Next week, we get the double whammy: eight Secret Lair drops on Monday, and 48 hours later, the Chaos Vault gives us a new booster pack product. That’s a lot of money to be spent, in the middle of Hobbit-mania and between a LOT of other drops.
So let’s talk about what goes on sale and what’s worth buying next week!
For each drop, I’ve listed the EDHREC numbers and tried to list what the other premium versions of a card go for. I like art, and I LOVE small print runs, but the popularity of a card and what its other versions go for tell me what I’m buying.
| Card Name | EDHREC Count | Special Printings |
| Happily Ever After | 14.4k | SLD Borderless Rainbow Foil ~$3.05; ELD Extended Art ~$0.40 / Foil ~$3.37; Prerelease Foil ~$1.37 |
| True Love’s Kiss | 3.35k | No non-regular frame printing |
| Run Away Together | 93.3k | No non-regular frame printing |
| Savor the Moment | 13.6k | SLD ~$9.66; SLD Foil ~$9.98 |
| Grave Pact | 226k | CMM Borderless ~$36; CMM Borderless Foil ~$42; WOT Borderless ~$37; WOT Borderless Foil ~$53; WOT Anime Borderless Foil ~$74; WOT Anime Confetti Foil ~$140; WOT Showcase Foil ~$40 |
| Thrill of Possibility | 448k | MAR Borderless ~$2.47; MAR Borderless Foil ~$4.62; SLD Borderless ~$5.73; SLD Borderless Foil ~$6; STA Etched ~$1 |
I am a big fan of two things in this drop. One, the romance-cover look of these is top-notch, and for my money, what SLD should be about. Two, Grave Pact is a great anchor here. It’s had plenty of printings, and held up very well.
| Card Name | EDHREC Count | Special Printings |
| Mystical Dispute | 9.56k | MB2 White Border ~$0.50 |
| An Offer You Can’t Refuse | 1.26M | FDN Borderless ~$6.90 / Foil ~$7.90; SLD Showdown ~$9.70 / Foil ~$30 |
| Training Grounds | 142.9k | MAT Extended Art ~$5 / Foil ~$13; TLA Eternal Borderless ~$5 |
| Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder | 47.6k | CMM Foil Etched ~$12 |
| Bristly Bill, Spine Sower | 149k | OTJ Extended Art ~$64 / Foil ~$89 |
Same notes here. Love the treatment, and the biggest thing is the fantastic anchor of Bristly Bill. This is also the first special for him. All of these are solid picks, but Bill really shines here. I like the comparison to Toby’s Journey, with the Prismatic Vista, and if Bill ends up with $20 or even $15 copies I’ll grab more at Dump Week.
| Card Name | EDHREC Count | Special Printings |
| Anger | 299k | No non-regular frame printing |
| Gratuitous Violence | 98.1k | No non-regular frame printing |
| Rishkar’s Expertise | 411k | Gateway Promo Retro Frame ~$3.64 / Foil ~$4.36; MH3 Ripple Foil ~$5.77; Prerelease Foil ~$11.19 |
| Search for Tomorrow | 87.4k | Doctor Who Surge Foil ~$7 |
| Unnatural Growth | 273k | MAR Borderless ~$2.33 / Foil ~$3.33; WOT Showcase ~$4.56 / Foil ~$6.70; MID Extended Art ~$3.80 / Foil ~$4.67; DBL Inverted ~$4.24 / Foil ~$15.22; SLD Borderless Foil ~$8.96 |
Anger and Violence are not enough to save this drop for me. I’ve been diligently buying every Marvel Lair in anticipation of selling mega-Marvel sets and now I’m drawing the line. This is mediocre at best and even GV’s pack foil from Onslaught is only $25.
| Card Name | EDHREC Count | Special Printings |
| Ephemerate | 273k | MAR Borderless ~$4.50 / Foil ~$8.85; STA Showcase ~$6.90 / Foil ~$17.70; H1R Alt-Art Etched ~$9.40 / Foil ~$10.60; SLD Borderless ~$8 / Foil ~$7.50; STA Mystical Archive ~$28.55 / Foil ~$52; STA Etched ~$16 / $32 |
| Shark Typhoon | 73.1k | IKO Extended Art ~$4.45 / Foil ~$5.45; SCH Inverted Foil ~$5.10; SLC Borderless ~$5.95 / Foil ~$6.90 |
| Lightning Bolt | 547k | M25 Borderless ~$4.20 / Foil ~$6.10; STA Mystical Archive ~$13.75 / Foil ~$12.35; Japanese STA ~$20 / Foil ~$40+; SLD Borderless versions ~$3–8 / Foil ~$3–14; SLD Street Fighter Foil ~$11; Secret Lair Showdown versions ~$55+ |
| Searing Blaze | 3.30k | No non-regular frame printing |
| Commune with Dinosaurs | 11.7k | No non-regular frame printing |
| Titanic Ultimatum | 20.4k | No non-regular frame printing |
Another big yawn from me. Bolt and Ephemerate have tons of special versions and this doesn’t even have cute cats/dogs to save it. (sorry, Lockjaw) I don’t plan to buy this one either.
| Card Name | EDHREC Count | Special Printings |
| Felidar Guardian | 93.2k | No non-regular frame printing |
| Starfield of Nyx | 71.1k | No non-regular frame printing |
| Careful Study | 58.2k | SLD nonfoil $8/foil $7 |
| Merchant Scroll | 61.7k | Judge Gift Foil ~$60 |
| Paradise Mantle | 85.8k | Mystery Booster 2 Retro ~$9 |
I really want to like this, as I’m a big lo-fi beats listener, but as a spec this leaves a lot to be desired. Nothing over 100k decks, which is amazing to me, as I thought Starfield was a MUCH more popular card in decks. I’m going to buy a couple of these for my ‘pretty things’ binder but I know this will linger and not gain quickly.
| Card Name | EDHREC Count | Special Printings |
| Orvar, the All-Form | 16.9k | KHM Showcase ~$6.70 / Foil ~$7.10; SLD Borderless ~$4.75 / Foil ~$? |
| Sage of Hours | 17.3k | No non-regular frame printing |
| See Double | 47.2k | MOM Extended Art ~$1.20 / Foil ~$1.25 |
| Slip Through Space | 70.6k | No non-regular frame printing |
| Sway of the Stars | 2.88k | No non-regular frame printing |
The star here is kind of hidden in Sage of Hours. There’s combos with this card every couple years, and it’s got the regulars at $10 and the foils pushing $50. Sway is straight-up banned in Commander, so there’s some value that will never materialize. I’m impressed at the 3,000 uploaders who put the deck in there, though. I dig the art, and I’ll grab a copy for personal, but the value is sorta lacking here otherwise.
| Card Name | EDHREC Count | Special Printings |
| Kibo, Uktabi Prince | 14k as commander/ 7.28k as card | J22 Extended Art ~$7.80 foil |
| Ilharg, the Raze-Boar | 63.5k | RVR Showcase ~$8.50 / Foil ~$18; RVR Anime Borderless ~$13.35 / Foil ~$18; SLD Borderless ~$13 / Foil-Etched ~$18; RVR Retro Frame ~$8.50; RVR Retro Serialized ~$200 |
| Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs | 83.2k | No non-regular frame printing; WWK foil $14 |
| Dosan, the Falling Leaf | 23.2k | No non-regular frame printing; regular is $27 and foil $115 |
| Quest for Renewal | 46.9k | No non-regular frame printing; regular is $5 and foil $30 |
Ilharg is one of the cheapest serialized you can buy right now, if you’re in the market for anything with a number on it. This drop has Kibo, who bounced a lot of Monkey/Ape priced at his first printing, but now the hype is gone and this drop has such a mirage covering it. Three cards getting their first special printing, and Dosan has gone 22 years without a reprint at all! Reprint Equity is the phrase, and here it’s being mined to give the illusion of being expensive but none of these cards are going to be expensive. Pass.
| Card Name | EDHREC Count | Special Printings |
| Shivan Dragon | 9.85k | SLC Borderless ~$0.93 / Foil ~$2.21; SLD Borderless ~$2.33 / Foil ~$3.61; SLD Serialized ~$1,820 |
| Animar, Soul of Elements | 24k as commander/ 43.9k as card | SLD Borderless Foil ~$35; 2X2 Inverted Etched ~$100; 2X2 Foil ~$56 |
| Korvold, Fae-Cursed King | 64.5k | SLD Borderless ~$20.40 / Rainbow Foil ~$29.60 |
| Tsabo Tavoc | 791 | No non-regular frame printing |
Korvold and Animar are two of the top 100 commanders of the last two years, and each have had special versions that have held up over time. Tsabo Tavoc has an Invasion foil over $40 but again, the lack of reprints and the old age are why it’s expensive, not demand.
This drop should be decent but there’s no star here. It’s solid, and should grow slowly over time, but I’m a skip.
For each $199 you spend, you get a copy of this:
The Earth’s Mightiest Signet from the first Marvel drop has held an impressive $30+ price tag, but there’s so so many Command Towers out there that I’m not convinced on this one. It’s really rare for the ‘spend X dollars’ promos to be big scores.
As for the Bundles, Marvel is $20 off, as is the all-foil bundle. The nonfoil Bundle is $15 off, and the mega-bundle is a total of $40 off. A free Lair isn’t terrible, especially when there’s no lands Lair, but there’s so much mediocrity in this Lair I’m okay sans bundles.
I also strongly suspect that there’s a lot of these Lairs printed. We see that with The Hobbit lairs, except for Second Breakfast which sold out in something like 30 minutes. The rest took a lot longer or still didn’t sell out. If they short-printed one of these Lairs, that’s what I need to know above all else and unfortunately, that’s information we just don’t have. Knowing there’s a ton printed, I’m not going to go wild on the drops, as I expect none to sell out super-fast.
So personally, I’m focused on Hipp and True Believers, with a little of Cosmic Chill and Lo-Fi Girl for personal enjoyment.
And if your wallet isn’t exhausted yet, there’s more madness the next goddamn day. Amazingly, there’s no official Magic News post, just a series of stuff released on social media and interviews done.
Secret Lair will be selling booster packs out of the Chaos Vault 24 hours after the Perfectly Normal drop. 121 cards, with common/uncommon/rare/mythic drops, with three versions of each. Regular, dark mode, and color bands. Notably, these are never shiny.
The booster packs are $20, and again, the main thing is how fast they sell out when limited to 12 per account. I strongly suspect there’s a boatload of these printed, and when they don’t instantly sell out, the cards will be available for cheaper than you think.
Magic players have shown us that they don’t like ugly cards. Yes, these are made to look like the Gamma cards from when Richard Garfield was playtesting Magic in 1992, but compared to the modern aesthetic these are pretty ugly. The comparison to Magic’s frenzy for old-border foils comes to mind, and players have demonstrated that ugly cards don’t get nearly the love. Invocation frames, Breaking news, if it’s ugly, it’s literally worth less money.
These are some incredibly swingy packs, and Wizards is selling them for $20 a pop. This isn’t far off what they make selling CBBs to distributors if the MSRP is $38 for a Collector Booster, so I expect they printed a lot for this direct sale.
Again, everything depends on the volume here. If it turns out to be a super-short run, then these could go wild. I’m staying far away, I’m willing to take the risk of missing out and letting my wallet recover. Keep in mind, we’ve got the Masters of the Universe in two weeks, and the Odds and Ends Commander deck coming too. Lots of great places to make money, I’m just not interested in these at all.
As ever, if you want to talk about these ideas or correct some of my points, reach out on social media or the ProTrader Discord, and may your queue times be short!
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 co-host of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at an event and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.