Back in February, a bunch of cards belonging to what appeared to be a Goblin-themed Secret Lair Precon were leaked to the public. With a multitude of heavy hitters coming out of the woodworks, it’s no surprise that players have become quite interested. Then, this week, a Secret Lair error of epic proportions essentially confirmed that this Goblin Storm Precon was, in fact, real.
Since then, more images showcasing leaked cards have been going around social media. While there is still a lot of unknown information about the contents of the Precon, it appears that there are some more bangers to look forward to.
New Thematic Leaks
Found in some new imagery from ebay, there are a couple new leaks that we have yet to see before. Skullclamp is the most powerful of these, famous for being outrageously broken by a late design change. Thanks to converting one-toughness creatures into card draw, Skullclamp was quickly banned in Legacy and Modern, but remains legal in Commander. This artifact is particularly powerful in Goblin Storm, thanks to featuring small creatures and token enablers, like Krenko, Mob Boss. Despite its numerous reprints in other Commander Precons and 26 other variants, Skullclamp has maintained a near-$5 price tag.
Another new reveal of similar value, Conspicuous Snoop, also offers plenty of card advantage. While Snoop’s applications are obviously a lot narrower, in a dedicated Goblins deck, you’d be surprised how hard this two-drop can pop off. In addition to casting Goblins off the top, Snoop can also copy activated abilities of cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, creating tons of infinite combos. All of these applications have helped the Core Set 2020 rare maintain a price tag between $4 and $5.
The More, the Merrier
In addition to cards that directly synergize with the rest of your typal Goblins inclusions, there are also some generically powerful red Commander cards being included. Hidden amongst the pile of cards above, for example, is Chaos Warp, which certainly fits the bill.
Appearing in over 1,200,000 Commander decks according to EDHREC, this wildly versatile sorcery is at its best in mono-red Commander archetypes. After all, mono-red decks have little recourse versus problematic enchantments like Solitary Confinement, and Chaos Warp cleans this up and more. Even though your opponent may get to replace your target with something even juicier from their deck, this only heightens the enjoyment and suspense the card brings to the table. That said, while the card is a good catch-all for red decks, it’s not an expensive reprint. With 51 other variants available, it’s not too surprising that this instant is worth less than $0.50.
Similarly, Blasphemous Act, Commander’s best red boardwipe, also has a boatload of reprints. Appearing in 1,370,000 Commander decks according to EDHREC, you can’t go wrong with such an efficient catch-up mechanism. The card’s numerous reprints have kept its value quite low, with copies from the Turtle Power! Precon valued at roughly $0.80.
A Bonus
Keeping in the spirit of Secret Lair, we also have a bonus card from the Gale’s Ambition drop. Secrets of the Dead is a simple design, but it has incredible upside in the right Commander deck. This enchantment commonly shows up in Muldrotha, the Gravetide and Iroh, Grand Lotus shells built to cast cards from the graveyard turn after turn.
The bad news, though, is that this card hardly increases the value of the Gale’s Ambition drop. This follows the trend for the entire This is the last for the entire Roll for Initiative Secret Lair to show off a pricy bonus card, and it seems to have failed on all fronts. At the end of the day, even if it’s nice that this card is receiving new artwork for the first time, Secrets of the Dead is still just a $0.50 uncommon.
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