The latest Secret Lair Superdrop is wending its way into the hands of players as I type these words. And with it, a new range of Bonus Cards to pleasantly surprise its buyers. Of particular note is a Relentless Rats Secret Lair Bonus Card, with the potential to command a serious secondary market value.
This new promo was revealed in a Reddit post by timeagain75, and it’s remarkable for a few reasons. Firstly, for how quickly it’s made its way out into the wild post-Drop. And secondly, for being another special printing of Relentless Rats, a card that’s been a Secret Lair Bonus Card before. Looking at the pricing trends on past promos, it’s not unreasonable to think that this one may be a big hitter financially before long. But why is that the case? And how can you get your hands on a copy of your own? Read on for the full scoop!
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Relentless Rats Secret Lair Bonus Card
Let’s start with the new promo itself. This new version of Relentless Rats appears to be a foil-only deal, featuring striking art from Sadboi. The style is similar to that seen on some of the Enchanting Tales cards from Wilds of Eldraine, but this is Sadboi’s Magic art debut. Based on the quality of this piece, we can only hope that we’ll be seeing them again soon.
In terms of distribution, this is a Secret Lair Bonus Card in the truest sense. Some Bonus Cards, like the Arcane Signet from Artist Series: Rovina Cai, are guaranteed drops to provide fixed extra value. Most Bonus Cards, however, are randomized, drawing from a pool of potential options that changes with each new Superdrop. This new Relentless Rats is in the updated pool, but, going by past precedent on such promos, it will likely be a very rare find indeed. Pair this up with the fact that the Equinox Superdrop appears to have the most limited print run of any Secret Lair product to date, and you have a recipe for an elusive, expensive card.
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They’re in the Walls!
Now you may be thinking to yourself: why Relentless Rats? That’s a solid question. After all, why would a card you can pick up for around $2 be worth featuring as a Secret Lair Bonus Card? The answer, as with much in Magic, can be found in Commander. Relentless Rats is one of six cards in Magic’s history to feature the rule-breaking line “A deck can have any number of cards named (X).” We’ll see a couple more of these cards later, but to sum it up they tend to be cards that scale up in power the more copies you have in play. For example, Relentless Rats gains +1/+1 for each other Relentless Rats you have on the board.
The idea, then, is to include around 30 Relentless Rats in your deck, then swarm the board with them, creating an exponential threat that can end the game out of nowhere. There are ways to combo off in such a deck with cards like Thrumming Stone, but for the most part, it’s a fun, offbeat strategy not meant for serious tables.
You may think that would hold the card back from any kind of financial value, but you’d be wrong. I mentioned above that normal printings of Relentless Rats are around $2, and they are, but considering you need 30+ copies for a viable deck it’s not as cheap as it sounds. The fact that you need so many copies for the deck, combined with the low number of artwork variants currently available, makes promos like this especially sought after for fans of the archetype.
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Past Precedent
For this reason, this new Bonus Card could be worth some serious money when all is said and done. As mentioned above, Relentless Rats has appeared as a Secret Lair Bonus Card before. The prices on these versions are probably the best guides as to how this new version will perform. One features art by Sija Hong, and is currently selling in the $40-50 range, with odd listings at $200. The other, with art by Trashkittyart, goes for $100-140.
Based on these prices, a value of around $100 would be a good bet. $200 or more certainly isn’t out of the question, though, especially given the increased rarity of this crop of Bonus Cards due to the limited supply. This becomes all the more likely when you start looking at the other ” A deck can have any number of cards named (X).” cards that have been printed as Secret Lair Bonus Cards in the past.
Both Shadowborn Apostle and Persistent Petitioners have been part of the series before, multiple times in fact. The Shadowborn Apostles span a wide range of values, from $8 all the way up to $230 on the high end. Persistent Petitioners has even more variance, going from $13 to just under $350.
There’s more data to work with on these other cards, since they’ve appeared as Bonus Cards more often. That said, we can likely apply similar pricing principles to Relentless Rats. According to EDHREC, Relentless Rats is less popular as an archetype than Shadowborn Apostle. It’s on the same level as Persistent Petitioners, however. For this reason, the new Relentless Rats Bonus Card could easily hit $200 or beyond, or end up somewhere further down the range. Only time will tell.
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