At this point, the problems with Secret Lair drops are well known. Even ignoring the often stingy reprint selection and dubious themes, the real issue is accessibility. Time and time again, we’ve seen exciting Secret Lair drops sell out in hours. This alone would be frustrating, but technical constraints and hours-long queues make it unacceptable.
Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast launched the MTG x PlayStation Superdrop at long last. Following its reveal at MagicCon: Atlanta, many players had been expecting the worst for this Superdrop’s release. Sure, many of the cards and reprints look absolutely fantastic, but the expected demand was a real concern.
Miraculously, despite the expectation that this sale would be an absolute disaster, it wasn’t entirely terrible. Admittedly, the launch was a total mess, but now that the dust has settled, it’s not all bad news.
What Went Wrong
As expected, the initial rush of demand for the MTG x PlayStation Superdrop was incredibly demoralizing. From the moment the sale went live, tons of customers were hit with one-hour queues and technical issues. While this is par for the course, many MTG players were still worried about missing out on the opportunity to buy.
Unfortunately, this may have been the reality for many would-be purchasers who weren’t ready the moment the virtual doors opened. It only took one and a half hours for the first drop, Ghost of Tsushima, to sell out. Sadly, this means that some players who did everything right by showing up early still ended up missing out.
Considering Ghost of Tsushima is hardly the biggest PlayStation franchise, its Secret Lair drop selling out first may be rather surprising. Given that the standalone sequel Ghost of Yōtei just launched, however, it’s arguably the most topical drop of the bunch. On top of this, Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima is simply a fantastic new card.
According to EDHREC, Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima is the most popular of the mechanically unique MTG x PlayStation cards. Considering it threatens either massive or unblockable Commander damage, this isn’t a surprise at all. Still, even if unsurprising, it’s definitely disappointing that this Secret Lair drop was snapped up so quickly.
Thankfully, the other drops that have since sold out took a while longer to go. God of War: Greek is the only other drop to sell out so far; however, Horizon: Into the Forbidden West has received a low stock warning. Considering Aloy, Savior of Meridian and Kratos, God of War are the next most popular PlayStation cards, on EDHREC, this isn’t surprising.
Actually Not Awful
As much as things got off to a really bad start, as always, it wasn’t entirely terrible. The God of War: Greek drop actually lasted a while before selling out. On top of that, five out of the seven MTG x PlayStation drops are still available for purchase.
Currently, all but one of these remaining drops don’t even have low stock warnings, which feels especially surprising. That said, the interest registered on EDHREC does fall off a cliff after Alloy. While Jin Sakai has been brewed for almost 3,000 decks, Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter only has around 460 lists.
Even the mechanically unique Partner Commanders for The Last of Us have around 1,000 brews between the four of them. While the Kratos and Atreus pair is more popular, with around 1,800 decks, there’s nonetheless a clear fall off. Weirdly, this is good news for anyone actually looking to purchase these Secret Lair drops.
Technically, thanks to the lack of demand, Wizards of the Coast has printed enough of these Secret Lair drops. This is what Wizards should be doing, as sales should last for more than a day, at least. If we’re honest, sales lasting that long should be the bare minimum, as it allows everyone to get their desired fill.
Clearly, this didn’t happen for the Ghost of Tsushima drop, as Wizards didn’t print enough. That said, there’s a good chance that each drop was printed equally, and pre-printing happened months ago. Due to this, Wizards would have had no idea which drop would have been the most in demand.
Two Solutions
If there’s any takeaway from the bizarre MTG x PlayStation Superdrop sale, it’s that the limited-run printing model almost works. Should drops be pre-printed enough to manage demand, then players get the best of both worlds. Pre-printing means drops should be shipping quickly, and abundant supply stops everything from selling out.
Unfortunately, it feels very unlikely that Wizards of the Coast will wholeheartedly embrace this solution. The fact that Secret Lair drops are still selling out almost two years after the shift to limited-run printing is evidence enough of that. While we can’t definitively say why this is the case, trying to keep printing and production costs down is the likely answer.
Frustratingly, this matter of cost is also why we probably won’t be getting a return to print-to-demand Secret Lairs anytime soon. Similarly, it will probably stop us from getting the hybrid printing model for each Secret Lair drop, too. As much as we’d like to think differently and be optimistic, MTG players have been complaining nonstop, and nothing has changed.
Ultimately, it seems pretty obvious that Wizards doesn’t want unsold Secret Lair drops sitting around on the virtual store shelves. This is entirely unsurprising, considering unsold drops mean missing out on money. That said, for Secret Lair drops that contain mechanically unique cards, overprinting should be the default.
While frustrating, scarcity isn’t the end of the world for Secret Lair reprints. MTG is no stranger to having collectible cards with unique art, after all. Mechanically unique cards being gatekept behind limited-run sales and FOMO, however, is downright egregious. For these drops, the hybrid printing model should be the bare minimum, not a wishful pipedream.
A Saving Grace
In theory, Wizards of the Coast does have a solution to the Secret Lair scarcity problem. After a mechanically unique Secret Lair drop’s release, additional copies will be provided to WPN stores. Ideally, this would solve the scarcity problem outright; however, it’s unclear how much extra supply is given out to stores.
At the end of the day, mechanically unique cards being sold out in under two hours just isn’t right. Going forward, the right thing to do, at the very least, would be to dramatically increase print runs of these drops. If that causes them not to sell out for weeks or even months, that’s just the cost of doing things correctly.
Sadly, while we’d love to think this solution would fix everything, we’re not exactly optimistic about it happening. In fact, looking ahead, it feels like we’re just a week away from having this issue happen again. The latest Countdown Kit product looks so loaded with value that it also selling out feels inevitable.
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