Secret Lairs are a collector’s dream, here’s why.
It’s clear that Magic: The Gathering is entering into a collector space, something you wouldn’t have imagined at the turn of the decade. With the introduction of Collector Boosters and various frames and foil treatments, Wizards of the Coast are tapping into the collector market as it’s a favored space for other trading card games such as Pokémon. One of Wizards of the Coast’s approaches to accommodating the collector space is the Secret Lair series — a curated set of releases including unconventional art and design that you don’t typically see on traditional Magic: The Gathering releases.
What is the Secret Lair in Magic: The Gathering?
Secret Lair Drop: Totally Spaced Out Galaxy Foil Edition
Secret Lair Drop Series
Unfinity is here at last! As a companion release for our spaciest Un-set in the Un-iverse, we’ve got some gorgeous lands finished in glittering galactic foil treatments. The sci-fi vibes are strong with this one—visit a lonely planet, dodge laser fire in an interstellar war, or seek new horizons across a dimensional rift! Combined with Unfinity, you’ll have a deck or collection full of the CARDS. OF. TOMORROW.
Contents:
• 1x Galaxy Foil Ash Barrens
• 1x Galaxy Foil Command Beacon
• 1x Galaxy Foil Fabled Passage
• 1x Galaxy Foil Strip Mine
Market Price: $73.88
Market Price: $57.70
Market Price: $79.53
Market Price: $47.97
A sub-brand of Magic: The Gathering, Secret Lair is a series of cards incorporated into small collectible sets called drops, often coming with strange art styles and themes. Beginning in 2019, the Secret Lair is Wizards of the Coast’s full foray into selling single reprints directly to players. After a while, Wizards of the Coast extended the Secret Lair into original Magic: The Gathering cards with The Walking Dead and Stranger Things Secret Lair drops, both released under the Universes Beyond banner. Even now, Secret Lairs offers players and collectors the opportunity to acquire something unique and some cases, incredibly valuable. These Secret Lair products are sold for a limited time with a fixed print window directly through Wizards of the Coast, making them ideal for card collectors and those who collect sealed products.
With that in mind, it is easy to ignore the value of some of these Secret Lair cards if you have never seen the card or art before, but it is always worth checking the price. As mentioned earlier, Magic: The Gathering is entering a broad collector space where these quirky designs and themes can command a high price. Let’s run down some of the most valuable cards from the Secret Lair series, including cards from Secret Lair Showdown, the Secret Lair: 30th Anniversary Countdown Kit, and bonus cards you can open from Secret Lair products.
#10 Diabolic Tutor (Brain Dead)
Diabolic Tutor
Secret Lair Drop Series
Market Price: $85.75
Seeing a copy of Diabolic Tutor on the list of most valuable Secret Lair cards may seem odd as other printings are so cheap, but this printing comes with a hefty price. As part of a collaboration with the apparel company Brain Dead, the company gave away the Secret Lair printings of Diabolic Tutor as a promotional item if you bought one of their Magic-related products within a particular time frame. Given the limited window and association with the Brain Dead brand, this unique printing of Diabolic Tutor commands a high price, where it could very well be a collector’s item in the future.
#9 The Ur-Dragon (Kaleidoscope Killers)
The Ur-Dragon
Secret Lair Drop Series
Market Price: $85.92
Appearing in the Kaleidoscope Killers Secret Lair is The Ur-Dragon, one of the more iconic Dragon cards in the Commander format. And when I say iconic, it’s probably the best Dragon Commander you could choose for the strategy. Given the immense power and popularity of Dragons combined with the ridiculous abilities The Ur-Dragon brings to the Commander table, it isn’t much surprise to see this vivid printing of the Dragon Avatar become so valuable.
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: $65.12
However, with the release of Commander Masters in August, prices (including the Secret Lair printing) are dipping due to The Ur-Dragon confirmed to appear in the release, with a couple of different printings, including a fantastic-looking Borderless Profile treatment.
#8 Fatal Push (Secret Lair Showdown)
Fatal Push
Secret Lair Showdown
Market Price: $165.20
A participation promo card for playing in a Secret Lair Showdown at MagicCon stop this year is this exclusive Fatal Push. First printed in Aether Revolt, Fatal Push is a Modern and Pioneer staple that is a clean answer to the opponent’s creatures for the cost of a single Black mana. While Fatal Push isn’t exactly the flashiest card ever, you can be sure this Secret Lair printing will command a high price even when more copies enter the market throughout the year with MagicCon Minneapolis, Barcelona, and Las Vegas.
#7 Sliver Hive (Extended)
Sliver Hive (Extended Art)
Secret Lair Drop Series
Market Price: $209.39
Slivers is one of the more-adored creature types in Magic: The Gathering. They’re iconic thanks to lore reasons and offer powerful yet synergistic effects when on the battlefield. Cropping up as bonus cards in the more recent Secret Lairs, there’s a range of Sliver cards coming as Extended Frame oil variants — this is a first for Slivers because these treatments didn’t exist when Silvers were supported in Magic expansions at the time. Despite these bonus cards being reprints, many of the Sliver cards are extremely valuable due to their popularity in Commander.
Market Price: $22.73
Market Price: $9.29
Market Price: $11.71
In particular, the printing of Sliver Hive from this series is by far and away the most valuable Sliver card you can open as a bonus card from these Secret Lairs. A staple for any Sliver strategy, Sliver Hive helps you cast those mana-intensive Sliver spells with the upside of creating a Silver token if you don’t need to tap the card for mana. While there are only fifty-one of these Extended Frame Foil Sliver cards available at the time of writing, you can be sure there will be more coming and will continue to remain valuable cards from the Secret Lair series.
Commander Masters Commander Deck – Sliver Swarm
Commander Masters
Market Price: $116.80
One thing to note with the upcoming release of Commander Masters in August, Silvers will be at the forefront of Magic once again as the creature type will have it’s own Commander Precon! Called Sliver Swarm, you can expect a range of desirable reprints and brand-new Sliver cards tailored for the product. If you have a bunch of the Extended Frame Sliver cards, it might be worth keeping onto these until Commander Masters, as interest could be at it’s highest.
#6 Persistent Petitioners (#595 then #593, #598, and #596)
Persistent Petitioners (595)
Secret Lair Drop Series
Market Price: $244.06
Market Price: $78.88
Market Price: $102.06
Market Price: $136.90
Similar to the Secret Lair Shadowborn Apostle, there’s a series of unique variants of Persistent Petitioners — another card that ignores the deckbuilding clause allowing you to run as many as you wish. At present, there are six unique Secret Lair variants of Persistent Petitioners, with #595 being one of the most valuable Secret Lair cards printed yet with #593, #598, and #596 following.
Most of these variants of Persistent Petitioners are extremely uncommon, given the nature of only opening them in these Secret Lairs. While Wizards of the Coast won’t disclose the pull rates of these special bonus cards, you can be sure this common card printed in Guilds of Ravnica will garner attention from certain players. In particular, those wanting to give their Bruvac the Grandiloquent Mill Commander strategy a unique identity. And for sure, there are likely more of these Persistent Petitioners either coming soon or perhaps lurking in unopened Secret Lair products.
#5 Shadowborn Apostle (#685, #681, and #684)
Shadowborn Apostle (685)
Secret Lair Drop Series
Market Price: $668.99
Market Price: $137.00
Market Price: $76.35
Market Price: $110.48
A popular card thanks to Josh Lee Kwai’s Athreos, God of Passage Commander strategy on Game Knights, Shadowborn Apostle is an exciting card due to deckbuilding potential. Since the Game Knights episode, Shadowborn Apostle has seen extensive demand that was replenished with a reprint in Double Masters 2022. Since you can run so many copies of Shadowborn Apostle in any deck, Wizards of the Coast chose the card as one of the many variants you can open in Secret Lair as the bonus card.
However, three Shadowborn Apostle printings are incredibly valuable, which you can open in these Secret Lairs. Be sure to keep an eye out if you happen open Shadowborn Apostle #685, #684, or #681 as your Secret Lair bonus card because these are the most expensive variants at present. There’s also demand for these variants because players want to upgrade their Shadowborn Apostle strategy with these stunning Secret Lair variants.
#4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Secret Lair Drop Series
Market Price: n/a
A participation promotional card for those who play in Pro Tours or the World Championship this year will receive this stunning copy of Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and if players finish within the Top 16 of any Pro Tour this year will receive a foil copy of the Secret Lair card. At present, there are roughly 200 copies of the non-foil Jace, the Mind Sculptor in existence as these cards were distributed at Pro Tour Phyrexia in Philadelphia, with that only growing when Pro Tours in Minneapolis, Barcelona, Las Vegas occur throughout this year.
Market Price: $55.63
Even when more copies enter the market later this year, you can be sure that this version of one of Magic’s most powerful Planeswalkers will remain a valuable Secret Lair card for quite some time. At present, the non-foil copies retails within the $700-800 price range. A trend seen with Wizards of the Coast with the return of competitive play is offering these exclusive and limited-print-run cards as an incentive for competitive players, a trend that first began with Flesh and Blood. We’ll likely see this continue going forward, as it’s a decent compromise for competitive players to sell high-value cards in addition to gaining prize money at these events.
#3 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer (Secret Lair Showdown)
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Secret Lair Showdown
Market Price: n/a
Joining Fatal Push as a promotional card is Ragavan Nimble, Pilferer, a card that is given to the Top 32 finishers at a Secret Lair Showdown at MagicCons in 2023. There’s only one of these Secret Lair Showdown events at each MagicCon, making these extremely rare. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is one of the strongest cards in Modern and the reason you play the format, given the number of abilities available. Once this year’s MagicCons are done and dusted, there will be only 128 copies of this Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer available, making this an extremely desirable card for players and collectors. While there isn’t much in the way of price history on TCGplayer due to scarcity, two of these have sold recently in the $2,300-$3,300 price range.
#2 Viscera Seer (Serialized)
Viscera Seer (Serial Numbered)
Secret Lair Drop Series
Market Price: n/a
One of the first Magic cards to have number serialization, the limited copies of Viscera Seer are the most valuable Secret Lair cards, and it isn’t close. First seen as a misprint, the reversed and serialized Viscera Seer was intentional from Wizards of the Coast, making these cards an ultra-rare opening as a bonus card from Secret Lair drops. Since then, Wizards of the Coast incorporated numbered cards into The Brothers War, where you have the opportunity to open a foil numbered card in Collector Boosters. At present, there are a few of these on TCGplayer’s marketplace, with prices from $3,700 to $17,000! Prices can vary depending on the number on the card, and you may have guessed the listing at $17,000 is because it has the serial number of 69 (nice).
Market Price: $500.00
Market Price: $875.00
Market Price: $1064.65
Numbered cards have the potential to be highly valuable due to their guaranteed limited quantity. As a result, this drives demand from collectors as they can now open these unannounced rare collectors’ pieces in products such as Secret Lairs. There are only one hundred copies of these reversed numbered Viscera Seer cards in existence, making these a valuable card to open in Secret Lairs.
#1 Brainstorm (Secret Lair Showdown)
Brainstorm
Secret Lair Showdown
Market Price: n/a
Following a similar trend to Fatal Push and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer from the Secret Lair Showdown, Brainstorm is likely to be one of the rarest Magic: The Gathering cards ever printed. With only four copies scheduled to be available at MagicCons this year, Brainstorm is the prize for winning one of these Secret Lair Showdown events. And right now, the only copy of Brainstorm is on TCGplayer’s marketplace at a whopping $99k. Historically speaking, Brainstorm is one of the best cantrips in Magic: The Gathering, a card that sees tremendous amounts of play in Legacy, Vintage, and Pauper. With that, Brainstorm is an iconic card when it comes to discussing Magic and power level, and without a doubt, this Secret Lair Showdown copy will be one of the most expensive Secret Lair cards for a very, very long time.