After being teased late last week, an all-new Secret Lair Superdrop, titled Back to School, has just been announced. Featuring a whopping eight individual drops, there’s a ton here to get excited about. Not only are there some wild Universes Beyond drops in here, including a tournament-legal return for My Little Pony, but there are a bunch of funky in-universe drops too. While the value on offer here varies a lot, the spirit of Secret Lair creativity is alive and well.
Secret Lair X My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Last time we saw My Little Pony in Magic, such an outrageous crossover was confined to silver-bordered cards. It’s a sign of how far things have come, then, that this new drop is fully tournament-legal. It’s also a pretty great proposition value-wise, with Commander combo tutor Defense of the Heart nearly being worth the price of admission alone at $25.
Thanks to Commander’s multiplayer nature, fulfilling this enchantment’s condition is surprisingly easy. From there, you can close the game by tutoring up two-card combos like Vito, Thorn of Dusk Rose, and Bloodthirsty Conqueror.
While not quite as valuable, Radiate is another explosive combo piece with interesting Commander applications. Copying spells like an Awakened Part the Waterveil, for example, allows you to take tons of turns while winning the game with your lands. This marks the first-ever reprint of the card since its 2002 debut, adding a nice $5 to the value.
After this pair, the value in this drop tails off sharply. Reconnaissance Mission and Generous Gift are both interesting reprints, but they’re also only worth $1.50 and $1, respectively. Sol Ring and Arcane Signet also show up for the umpteenth time, providing yet more bling versions of these super-staples. As always, there’s a lot of financial potential with these, but equally they could end up being worth little more than regular copies.
Speaking of unpredictable prices, My Little Pony is actually getting a whole second drop in the Back to School Superdrop. Lands of Equestria features a selection of five full-art basic lands, all set in the My Little Pony universe. We’ve seen drops like this before for various IPs, most notably SpongeBob SquarePants last year.
The SpongeBob basics all lie in the $3-5 range value-wise, so we can likely expect something similar for these newcomers. The secondary market is impossible to predict for IP-specific lands like these, mind you, so they could easily end up higher or lower than that, too.
Secret Lair X Dwarf Fortress: Create New World
Surprising as it is to see My Little Pony again, it’s nothing compared to seeing Magic cross over with Dwarf Fortress. Far from being a household name IP, this is a niche, hardcore simulation game that’s been quietly brewing since 2002. While recent updates have given the game reasonably modern graphics, this drop draws from the ASCII original to striking effect.
Much like the My Little Pony drop, the bulk of the value here is concentrated in a single card. Terror of the Peaks is a phenomenal threat and combo piece in Commander, and still holds its $28 value despite a 2024 reprint. In Token strategies where you can create a bunch of bodies at once, or in creature loops with cards like Gravecrawler and Phyrexian Altar, this card is an absolute monster. By itself, this justifies the $29.99 asking price, provided you don’t mind the unconventional art.
Unfortunately, beyond Terror, the rest of this drop is entirely bulk. Rogue’s Passage, Communal Brewing, Rune-Scarred Demon, and Secret Rendezvous all cost just $0.40-0.60, adding just under $2 to the drop in total. This drop does mark the first-ever reprint for Communal Brewing, which is noteworthy, but that doesn’t change much in terms of the value proposition.
Overall, you’re getting about as much value as you put in with the Dwarf Fortress drop, making it a reasonable buy if you like the art.
Omens Of Chaos
We knew an Omens of Chaos-related Secret Lair drop was coming thanks to a pre-order offer last month, and here it is right on time. This drop showcases the main characters from Seanan McGuire’s new novel, with a two-color spell from each of the Strixhaven colleges.
While crossing over with external MTG media like this is a cool concept, the card selection here is, unfortunately, lacking. Batwing Brume, which we saw in the pre-order offer, is the most exciting reprint in the drop at $7. It’s a solid Fog effect in white, as well as a way to turn an opponent’s alpha strike right back on them. Thanks to this, the card is rather popular in Orzhov Commander decks.
After Brume, Chance for Glory and Abrupt Decay are the biggest hitters here, but their financial value is lacking. Chance is a risky, but powerful extra turn spell valued at $1.80, and is getting its first-ever reprint here. Abrupt Decay, on the other hand, is a proper multi-format all-star with homes in formats like Pioneer, Legacy, and Commander. That said, thanks to plentiful reprints, it’s only a $2.10 value add.
The last two cards, Counterflux, a forgettable Cancel variant, and Growth Spiral, are financial misses at $0.50 and $0.30, respectively. While Spiral is fairly popular in Commander, it’s not the best ramp out there, so a blinged-out version like this is unlikely to catch fire.
Altogether, you’re getting about $12 in value for the $29.99 asking price with this drop, which is hard to swallow even if you love the art and theme. While it’s not the weakest link in the Back to School Superdrop, Omens of Chaos is still undeniably a dud.
Mahō Gakuin Seishun Hakusho — 魔法学院青春白書
Though it looks and sounds like an obscure manga crossover, the Mahō Gakuin Seishun Hakusho drop is actually a manga reimagining of life at Strixhaven. Unfortunately, despite some strong reprints, this Secret Lair Drop is yet another financial dud.
Stinging Study leads the pack here, as a banger $7 draw spell for Commander. Since it works whether your Commander is out or not, it’s a reliable way to fully refill your hand at instant speed. This is the first-ever reprint for the card, too, making it a doubly exciting addition.
Another Commander playable card, Time Stretch is the next most expensive card here, coming in at $3.70. While it can take a while to cast this, taking two turns should be more than enough to close the game. Copy it with cards like Naru Meha, Master Wizard, or recur it with Snapcaster Mage, and you can easily chain a whole bunch of turns together.
While not expensive, Notion Thief and Rule of Law both offer reprints that see play at higher bracket Commander tables. While Thief is only worth $1.50, and Rule of Law just $0.50, these punisher effects can shut down entire Commander strategies. Thought Scour, while more of a constructed enabler in Pauper and Modern, is in a similar playability boat at around $0.40.
All in all, while you’re only getting about $13 from this drop, the playability of the cards is solid enough that it could be worth more in the long run.
Return To The Mystical Archive
Return to the Mystical Archive is perhaps the most confusing collection in the Back to School Superdrop. While the idea of reimagining Mystical Archive cards is interesting, the drop immediately has to contend with the fact that its contents are being reprinted in a main set just before release. This makes the value here dubious, regardless of which cards Wizards picked.
Unfortunately, the picks here aren’t great regardless. In fact, other than Shared Roots at $1.20, none of the cards here are worth more than $0.35. The total value here is less than $2.50 which, while not the lowest we’ve seen in Secret Lair, is still an abysmal rate for a $29.99 product. Playability doesn’t really save things either, as none of these cards are particularly popular in any format.
This all leaves Return to the Mystical Archive feeling like a bit of a missed opportunity. If Wizards had used this drop as a way to add more supply for the elusive mythics from the sheet, we might’ve been looking at a winner. As things stand, however, it’s the clear lowlight of the Superdrop, and one of the worst Secret Lair offerings in a while.
Notebook Genius
While Notebook Genius does offer some reprints that players may be interested in, the value here is abysmal. Despite this, almost everything here, besides Anhelo, the Painter, is widely playable in Commander. Bloodghast, for example, is a full-on staple in Landfall and Aristocrats decks, despite its humble $2 price tag.
Both Lier, Disciple of the Drowned and Storm-Kiln Artist more than hold their own, too, commonly appearing in Commander Spellslinger decks. Despite this, the cards are only worth $1 and $2.40, respectively, but their playability could make these premium printings desirable.
Anhelo, the Painter is, admittedly, a bit of a dud, at least in terms of widespread use. It’s a reasonably popular Spellslinger Commander, but its three-color nature makes it a tough fit in the 99. At $0.40 it’s not much of a value add, either, but it does give Anhelo Commander decks a fancy variant to use. Thanks to this, the reprint will likely have its fans.
In total, you’re only getting around $6 worth of cardboard here, which is deeply underwhelming. Strong as the playability, and artwork, is here, Notebook Genius is a tough sell for this reason alone.
The Eyes Have It
Closing things out, we have a Secret Lair drop that actually leaked way back in August last year. As we said back then, The Eyes Have It is a drop full of playable cards, but not a ton of value. While Counterbalance is a $7 card, and Gitaxian Probe $4, the rest of the cards here are pretty much bulk. In total you’re getting about $12.50 in value here, making it a similar value proposition to Notebook Genius.
Every drop we’ve discussed here today will be available in non-foil for $29.99, or foil for $39.99. There will also be three bundles available, including a non-foil bundle for $224.99, a foil bundle for $299.99, and a combined bundle for $514.99. While not every drop here is a winner, there are certainly reprints worth setting your watch for among them. According to the official announcement article, the Back to School Superdrop will hit the online store on Monday, April 27th.
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