I’m a bit confused as to why Wizards of the Coast decided to do two Beholder-based Secret Lair products. When looking at this for the first time, I legitimately got confused. These Secret Lairs look almost identical, but they are indeed two different products. Interestingly, this one has some strong reprints.
Either way, this $30/$40 Secret Lair will be available alongside all the other ones released for D&D’s 50th Anniversary Celebration on August 27th. Let’s take a look at all the goodies in the Death is in the Eyes of the Beholder 2 drop, and how the reprint value stacks up monetarily.
Snuff Out
- Mana Value: 3B
- Rarity: —
- Card Type: Instant
- MTG Sets: Secret Lair, Promo, Doctor Who, Duel Decks: Anthology, Duel Decks, Garruk VS. Liliana, Mercadian Masques, Mystery Booster 2
- Card Text: If you control a Swamp, you may pay 3 life rather than pay this spell’s mana cost. Destroy target nonblack creature. It can’t be regenerated.
Starting on a strong note, we have a Snuff Out reprint. Snuff Out is a free removal spell commonly seen in Commander, Pauper, and occasionally Legacy that can get rid of nonblack creatures as long as you have a Swamp.
The efficiency that a card like this offers is unparalleled. As long as you don’t mind losing the life, Snuff Out is difficult to beat. As a reprint, the card is quite efficient, too. Secondary market prices on this card range quite heavily, even for nonfoil variants. $7 is the cheapest that the card goes for, but depending on the variant, the card demands as much as $16.
Considering the nature of reprint equity in Secret Lair sets nowadays, any good reprints are reprints that are very welcome.
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Fire Covenant
- Mana Value: 1BR
- Rarity: —
- Card Type: Instant
- MTG Sets: Secret Lair, Ice Age
- Card Text: As an additional cost to cast this spell, pay X life. Beholder’s Disintegration Ray deals X damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures.
Fire Covenant is a powerful removal spell commonly seen in the Commander format, even at top tables. For three mana, Fire Covenant basically allows you to remove whatever creatures you want. Unlike other powerful options like Toxic Deluge, your creatures remain unscathed. A three-mana board wipe, even for three mana and 20 life, can be devastating. Fortunately, Commander players have a lot of life, so the cost of life loss isn’t too high here.
Fire Covenant only has two printings, so a reprint of this card is rather welcome. The Ice Age printing of this card is the cheapest one, going for about $6. The other reprint of this card, also in a Secret Lair, showcases just how expensive fancy variants of this card can be, going for $26. Ice Age notably does not have a foil printing, so the foil multiplier on this card could be larger than you think.
Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant
- Mana Value: 3BR
- Rarity: —
- Stats: 5/5
- MTG Sets: Secret Lair, Adventures of the Forgotten Realms Commander
- Card Text: Whenever you attack a player, tap target creature that player controls and goad it. Whenever an opponent attacks another one of your opponents, you and the attacking player each draw a card and lose one life.
Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant is getting its first reprint in this Secret Lair. Originally appearing in the Adventures of the Forgotten Realms Commander expansion, this makes for a decent Goad Commander. Offering incentives even past Goad for your opponents to attack one another, Karazikar will tempt your opponents with cards while you benefit from the chaos.
Because this card only has one real printing, it has a somewhat relevant secondary market value. Worth between $5-6 for its cheapest variant, anyone who wants to run Karazikar as a Commander will likely be buying this Secret Lair regardless of what we say.
Sadly, this is where the big reprint value of this Secret Lair ends.
Oubliette
- Mana Value: 1BB
- Rarity: —
- Card Type: Enchantment
- MTG Sets: Arabian Knights, Double Masters, The List
- Card Text: When Beholder’s Paralyzing Ray enters, target creature phases out until Beholder’s Paralyzing Ray leaves the battlefield. Tap that creature as it phases in this way.
If you’re a Commander player who hasn’t tried Oubliette, we highly recommend you give it a spin. This is one of the best removal pieces in the format because the Command Zone will not save your Commander. Instead of removing the Commander entirely, Oubliete Phases it out, essentially keeping it in prison. Since your Commander didn’t switch zones, it cannot go back to the Command Zone. It’s stuck until someone deals with Oubliette.
For a long time, Oubliette was a rather expensive card to add to your Commander deck because it was very difficult to get a copy of it. After seeing a few reprints at an uncommon rarity, Oubliette only demands about $2, which is rather expensive for an uncommon. Either way, there isn’t a ton of value here, but there could be a major markup on this reprint thanks to this being the first fancy variant we’ve had for Oubliette ever.
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The Rest
- Mana Value: B
- Rarity: —
- Card Type: Instant
- MTG Sets: Modern Horizons, Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000
- Card Text: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each Swamp you control.
The last two cards in this Secret Lair are nothing to get excited about. Defile can be a powerful removal spell for mono-black Commander decks but is rather redundant outside of that. Despite this, the card does have a $1 secondary market value.
- Mana Value: 1R
- Rarity: —
- Card Type: Instant
- MTG Sets: Planechase Anthology, Stronghold, Planechase 2012, Arena Promos, Throne of Eldraine, Secret Lair, Jumpstart, Amonkhet, Outlaws of Thunder Junction: Breaking News, Dark Ascension, Promo, Magic 2011, Magic 2012
- Card Text: As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature. Beholder’s Telekinetic Ray deals damage equal to the sacrificed creature’s power to any target.
Fling, on the other hand, aside from being a very fun card to cast, is relatively useless. Worth basically nothing, Flinging your creatures at your opponent is incredibly fun, but doesn’t accomplish much outside of niche strategies. The card has endless reprints, which makes it worth nothing notable.
That brings the nonfoil value of these Secret Lair reprints to about $20, and that’s being rather generous. This means that the reprint value of the Secret Lair is not worth the asking price, but as we’ve seen with recent Secret Lair products, the value doesn’t really matter that much.
The premiums on Secret Lair cards nowadays are rather ridiculous. Taking a look at the hit Monty Python crossover is a great example. The cheapest copy of Dismember on the market goes for a bit under $4, yet the Monty Python Dismember is already retailing for $15.
For that reason, we expect you to get your money back on this Secret Lair should you want to sell it. Either way, there are some powerful reprints in this Lair that are strong in any Rakdos Commander deck.
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