Almost two weeks ago, three distinct Sonic the Hedgehog Secret Lair products were revealed. One of them even featured a group of mechanically unique characters. A few days after the reveal, players shared what looked to be a bonus card for the Secret Lairs in the form of Command Tower. It wasn’t entirely clear if there were other potential bonus cards to open and what they would be, though.
Well, now it appears we have our answer. Not only is there a rarer bonus card than Command Tower, but it’s available in seven different styles! The rare bonus card is pretty pricy in its traditional form, and chances are, these versions will be worth a lot more.
Lotus Petal Chaos Emerald
In the world of Sonic, the Chaos Emeralds play a crucial role. In the classic games like Sonic the Hedgehog 3, players can collect them in Special Stages. Collecting all seven enables you to play as Super Sonic, an indestructible entity that moves at lightning speed.
What better way to represent this than with seven different colored Chaos Emeralds up for grabs in the Secret Lairs? Each of these cards is a reskinned copy of Lotus Petal, which is an extremely powerful artifact in its own right.
Lotus Petal is a multi-format staple that’s so powerful, it’s restricted in Vintage. In Legacy, Lotus Petal is a staple of unfair combo decks. From Oops! All Spells to Sneak and Show, having a free source of acceleration is simply incredible.
Similarly, in Vintage, Lotus Petal commonly makes an appearance in mono-white Initiative. Jamming White Plume Adventurer on turn one is a great way to cement your advantage, and Lotus Petal bolsters that gameplan.
This card was first printed at common back in Tempest. It has since been reprinted in Mystery Booster 2. Despite its low rarity and reprint, the card still holds a $21 price tag in its cheapest form, according to TCGplayer market price, thanks to continued demand. This is already a big step up from Command Tower, which doesn’t even crack 30 cents in reprint value.
Massive Potential
Notably, this isn’t the first time that Wizards has showcased a Constructed staple in a handful of different colors and made them very rare to open. Last year, Cavern of Souls was given special Neon Ink treatment, and players could find a variety of copies in collector boosters. The Special Guest copies of Mana Crypt were also available in different colors, as were the Neon Ink copies of Traveling Chocobo from Final Fantasy.
In all three cases, not only were these rarer versions worth a lot of money, but some were particularly hard to find and worth a fortune. For example, while the blue Cavern of Souls has a market price of $195, the red one is valued at $486. The Cavern of Souls variant with the collector number 410a is so rare that it only has one sale listing on TCGplayer.
Meanwhile, the red Mana Crypt is worth well over $1,000, and the version with collector number 17a has only three sale listings on TCGplayer. It’s impossible to predict which Chaos Emerald varieties will be rarest, but chances are they will all hold significant value, and some may be worth huge sums of money in particular. That said, since these comparisons are to main set inclusions, things could boil down a bit differently.
Remember, these Lotus Petals only appear in a subset of Sonic Secret Lair products, which themselves have a limited supply. The Sonic Secret Lairs go on sale on July 14. Make sure to check in promptly before things sell out!
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