. They can’t actually use the Hot Wheels IP, as that’s Mattel, one of Hasbro’s main rivals. The Vehicles themselves are extremely mid, and only the Fortnite version of the Copter keeps this from being one of the absolute cheapest drops we’ve ever had. Remember, Bankbuster was banned in Standard, but it’s rotated out anyway and no one plays it.
This art and style will probably not be enough to get this to sell out quickly. Top IP can lead to sellouts, but these are such mediocre cards that my expectations are quite low.
Arcade Racers
| Card Name | Price Range | EDHREC decks |
| Roiling Vortex | $2 to $7 | 39k |
| Wheel of Misfortune | $5 to $22 | 96k |
| Big Score | $1 to $3 | 226k |
| Final Fortune | $8 to $200 | 49k |
| Heat Shimmer | $5 to $40 | 30k |
This is a fantastically designed set of cards, and while they aren’t expensive, the special versions aren’t cheap either. I love that we get two special frames in the same drop, increasing my desire for the foil bundle. There’s a chance that this Big Score becomes a $10 card, but I’d rather go in on singles after the drop lands, instead of trying to get a bunch of these. I really appreciate that this is the only special frame for most of these, aside from an EA Vortex, a Future Sight Final Fortune, and the other SL version of Wheel.
Lorwyn Lightboxes
| Card Name | Price Range | EDHREC decks |
| Secluded Glen | Bulk to $40 | 18,000 |
| Wanderwine Hub | $1 to $13 | 2200 |
| Ancient Amphitheater | 50¢ to $5 | 5000 |
| Auntie’s Hovel | $6 to $13 | 3700 |
| Gilt-Leaf Palace | $4 to $35 | 15,000 |
These haven’t seen a lot of reprint efforts. There’s a List copy here and there, and an occasional Commander deck inclusion, but definitely no new foils to be had and these are some very pretty examples of what an artist can do. Amazingly, this is still a more expensive drop than the Aether Chasers, but my expectations are still pretty low.
Artist Series: Jesper Ejsing
| Card Name | Price Range | EDHREC decks |
| Llanowar Elves | Bulk to $450 | 504k |
| Deflecting Swat | $43 to $70 | 405k |
| Breeches, Eager Pillager | Bulk to $1.50 | 30k |
| Sun Titan | Bulk to $9 | 235k |
The tragedy of this drop is that a really talented artist did some fantastic paintings and they weren’t even given a chance to go borderless, or even the EA treatment. Compare this to any of the more recent artist spotlights, or any of the three artists featured in other drops in this Superdrop, and you’ll see what I mean.
It doesn’t matter, though, because this has three very popular cards and one of them is $43 in the base nonfoil. I cannot guarantee that this will sell out, but even the Extra Life Fierce Guardianship, which sold as much as people wanted to buy, went from $33 up to near $50 now. If you wanted to jump on Deflecting Swat singles early on, that would be valid too.
Featuring: Luke Pearson
| Card Name | Price Range | EDHREC decks |
| Bear Umbra | $6 to $40 | 106k |
| Witch of the Moors | $1 to $3 | 33k |
| Realmwalker | $2 to $6 | 132k |
| Solemn Simulacrum | $1 to $70 | 717k |
My kids have seen the Netflix adaptation of Pearson’s Hilda books, and they are approving. It’s not like these are specific to the cards, but it’s the same art style. The card choice is solid: Realmwalker just has an FEA of the original, this is the first foil of Witch, Bear Umbra’s only other foil is the ROE pack foil, and Solemn has a hundred variations leading up to the Invention.
It’s mainly cashing in reprint equity, and I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw any of these get another new version sometime soon, but this is a solid drop that should do okay.
City Styles 2: Dressed to Kill
| Card Name | Price Range | EDHREC decks |
| Karmic Guide | $2 to $18 | 103k |
| Ninja of the Deep Hours | $1 to $20 | 30k |
| Captain Sisay | $17 to $90 | 1400 as commander, 16k as card |
| Selvala, Explorer Returned | Bulk to $20 | 2000 as commander, 36k as card |
| Veyran, Voice of Duality | $7 to $18 | 8k as commander, 54k as card |
Before you go crazy, knowing that City Styles 1 is $175 on TCGPlayer, please keep in mind that Tsubonari’s first drop was in a different era, when it was print to demand and not many bought it. Those first five cards don’t have anything super valuable or premium, they just look cool, and these are in that same boat.
Karmic Guide has multiple premiums, Ninja has a TSR retro foil only, Sisay has different versions but all i the same original frame, Veyran and Selvala have nothing special either. This drop has all the trappings of something I want, and that’s before I admit that I have a very powerful Selvala deck of my own. I also think that psychology will play a part here. People will buy this because of the price of the first one, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Featuring: Mitsuhiro Arita
| Card Name | Price Range | EDHREC decks |
| Light-Paw, Emperor’s Voice | $1 to $10 | 8300 as commander, 25k as card |
| Murktide Regent | $11 to $4000 | 2700 |
| Lightning Bolt | $1 to several grand | 270k |
| Shorikai, Genesis Engine | $2 to $8 | 18k as commander (#20 all time), 30k as card |
The star here is clearly Murktide, a card that has fallen out of favor in the current Modern metagame, but does retain some value and utility. Shorikai might end up at $10+ given the new rush of Vehicles coming out and it was already high on the posted decks. Lightning Bolt has been printed more than 35 times, and each premium version tends to land in the $6 to $10 range.
Murktide’s current demand level is not high, so I’d expect this to land in the $25 range for foils, but remember that for Modern players, you’re going to need four of the card, not one, and they all better match. I might pick up a stack of nonfoils once the drop lands.
Wrap-Up
So here’s my ranking of the drops:
- Miku in EN foil
- Miku in EN nonfoil
- Artist Series: Jesper Ejsing
- City Styles 2
- Featuring: Mitsuhiro Arita
- Miku in JP foil/nonfoil
- Featuring: Luke Pearson
- Arcade Racers
- Lorwyn Lightboxes
- Aether Drifters
Personally, I think I’m going to end up with this order: one all-foil bundle, two all–foil Miku bundle, five EN foil Miku, five Jesper, five City Styles 2, one Mitsuhiro. This keeps my Miku buys in line with each other and I can bundle them off together, plus I want the max of the other two lairs and one of each for personal collecting.
I will also be keeping a close eye on the ‘low stock’ notifications, especially if those pop up for the Racers or Drifters. I’m not expecting them to be popular, but I’ve been wrong before.
We don’t yet know what the bundle pricing will be, as the discounts have grown smaller and smaller over time, and I’m also not expecting a sweet bonus card like an Avengers Arcane Signet or a Rainbow Foil Seedborn Muse. If we get those, great. If not, well, I’ve made my choices.
Good luck, and may your queue time go by quickly!
Cliff (@WordOfCommander at Twitter and BlueSky) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.