Secret Lair “Secretversary” Superdrop Breaks New Ground with a Full 100-Card Commander Deck
Wizards of the Coast has been stirring up a lot of reactions from the MTG community with their recent Secret Lair announcements. Yesterday, it was revealed that the upcoming superdrop will include something not before seen in a SLD: a complete Commander deck.
In this article: Wizards of the Coast has been stirring up a lot of reactions from the MTG community with their recent Secret Lair Drop announcements. Yesterday, it was revealed that the upcoming superdrop will include something not before seen in a SLD: a complete Commander deck.
Table of Contents
Secret Lair and the Secretversary
Magic: The Gathering’s relatively new, premium product series Secret Lair had already been making headlines in the last few weeks (see also: serialized, mirrored Viscera Seer and the MTG card with a peel-off card front) when yesterday, another Secret Lair “Superdrop” was announced. There have been several Superdrops in the last last year, where several Secret Lair products are announced at once and offered for purchase individually or as a bundle containing all of the drops in foil or non-foil.
The “Secretversary” drop that was revealed yesterday is in celebration of two years since the controversial product line was launched. There are nine drops in total, including Secret Lair X Arcane, a crossover with League of Legends that has been met with mixed reactions, Dracula-themed cards to go along with Crimson Vow’s Vampire aesthetic, a drop featuring the fan-favorite clueless homunculus Fblthp, and more.
However, among all of these products, most of which are typical fare for Secret Lair Drops at this point, there is one that stands out: The “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” drop features a complete 100-card ready-to-play Commander deck featuring the partners Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom and Okaun, Eye of Chaos.
What’s the Scoop on this Drop?
As a site focused primarily on Magic: Arena, we don’t often cover content related to Commander, which of course isn’t included in the digital Magic client unless you count Brawl and Historic Brawl. However, there are a few significant details about this product that warrant attention.
“Heads I Win, Tales You Lose” is the first Secret Lair drop to ever include a complete deck; usually the drops include somewhere around 3-5 special cards that receive a fancy or thematic art and card frame treatment. While the Drop in question certainly includes those nice art treatments, the fact that Wizards has created a whole deck for sale through the Secret Lair series also raises some interesting questions – more on that in a second.
Besides the fact that the “Heads I Win, Tales You Lose” drop is a complete, self-contained deck, it’s also notable for including another first in Magic: “reversible” cards. Anyone who has been paying attention to Magic’s premier sets over the last year knows that double-faced cards are nothing new: modal double-faced cards were a major part of the Zendikar Rising set, and both Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Innistrad: Crimson Vow rely heavily on double-faced cards to represent the werewolves and undead creatures of the plane.
However, these new reversible cards are unique from the other double-faced cards in Magic because both sides represent the same card. Rather than flipping as a mechanical ability, the reversible cards simply offer the player two different options for the art they would like to display.
In addition, the “Heads I Win, Tales You Lose” drop also includes a special coin featuring the two coin-flipping commanders:
You can find more details about this drop and all of the others from the Secretversary Superdrop on Wizards’ official product announcement page.
Decklist
The deck contains 5 foil reversible borderless cards, 45 additional foil reprints, and 50 non-foil reprints. Full information here.
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose – Secret Lair Drop
by MTG Arena Zone
Historic Brawl
best of 3
5 mythic
50 rare
19 uncommon
26 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Commander
Creatures (17)
Instants (7)
Sorceries (14)
Artifacts (17)
Enchantments (7)
Lands (36)
100 Cards
$302.84
Dropping Complete, Ready-to-Play Decks: A New Precedent?
Commander, also called EDH, is known as one of Magic’s most popular formats, especially among casual players. It makes sense that Wizards would want to capitalize on that market as much as possible with the premium Secret Lair product line; indeed, many already consider Commander enthusiasts to be a driving force behind the Secret Lair sales.
Now that Wizards has shown that they are willing and able to sell complete decks through the Secret Lair platform, is it possible that we could see a drop featuring a Standard deck, similar to the preconstructed Challenger Decks? If so, would they offer a digital key to add the deck, and maybe some cosmetics, to your account in MTG Arena?
When considering this question, it’s worth noting that the Challenger Decks have never come with redeemable Arena codes despite player demand. With that being said, is it even a possibility? Wizards has clearly given at least some consideration to the market of MTG Arena players regarding the Secret Lair Drops – some of them already come with codes that redeem an in-game card sleeve, card styles, and other cosmetics.
It’s also possible that rather than simply including a key to unlock a specific deck on Arena, Wizards could create Arena-focused Secret Lair drops in other ways. Perhaps themed drops could include cosmetics based around a certain character or plane? Or maybe an artist is commissioned to create a variety of new card styles that are applicable to highly played cards on Arena? The possibilities are countless, and they’re generated by a team of people at Wizards who are more creative than I am.
Secret Lair is a paper product, and up to this point it always has been. But with Wizards showing a constantly-increasing willingness to try various experiments with the product line, it’s not crazy to think that they might introduce a product that’s focused on the Arena client. In some ways, it would be surprising if they didn’t try to connect the two products in a way that’s more meaningful than a key for a cosmetic tacked on.
Only time will tell what future Secret Lairs will have in store. Few could have predicted the peel-off card, and whatever comes next could be even more off-the-wall. Do you want to see Secret Lair products come to Arena in a more substantial way? If so, how could it be implemented? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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Paul
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