As much as it has been on a bit of a roll recently, Secret Lair is hardly immune to making mistakes. Between suspect distribution methods and abysmal reprint value, there are certainly still problems to be addressed. That said, for the most part, Secret Lair is performing fairly well nowadays, following tweaks and print run increases.
Sadly, while most Secret Lair drops go to plan, we have seen major printing mistakes occur, too. Some cards have been censored, while others have had the wrong card type, making a useless counterspell. Most recently, a printing error caused unique foils not to look as good as they should have, much to the dismay of players.
Thankfully, while it has taken some time, Wizards has now addressed this problem in a new statement. Luckily, this is good news for anyone who purchased this drop and was disappointed by it.
Fixing Faulty Foils
When they were first announced, the two Commander Reinforcements Secret Lair drops were hugely exciting. As a new spin on the classic formula, Wizards offered these drops via the Chaos Vault, alongside the Edge of Eternities precons. While they could be purchased separately, these Secret Lairs were clearly intended to be novel upgrades for the decks.
Beyond just being useful upgrades with new art, the Commander Reinforcements drops also had a unique foil treatment. Bringing back Galaxy Foils, seen in Unfinity and Edge of Eternities, this significantly more expensive variant furthered the fantastic flavor. Sadly, that fun flavor ended up falling short once in players’ hands.
Despite Wizards having some history with Galaxy Foils now, these Secret Lair cards all looked off. Many cards, especially darker colored cards like Reprocess and Aggressive Mining, barely looked like foils at all. Considering players paid $20 extra specifically for the Galaxy Foil treatment, this was quite a slap in the face.
Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast is aware of this problem and has announced they’ll be fixing it. Already, this is a great move on Wizards’ part, but it gets even better, as players don’t need to do anything at all. Replacement cards are already entering production and will be shipped automatically to those who purchased either of the following Secret Lair drops.
- Alien Auroras Galaxy Foil Edition
- Featuring: Deathburger Galaxy Foil Edition
While MTG players can just sit back and wait to receive these cards, there’s currently no estimated shipping date. Potentially, given past Secret Lair shipping times, it could take a while, but that’s unknown for now. Even if it does take a while, getting free replacement cards is definitely a welcome fix to this frustrating problem.
Almost Entirely Great News
Obviously, having Wizards of the Coast fix a Secret Lair problem like this on such a wide scale is fantastic. Wizards could have easily hidden this solution behind support channels, so having it happen automatically is hugely welcome. We can only hope that this will happen again in the future if printing issues like this appear once more.
While this announcement is great news for those who bought the Galaxy Foil Secret Lairs last month, things aren’t necessarily perfect. Sure, players who paid good money for fancy foils will now get those cards, but this will create tons of spare, undesirable cards. Worryingly, there might not be a way to tell these cards apart.
Hopefully, as HansonWK points out on Reddit, Wizards will issue these reprints with new collector’s numbers to differentiate them. Even if this happens, MTG players will have to be on the lookout to ensure they get the cards they’re after. On the plus side, this reprint could make the failed Galaxy Foils surprisingly cheap, but we’ll have to see about that.
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