Since Wizards hinted at the Dandan Secret Lair drop back in January, 2025, players have been eagerly anticipating its arrival. While it took over a year for us to get an update, its release is now right around the corner.
Following a short video shared on social media by MTG Secret Lair, we finally had a March 16th release date to look forward to. Now, these rumors have been confirmed, putting an end to the overly long wait.
MTG Secret Lair Decklist
Scheduled to release via the Chaos Vault tomorrow, March 16th at 9 a.m. PT, the Dandan Secret Lair deck gives players the opportunity to enjoy one of MTG’s most unique formats. Originally designed by MTG enthusiast Nick Floyd, this intriguing format requires players to share a deck and try to win by dealing lethal damage with Dandan. Despite sounding very simple, the gameplay is extremely complex thanks to the carefully curated decklist.
Interestingly, though, the designers of this Dandan deck did end up making a handful of changes with the goal of improving the gameplay experience. Supplant Form, for example, has been removed in favor of Control Magic. Diminishing Returns was replaced by Day’s Undoing to make game ending haymakers more accessible.
While some of the more expensive cards are no longer included, the addition of some extra utility lands like Haunted Fengraf should give players plenty of ways to spend their excess mana. Similarly, the addition of the super swingy Capture of Jingzhou further rewards you for consistently hitting your land drops and sticking Dandan.
To make room for these new inclusions, some Dandan staples were ultimately cut as well. The most glaring omission is definitely Vision Charm, which can function like a one-sided Wrath of God. It’ll be interesting to see how these changes affect how the format plays out.
For those interested, the full 80-card decklist is as follows:
- 10 Dandân (2 art styles)
- 4 Accumulated Knowledge
- 2 Magical Hack
- 8 Memory Lapse
- 2 Brainstorm
- 2 Crystal Spray
- 2 Mental Note
- 2 Metamorphose
- 2 Predict
- 2 Telling Time
- 2 Unsubstantiate
- 2 Capture of Jingzhou
- 2 Chart a Course
- 2 Day’s Undoing
- 2 Control Magic
- 20 Island (4 art styles)
- 2 Mystic Sanctuary
- 2 Halimar Depths
- 2 Haunted Fengraf
- 2 Lonely Sandbar
- 2 Remote Isle
- 2 The Surgical Bay
- 2 Svyelunite Temple
Financial Overview
As fun as the Dandan Secret Lair looks, is, it is a bit expensive, being priced at $99.99. Despite this, from a value perspective, this product is well worth purchasing. The reprint value of all of the cards added together is roughly $110, with Crystal Spray at $12.50 and Capture of Jingzhou at $10.50 apiece being the main heavy hitters.
This Secret Lair only gets more appealing when you factor in the presence of 46 borderless foil inclusions. The 20 foil basic Islands could easily be worth a pretty penny, drastically increase the product’s value.
Furthermore, while we don’t know how much supply will be available, it wouldn’t be shocking if this Chaos Vault drop sells out quickly. With all of these factors combined, the Chaos Vault seems quite lucrative this time around if you can swing it. Make sure to be ready at 9 a.m. PT tomorrow, March 16th for your chance to pick up this sweet drop.
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