It’s finally here. Players have been speculating all week as to what this year’s Festival in a Box bundle will look like. Doubly so since it was revealed it will be the only non-convention way to access Mystery Booster 2. Today, WotC put us all out of our misery. The full lineup for Festival in a Box is now out there, and boy is it spicy. Alongside a trio of Collector Boosters, a selection of promos, and of course the promised Mystery Booster 2 box, we’re also getting a brand new Secret Lair drop. Specifically, the Li’l Legends Secret Lair. An adorable selection that, sadly, doesn’t look up to much value-wise.
The Li’l Legends Secret Lair Drop
Let’s get into the drop itself. Li’l Legends contains five cards, all of which are cute new versions of popular legendary creatures. Conceptually, it’s very similar to the Li’l Walkers series of drops we saw back in 2022-23. Those also featured art by Uta Natsume, who reprises her role here. Before we go any further: the art on these cards is all excellent. All five are very cute and would look great at the head of a Commander deck or in the 99. Unfortunately, that’s about where the good news ends.
The problem with this Secret Lair is that there’s just not a lot of monetary value. A criticism many drops seem to be facing nowadays. Only two of the cards have any real financial substance, these being Omnath, Locus of Creation and Orvar, the All-Form. Omnath is a legit card, seeing play in Pioneer, Modern, and even Legacy. Despite this power, copies of our colorful friend will run you about $4 at present, which isn’t too impressive.
Orvar sits closer to the $6 mark, making it somewhat more exciting than Omnath. This card sees play in Commander exclusively, where it can be either an unusual Mono-Blue Commander or a spicy pick in the 99 of any Spellslinger deck.
Unfortunately, the three other cards in the drop, Reya Dawnbringer, Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, and Drana, the Last Bloodchief, are all essentially bulk rares. All three go for around $1-2 right now, which is not a particularly encouraging sign when it comes to the value of this drop.
A Value Vacuum?
Of course, Li’l Legends doesn’t come with regular versions of these cards. The adorable art needs to be taken into account. As does the fact that these are exclusive to the Festival in a Box product. Let’s look into the art side first.
The easiest way to do this is to look at the pricing for the other Secret Lair cards with art by Uta Natsume: the Li’l Walkers cards. There are 16 of these in total. Financially, these are a very mixed bag. Seven of these cards are worth about the same as their regular printings, while one, Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast, is actually worth less.
The remaining eight are all worth more than their regular versions, however, sometimes substantially so. Uta’s Narset, Parter of Veils goes for $29 compared to the regular $2, for example, Elspeth, Sun’s Champion goes for $20 rather than $2, and Ashiok, Dream Render goes for $21 rather than $4. Based on this, it’s very possible some of these Li’l Legends could receive a big markup. Omnath in particular stands a good chance.
As for the financial effect of this being a Festival in a Box exclusive, those are a bit trickier to calculate. It’s true that the Dan Frazier’s Mox Box Secret Lair from last year’s Festival in a Box was worth a ton, but that included three eternal staples from one of Magic’s biggest artists. The one from the year before, Li’l Giri Saves the Day, was less exciting, but the five cards within did receive considerable markups over their regular counterparts. Given how in-demand this year’s Festival in a Box will be, I’d expect these Li’l Legends to have some big price tags when all is said and done.
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