One of the most controversial moves Wizards of the Coast made in 2024 was switching the Secret Lair business model. In the past, Secret Lairs were a print-to-demand product, which makes sense. Players could buy whichever Secret Lairs they were interested in without concerns, and Wizards didn’t lose money on overprinting products.
Unfortunately, there was a major downside to this business model: shipping times. Secret Lairs would take months to get to player’s doorsteps. Many potential customers aren’t willing to wait that long. Wizards of the Coast did solve this issue, but it may have been a wish granted by a Monkey Paw.
Now, Secret Lairs are limited-print-run products. While this avoids the large shipping times, it has the disadvantage of making products sell out. This allows supply to be outweighed by demand, meaning that popular Secret Lairs sell out quickly.
It also means that unpopular experiments can stay sitting on shelves for months. New bundles have been created in an attempt to get some of these Secret Lairs sold. Are they a good deal?
Pure Power Bundle
Three different MTG Secret Lair bundles have been created with drops that have yet to sell out. The first among these is the Pure Power Bundle. This bundle contains the three drops of Tome of the Astral Sorceress, Arcade Racers, and Featuring: Mitsuhiro Ashira, which received high praise upon reveal.
The bundle basically offers a $5 discount over purchasing these drops individually, which is disappointing. This means that these bundles will rarely be worth purchasing unless you want all of the drops included since they are all individually still in stock.
Looking at the individual secondary market prices of cards tells a very different story. Unlike the usual case with talking about reprint value, these Secret Lairs have already been released. As a result, we know the exact value of the variants being obtained in each bundle.
Overall, the total value of all the singles in this bundle comes out to about $109.80. Notably expensive cards are Murktide Regent and Lightning Bolt from the Mitsuhiro Ashira Secret Lair which are worth about $21.40 and $10.50, respectively. Final Fortune from the Arcade Racers Lair also goes for just under $12, and Preordain from the Tome of the Astral Sorceress currently retails for $11.50.
Considering that the bundle is worth about $85, you’re getting a decent deal as long as you genuinely want all of these cards. If you aren’t interested in all of these Secret Lairs, Mitsuhiro Ashira’s Lair has the best value among the three Lairs in this bundle by a wide margin.
The Pure Power bundle is also available in foil. The total value of singles for this bundle is about $131.89. Interestingly, not every card has its value increased over its non-foil variant, which ends up making this Secret Lair a worse deal. The foil Pure Power bundle goes for $115. Unless you really want all of these cards in foil, our recommendation is to leave the foil Arcade Racers lair in the shop, as most of those cards lose value when they become foil.
Enchanting Encore Bundle
The Enchanting Encore bundle only has one variant because The Fairest Drop of All was only available in foil. Like the other bundles, the Enchanting Encore Bundle offers three Secret Lairs for a $5 discount. This time, the Lairs are The Fairest Drop of All, Secret Lair x Hatsune Miku: Electric Entourage JP Foil Edition, and Secret Lair x Hatsune Miku: Winter Diva JP Foil Edition. Some players may be shocked to see that Hatsune Miku is rotting away on shelves, but after the first few collaborations with the virtual pop idol, these Secret Lairs have dropped in popularity.
This is the only bundle among the drops that is strictly incorrect to buy. That’s because The Fairest of All drop is available for cheaper outside of the bundle.
At a very affordable $25, the Fairest Drop of All is straight value. The Tuvasa, the Sunlit and the Steely Resolve reprints recoup the value of the Secret Lair on their own at $13.80 and $14.90, respectively. The rest of the Secret Lair boasts an extra $11.40, so you’ll be ahead $10 if you buy this drop normally.
The Hatsune Miku Secret Lairs look quite valuable in their sold out English variants, but the story is quite different for the Japanese variants that are still in stock. The Winter Diva Secret Lair barely scrapes its entry fee of $40 thanks to Swan Song costing $20 in its Japanese variant. While the English Electric Entourage Foil Edition is a great deal, the Japanese one is terrible. Elspeth Tirel and Liliana of the Dark Realms help carry the English versions of the Lair, but the Japanese versions of those cards lose a ton of value.
Disappointing Bundles, but Decent Value
Overall, these Secret Lair bundles aren’t too exciting. A $5 discount doesn’t merit buying these together. Instead, you should be buying whichever Secret Lairs interest you the most. The Enchanting Encore Bundle being a bad deal in general does not help.
There is a third bundle available, but we won’t go over that one here. These two bundles should be enough of an indication that, unless you’re interested in everything the bundle has to offer, you should be buying these Secret Lairs seperately.
These Secret Lair bundles generally aren’t around for very long, so if you are interested in purchasing these, we would recommend doing so as soon as possible. That said, very few players are likely going to be interested in the full package.