Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast pissed off a lot of MTG players. In a new pay-what-you-want Chaos Vault drop, Wizards exacerbated FOMO concerns, instantly angering the community. Today, as if to try and earn back some goodwill, Wizards of the Coast announced a brand new Secret Lair Superdrop. Themed around Dungeons & Dragons, the Roll for Initiative Superdrop is right around the corner, launching on February 9th.
Beyond just announcing that this Secret Lair Superdrop is coming, Wizards also revealed all of the cards inside. Debuting seven brand-new Secret Lairs, Wizards has spoiled everything all at once. Miraculously, these Roll for Initiative Superdrop drops don’t disappoint, either, as, in a rare change, many of them offer fantastic reprint value.
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Shadowheart’s Devotion
To kick things off, Wizards unveiled the Shadowheart’s Devotion drop, all about Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar. Much like the drops for Astarion and Karlach back in 2024, these drops function as a Commander starter kit for the chosen legend. While this drop theme has returned for some of the remaining Baldur’s Gate 3 characters, Shadowheart’s drop is admittedly a little odd…
Specifically, Ancient Bronze Dragon being reprinted in a drop built around a mono-black Commander is definitely a choice. While this does seem unusual, thankfully, Shadowheart can be played with a Background, allowing you to expand her color identity. With four green Backgrounds to pick from, Ancient Bronze Dragon is actually a viable and powerful choice alongside Shadowheart.
Leaning into Shadowheart’s sacrifice-based ability, Victimze and Black Market are both fantastic inclusions in a sacrifice-themed deck. The only truly odd inclusion here is Beseech the Queen, but having a three-mana tutor being reprinted is no bad thing. Overall, this drop with Roll for Initiative seems like a very good place to start for Shadowheart, and its value isn’t bad either.
Leading the charge, Ancient Bronze Dragon is a $16 reprint, which makes up half of the drop’s $29.99 non-foil price. After that, values drop rather quickly, but Black Market and Beseech the Queen are both worth around $3.50. Sadly, Victimize and Shadowheart herself are the duds of the drop, selling for just $0.40 right now. Still, with around $24 worth of value in total, this drop is far from terrible.
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Gale’s Ambition
Sadly, while the Shadowheart’s Devotion drop got off to a good start, Gale’s Ambition is decidedly meh from a value standpoint. Offering a total value of just $9, finance fans might not love this drop, but Baldur’s Gate 3 fans really should. Like the past character-focused Dungeons & Dragons, this drop makes Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy actually look like Gale from the game.
Thanks to this, there’s a good chance there will be a surprising amount of demand for this Secret Lair drop. This, in turn, could lead to some impressive values across the board, since each card is a Commander staple. This is especially true for Brainstorm and Arcane Denial, which appear in over 700,000 Commander decks each.
While not quite as widely played, Archmage’s Charm and Personal Tutor aren’t slouches either. Appearing in over 60,000 and 70,000 decks respectively, a lot of Commander players could be eyeing up this drop. Whether or not this potential attention will end up boosting card values, however, remains to be seen.
For now, the $9 total value is largely propped up by Personal Tutor. Selling for $4.50 on its own, this card has a great deal of potential, just like Arcane Denial. While regular printings of this card sell for just $2, past Secret Lair variants have gone for $15+.
Curiously, Brainstorm doesn’t seem to have the same potential, as most variants sell for between $1 to $2. The same is also true for Archmage’s Charm, which is the drop’s last valuable card. Despite being the face of the drop, Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy is only worth $0.32.
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Black Lights & Dark Dungeons
Continuing the running theme of mini Commander kits, Black Lights & Dark Dungeons is built around Sefris of the Hidden Ways. Offering a game plan built around the Dungeons and the graveyard, Safris does have a lot of potential. While this drop does lean on this strategy, one card is far better than the rest.
While it’s not the value frontrunner, only being worth $4, Tortured Existence is perfect alongside Sefris. By providing an easy discard outlet, you can guarantee you’re venturing through the Dungeon every single turn. This alone is great value, but getting to replay your best fallen creatures is fantastic too.
After this, Seasoned Dungeoneer is the next most effective pairing thanks to taking the Initiative. By either letting you enter into the Undercity or progress forward a stage if you’re already in a Dungeon, the synergy is obvious, but useful. Getting a protection and Explore effect on top of this, too, makes Seasoned Dungeoneer more than worth its $9 price point.
Curiously, in terms of synergy, Displacer Kitten is a pretty poor reprint alongside Sefris. Since this Cat Beast exiles, rather than putting anything in the graveyard, the synergy between them isn’t ideal. That said, Displacer Kitten is still one hell of a card, and absolutely exploitable with the right synergy. Thanks to this, the card sells for around $24 on average, bringing the total value up to $28 alongside the $1 Sefris.
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Shadows Over Baldur’s Gate
Out of all the drops in the Roll for Initiative Superdrop, Shadows Over Baldur’s Gate is easily the best value. While it follows the same Commander kit structure as the rest of the drops, the reprints here are on another level. In total, this drop boats around $51 of value, for its $29.99 purchase price.
Leading the drop’s design philosophy, as well as the value front, Prosper, Tome-Bound is the clear winner. Selling for $17 on average, Prosper is a popular choice in Commander, both to helm decks and in the 99. Considering Prosper is a self-contained card advantage and Treasure Token-generating machine, this price point isn’t at all surprising.
Similarly, selling for between $16 and $18, depending on the variant, Grim Hireling is another Treasure-generating Commander staple. Appearing in 137,000 decks, according to EDHREC, this card is a staple in Prosper decks, and appears in plenty more archetypes beyond that. While this Secret Lair variant could easily end up even more expensive, it’s great to see Grim Hireling being reprinted.
Dropping down the value order slightly, Wild-Magic Sorcerer is only a $10 MTG card. Synergizing perfectly with Prosper’s exile-based ability, this pair naturally works well together. Outside of that, Wild-Magic Sorcerer is a generally fantastic value engine that a lot of decks can take advantage of. Thanks to this, it appears in over 80,000 Commander decks.
With near-mint copies available for just $7, Xorn is technically the dud of this drop, but it’s still fairly expensive. This new Secret Lair variant will likely be even more so, as the past Secret Lair printing sells for $15. Even if this new printing doesn’t reach this past price point, Xorn is a fantastic reprint and a true value engine.
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Whispers in Candlekeep
Technically, the Whispers in Candlekeep Secret Lair drop is built around Miirym, Sentinel Wrym. While there’s no denying Miirym has tons of potential, copying Dragons that enter, it often gets the short end of the stick. So long as you can afford it, if you’re building a Dragon deck, you’re playing The Ur-Dragon.
Even as an Ur-Dragon-focused upgrade kit, thankfully, Whispers in Candlekeep doesn’t disappoint. Miirym, for instance, is a staple within Dragon Typal, and sells for around $5 because of it. Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient, meanwhile, is a whole lot more expensive, selling for $15 at least.
Offering an insane amount of ramp on attack, which sticks around, too, Klauth is a fantastic card both in and out of Dragon Typal decks. The same is also true for Dragonborn Champion, thanks to providing card draw for a variety of archetypes. This strength has led Dragonborn Champion to be played in over 36,000 Commander decks, and it sells for around $10.
Technically, Counterspell is a bit drom down in value; however, this card is a true Commander super staple. Appearing in 1.62 million Commander decks, past Secret Lair variants typically sell for between $13 and $23. Should this new version end up going for a similar price point, the Whispers in Candlekeep drop will be a very lucrative pickup.
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Strahd’s Descent
From a value perspective, the Strahd’s Descent Secret Lair drop is a bit of a weird one. While it does technically break even, this is only thanks to one MTG card: Bloodletter of Aclazotz. Reskinned for this drop as Cast-Off Consort, this card sells for $30 alone, thanks to its multiformat appeal.
Outside of this card, the rest of the drop barely manages to break $2 altogether. With End the Festivities selling for the most at $0.84, this drop falls off hard. That said, the remaining cards do still see some play in Commander, so they could be somewhat valuable.
On the plus side, the flavor and theming of this drop is arguably the best of the entire Roll for Initiative Superdrop. While it is hard to beat shirtless god Gale, having cards be renamed here is definitely a nice bonus. Whether or not this will be enough to drive sales, however, remains to be seen.
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Lands of the Forgotten Realms
To round out the Roll for Initiative Secret Lair Superdrop, Wizards is offering a bunch of expensive lands. With two of each basic priced at $29.99, this drop is hard to pin down value-wise, but the art is absolutely fantastic. Showcasing iconic locales from throughout the Forgotten Realms, this drop is bound to have its fans.
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