Thanks to the panel at New York ComicCon, a boatload of new MTG X Marvel products have recently been revealed. Notably, five separate and unique Secret Lairs were previewed. Each Secret Lair comes with one mechanically unique Superhero, as well as a handful of fitting reprints with new artwork.
All five Secret Lairs cost $39.99 in non-foil and $49.99 in rainbow foil. Many of them boast a hefty amount of reprint value. The Ozolith reprint from The Wolverine Secret Lair, for example, pretty much pays for the product by itself.
Unfortunately, the new Black Panther Secret Lair pales in comparison to some of the others from a financial standpoint. There are still some sweet reprints available, but none that break the bank. The good news, at least, is that the new Black Panther, Wakandan King is quite powerful.
Black Panther, Wakandan King
Black Panther, Wakandan King is a very interesting card to build around in Commander. As a two-mana creature, it’s quite efficient and easy to recast. He strongly incentivizes you to play a lot of creatures and token production so you can start accumulating +1/+1 counters on your lands.
Much like how T’Challa utilizes his knowledge and wealth of Wakandan resources to his advantage throughout the Marvel Comics, this new MTG card allows you to cipher those counters onto your creatures, enhancing their stats.
From a gameplay perspective, Black Panther works exceptionally well alongside Doubling Season effects. Not only will your lands get additional counters when your creature tokens enter, but you’ll also get double the number of tokens out of the deal. This allows Black Panther to potentially put a ton of counters on your lands at once.
Interestingly, Black Panther is a great Commander to lead a deck built around animating lands, too. Cards like Nissa, Who Shakes the World makes your lands into creatures. Black Panther can then help distribute a bunch of counters onto those lands and make your attack much stronger. There’s a lot you can do with Black Panther at the helm, and I’m excited to see it in action.
Heroic Intervention
Beyond the new legend, there are four reprints that are nice pieces to have in a Black Panther Commander deck. At the top of the list, we have Heroic Intervention. Heroic Intervention is a Commander staple. It’s great at protecting your creatures from board wipes, which can be essential for a token-focused strategy.
This card is worth roughly $10 in its cheapest, non-foil form according to TCGPlayer market price. As such, it is the most expensive reprint in this Secret Lair.
Primal Vigor
Up next, we have Primal Vigor. We mentioned how strong Doubling Season-style cards are in conjunction with Black Panther, and Primal Vigor is no exception. Notably, Primal Vigor only doubles the number of counters you place on creatures specifically, which does lessen the number of shenanigans available to you.
Nonetheless, Primal Vigor is a nice inclusion. Traditional versions from Commander 2013 currently sit at about $7.
Secure the Wastes
Secure the Wastes is a simple card that, once again, goes great in a Black Panther deck. Black Panther rewards you for each creature that enters, so cards like Secure the Wastes that flood the board at once are slam dunks.
That being said, the value dies down significantly after Heroic Intervention and Primal Vigor. Secure the Wastes has been reprinted multiple times, and barely cracks $1.
Karn’s Bastion
Things don’t get too much better in that department with our last card, either. As a land, Karn’s Bastion provides you with a low-cost way to start increasing the number of +1/+1 counters on your lands or creatures. If you have any other +1/+1 counters synergies going on, say with Walking Ballista and the like, Black Panther and Karn’s Bastion can do some heavy lifting.
With an abundance of printings in various Commander sets over the last few years, Karn’s Bastion simply isn’t worth much. You can get your hands on copies for just under $2.
A Financial Comparison
All things considered, the Black Panther still holds merit based on the new legendary creature alone. It’s still uncertain if rereleases for these cards will happen. Add on the fact that these Secret Lairs will be under limited print run and likely to be incredibly popular, and it’s possible these new Commanders are quite pricy.
However, when looking at the four reprints themselves, it’s easy to be a bit disappointed. All four cards total to $20 or so in their cheapest variants. This covers half the price of the Secret Lair in non-foil.
Now, compare this to the other Secret Lairs. Iron Man comes with Commander’s Plate, worth $33 by itself. Wolverine offers The Ozolith at $35 and Berserk at $20. Marvel’s Storm has Ice Storm, which is worth a whopping $55 thanks to its lack of tournament legal reprints! Captain America, while not quite as exciting as these, at least features three cards worth $7+.
As such, this Secret Lair is certainly tamer than the rest. Nonetheless, the Black Panther MTG card is extremely sweet and should make for a fun build-around. If you’re a fan of Black Panther, this Secret Lair sale goes live on November 4th. Make sure to get yours before things sell out!
