Summary

• Secret Lair drops cause mixed emotions among Magic: The Gathering fans due to limited availability and high demand.
• Recent changes to Secret Lair, such as limited prints, have led to frustration and quick sell-outs of popular drops like Monty Python.
• Despite enjoying unique art treatments, fans are anxious about competing for upcoming drops and resent the current system.

Ask one hundred people how they feel about 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering’s limited-edition Secret Lair range, and you’re going to get a hundred different answers. To some, it’s the worꦚst thing ꧙Magic has ever done, to others, it’s always fun and exciting to see what exclusive cards and inventive art treatments come next.

Personally, I’m somewhere in the middle; I’ve bought plenty of them, but passed on even more. Luckily for me, lots of upcoming Secret Lair drops are right up my alley. Unluckily, I have a sno𒁏wball’s chance in hell of actually getting any of them, and that really s🧸ucks.

Ever since its debut, Secret Lair was a direct-to-consumer way to get cards. Wizards would offer unique art treatments that would never be reprinted again, and, as long as you pre-ordered them within the few weeks they were available, you’d get the cards. They were printed to demand after the preorder window shut, which meant you’d often be waiting months for your cards to arrive, but you&rsqu💦o;d have no difficulty actually getting your hands on them. Eventu🔯ally...

Earlier this year, Wizards decided that system was too easy. Ostensibly in the name of getting people their cards quicker, Secret Lairs are now limited. The cards are already printed and sat in a warehouse, so you could receive your cards mere days after buying them, rather than months. All very well and gooဣd, but Wizards is cu෴rrently doing an awful job at gauging demand.

This recently bit everybody on their collective arse with the launch of the Magic x Monty Python drops. Two sets of cards based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, they were great cards with fantastic art for one of the most beloved comedy movies of all time. And it 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:totally sold out in le🌱ss than an hour.

I was there on time to get the drops. I entered the queue. I waited 45 minutes to get to the front, only for Secret Lair’s system to t🤡hrow a wobbly and kick me back to the main page to queue all over again. After two attempts I finally got to the checkout ❀page, only to be told the show was already over, and they’d sold out.

This isn’t a new thing. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Hatsune Miku drops have sold out, and e💃ven the 2023 30th Anniversary Countdown Collection that cost £150 was all bought up within minutes (I got th🌼at one though, go me). Wizards has had years of their drops selling out and upsetting players who couldn’t get their hands on them. It should know how to avoid this extremely predictable scenario, but it just doesn’t.

While Wizards says the changes to Secret L🍃air were implemented to deliver cards quicker, there’s undo🦋ubtedly an element of cashing in on FOMO.

Af💯ter my headache trying to get Monty Python, I’ve got zero ho꧅pe that I’ll actually manage to get the upcoming drops I’m interested in.

To All The Drops I've Ever Missed

The first is the 2024 Festiva👍l in a Box. Tying into the MagicCon events held in various cities around the world, this drop is a fantastic deal. Three Collector boosters, a Chibi Secret Lair that always appreciates in value, a set of promo cards – including the adorable Dutch Swords to Plowshares I missed out on by having to pull out of attending MagicCon Amsterdam – and, best of all, an entire booster box of Mystery Booster 2ಌ.

I’m really excited about it all, but am I 🌺going to get it? I’ll try, but who are we fooling?

The other drops are the 16🐎8澳洲幸运5开奖网:50th anniversary🤡 Dungeons & Dragons releases. Alongside the An Exhibition of Adventure drop that includes good-value cards like Goldspan Dragon and Ponder with stunning art, there’s also going to be drops based on Astarion and Karlach from Baldur’s Gate 3. Maybe I could’ve cinched the one drop, but going up against thirsty Astarion fans is nigh-on impossible, I&rsꦐquo;ve got no chance.

As I mentioned, I like Secret Lair. There've been plenty of misses, but, on the whole I like the idea of unique art treatments and unknown artists getting their chance to shine, especially when it comes with valuable cards or something I can use to jazz up one of my decks.

The sole reason I made my Goreclaw, Terror of Qal-Sisma deck was becaus🦋e I bought the 90’s Binder Secret Lair drop that has him all pink and fluffy. I’m gay, I like bears, it had to 💙be done.

What I don’t love is the anxiety of knowing I’m going to throw myself into a scrum hoping to maybe get the chance to buy something. I’m fully aware I’m part of the problem, and that, if we all voted with our wallets and stopped clamouring for these drops, Wizards would go back to print-to-demand. But that&rsq✃uo;s never going to happen.

Scalpers are going to flip Mystery Booster 2 and people are going to be left out of getting Karl𒐪ach and Astarion, and I’m going to sit in a queue for an hour and hate every second of it just foꦆr my chance at a chibi Orvar. Wizards has made the entire Secret Lair experience so much worse than it needs to be for the most cynical of reasons, and I don’t know how much longer people are going to care enough to sit through this rigmarole.