It’s no secret that MTG crossovers are becoming more and more frequent. While some crossovers, like the recent Jurassic World one releasing as a part of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, are a part of core sets, a majority of the MTG universes beyond crossovers occur in Secret Lair product.
Announced today by IGN is yet another MTG crossover that has taken the player base by surprise. A majority of these cards are reskinned reprints, but Lara Croft herself is getting a mechanically unique card in the upcoming Tomb Raider Secret Lair!
While this is indeed interesting, the reprints could be a different story. How does this Secret Lair stack up financially? Let’s take a look!
MTG Lara Croft
the upcoming Tomb Raider X Magic: the Gathering Secret Lair features one mechanically unique MTG card with five reskinned reprints (featuring new artwork) and one new token. One of the reprints are double-sided.
Of the six cards (and one token) releasing as a part of the Tomb Raider Secret Lair, Lara Croft, Tomb Raider is the only mechanically unique one. For three mana, Lara Croft cares about exiling Legendary Artifacts and Lands from graveyards. Basically, as long as Lara Croft attacks, she exiles one of the aforementioned cards from a graveyard with a Discovery Counter. You can then play a card with a Discovery Counter on it. On your end step, Lara Croft creates a token if you attacked at all this turn. This Commander really wants to get into the red zone.
The most interesting part, about Lara Croft’s ability is that it cares about any graveyard. This means you can also exile opponent’s Legendary lands and artifacts, turning them against their owners. Lara Croft does provide Treasure Tokens to cast offcolored cards, but the process is rather clunky, and Lara Croft does not have the typical ability that allows you to cast cards exiled with any color of mana. She may need some help in this area as a result.
Mobile Throne may not synergize with your deck theme, especially if it’s a nontypal one, but this Lost Caverns of Ixalan card can double both of Lara Croft’s triggers, which is quite a lot of value. Consider this if you’re planning on making this Tomb Raider into your Commander.
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The Reprints
For those interested in acquiring the latest MTG Secret Lair crossover, the reprints appear to be rather favorable. To start off, we have an absolutely stellar reprint of Shadowspear.
Reskinned as Totec’s Spear, Shadowspear sees significant competitive Modern play thanks to Urza’s Saga. This is a fantastic tutoring option for a majority of creature-based Modern decks to stabilize their board states against Burn. Shadowspear sees particular play in Hammertime decks thanks to it clearing the way for creatures to swing in with Trample. Gaining tons of of life also makes the crack back a thing that you simply do not have to worry about.
Thanks to all this, and the fact that Shadowspear is a perfectly powerful equipment in Commander, the card’s lowest secondary market value sits around $18.45!
Academy Ruins is a fantastic value land for Commander. If you have extra mana, Academy Ruins can ensure that your next draw is a powerful one by recurring an artifact from your grave to the top of the deck.
Notably, Academy Ruins also sees play in Modern Tron lists. Since the archetype is trying to, famously, assemble the three Tron lands, there are a lot of search effects in these decks that can easily find Academy Ruins. Academy Ruins can enable a constant flow of threats like Wurmcoil Engine for Tron after the three lands have been assembled.
Academy Ruins is also a pretty strong reprint in the Tomb Raider X Magic: the Gathering Secret Lair. The cheapest secondary market average for this card is worth about $13.25.
Search for Azcanta was, once upon a time, one of the most noteworthy cards in all of the Ixalan block. This card was a staple for Control decks, giving them a way to filter their cards that, eventually, turns into a massive card advantage engine.
Search for Azcanta has had a ton of reprints in recent times, which has really helped curb its secondary market price to something more affordable. Search for Azcanta isn’t seeing much competitive play anymore, either, which certainly helps. That said, it still sees occasional experimentation in Modern, Pioneer and Dual Commander.
Currently, Search for Azcanta is only worth about $1.65. Considering this card was once worth over $20, that’s a massive improvement!
Unfortunately, the last two reprints aren’t much to write home about. Anger of the Gods sees some occasional competitive interest, but has been reprinted into the ground. Bow of Nylea does have some very niche cEDH relevance (and we’re taking VERY niche), but not enough to actually put it on the map. That said, the bow still has a secondary market value of slightly over $2. The same cannot be said for Anger of the Gods, not even worth a dollar.
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Tomb Raider X Magic: The Gathering Financial Review
Assuming this Secret Lair product is worth the usual $29.99 for its nonfoil variant, this Secret Lair seems like a good deal financially. Academy Ruins and Shadowspear more than make up for the price of the product and, if Lara Croft ends up being a popular mechanically unique card, it could be worth quite a lot on the secondary market. Take a look at the current secondary market values for the cards from the Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Secret Lair, for example. Doric, Nature’s Warden has a current asking price of about $35!
There’s no guarantee that Lara Croft will receive the same reception on the secondary market, but if you’re already in the market for a Shadowspear or an Academy Ruins, there’s little to lose.
According to IGN, the Tomb Raider X Magic: the Gathering Secret Lair is part of a larger release that will hit the Secret Lair site. Named the Secret Lair Secretversary Superdrop, expect Lara Croft to be available on the site next week. If you want to see what else is getting announced for the next Secret Lair release, we’ll be sure to have everything covered here.