Since its debut in 2019, Secret Lair has been a reliable home for all sorts of bizarre artistic experiments, some more successful than others. To celebrate the initiative’s ongoing success, Wizards has decided to hold a Secret Lair Art Gallery event in Los Angeles next month.
While details on the event are still thin on the ground, the high-level concept is intriguing in itself. Factor in the promise of a “special promo card,” and this could be the hottest MTG ticket in town this holiday season.
The Secret Lair Art Gallery is Coming Soon
Announced earlier today via the official Secret Lair X account, the Secret Lair Art Gallery event will be held next month, on December 5th. In a typically Secret Lair twist, this event is extremely exclusive, too.
Not only will the Gallery be held at just one location, The Hunt Vintage furniture store in Los Angeles, California, but it will also be running for one night only. If you can’t make it to the event on December 5th, between 12pm and 9pm, then you won’t be able to enjoy what it has to offer.
As to what that is specifically, the Gallery’s Eventbrite page promises art from throughout Secret Lair’s history, but given some “bigger frames” to work with. The event’s announcement post on X confirms 12 well-known artists whose work will be on show here, including Wizard of Barge, Peach Momoko, and MSCHF.
The event will also showcase previously unseen behind-the-scenes material, including artist sketches and even, apparently, some puppets. The core artistic experience will be supplemented by live DJs, a retro photo booth, and, most tantalizingly of all, a “special promo card.”
Exact details of this promo card are unknown for now, but I think it’s likely to feature a new piece of art by one of the artists on show here. Notably, the event page doesn’t list this as an exclusive promo, so it could be a reprint of a past Secret Lair card. Thinking a bit bigger, it could even be a card from an unannounced future Secret Lair, giving lucky attendees a sneak peek at an upcoming drop.
This is all speculation for now, of course, but even with fairly minimal information, it’s hard to deny how well this event captures the Secret Lair spirit. From the one-shot structure to the random-feeling furniture store location, the phasers are very much set to “shenanigans” on this one.
The downside, of course, is that this event is an absolute disaster from an accessibility perspective. Unless you’re an LA local, you likely won’t be able to justify traveling to an event like this, even with the promise of a promo in the mix. This brings to mind the worst aspects of past Secret Lair sales, when players couldn’t access drops they’d loved because of severe supply limitations.
That said, this one-off event could just be Wizards testing the waters for a wider run, so I very much hope it succeeds despite its drawbacks. For all its faults, Secret Lair consistently delivers some of the most interesting Magic content out there, and I’d love to see it expand into real-world events like this.
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