Since May of this year, the Secret Lair bonus card lineup has been developing a new theme: retro frame Humans. A bunch of these have already been revealed, including some pricey staples and a Commander Game Changer, among many others.
This past week, we’ve seen a couple more cards from this unofficial preview season, including a retro frame reprint of MTG icon Knight of the Reliquary. With this as a potential pull, Secret Lair bonus cards for the rest of the year just got a little more exciting.
Retro Frame Knight of the Reliquary MTG
For many MTG players, Knight of the Reliquary needs no introduction. This card has seen a ton of play over its 17-year life, thanks to its unique ability to serve as a repeatable
Crop Rotation
Crop Rotation
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a land.
Search your library for a land card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
in the right decks.
Even today, Knight of the Reliquary holds up quite well, seeing play in over 27,400 Commander decks by EDHREC numbers. It also still maintains a few homes in Legacy, where Dark Depths decks and Maverick brews alike make fantastic use of the card.
Interestingly, this bonus card printing isn’t actually the first retro frame version of Knight of the Reliquary that MTG has seen. It also appeared in this frame back in Time Spiral Remastered, though that printing used the original Michael Komarck art rather than the Wayne Reynolds art we’re getting here.
Right now, copies of the existing retro frame printing sell for around $1.30 near-mint, so this new version is unlikely to be worth a ton. Given the card’s history and the scarcity of bonus cards, however, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it crack $5 when the dust settles.
Retro Frame Stalwart Shield-Bearers MTG
While Knight of the Reliquary is definitely the most exciting new reveal from the retro frame Humans sheet this week, it isn’t the only one. We also got to see Stalwart Shield-Bearers, a largely forgotten common that’s actually getting its first ever reprint here.
Shield-Bearers is the definition of a niche card, only really seeing play in Commander, and even then only in specific decks. Defender decks like
Arcades, the Strategist
Arcades, the Strategist
Flying, vigilance
Whenever a creature you control with defender enters, draw a card.
Each creature you control with defender assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power and can attack as though it didn't have defender.
, and toughness-matters brews like
Felothar the Steadfast
Felothar the Steadfast
Each creature you control assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power.
Creatures you control can attack as though they didn't have defender.
{3}, {T}, Sacrifice another creature: Draw cards equal to the sacrificed creature's toughness, then discard cards equal to its power.
both love the card, but it sees no significant play beyond that.
Because of this, and the card’s common rarity, it’s sadly all but guaranteed to sell for bulk prices, even in this fancy new bonus card version. This makes it a pretty rough bonus to pull in your Secret Lair, but that’s just the nature of these bonus card pools unfortunately.
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