The State Of Magic: The Gathering Secret Lairs

I worked in WotC's Sales Department in the era of From the Vault. The purpose of the product was to be a "thank you" to our WPN network, and the MSRP was in place because Wizard's wholesale pricing policy was a % of stated MSRP, and thus they paid less making the product a functional reward for participation in the WPN. I often wish Wizards had replaced it with something else to support the store network, because it makes their current lines of store appreciation ring severely hollow to me.

Princess bride was the first sectet lair I bought. More than half the cards are going into decks.

I wish this game didnt rely so much on artificial scarcity.

Also not a fan of some of the funky text choices and layouts on some of the poster style cards

As far as I'm concerned WOTC won't be getting any more of my money, because fuck that shitty company.

I've bought 0 of them

The last lair I bought was the hydra one from the lgs. Other than that it's been a very long time. I think the last one I got was the Stranger things one.

Going to be making a "good guys story" deck with Tom Bombadil as the commander. Will include some of the Dr's, Ash and these where Tom just tells stories using them as the "good guys".

I remember when secret lairs came out. I really liked the one that was all Seb McKinnon’s art. My wife loved the one that was all cats.
Then one came out with a reprint of Elesh Norn with phyrexian text and tanked the price and rarity of the one I already had.
Wasn’t a fan of that.

The way you talk about that Battle of Wits is adorable ❤

Was really hoping for the longest and craziest “new secret lair alert” skiy

Maybe you people should stop buying.

I found a way to make effective play of Battle of Wits!!

FTVs were price-gouged at LGSes, the foiling was terrible, and existed in a time where they didn't have as many opportunities to reprint cards. The packaging was the best thing about them.

battle of wits isn't banned in commander? just very difficult to shuffle extra cards into your deck with the constraints of the format

What's weird to me is that after going through all the drama about secret lairs a few years ago, WOTC never actually did much with the idea anyway. I thought it was going to be used to add new aesthetics to the game and widen its appeal a little bit, but instead it turned out to be a mix of franchise crossovers in the same fantasy realism style plus absurd unreadable gimmicks and basic lands. Despite the ridiculous prices, it feels like they're still just leaving money on the table.

Man, I miss From The Vaults

I might by 0 to 3 secret lairs per drop it really depends on 3 things
1. Value
2. Do I want the card for a deck
3. Do i like the art

My only From The Vault memory is when my friends and I went to our LGS on game day to each buy one and slot into our decks, only to find 1 guy came in before us and bought them all with the sole intention of reselling them online. He didn’t even play the game. We were pissed.

I remember FTV Angels coming out and my LGS did an event to play for it. I was lucky enough to win it with Gruul Dragons back in the day, it was a Standard event. I remember it was the final game of the event and my hand was 2 lands, elvish mystic, goblin rabblemaster, then 3 lightning strike. Poor guy lost that game so fast.

I got all my From the Vaults after they stopped making them. Most were still relatively cheap ($50-70) with some of course being extremely expensive. The few I'm missing are Dragons, Relics, and Twenty.

Used to have the urge to keep up with most of the Secret Lairs during the first year. Nowadays, I’ll get 4-6 sets per year that interest me and I’m planning to wind down even further in the near future. There are too many for me to care and if I miss a drop, the cards will get reprinted, so there is no FOMO.

I hate these because they're simply too expensive.

Secret Lairs have lasted longer than the Confederacy 😂😂😂

Shouldnt there be a dune secret lair or even universes beyond by now

I dont even play MTG very often, but I enjoy your videos regardless. Keep it up Prof and Happy Holidays.

It's a shame that they do not put enough cards that are worthwhile in each Secret Lair. However, I do agree with making Secret Lairs that have playable cards that people can choose to buy solely for the art that they enjoy, but not for the value. For instance, the cosmic art for the Commander staples.

The only Secret Lair that interested me enough (this year) was the VHS one from a few months ago. That one had both great value, stunning art, and even a card that was commonly played but didn't have much in terms of value. I just wish that WotC would make it so that Secret Lairs had around two cards that might not be worth a lot but are played frequently, then have three cards that are valuable and playable. All while having beautiful art. Especially cards that need reprints because, after all, Secret Lairs are a premium product and should be treated as such.

I have only ever bought SL second hand and only for my girl boss deck.

Me casually FREAKING OUT AS THE CARB BENT A LITTLE BEING PUT IN ITS SLEEVE. Me also thinking maybe I dont have to be as careful when sleeving my cards

I only have a couple problems with secret lairs at this point.

The first being that the basic land secret lairs, which some have been absolutely phenomenal, only usually have about 5 lands and are the same price as every other secret lair. I'm not sure if including more copies or just making them cheaper would be the best solution, but it's painful when you see a secret lair that's well worth the money right next to a pack of 5 basic lands.

The other is that there seem to be secret lairs where only one card is actually worth the price. I'm fine with buying a secret lair where I only really want one or two cards, but it gets very difficult to justify the continuous purchases (and wait time sometimes) when all I really wanted was a valuable reprint at a cheaper price.

I do think your point of having an actual expected standard would alleviate some of this, but I've found myself purchasing less of them because of these reasons.

Since 5 years we only see a burst changes in regular productos and new other and what they have in common? , a degradation of quality , sense and identity of the product.
The only goal was grab cash being every cicle more a collection thing than a mechanically good expansion of the game. I think that now after that time MTG is about collection, art and political discusions than build a good game by itself. the modern way to consume a prodduct is easy for companies.
Did you notice that feels like more how chinese merchandising works?, giving you a lot of well presented things but you need constantly spend more and more and the consistence of the value of product is more a hype machine than something that is really "useful to play".
Mithic rarity starts all the downfall (or rise).
Secret lair is another more of the list.
Thank for your video, as always shows the reality of the product vs the hype.

they are not so secret no more. their novelty is gone.

MSRP could help, but imo the pushback on it would come from LGS. The clear winners for MSRP are consumers and large-format retailers. The sad reality of the internet and online shopping is that if you implement an MSRP, large retailers can afford to use MSRP as a standard to which any discount will be measured against, which they can afford to do. That's even ignoring the inventory cost of having something like Commander Master boxes sitting unpurchased on the shelf due to the premium on them and putting a strain on any buying strategy a LGS may have. A large retailer would likely order less of the premium product as they are not likely to have to worry about minimum order quantities.

One positive is that coalescing draft and set boosters could help LGS in the long run. This will be after some growing pains in figuring out the right amount to purchase and recouping any lost draft costs. But buying and holding inventory 3 kinds of booster product per set (when they have all 3) will always be harder to maintain than 2. The unfortunate thing is that there will be some pains from losing the lowest price point, at least initially, which may be fatal to some retailers as they have to shift inventory strategy.

I do like the re-skinned cards, they make sense as an art piece. I have the Titanoth Rex with Godzilla art and I love it. I'm not a fan of the crossover cards, though, Magic is its own thing. If they had re-skinned Transformers or Doctor Who, that would be funny, but to make a ton of cards is dumb, at least keep them in their own format or something like the Un-sets.

One thing I think Pokemon has figured out is card pricing in the second market. If a playable/meta card becomes expensive, they usually make a promo version or print more of it. The cool art cards retain their value because they are still rare and reprinting normal playable cards makes the game significantly less expensive. It's a much better system imo

I used to be a huge Commander fan. Commander got me into the TCG hobby. Recently I find the art/flavour side of Magic to be a huge whiff. The cards are ugly, and the story is poorly written. Recently I find the gameplay of Commander doesn't hit the same either. My biggest complaint is that games take too long. The game is going down the drain, and these Secret Lair just seem like a last-ditch attempt to get a bit more money on the way to the zero.

From the Vault & Premium Deck Series were sweet!
I've grabbed a few secret lairs, a handful for personal reasons & a few just to buylist back to stores but overall I'd say 80% of them I don't even consider...

"This'll give someone joy" ❤ The real philosophy of M:tG

Yes I do miss from the vault. About secret lair it's a bit hit and miss for me. The art isn't always my jam and although value isn't the most important part I don't like when the value isn't there.

The angel secret lair deck is still my favorite deck to use, so worth the $150

When it comes to Secret Lairs, do you (Prof) or others prefer non foils over foils?

I have no idea why you are hung up on how many cards it has. 1 or 100 cards, if it has value it has value.

Any thoughts on the Ponies: the Galloping secret lairs?

My hot takes:
UB should only be reprint sets. The characters should be already printed as well.
Wizards should care less about secondary market when it comes to secret lairs or other reprints.

I don't understand the allure of secret lair. If I like the IP, I don't want it on a magic card. If I like magic cards, I don't want other IPs on it.

You know what I love most about Princess Bride? The movie. Universes Beyond and Secret Lairs can be wiped from the face of the earth as far as I’m concerned.

Stil waiting for the full set of My little pony 💔

Secret lairs are popular the same way hype sneakers are popular, the marketing and branding is cool and the cards are a real flex to some people.