MTG x Dune Superdrop Leak Features 9 Mechanically Unique Cards

Right now, the MTG community is gearing up for this weekend’s MagicCon: Atlanta, where previews for Nauctis: The Sunken Realm, among other goodies, are set to be revealed. Before the event even kicks off, however, we’ve just seen a surprise leak for the My Arrakis, My Superdrop: a new MTG Secret Lair collaboration with the Dune film series.

Given that Dune: Part Three is coming to theaters next month, the timing on this drop couldn’t be better. It’s also looking absolutely stacked so far, packing a ton of mechanically unique cards and a fantastic suite of valuable reprints. While this could very well be an elaborate hoax, we’re erring on the side of this leak being legit, given the card numbering and the extent of the marketing materials involved.

The MTG x Dune Legends Drop

While we know the name of My Arrakis, My Superdrop, the individual drops within it remain nameless for now. So far, we’ve seen three drops in total, one of which is made entirely of iconic legendary creatures from the Dune series. The most exciting part? All of these legends are mechanically unique, meaning they can serve as new Commanders, or additions to the 99, alike.

We begin in a classically humble fashion with Paul Atreides, Ducal Heir, a very flavorful two-drop indeed. Paul’s training arc is a major part of early Dune, and this card captures it perfectly with the lesser-seen Training mechanic, granting Paul a counter each time he attacks alongside a stronger creature.

This isn’t the most reliable source of growth, as Paul will quickly start catching up with your other creatures, but it helps get the ball rolling. From there, you can use Proliferate cards, or Equipment, Auras, and other buffs, to get Paul’s power to four for that second ability.

At this point Paul can tap to permanently buff your whole team, after swinging himself thanks to Vigilance. That’s a lot of potential power for just two mana, so I can see most counter-based white decks considering the card for the 99.

Apparently aggression runs in the Atreides family, as Reverend Mother Jessica is also here to lay the beatdown. Double Prowess is a ridiculous ability for a start, granting Jessica +2/+2 per noncreature spell you cast. With evasive cantrips like Slip Through Space Slip Through Space Devoid (This card has no color.)
Target creature can't be blocked this turn.
Draw a card. , this can cause some serious damage surprisingly early in a game.

Even without evasion, Jessica is incredibly hard to block thanks to that second ability. Tapping down a creature per opponent will clear the way more often than not, and Goading those creatures will make it even easier to swing in next turn. With cards like Genji Glove Genji Glove Equipped creature has double strike.
Whenever equipped creature attacks, if it's the first combat phase of the turn, untap it. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase.
Equip {3} for extra attacks and triggers, Jessica can genuinely dominate the battlefield in any kind of aggressive blue strategy.

Shaddam brings the Corrino faction into the MTG mix, with a chunky legendary creature that feels custom-built for combos. Getting Treasure from your nontoken creatures dying allows you to perform the classic Gravecrawler Gravecrawler This creature can't block.
You may cast this card from your graveyard as long as you control a Zombie. loop, provided you have a sacrifice outlet and a Blood Artist Blood Artist Whenever this creature or another creature dies, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. effect to soak up the life loss.

This alone makes Shaddam a worthy consideration for the command zone, even with his huge mana cost in mind. More generally, it’s also just a nice value creature, drawing you a card with the Monarch right away, and removing one threat per turn. I can see Shaddam in the 99 of Reanimator decks for this reason, though Aristocrats lists will generally be better sticking with Pitiless Plunderer Pitiless Plunderer Whenever another creature you control dies, create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.") .

Speaking of Aristocrats decks, they get an intriguing new Commander option here in Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. This big bad rewards you with a free draw whenever an opponent sacrifices a creature, which is trivial to trigger in the archetype.

Whether you’re using edict creatures like Accursed Marauder Accursed Marauder When this creature enters, each player sacrifices a nontoken creature of their choice. , or sacrificing general creatures with Grave Pact Grave Pact Whenever a creature you control dies, each other player sacrifices a creature of their choice. out, this can be an insane source of card advantage. You can even force a sacrifice with the Baron himself via that second ability, though the legendary requirement makes it a bit tricky to use.

While it’s steep at six mana, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen seems like a slam-dunk new option in the command zone. It also carries on the well-established tradition of villains from other IPs being in Grixis colors, which is great to see.

Moving back over to the protagonist camp now, Chani is a really promising Commander for Gruul Landfall strategies. Getting an Exploration Exploration You may play an additional land on each of your turns. effect in the command zone is a great start, and Chani pairs it with a Bristly Bill, Spiny Sower-esque Landfall trigger that really lets you take advantage of it.

This ability, naturally, works best with Deserts, which grant a veritable keyword soup of Vigilance, Hexproof, and Haste alongside the usual +1/+1 counter. As these aren’t super-common, you’ll likely get the most out of this by looping a Desert in and out of your graveyard with Crucible of Worlds Crucible of Worlds You may play lands from your graveyard. and something like Zuran Orb Zuran Orb Sacrifice a land: You gain 2 life. .

If you can get this going, Chani’s natural Double Strike makes her a legitimately terrifying threat on board. Since her ability grants Hexproof, she also enables some highly unconventional combat trickery by dropping Deserts on opponents’ turns via cards like PuPu UFO PuPu UFO Flying
{T}: You may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield.
{3}: Until end of turn, this creature's base power becomes equal to the number of Towns you control. as well. This is definitely one to watch for Landfall, both in the command zone and for the 99.

Mohiam, Imperial Truthsayer is probably the most unique new design from today’s Dune reveals, letting you scheme with an opponent of your choice. That second ability, which costs just two mana a pop to use, is the star of the show here, essentially plotting the top card of two players’ libraries in exchange for life.

This is a great way to cheat out huge spells for yourself in Dimir, since you can pick yourself as one of the two players here. With some topdeck manipulation like Sensei’s Divining Top Sensei’s Divining Top {1}: Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order.
{T}: Draw a card, then put this artifact on top of its owner's library. and Scroll Rack Scroll Rack {1}, {T}: Exile any number of cards from your hand face down. Put that many cards from the top of your library into your hand. Then look at the exiled cards and put them on top of your library in any order. , you can easily set up your big bombs ahead of your end step to make this work.

If you want to take this legend in a different direction, you can lean more into the manipulation angle using cards like Field of Dreams Field of Dreams Players play with the top card of their libraries revealed. and Lantern of Insight Lantern of Insight Players play with the top card of their libraries revealed.
{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Target player shuffles. . These cards give you full information on everyone’s topdecks, letting you force Plots that benefit you or the game state as a whole. Mohiam’s first ability helps push this style of play, too, making it an intriguing new Commander option overall.

Fittingly enough, Paul’s ascended Muad’Dib variant is probably the most powerful new legend in this drop. It starts off fairly mediocre, but once you hit Delirium it becomes a full-on Future Sight Future Sight Play with the top card of your library revealed.
You may play lands and cast spells from the top of your library. for three mana, which is nothing to sniff at.

Naturally, this plays well in a self-mill strategy that can achieve Delirium quickly, using cards like Hedron Crab Hedron Crab Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, target player mills three cards. (They put the top three cards of their library into their graveyard.) and Return of the Mole Man Return of the Mole Man Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you may mill two cards.
{5}{G}, Sacrifice this enchantment: Create X 1/1 green Minion creature tokens named Moloid, where X is the number of permanent cards in your graveyard. The tokens have "Whenever this token attacks, you may mill a card." Activate only as a sorcery. to get Muad’Dib online. Once there, extra land drop effects like Captain Kathryn Janeway Captain Kathryn Janeway You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
Whenever Captain Janeway or another creature you control enters, that creature explores. (Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.) will let you make the most of your new ability, giving you extra mana and clearing the way for ‘real’ draws off the top.

While Muad’Dib lends himself best to being a Landfall Commander, this is ultimately a very open-ended design. Much like Loot, the Key to Everything Loot, the Key to Everything Ward {1}
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of card types among other nonland permanents you control. You may play those cards this turn. , this is a Temur value Commander you can build pretty much however you want and have a good time, which is always nice to see.

Last but certainly not least for the new Dune legends from this drop, Princess Irulan Corrino is, weirdly enough, a new take on Nekusar, the Mindrazer Nekusar, the Mindrazer At the beginning of each player's draw step, that player draws an additional card.
Whenever an opponent draws a card, Nekusar deals 1 damage to that player. . While it offers a much more fixed damage total than her reanimated predecessor, Irulan still applies pressure when opponents draw extra cards, playing very nicely indeed with cards like Howling Mine Howling Mine At the beginning of each player's draw step, if this artifact is untapped, that player draws an additional card. .

Being in white instead of red is generally much worse for this strategy, but it does give Irulan access to some powerful tools like Gleaming Splendor Gleaming Splendor Whenever an opponent draws their second card each turn, you create a Treasure token.
{2}{W}: Two target players each draw a card. and Smothering Tithe Smothering Tithe Whenever an opponent draws a card, that player may pay {2}. If the player doesn't, you create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.") . Irulan also offers more raw card advantage per turn than Nekusar, since it can tap to draw you two extra cards while forcing an opponent to do the same.

Factor in the potential for shenanigans with cards that can untap Irulan, like Freed from the Real Freed from the Real Enchant creature
{U}: Tap enchanted creature.
{U}: Untap enchanted creature. , and this strategy could have some serious teeth. You’ll need to get your head in the political game to deal with all the cards you’ll give away, but this seems like a potent new Commander if you can.

The Season of the Wurm

Should an entire drop of mechanically unique Dune-themed cards not be enough, Wizards has cooked up another. In this currently unnamed drop, there’s Shai-Hulud, a nine-mana Sandworm, or rather Wurm, that’s basically a board wipe.

Clearing the board of all artifacts and enchantments, Shai-Hulud can immediately recoup some of its cost, potentially netting you four lands. Given the density of artifacts and enchantments in Commander, though, you’ll almost always get fantastic value.

While we’d hope that Shai-Hulud has a great stat line to go along with its ability, and innately being Indestructible, that’s an unknown right now. With the leak’s crop hiding the bottom of the card, we can only guess that this is a suitably beefy Wurm to attack with.

Outside of the new card, this Secret Lair drop isn’t all too impressive. In total, there’s less than $9 of reprints here, when looking at their cheapest printings, at least.

From there, Quicksilver Amulet Quicksilver Amulet {4}, {T}: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. is the best of the bunch, but that’s saying something when it’s only $3.50. Below this, Blackblade Reforged Blackblade Reforged Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each land you control.
Equip legendary creature {3}
Equip {7} is a solid, if well-reprinted, Commander classic that sells for $2.75.

Similarly, Weathered Wayfarer Weathered Wayfarer {W}, {T}: Search your library for a land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. Activate only if an opponent controls more lands than you. also sells for around the $2 mark, which isn’t awful, but it’s really not great in a Secret Lair. Sandwurm Convergence Sandwurm Convergence Creatures with flying can't attack you or planeswalkers you control.
At the beginning of your end step, create a 5/5 green Wurm creature token. , however, is just plain bad, only selling for $0.40.

All in all, while the Wurm token is a nice added bonus, this Secret Lair drop does seem a bit weak. Potentially, the new card could sell for a tidy sum once released, like many mechanically unique cards, but that remains to be seen.

A Drop of Rich Reprints

In a rare twist from the vast majority of Secret Lair drops we see nowadays, this new reprint-only Dune-themed drop offers genuinely amazing value. All in, these five cards have a raw reprint value of $74, which is absolutely nuts.

If this drop is real, as we’re very much hoping, it could easily be the Secret Lair drop that sells out first. Even this, however, is far from guaranteed, judging by the recent trend we’ve been seeing.

Potential supply problems aside, this drop has some massive heavy hitters, finance-wise. Darksteel Forge Darksteel Forge Artifacts you control have indestructible. (Effects that say "destroy" don't destroy them. Artifact creatures with indestructible can't be destroyed by damage.) is undoubtedly the cream of the crop here, selling for a whopping $43 on average.

As is often the case, Commander is responsible for this price tag, as Darksteel Forge is an auto-include in any artifact-based deck. Similarly, Commander is also to blame for Revel in Riches Revel in Riches Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control ten or more Treasures, you win the game. being a $20 card, as it’s in basically every single black-aligned Treasure-focused deck.

Even outside of dedicated Treasure-focused decks, this is just a great all-around MTG card. While they’re each useful, the other cards in this drop are more specific, and subsequently less expensive.

Thankfully, Halo Fountain Halo Fountain {W}, {T}, Untap a tapped creature you control: Create a 1/1 green and white Citizen creature token.
{W}{W}, {T}, Untap two tapped creatures you control: Draw a card.
{W}{W}{W}{W}{W}, {T}, Untap fifteen tapped creatures you control: You win the game. isn’t all bad, as it’s great in Go Wide decks and sells for around $6.75 on average. Sadly, Hedge Shredder Hedge Shredder Whenever this Vehicle attacks, you may mill two cards.
Whenever one or more land cards are put into your graveyard from your library, put them onto the battlefield tapped.
Crew 1 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 1 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.) is a step down from this, only being worth around $3.50, though it is good in Mill and Landfall decks.

At the bottom end, Cultivator’s Caravan Cultivator’s Caravan {T}: Add one mana of any color.
Crew 3 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 3 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.) is… just not very good. Selling for as little as $0.23, this card does see some Commander play, but there’s so much supply that it’s always been cheap.

As if all this wasn’t enough, you also get a visually stunning Treasure Token that could easily be worth a bunch, too. All in all, this is definitely a high-value drop that’s well worth watching.

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