When Wizards of the Coast first announced the Chaos Vault, it was touted as Secret Lair’s experimental product line. Since then, we haven’t exactly been blown away by the experiments, but Wizards has been trying new things. Between erotic land bundles and new precon-upgrading drops, there have been a few interesting products. Thankfully, the latest innovation certainly doesn’t disappoint.
Flower Power Secret Lair
After being briefly teased by the ever-mysterious Secret Lair downtime screen, the Flower Power Chaos Vault drop has been revealed. On the surface, this drop is fairly typical, offering a set of lands created by a fantastic artist. This time around Ashley Dreyfus is the artist in the spotlight, and her psychedelic basic lands certainly look the part.
So far, this is fairly standard, but this Chaos Vault drop does have a trick up its sleeve. Both the foil and non-foil versions of this drop are on sale for just $1. This price is so astronomically low that you might think it’s a mistake, but Wizards has thought of that. In the description of this product, Wizards states they’re definitely doing this on purpose.
“At Secret Lair, we have two missions. […] Second: Mess with our friend Rory in Wizards’ finance department. As you can imagine, finance has a lot of key touchpoints with our releases—putting important numbers in important places with real business repercussions. Which is exactly why Rory will never see a £1 sale coming. He’ll probably assume it’s an error and start firing off emails… or worse, he might even schedule a meeting.”
Wizards of the Coast
Considering Wizards of the Coast often seems stingy when it comes to Secret Lair reprints and pricing, this is a wild move. Five Secret Lair lands for just one dollar is an amazing deal, especially considering the price these lands can typically sell for. That said, there is a slight catch, as this Chaos Vault drop is limited to one purchase per customer.
While this is a totally understandable move, so there’s enough to go around, it’s not without issue. Having just one set of a stunning basic land set like this is hardly enough to build a deck around, especially in Commander. Due to this, a lot of MTG players are likely going to be forced toward the secondary market. Sadly, this likely scenario has very quickly turned into reality for many players.
It’s Selling Out Already
As much as the Flower Power Secret Lair drop might cost $1, additional copies are likely going to sell for a lot more. Not only are there shipping costs that the secondary market sellers will have to recoup, but there’s the potential for scalping, too. While Wizards is selling these five basics for $1, there’s no reason prices can’t be jacked up on the secondary market.
Sadly, as for all Secret Lair drops, the secondary market price will be determined by supply and demand. If the Flower Power Secret Lair drop is printed in excess, then ideally, supply should outstrip demand, keeping prices low. Since this is a Secret Lair drop, even a Chaos Vault one, however, we’re not too optimistic about this happening.
As we write this article, in fact, the sad reality has started to set in. On the UK and European storefronts, all editions of Flower Power have already sold out. On top of this, both editions have also been sold out in the US, with everything disappearing in under one hour.
Worryingly, this speedy sale likely means that the Flower Power basic lands are going to be very expensive on the secondary market. Clearly, there isn’t enough supply to go around, which means the potential for scalping and secondary market profit is insane. Outside of morals, there’s little reason why this drop shouldn’t be resold for as much as possible.
Looking back at the value of past land drops, currently, a single full-art Secret Lair basic will cost at least $2.42. This surprisingly cheap land comes from the Secret Lair x KEXP: Where the Music Matters drop, which launched earlier this year. In total, the basics from this drop cost just over $16.
Flawed but Fun
Even though this Chaos Vault drop is already selling out, it’s still very cool that Wizards did this. Hopefully, the purchasing limit stopped scalpers enough, and many MTG players have gotten to buy these cards for cheap. Understandably, some MTG players will be sad that they missed out, but this is a Chaos Vault drop.
As random, barely announced products, Chaos Vault drops coming and going in less than an hour almost feels like part of the fun. The problem is that regular Secret Lair drops can do the same thing, which makes this feel a little hollow. Still, it’s not like this was just your regular old Secret Lair drop. Selling a full-fledged basic land drop for $1 is still a fantastic move, even if it was only available briefly.
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