Back in 2024, Wizards of the Coast announced the switch to a limited-run printing model for Secret Lair drops. Immediately, MTG players weren’t happy about this, even if Wizards did promise faster shipping times. Unfortunately, fears around obscene scarcity and lightning-fast sales immediately became reality, resulting in many unhappy customers.
Unsurprisingly, this left many MTG players wanting to go back to the old ways; however, Wizards has steadily been improving things. By better predicting demand and improving the announcements around drops, we’re no longer seeing drops sell out instantly. Sadly, while drops might not be selling out anymore, we now have a new problem to deal with: delays.
Thanks to this new problem, which only seems to be getting worse, MTG players are once again asking to go back to the old ways. In theory, print-to-demand would solve many of the current problems; however, it’s apparently not that simple. According to MTG’s Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, this old printing method was far from perfect.
Driven to Destruction
Following a major Chaos Vault controversy back in February, Wizards of the Coast had to speak out about the state of Secret Lair. During this, Wizards revealed that the past print-to-demand printing model wasn’t quite what it sounded like. Instead of orders being collected, printed, and then all shipped out, most of the supply was actually pre-printed.
In essence, print-to-demand only kicked in once the initial supply was depleted, which kind of sounds perfect. This is actually the hybrid printing model that MTG players have been begging for since it was briefly trialed. Unfortunately, as good as it might sound, this system weirdly only works when things are selling out.
Since it often took around six months for print-to-demand cards to actually be shipped, Wizards wanted to avoid this as much as possible. Due to this, huge amounts of each Secret Lair drop were pre-printed to expedite the shipping process. If a drop didn’t sell out, however, Wizards was left with tons of product just sitting on shelves in a warehouse.
Obviously, products going unsold is very bad for business; however, that appears to be putting it lightly. According to a new Blogatog post from Mark Rosewater, it appears there was so much going unsold that Wizards had no choice but to destroy it. Considering that many old Secret Lair drops are worth good money nowadays, this seems like an absolutely wild decision.
If anything, the fact that Wizards had to do this shows just how widespread the overprinting problem they created was. Technically, they could have solved it themselves by underprinting drops, but then shipping speed becomes the main issue.
No Going Back
Thankfully, while the changeover was incredibly rough, things have improved dramatically since 2024. Admittedly, between Chaos Vaults still selling fast and the ongoing delays, things aren’t perfect at the moment. That doesn’t mean that we’ll be returning to the old system anytime soon. In fact, from the sounds of things, that’s basically impossible due to the way Wizards prints things nowadays.
According to Mark Rosewater, Wizards is now reserving printing time a year in advance, instead of six months like before. This would make returning to a print-to-demand model incredibly punishing for those who don’t get in early. As well as feeling bad for players, having to reserve extra printing time in an already crowded market certainly wouldn’t be ideal for Wizards, either.
In theory, we don’t even have to worry about this now, since most Secret Lair sales are going fairly well. Over time, however, there’s a non-zero chance that these good times won’t last, since unsold product is clearly a problem. As nice as it is for players to pick and choose what drops they want, all that product is currently unsold on warehouse shelves.
Considering Wizards may end up having to destroy this unsold product, it wouldn’t be surprising if print volumes get adjusted. Annoyingly, this could result in Wizards tipping the scales too far in the other direction again, causing more lightning-fast sales. Technically, there’s no guarantee this will happen, but Wizards of the Coast is a business, at the end of the day.
Room for Improvement
If there is one silver lining to this Secret Lair situation, it’s that drops are Superdrops are, for the most part, ignoreable. As good as they might look, these reprints are exactly that, and they rarely offer positive value nowadays. Sadly, while most drops can be ignored for one reason or another, the same isn’t true for mechanically unique drops.
In theory, the scarcity of these drops can be mitigated by overprinting, but realistically, Wizards needs to have a proper path for reprints. Previously, this existed via The List; however, this has since been scrapped. In theory, mechanically unique Secret Lair cards could appear as Special Guests, but this hasn’t happened so far.
Even if it is possible, sadly, I wouldn’t hold your breath for tons of reprints anytime soon. The MTG release calendar is already chockablock with seven sets per year, so we’re unlikely to get a new Masters set. Hopefully, this will change in time, but we’ll just have to wait and see. For now, it feels like Wizards has us right where they want us.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast!