Karlach, Fury of Avernus
1, Aug, 24

New 50th Anniversary Dungeons & Dragons MTG Secret Lair Series Announced!

At the end of this month, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, five Dungeons & Dragons-inspired Secret Lairs will be coming to Magic: The Gathering. Scheduled to debut on August 27th, these will be limited edition drops. Here’s everything we know so far.

Five New Secret Lair Drops

So far, Wizards of the Coast has provided the names of all five Secret Lair drops included in the Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary drop. Here are the names of all the Secret Lairs coming at the end of the month:

  • Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons®: An Exhibition of Adventure
  • Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons®: Astarion’s Thirst
  • Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons®: Karlach’s Rage
  • Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons®: Death is in the Eyes of the Beholder I
  • Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons®: Death is in the Eyes of the Beholder II

As far as cards go, we know of two reprints from Dungeons & Dragons: Battle for Baldur’s Gate getting the Secret Lair treatment. Both of these also happen to be companions from the recent Baldur’s Gate 3 game. Unsurprisingly, the hugely successful release of this game increased their popularity for a time.

Astarion, the Decadent offers a pretty devastating ability. Essentially doubling the life loss that one player experiences, this card definitely has a spot in the Commander format. Sadly, Astarion doesn’t have a significant secondary market value, which makes this a rather poor reprint. This follows the general trend of recent Secret Lair products. Reprint value is mattering less and less, as the rarer variants themselves are becoming desirable enough to warrant ridiculous secondary market spikes.

Karlach, Fury of Avernus

Karlach, Fury of Avernus is the second and final card revealed thus far for the Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary drop. As you may suspect, you can find this card in the Karlach’s Rage Secret Lair.

Karlach, Fury of Avernus offers an effect that has been becoming more and more popular as time passes: extra combat steps. In a deck that has a lot of attack triggers, this can essentially double the value provided by multiple cards every turn. Karlach also happens to be a rather popular companion from Baldur’s Gate 3.

Don’t let the mono red color identity of this card fool you. If you want to use Karlach as a Commander, you get access to a Background, which gives you another color identity to mess around with.

This bizarre combination of factors grants Karlach some surprising secondary market value. The card, in its original variant, has a market average of about $10, making this a decent reprint. Strangely, the showcase version of this card is cheaper, retailing for about $7.50.

Secret Lair Price

For reference, the non-foil Secret Lairs in the Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary drop will be available for $29.99, while foil editions are available for $39.99. As long as Karlach has some decent goodies in her themed Secret Lair, this could be a great buy reprint-wise.

If you’re curious as to what other cards will be appearing in the Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary drop, you’ll have to wait and see. So far, the reveals are decent enough to warrant additional interest. Maybe these Secret Lairs will reprint the exclusive cards from the exclusive Honor Among Thieves Secret Lair, something that players have been clamoring for.

After the mess that was the Monty Python Secret Lair collaboration, players have some pretty mixed opinions regarding these crossovers. Wizards of the Coast is absolutely hitting it out of the park with the crossovers themselves, but they need to make them more widely available. Hopefully, they have learned from their recent mistakes.

Read More: Silver-Bordered Cards Might be Coming to MTG Commander

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