Magic: The Gathering Secret Lairs and controversy go together like peanut butter and jelly. Or, in this case, Spongebob and Patrick. This Monday saw the official reveal of the Spongebob Squarepants Secret Lair drops, which will be available to MTG players on the 24th of March. These provoked a big reaction upon their initial announcement last October, and now that they’re here for real players have a lot more to say.
Interestingly, the community seems split down the middle on these drops. While you might expect nothing but hostility towards such an openly childish franchise showing up in Magic, many MTG players are digging it. That said, plenty of hostility does still exist. Other players are taking umbrage with everything from the legendary creatures chosen for the drops to the use of memes in Magic in general. Whichever side of the fence you’re on, it’s hard to deny the drops have the community talking.
The Spongebob Secret Lair Discourse MTG
It’s all but impossible to escape the discourse around the Spongebob Squarepants Secret Lair drops right now, no matter where in the MTG ecosystem you hang out. Pretty much every social media platform is afire with different takes on the drops. I’m talking Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, and even Blogatog.
As soon as the drops were revealed on Monday, a r/MagicTCG thread discussing them started up. As of right now, it’s sitting at over 1600 comments. Even in Secret Lair terms, that’s a big deal. As 8thPlaceDave put quite succinctly, the content of these comments is all over the place.
“The contrast between comments here is impressive. Truly a divisive Secret Lair.”
8thPlaceDave
For some players, these drops are completely out of line, and many had strong words about Spongebob’s MTG debut. Kjeldor2400, for example, said “Jesus Christ, they just put a bunch of memes on existing cards. This is fucking awful.” In a similar vein, offhandaxe asked “What the fuck are they even doing now? This shit continues to cement the fact I won’t purchase anything from wizards of the coast.” For some, the drops were something of a last straw. ConfusedStair simply replied with an exasperated “You know what, maybe I don’t need to play MTG anymore.”
On the other hand, there was a surprising amount of positive feedback in the thread too. Strolpol said “This seems perfect. Jokes and memes for some alternative arts […] Completely ignorable by people who don’t like the IP and people who love it will have some fun.” Archon458 agreed, adding “This is absolutely perfect. I hate saying this, but well done WotC.” Some felt stronger still, such as Talvi7 who added “I unironically love it.”
Mythical Mismatch
General criticism and praise aside, players had more specific issues with the Spongebob Secret Lair drops too. The legendary creatures from Legends of Bikini Bottom, in particular, came under a lot of scrutiny. Since Wizards opted for legendary reskins here instead of mechanically unique cards, players inevitably took issue with the portrayal of certain characters.
“I agree with that last asker about the reskinned art but dislike the legendary characters specifically from a color pie perspective. I think it really violates a fundamental part of the color pie to make a characters personality not match their color.”
badgerbattalion
“The legendary creatures, on the other hand, have designs that are very specific, but don’t match the characters too well. Yes, most match creature types, but the complexity invites further inspection, and they start failing flavorwise in their mechanics and colors.”
su92
Across social media, most of the reskinned legends here faced some kind of criticism. Gary being in Dimir colors raised eyebrows for a start, given his docile nature in the show. Meanwhile, Patrick’s portrayal as obscure Legends card Barktooth Warbeard raised more than a few eyebrows. This one was clearly intended as some sort of meta joke, in fairness, but overall the flavor here does leave a lot to be desired.
For these players, it would’ve been preferable for Wizards to print mechanically unique creatures for these characters instead. At least then the flavor would’ve made more sense and led to more authentic portrayals. For others, however, the fact that they chose not to do this was cause for celebration.
“Yeah, the fact that none of these are mechanically unique makes it go from bothering me to completely harmless, and the fact that the jokes are funny makes it actually kind of fun.”
Loreweaver15
“I’m so glad those aren’t unique cards. As a person that dislikes UB in general, i’m completely fine with the “godzilla treatment” as they are essentially just skins.”
Significant-Dream991
Seeing the community split over this decision isn’t particularly surprising. What is surprising is that both sides are compelled by entirely separate reasons. For the flavor fans, these cards are a failure because they don’t adequately capture the characters. For those who prioritize gameplay, the simple fact that these characters aren’t attached to new, playable cards is enough to earn them a positive reception.
In the latter group, the main concern is being forced to engage with Universes Beyond cards by virtue of their high power level. We’ve seen this in the past with The Walking Dead’s Rick, Steadfast Leader, and several cards from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. In this case, however, Wizards dodged the bullet well in advance.
Diluting The Brand
We can’t talk about the Spongebob Squarepants Secret Lair drops without discussing how the MTG community reacted to the memes. More so than the legends, the meme cards from the Internet Sensation drop were what really got players talking. As you’d expect, many had a fairly dramatic reaction to such provocative artwork.
“RIP Magic. I liked it better when these were just fun thoughts that you would make you go “heh that would be funny.” But it is in fact not funny in practice.”
_Joats
“They just googled “spongebob memes” and printed them on paper. I’ve seen more effort on r/custommagic. This doesn’t deserve your money. I wouldn’t even proxy these.”
Jagerbalm
You’ve likely seen these kinds of comments a fair bit in the past. Every new set brings a fresh wave of “Magic is dead,” “RIP,” etc. There’s an argument to be made that adding Spongebob to Magic in any form is another step in the grand dilution of the brand that’s been taking place over the past few years. The fact that Wizards chose to use the series’ famous memes is simply another nail in that coffin.
There’s also a separate issue at play here, this being that the Spongebob memes used here are fairly low-effort. While they did receive new art from Tyler Walpole, you’d be hard-pressed to tell at a glance since they replicate the original memes pretty much exactly. For some players, however, this wasn’t an issue in the slightest.
“I feel like there’s not much to be upset about with these, they look like legal proxies and I think there is a funny factor to having one of them in your deck. SpongeBob memes are over done in my opinion, but even I’d laugh if someone randomly slapped down Patrick at Commander night.”
StrangeTrap
“The memes as the noncreatures was a top tier idea.”
SandmanDota
Comments like these are a good reminder that for every Universes Beyond doomsayer out there, there are plenty of players to whom the injection of new IP isn’t a major issue. There are even many, like SandmanDota above, who enjoy it. All that sales data Mark Rosewater points to regularly has to come from somewhere, after all.
Ultimately, the fact that the Spongebob Secret Lair drops have split MTG players to this extent isn’t a huge surprise. It’s one of the boldest Universes Beyond crossovers we’ve seen yet, and big plays like that are always fraught with risk.