Wizards of the Coast has been experimenting with different versions of chase cards in recent sets. Everything from textured foils to different colored variants to Invention-style lottery cards have been used to create exciting possibilities that players can open in booster packs. Their newest experiment involves random chase cards being inserted into Secret Lairs. This product can only be purchased directly from Wizards of the Coast (with a few infamous exceptions).
King of the MTG Slivers
MTG artist @BenMakesStuff, a proxy artist invited to create an official Secret Lair, got access to his upcoming Secret Lair products a little earlier. One of the Lairs that Ben opened had a card he had never seen before. After confirming with Scryfall, a search tool containing every MTG card printed, that they had never seen this card before, he was sure that this chase card had gone entirely unannounced.
Slivers are a popular archetype in EDH. It’s easy to build this classic archetype with various power levels. You could play a tribal beatdown deck with effects like the Horned Sliver above or go with something a bit nastier with The First Sliver. Generally, MTG Slivers give each other Sliver in play an additional buff. Whether that be a keyword like Trample or granting all Slivers you cast Cascade, the idea of this archetype is that every MTG Sliver that enters play buffs every other Sliver in play. Recent reprintings from Time Spiral Remastered have made many Sliver cards that were recently incredibly expensive go down in price. This, therefore, makes the archetype more accessible. With this unexpected spoiler, players now have an opportunity to find deluxe versions of the cheaper Sliver pieces.
Secret Lottery
This isn’t the first time Secret Lairs printed premium versions of common MTG cards unannounced. Recently, select Secret Lair customers opened premium versions of another popular familiar Commander archetype: Persistent Petitioners. This particular Secret Lair card had various artworks done for its premium treatment. The one above is only an example of one of them. This is because contrary to the maximum of one copy of each nonbasic card in Commander, you can play an unlimited amount of Persistent Petitioners in your deck. For the case of common Slivers, this will probably be replicated with the premium printing of various Slivers.
Will this Push you to Buy a Secret Lair?
These premium mystery cards aim to make the Secret Lair more exciting. These give a sort of lottery-ticket feel to the product. How many people are buying Secret Lairs that wouldn’t usually because there’s a chance of opening an expensive chase card? There are already many gamble-like elements in MTG, so this will entice some players. Personally, while I appreciate the release of cool exclusive cards like this, it’s not enough to sway me on a Secret Lair. Instead, the promised contents, rich with beautiful alternate arts, are a much more critical factor.
