For better or worse, Secret Lair bonus cards are in a bit of an unusual position right now. Previously, when deliveries took months, they’d remain a complete surprise for players to unpack once their cards arrived. Now, however, improved shipping times can have every new bonus card revealed in days.
Thanks to this, many MTG bonus cards can be factored into the price of a Secret Lair after a short delay. Not only is this good news for MTG players who are on the fence, but it’s compelling for collectors, too. After all, when a new ultra-rare Secret Lair bonus card is revealed, people know what to buy to hunt for it.
While it’s still early days, it appears exactly that has happened again. The Back to School Superdrop may have only been released a couple of days ago, but already, new bonus cards are appearing online.
MTG Printing Plate Bonus Card
Yesterday, the Good Time Society channel pipped everyone to the post with an incredibly early Secret Lair opening. Unboxing the Return to Mystical Archive drop, host Becca Scott was immediately distracted by this drop’s bonus card. Rather than the usual on-theme bonus card or Relentless ultra-rare, Scott found a printing plate for Chance for Glory.
According to the back of the card, this card is “an authentic printing plate used in the production of Secret Lair: Omens of Chaos.” From the sounds of things, these are the new chase rare, but we don’t know quite how rare these are.
Even with rarity being a bit of a mystery right now, opening an MTG printing plate like this screams ‘big money’. If it’s anything like past chase bonus cards, this could easily end up selling for a few hundred dollars, if not more. That said, these bonus card printing plates are purely collectible, as they’re metal and don’t have the standard MTG cardback.
Despite not being usable, printing plates for beloved cards, such as Growth Spiral could easily command a higher price tag. Whether this will be the case or whether different printing plates even exist is currently unknown. There’s also no telling if we’ll see future Superdrops getting these unique bonus cards, or if it’s a one-and-done deal.
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens when drops from the Back to School Superdrop reach players. Hopefully, this shouldn’t take too long thanks to the speedy shipping times we’ve seen recently, but that’s hardly guaranteed. After all, recent production issues have caused widespread Secret Lair delays, which could leave players waiting longer than usual.
Goblin Storm Finally Coming Soon?
As if printing plate bonus cards weren’t enough to look forward to, it seems the Goblin Storm precon is drawing ever closer, too. Yesterday, the artist of the as-yet-unannounced precon, Wizard of Barge (Dakota Cates), posted to Instagram with an update about the deck. Addressing the recent leaks, Cates outright confirmed that yes, the Gobin Storm precon is actually a real product.
Sadly, outside of that admittedly obvious reveal, Cates isn’t allowed to say more right now. In a follow-up story, it was stated that we’ll “hear more very soon,” but there’s no telling when that is. Some MTG players on Reddit suspect the deck might appear at MagicCon: Las Vegas, but that’s not guaranteed.
Unfortunately, much like the printing plate bonus cards, we’ve just got to sit tight and wait for more information. The good news, at least, is that MagicCon: Las Vegas is only a few days away. Even if we don’t see Goblin Storm here, the expected reveals from this event should keep us entertained.
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