Despite the Chaos Vault having only existed for a couple of years, Secret Lair drops have always been rather experimental. Not only did Secret Lair pioneer serialized cards and Universes Beyond, but it’s also the home of 30th Anniversary Edition. As if this wasn’t enough innovation, Wizards is now releasing a new MTG set exclusively via Secret Lair.
Made in collaboration with MSCHF, The Zeta Set looks like a fantastic Secret Lair on the surface. Paying homage to the original Gamma MTG playtest cards, the aesthetics are a fantastic deep cut, and the public domain images work surprisingly well. While this all seems well and good, the fact that this set is being released via booster packs is causing major concerns.
Chasing Chase Cards
Priced at $19.92 per seven-card pack, The Zeta Set boosters are shockingly expensive. On a per-card basis, these packs are even more expensive than Universes Beyond Collector Boosters, which is wild. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that many MTG players have been immediately put off by these prices.
As if this weren’t bad enough, however, you can’t even get every card from The Zeta Set from Wizards if you wanted. Since each customer can only buy 12 boosters each, you can only ever get 84 of the set’s 121 cards. Considering there are reportedly 17 bonus cards as well, pushing the total to 138, there’s no guarantee you’ll get what you want.
Considering The Zeta Set has some incredibly valuable reprints, this random element is beyond frustrating. The chance to get a $150 Chrome Mox, for instance, makes the entire thing feel like a FOMO driven fever dream. While there are other expensive reprints, like Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Mana Echoes, The Zeta Set having rarities makes finding these difficult.
Sadly, these rarities only amplify the FOMO even more, as mythic and rare cards will presumably have a higher Secret Lair tax. Since The Zeta Set appears to be limited-run, too, secondary market prices may end up being astronomically high. This will surely be true for the photocopy negative and color banding variants, which are presumably even rarer.
Frustratingly, while not every card in The Zeta Set is expensive, there’s a chance it’s still worth it. The art here is undeniably charming, and it’s technically better value than regular five-card for $30 Secret Lairs. That said, The Zeta Set still feels like a slap in the face, and its potential implications are hugely concerning.
A Fearsome Future
Right now, the future ramifications of The Zeta Set are entirely unclear. In theory, this is just a fun collaboration with MSCHF that’s a unique novelty one-off. Considering we could have said the same about The Walking Dead Secret Lair, however, it’s hard to think that Wizards isn’t watching this closely.
The major concern is that if The Zeta Set sells well, Secret Lair Boosters might become more and more commonplace. In theory, we could have entire Superdrops, like the newly announced Masters of the Universe one, being released via packs, rather than drops. Thankfully, for now, this is just a worst-case scenario concern, and players are already pushing back against it.
Across social media, complaints about this decision have already been practically nonstop so far. Even those who say they would have been excited by the product are seemingly being turned away. Hopefully, much like 30th Anniversary Edition, all this upset will cause Wizards to take notice and keep Secret Lair the same.
Realistically, while this fear could be seen as an overreaction, Secret Lair has arguably been heading this way for a while. Ultra-rare and valuable bonus cards are nothing new, and give drops that little bit of random pack-opening flair. The Zeta Set basically just turns this up to 11, but that may be a step too far.
Not Long Now
Ultimately, since The Zeta Set hasn’t even been released yet, it’s hard to analyze its long-term potential or impact. Demand, let alone the print run, is unknown, so we can only wait and see what happens. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long till then, at least, as The Zeta Set is being released on Sept. 2 at 12 p.m. ET via the Chaos Vault.
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