This week, the MTG world has been dominated by excitement and controversy in equal measure. On Monday, Wizards released the Marvel Superdrop, which offered five new highly flavorful crossovers. Each drop offered a mechanically unique card and a suite of fantastic reprints, so excitement was through the roof.
Sadly, the actual sale of the Marvel Supdrop was far from perfect. Hours-long queues kept many players from purchasing products, and the entire Superdrop sold out in just five hours. Between the limited supply and the unfortunate issue of queue jumping, it’s safe to say there were a lot of major problems.
While the Marvel Secret Lair drops have long since sold out, they’re still very exciting. With deliveries on their way to players, it’s hard not to feel the anticipation in the air. This feeling has recently gotten all the more pronounced as the first Marvel Superdrop bonus card has just been revealed to MTG players.
They might not have gotten a full Secret Lair of their own, but Groot has made their debut on an MTG card already!
Secret Lair x Marvel’s Wolverine Bonus Card
The first Marvel x MTG Secret Lair bonus card to be revealed was a Groot-themed reprint of Unnatural Growth. First printed in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, this rare enchantment seems absolutely amazing on the surface. While the effect is temporary, doubling the size of each of your creatures can create some devastatingly massive swings.
Despite the potential that Unnatural Growth seems to promise, the card isn’t played in any competitive format. That doesn’t mean this card is unpopular, however, as it’s a true staple in Commander. Appearing in well over 100,000 decks, the temporary scaling Unnatural Growth provides is invaluable for a great many strategies.
Whether you’re playing a go-wide deck that needs some extra oomph, or a go-tall deck to steamroll everything, Unnatural Growth is fantastically powerful. The former is usually the go-to choice, however, since this card buffs everything, rather than just one creature. Still, you can’t really go wrong running Unnatural Growth, especially if you’re playing a green-focused beatdown deck.
Groot Glorious Groot
Sadly, while Unnatural Growth is a pretty powerful card, it’s not very expensive. Copies of this card can be bought for as low as $2.30 on TCGplayer. While prices may start out cheap, there is some demand for higher rarity and fancier variants. The foil Innistrad: Double Feature variant, for example, sells for around $11.30.
Said Double Feature card does have the unique quirk of being mostly black and white, but it’s nothing compared to Groot. This new Bonus Card is the first time that Unnatural Growth has been given proper new artwork. Even if this reprint didn’t have Groot plastered all over it, this detail would be bound to increase the card’s price somewhat.
Since this bonus card is all about Groot, the price of this new variant may be seriously expensive. Not only is Groot an iconic and beloved Marvel character, but this bonus card may be rather rare. Even if the Marvel Secret Lair drops were printed in an incredibly high volume, the sheer demand is unlike much else we’ve seen.
With this in mind, it’s safe to say this new Groot-themed bonus card is bound to be expensive. Once copies start getting listed on TCGplayer, expect Unnatural Growth to reach a new all-time high. Exactly how high the final price will soar remains to be seen, but initial copies could be obscenely expensive.
Seriously Speedy Shipping
There’s no question that the limited-run printing method of the Marvel Secret Lair drops was a serious problem. There’s also no question, however, that the overarching goal of increasing Secret Lair shipping speed has been achieved, too. Previously, print-to-demand drops could take months to finally arrive at players’ doors. This time around, however, it’s only taken three days.
On social media, MTG players were quick to speculate about exactly how Wizards has achieved this impressive feat. The consensus online is that the lucky recipient lives relatively close to the main distribution center, but this is unconfirmed. Whatever the case, the shipping speed is nonetheless impressive, and it’s great to see bonus cards be revealed so early.
Sadly, since the Marvel Superdrop has already sold out, this bonus card reveal won’t let MTG players make more informed purchasing decisions. Instead, the only benefit is that players now know a little bit more about what to expect in the mail. Considering bonus cards are meant to be a pleasant added surprise, however, this speedy shipping may spoil that somewhat.
Ultimately, it’s hard to say that the faster shipping times we’re seeing are an overall negative. The limited-run printing method certainly has its problems, but not waiting for months is a clear improvement over past methods. We can only hope that Wizards will find the right balance going forward so that so many players aren’t left disappointed.
