Mechanically unique Secret Lair Commander cards are a bit of a mixed bag in MTG. While they can make for fantastic crossovers thanks to their development time and mechanical freedom, it’s not all good news. MTG players have long lamented Secret Lair as a card distribution method, even if Wizards has been getting better.
Previously, mechanically unique Secret Lair cards were always the first to sell out when a new Superdrop was released. Recently, however, Wizards of the Coast has been getting better at forecasting demand, dramatically upping print volumes. This has allowed the new mechanically unique Fallout Secret Lair cards to remain on store shelves, even after an entire month.
Unfortunately, while extra accessibility is always nice, the new Fallout Secret Lair cards aren’t exactly the most powerful in MTG. For the most part, the new legends are pretty disappointing, but that hasn’t stopped players from building around them. Out of the new trio of legends, The Ghoul, Gunslinger, is currently the most popular, so much so that he’s even causing price spikes!
MTG Nuclear Fallout
Released as part of the Fallout-themed Mutant Menace Commander precon, Nuclear Fallout makes perfect sense alongside The Ghoul, Gunslinger. Not only are both of these cards Fallout-themed, but they both care about Rad Counters. This massively elevates the power of Nuclear Fallout, as most of the time, it’s not that good.
In theory, Nuclear Fallout is an incredibly well-costed board wipe, since it reduces stats by twice the paid X cost. This is literally twice as good as The Meathook Massacre, although it admittedly doesn’t have the potent drain ability. Instead, Nuclear Fallout’s extra ability is a massive downside, most of the time, at least.
Since Nuclear Fallout will dish out a bunch of Rad Counters to each player, it comes attached to a nasty self-mill effect. While it’ll hurt your opponents just as badly, you’ll still need to play around this ability yourself. As a result, Nuclear Fallout is predominantly played alongside the Mutant Menace face Commanders. The Wise Mothman, for instance, makes up almost half of the decks that use this card.
While Nuclear Fallout is unsurprisingly good in its original precon, The Ghoul, Gunslinger makes for an equally fantastic home. Since The Ghoul leans into self-mill and giving yourself Rad Counters, Nuclear Fallout’s downside turns into an upside. Thanks to this, Nuclear Fallout has found its way into over 560 The Ghoul, Gunslinger, lists so far. This might not seem like much, but considering there are just over 800 The Ghoul decks, it’s a remarkable 71% play rate.
The Spike
Since Nuclear Fallout has long been quite difficult to maximize, this card has only gotten cheaper following its release. While it once sold for around $4 shortly after the precon’s launch, in January of 2026, copies were available for as little as $0.54. Since then, almost 350 copies of Nuclear Fallout have been sold, which has been enough to push the price up significantly.
Spiking 448% in one month, near-mint non-foil copies of Nuclear Fallout are now selling for around $2.96 on average. While a couple of near-mint copies are available for slightly under this price point, prices ramp up quickly. With only 45 near-mint default frame listings available on TCGplayer, it might not be long before these are bought up too.
Unfortunately, much like the near-mint default frame copies, lightly played examples are also very scarce right now. There are a few examples available for around $1.40, but these won’t last long if demand continues at current levels. To make matters worse, while there is showcase frame printing and some fancy foils, each of these is more expensive.
Despite seeing significantly lower sales over the past month, showcase frame copies of Nuclear Fallout are currently selling for $6.37 on average. Considering this variant was Collector Booster exclusive, this price point is undoubtedly fuelled by this variant’s natural rarity. The same is true for the pair of surge foil printings, which are also Collector Booster exclusive.
Currently, default frame surge foils are going for $13, while the showcase frame version is $40! Notably, these prices haven’t jumped significantly in the past few months, as sales are incredibly low. Unsurprisingly, considering how cheap it used to be, it seems most MTG players gravitated to the non-foil default frame printing.
A Suspect Staple
Looking ahead, it’s quite difficult to tell where Nuclear Fallout might end up. Realistically, since the sales spike isn’t too steep, there’s a chance supply is now naturally low enough that the new price point will stick. That said, most Commander-based price spikes do end up dipping over time as new cards and Commanders come along.
Despite this persistent trend, Nuclear Fallout does arguably deserve to be more expensive. As a board wipe, this card can do tons of work, and can easily pack a one-two punch in the right deck. Any deck that cares about Self-Mill, such as Reanimator or Thassa’s Oracle decks, could realistically run this card.
Considering Reanimator and Self-Mill decks are fairly popular archetypes in MTG Commander, Nuclear Fallout could definitely see more play. Whether or not it will, however, is a different matter entirely. Since Nuclear Fallout feels like a card you have to break to make work, many players may end up ignoring it.
Ultimately, because of this factor, it’s difficult to know where the price of Nuclear Fallout will settle in the long term. Thankfully, even if the price of this card doesn’t drop a cent in the coming months, it still won’t be massively expensive. Considering the utility this reasonably costed boardwipe has, $3 isn’t a bad deal at all.
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