We are well and truly in Secret Lair season now, folks. After struggling to get their hands on the latest round of drops, players are now finally receiving the products they ordered. As always, this means there are a bunch of new Bonus Cards to check out. The Secret Scare Superdrop lineup was absolutely stacked, and its Bonus Cards are equally so. We’ve got curveball reprints, solid value pieces, and a bunch of great art to boot. Secret Lair has its share of problems, to be sure, but it’s hard not to crack a smile at some of these inclusions.
Iron Maiden Secret Lair Bonus Cards
So far, two Bonus Cards from the Iron Maiden Secret Lair drops have been found in the wild. The first, and by far the most interesting, of these is Burnt Offering, which appears to be the Bonus Card for the Album Art drop.
There’s a pretty good chance you’ve never heard of this card. That’s because it’s only ever been printed once before, back in 1995’s Ice Age. Somehow, it’s gone 30 years without a reprint, which is wild for any card. Sure, Wizards has moved away from ritual spells that can generate a lot of mana recently, but we’ve still seen Culling the Weak and Sacrifice reprints. Why Burnt Offering got the short end of the flaming stick is anyone’s guess.
Outside of this fun trivia, Burnt Offering isn’t hugely exciting as a card. It plays in a similar space to sacrifice, with the upside of providing red mana if you need it. This theoretically gives it more utility than its peers, but it still doesn’t see a ton of play, and is a $1.20 card as a result. Perhaps this reprint will turn more people on to the card, but that’s unlikely I think.
The other Iron Maiden Bonus Card we’ve seen is Howling Mine, which seems to come alongside the Eddie Unchained drop. This is a classic piece in forced draw Commander decks like Nekusar, the Mindrazer. It also does work in the occasional Mill deck. Copies will run you around $4 currently, or $6.50 for the previous Secret Lair version. We can expect something in between for this new version: a solid, if unremarkable, value add.
The Office Secret Lair Bonus Cards
Of all the Secret Scare drops we’ll be looking at today, The Office: Dwight’s Destiny probably has the strongest Bonus Cards overall. This is about as surprising as the fact that this drop even exists in the first place.
In terms of confirmed Bonus cards for this drop, we have Seize the Spotlight and Council’s Judgment. Seize the Spotlight gained a ton of value recently due to cEDH demand, and is now sitting pretty at the $15 mark. Turns out its abilities synergize really well with what the top tables are doing. It’s also just a generically good card in casual Commander, so there’s demand there too.
Council’s Judgment used to be a great removal spell in Legacy, but it’s fallen out of favor a lot in recent years. While it can get around Hexproof, Indestructible, and Protection, the best threats in the format don’t really have these abilities anymore. As a result, the card really only sees Commander play now. Copies can be had for around $0.30, so I’m not expecting great things from this Bonus Card version.
In a weird twist, Ghostly Prison is only kind of confirmed as a Bonus Card for this drop. The card appeared in the initial reveal video for the drop, but then wasn’t pictured in the drop’s lineup on the official website. This means it’s either a scrapped card, or a Bonus Card. So far, no one has reported opening it, so the jury’s still out. The art is excellent, however, and Ghostly Prison is a $5 card, so it’d be a great pick in any case.
Furby Secret Lair Bonus Cards
Last, and unfortunately least, we have the Bonus Cards from the Secret Scare Superdrop’s Furby drops. There were three of these in total, and each corresponds to one of the Bonus Cards we saw today.
Firstly, for the Doo-ay Noo-lah drop, we have Command Tower. If you’re getting sick of Wizards wheeling this out constantly for Bonus Cards, you’re not the only one. While it is a crucial card in Commander, it’s also been printed into the ground. Very few versions, even Secret Lair versions, are worth more than $3. Bonus Card printings of Command Tower have hit $50 in the past, so there’s potential here. It’s much more likely, however, that this will be a bulk pull.
Sadly, The Furbys: The Gathering drop gets a very comparable card. Just like Command Tower, Arcane Signet is a card every casual Commander deck needs. Also like Command Tower, this is a card with about a million reprints, so it doesn’t hold much value. The Secret Lair versions of this card do fare better, mind you, sitting in the $10-77 range. There’s a chance that this is a reasonably expensive Bonus Card, but it could also be worth very little depending on how the market shakes out.
Finally, Read the Bones appears as the Bonus Card for The Oddbodies drop. Read the Bones sees a bit of Commander play, but it’s not a staple like the previous Furby Bonus Cards. It’s also not valuable at all, with copies selling for around $0.15 at the moment. Hopefully there’s a rare alternative to this one, because otherwise it’s a serious dud.
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