Last year, Wizards of the Coast announced what should have been one of the best Universes Beyond crossovers of all time. The Monster Hunter franchise, with its beloved cast of characters and monsters, not to mention the weapons, could easily fill an entire set. Despite this immense potential, however, the Secret Lair Superdrop that was revealed was so bad that it had to be scrapped.
Crashing and burning so hard that Wizards pulled the plug before release, it was presumed that these Monster Hunter cards would be lost forever. Recently, however, one of the bonus cards from the scrapped Superdrop has appeared online. While this could end up being quite valuable as a collectible, it’s yet another reminder why this Superdrop had to go.
MTG Monster Hunter Bonus Card
Revealed in a video by Nick Robinson, this Monster Hunter-themed version of Pack Leader should have been in “The Monsters” Secret Lair drop. Sadly, while the story behind tracking down this card is rather interesting, the reprint itself is pretty awful. At its cheapest, this card is worth just $0.52, despite only having one major printing.
While the poor reprint value of Pack Leader is pretty shocking, this variant could have easily sold for more. Now that the Superdrop has been scrapped, however, unreleased cards like this bonus card will surely be ultra-expensive collectibles. Even with the real-world legality of these cards being dubious at best, there will surely be players out there who want to own them.
As much as chase and dubiously legal MTG cards will have an appeal to some players, reactions haven’t been universally positive. On social media, players lamented this bonus card as yet another flavor fail from the Monster Hunter Secret Lair drop. While this is definitely disappointing, considering the rest of the Superdrop, it’s hard to say it’s that surprising.
Flavor Fails Upon Flavor Fails
As much as this Pack Leader reprint looks like a Palamute from Monster Hunter Rise, the specific reprint is just odd. While both the card and the character are dogs, that’s about where the similarities end. Outside of the art, where it looks like this Palamute is leading a squad, these dogs are primarily mounts in-game.
With this in mind, Palamutes being represented by a protective Dog Typal lord feels like a complete mismatch from the actual character. It’s not like there weren’t other options, either, as there are plenty of MTG cards that would have been better fits. On Reddit, Selfless Savior was a popular alternative suggestion, but this is really a marginal upgrade at best.
While there aren’t any Dog Mounts in MTG, leaning into their movement side with something like Enduring Courage feels a lot more apt. Failing that, Wizards could have also leaned into more hunter-focused synergies with something like Rescue Retriever. Hell, Wizards could have even gone down the legendary route, reprinting something like Isamaru, Hound of Konda, though that would require a tweaked reskin.
Personally, Rin and Seri, Inseparable feels like an ideal reprint to highlight both Palico’s and Palamute’s together. Admittedly, the flavor still isn’t perfect here, but very few of the Dogs in MTG are actually on point there. If nothing else, this beloved card sells for between $14 and $47, so it’d be a very welcome reprint.
A Long Overdue Return
Sadly, while a Monster Hunter crossover has huge potential, there’s no telling what we’ll get the second time around. Potentially, Wizards has gone back to the drawing board completely and will give us brand-new, mechanically unique cards. Alternatively, we might just be getting different reprints, with or without new art.
Technically, there’s a non-zero chance that some of the cards from the original Secret Lair will end up actually being released. While the chances of this do feel rather slim, we don’t know what Wizards and Capcom have been cooking. It’s been over nine months since the Monster Hunter Superdrop was scrapped, so there’s plenty of time for big changes.
Notably, while it has been nine months already, a release date for the revised Monster Hunter Secret Lair Superdrop has not been announced. As such, we’ll just have to sit tight for now and wait to see what gets revealed in the future.
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