At the start of last month, Wizards of the Coast kicked off the Winter Superdrop 2024. As usual, this Superdrop contained a plethora of unique Secret Lair drops, although few were that amazing this time around. With a lack of value throughout, demand for the latest Superdrop was somewhat suspect.
Heading into the Winter Superdrop 2024, expected demand was a huge talking point due to a shift in sales philosophy. Before the sale began, Wizards of the Coast switched Secret Lair to a limited-run model. This change was put in place to dramatically speed up shipping times, however, availability was a major concern.
Just four days after the Winter Superdrop 2024 went live, this concern was realized when one drop sold out. Understandably, many players were concerned by this initial rush of demand, however, nothing has sold out since. Miraculously, this has allowed MTG players to simply reap the benefits of Wizards’ rather controversial change.
Since Secret Lair drops are now being delivered so quickly, many drops are already in players’ hands. This means that the Bonus Cards for the Secret Lair drops are being discovered and posted online. In a rare treat, this means MTG players can know exactly what they’re in for and purchase accordingly!
These Rats Sure Are Relentless
Over the past few days, seven Bonus Cards from the Winter Superdrop 2024 have appeared online. Notably, this number is higher than the amount of Secret Lairs available in the drop. This means that some Secret Lairs don’t have a fixed extra card like Just Add Milk: Second Helpings. Instead, these drops pull from a pool of potential Bonus Cards that mostly follow the same theme.
While we’ll get to that theme shortly, one more unique Bonus Card has caught players’ attention. As you can see above, this is a new variant of Relentless Rats. First printed in Fifth Dawn, any number of this card can be played in a deck, even in Commander. So far, three other Secret Lair variants of this card exist, although only one is a Bonus Card.
Looking at that past Bonus Card, there’s a good chance this new variant will be rather expensive. Currently, Relentless Rats #756 sells for around $38 on TCGplayer. This is over ten times the price of the cheapest variant from The List which sells for just $2.50. Considering a Relentless Rats deck typically runs over 30 copies of the card, blinging out your deck isn’t cheap.
Unfortunately, while there is some exciting past precedent for Relentless Rats, a $38 price point is hardly guaranteed. As we’ve seen previously with Persistent Petitioners the price of Bonus Cards can fluctuate heavily. Depending on the supply and artwork, prices can range from $344 to just $12.
With this variance in mind, sadly, it’s incredibly difficult to pin the price of the new Relentless Rats variant down. Ultimately, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens once more supply appears. If we’re to hazard a guess, this new card certainly isn’t going to be cheap.
Even More Elves
As we alluded to earlier, the latest Secret Lair Bonus Card theme is Elves. Following on from the fan-favorite of Slivers, this new theme provides extended art variants of classic cards. Considering Elves are an incredibly popular Typal archetype in Commander, there’s a chance some of these cards could be seriously expensive!
While there is a lot of potential, for better or worse, Elves are typically reprinted into the ground. As a result of this, very few Elf cards are very expensive, even if they’re played everywhere. Take Paradise Druid, which is one of the new bonus cards, as an example. Played in over 43,000 Commander decks, this Elf is decently popular, but they only cost $0.17.
For better or worse, this trend of Elves being cheap continues to much of the new Bonus Cards we’ve seen. Each selling for under $0.50, Timberwatch Elf, Lys Alana Huntmaster, and Skemfar Shadowsage aren’t too exciting. Only one of the new Bonus Cards, Wirewood Symbiote sells for over $1, and even then it’s not by much.
To put it bluntly, while each of the new Elf Bonus Cards does fit the typal archetype, they’re hardly value powerhouses. Technically, this lack of value could change thanks to these new variants, however, I wouldn’t count on that. Looking back at Sliver Bonus Cards, the majority sit within the $1 – $4 range.
Once again, while the range for Extended Art Bonus Cards trends toward the low end, there are some bombs. For example Gemhide Sliver sells for a staggering $92 despite normal variants costing $0.27! Once again, this vast variance in price is due to the rarity of these new cards, which isn’t known right away.
Get Them While You Can
Uniquely, as we mentioned before, the Secret Lair Winter Superdrop 2024 is still available for purchase. Well, some of it is at least. With only two days left in the sale, a few more of the Secret Lair drops have sold out. Thankfully, while foil versions seem to be more scarce, all but one non-foil variant is still available.
Considering the Hard-Boiled Thrillers drop contained the Relentless Rats and the majority of the Elves, it seems to have the most potential. That being said, buying a Secret Lair in the hopes of getting a specific Bonus Card is a very risky gambit.
Ultimately, while it is nice to know what Bonus Cards are available, especially if they’re fixed, they rarely tip the scales. As a result, you should still think carefully when purchasing a Secret Lair drop since they’re not exactly cheap. Still, it’s nonetheless nice to know what you might find as your Bonus Card if you’ve been on the fence.
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