At long last, the Everyone’s Invited Secret Lair Commander deck has been unveiled. Reprints from this deck were first revealed almost 3 weeks ago, and MTG players have been waiting patiently since. Each Monday that came and went was a confusingly missed opportunity to reveal the full thing. Now, finally, the wait is over as Wizards has unveiled the deck in earnest.
While we’ve yet to get our hands on it and test it properly, it doesn’t look great. MTG players aren’t enamored at the outset, even if the art does look fantastic. Once again, it seems that a lackluster mana base and a somewhat confused theme may hinder this deck’s potential. To make matters worse, Wizards of the Coast has bumped up the price to $200!
Secret Lair: Everyone’s Invited!
If you’ve been following the story so far, you’ll know that most of the fancy Secret Lair reprints in Everyone’s Invited have already been revealed. Back on April 9th, a cavalcade of MTG players, streamers, and personalities showcased the big ticket items. Following this, we got another reveal a few days later to further entice players.
In total, we’ve seen eight of the ten Secret Lair reprints, which means there are two more for us to cover here today. Unfortunately, neither of these cards is much to write home about from a financial perspective, but one isn’t too terrible. As you’ll see just below, these two cards are Kindred Summons and Maskwood Nexus.
To kick things off with the more expensive of the two, Kindred Summons is a popular typal support piece. Capable of tutoring out an army, depending on your board, Kindred Summons sees play in a wide range of decks. Cats, Elves, Dragons, and even Slivers make good use of this Commander 2017 card.
Currently, Kindred Summons sells for around $7 on average, however, this new variant could fetch a steep premium. Not only is it a Secret Lair card with stunning art, but it may also be rather rare. For now, all we know is that it’s a good deal more exciting than Maskwood Nexus, which sells for around $1.50.
Despite not being a financial powerhouse, thanks to having a range of reprints, Maskwood Nexus is still a good card. Within Everyone’s Invited, in particular, this card really helps to tie things together. No matter what deck it’s in, Maskwood Nexus ensures that any lords or typal-based buffs get applied to all your creatures.
Oops All Typal
As expected, the Everyone’s Invited Secret Lair Commander deck is largely built around Shapeshifters with Changeling. Supporting this fairly weak cast is a ton of lords and token generators. Ideally, all these cards should come together, alongside the deck’s 18 Shapeshifters, to pack a serious bunch.
While the range of lords like Kinsbaile Cavalier and Magda, Brazen Outlaw do provide tons of utility, they don’t synergize with one another. Unless you have that fancy new reprint of Maskwood Nexus in play, this deck will suffer from a decent amount of anti-synergy. Worryingly, since there are slightly more support cards than Shapeshifters (19 to 18), you might run into this issue somewhat often.
While the creature distribution is somewhat worrying, more MTG players have taken issue with the land base. It’s hardly a surprise at this point, but the lands in the Everyone’s Invited Commander deck aren’t top-tier. As much as it is nice to see Mutavault, a lot of the lands are cheap, slow, and in need of upgrading.
Despite this lackluster land base, there are still some strong reprints in the deck that are worth a pretty penny. Black Market Connections, for instance, is worth around $13. The aforementioned Kinsbaile Cavalier is also worth around $12, and Kindred Dominance is worth $10.
All in all, the deck supposedly has around $204 of value; however, that doesn’t mean it’s a good deal. This price total, after all, includes all the cheap $1< cards that you’d never have a hope of selling. That said, there are the fancy new Secret Lair reprints, which could potentially be worth tons.
A Costly Increase
To make matters worse, the Everyone’s Invited Secret Lair Commander deck is more expensive than usual. Historically, Wizards of the Coast has sold Secret Lair Commander decks for $150, however, Everyone’s Invited costs $200. For this price, you get the same amount of reprints with new art, and the same disappointing land base.
Unsurprisingly, MTG players aren’t happy about this sudden increase in price. It definitely doesn’t help that this change comes shortly after a Secret Lair with a $60 foil variant. Across social media, players were quick to voice their disapproval, especially since the deck isn’t massively better.
While $200 is a huge amount of money to spend, a decent Commander deck can easily cost a lot more. Wizards could have easily beefed up the deck with more staples, lands especially, to make the price more enticing. Instead, nothing like this has been done, so it just seems that Secret Lair products are getting more expensive.
As always, the Everyone’s Invited Commander deck is limited run, like all Secret Lair products nowadays. Currently, there’s no word on how limited supply will be, but I’d be surprised if things sell out fast. The 20 Ways to Win deck took its sweet time selling out and is still available in some regions.
That being said, there’s a non-zero chance that Wizards of the Coast will make this Commander deck rarer than the rest. Ultimately, we won’t know for sure until this deck is released, which isn’t happening until May 12th, 2025.