Something strange is going on with Magic: The Gathering’s Secret Lair initiative. A couple of weeks ago, images on Reddit seemingly leaked a “lost” drop from back in 2020. Today, something very similar has happened. A leak containing five cards, apparently forming an eye-themed Secret Lair drop, has dropped online.
Secret Lair has always been a bit offbeat in terms of marketing, so it’s very possible that these “leaks” are a deliberate play by Wizards. On the other hand, they could simply be elaborate fakes, crafted by players with far too much time on their hands. While that seems unlikely given the quality of the art and presentation here, there’s also very little evidence to support their legitimacy at present.
The “Eye” Secret Lair Leak
The eye-based Secret Lair leak occurred earlier today, in an r/mtgfinance post from FlintyCloth. According to the post, they received the drop as a reward for participating in a precon tournament at GCX 2025. We’ll get into how likely this is to be true later, but for now we’ll look at the cards that are (allegedly) involved. There are five cards here, all blue and all with new eye-themed artwork. The overall value here is pretty low, even by Secret Lair standards, but there are a couple of highlights to look at.
Counterbalance is the biggest hit of the drop, financially at least. Despite a few reprints, copies will still run you about $5 a pop. This is down to the card’s considerable eternal playability. Counterbalance sees regular use in a range of Legacy decks, from Stoneblade to Delver. It’s also a solid piece in many blue decks in Commander and Duel Commander. While not as oppressive as it was back in the Counter-Top days, it’s still a true classic. This new version features art from Diego Andrade, who previously illustrated one of the ultra-rare Shadowborn Apostle bonus cards.
Gitaxian Probe is our runner-up, priced at around $4.15 per copy. It’s also a notorious power outlier, proving strong enough to get banned in Pauper, Modern, and Legacy, and restricted in Vintage. It still sees a ton of play, too, in a bunch of blue Vintage decks, like Lurrus Control, and also plenty of spellslinger Commander lists. The eerie art on this one comes from Pedro Correa, who has created several pieces for the game before. You’ll recognize his work if you’re familiar with the Lord of the Rings poster cards.
In The Eye Of The Bulk Holder
From here, the mysterious eye-themed Secret Lair leak drops off a lot in terms of value. The other three cards, playable as they are, aren’t even worth a dollar combined.
Baleful Strix is the best among them, sitting at around $0.54 right now. Despite this low value, it is a legitimately useful card. It sees regular play in a number of Legacy decks, including Ninjas and Grixis Control. Despite this, a huge number of reprints keeps its price in check. The new art here comes from Martin Ontiveros, who provided art for the Wizards of the Street Secret Lair drop back in 2022.
The last two cards, Otherworldly Gaze and Opt, are in a similar boat. Both are very solid one-mana blue instants for specific decks, and both are incredibly cheap at the time of writing. Gaze sees marginal play in a range of formats, from Blue Terror in Pauper to Goryo’s Vengeance in Modern. It’s a great self-mill piece, and one that sells for about $0.15 right now. The new art comes from Molly Mendoza, who recently provided a Dragon’s Rage Channeler for the Everything is on Fire drop.
Finally, Opt is a great Standard-level cantrip. It sees a ton of play in current Izzet Prowess decks, but not much beyond that. It’s been reprinted into the ground, so its $0.12 price tag is pretty reasonable. The new art here from BLUMOO, who previously illustrated an eye-filled Explore, is pretty tasty, mind you.
Overall, this drop, if real, contains around $9.95 in value. Given the typical $29.99 asking price, this is one of the worst financial propositions from Secret Lair in a while. On the other hand, all five cards are actually playable, so there is upside here.
More Than Meets The Eye?
Whether all these eye-themed cards from the leak form a legitimate Secret Lair drop or not is very much up for debate. On the one hand, the evidence we have is very slim. We’ve only seen FlintyCloth post about it, and a one-off appearance doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
The circumstances by which they allegedly came by the Lair are suspicious, too. Apparently, it was a reward given out in a precon tournament at GCX 2025, but there’s no information on such an event online. Unlike the recent Inked leak, there was no envelope shown here, either.
On the other hand, a lot does line up well here. All five of the artists involved have worked on Magic before, most even on Secret Lair. Their art styles are consistent across these cards and their existing work, too, which is a good sign. The fact that they all fit a coherent theme, in this case eyes, also tracks for Secret Lair as well.
The way these cards are numbered is also a good sign. The five cards here cover collector numbers 2066-2070, which are currently unused. They lie between the Nuestra Magia drop and the KEXP You Are Not Alone drop, both recent releases. We’ve seen Wizards release drops out of collector number order plenty of times in the past, and this could easily be another instance of that.
When considered alongside the Inked leak from a couple of weeks back, this actually starts to look deliberate. As RnD_Nightmare said on Reddit, these leaks could well be a guerrilla marketing campaign. We won’t know for sure until Wizards confirms it one way or another, of course, but I would keep in mind that this could either be very intentional or fake.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!