While much of the MTG world is currently holding its breath for MagicCon: Las Vegas, there’s still more going on beyond that. Perhaps most notably, the latest round of Secret Lair drops has started to ship, and players are getting their hands on the new bonus cards contained within. While this new batch isn’t the most financially exciting, it does establish a trend we can expect to see in Secret Lair for a while yet.
Introducing Retro Frame Humans!
So far, all of the bonus cards pulled from the Festival in a Box drop are Human creatures, printed in a foil retro frame treatment. Based on past precedent, it’s likely that these come from a wider pool of retro frame Humans, and that these will be the default bonus cards for drops for the next year or so. We saw the same thing with the retro frame Zombies last year, after all, and the extended art Elves and Slivers before that.
In terms of the cards themselves, this Humans batch is a mixed bag so far. Seasoned Dungeoneer is a solid reprint at around $7, notably seeing play in Initiative decks way back in Legacy and Vintage. In addition, thanks to its niche in Party and Dungeon decks, the card sees some play in Commander, appearing in around 31,000 lists according to EDHREC.
Soul’s Attendant is another solid hit from this early batch, coming in at around $6. Though it sees no real constructed play, it’s a super-staple in Lifegain decks in Commander, appearing in over 148,000 lists in the format.
This pair aside, the other retro frame Humans are a bit underwhelming. While Scholar of New Horizons and Fiend Hunter both see decent use in Commander, they’re also very cheap cards, at $0.24 and $0.10, respectively. Notably, both of these cards have also had retro frame printings before, which goes against the usual rule we see with bonus cards like these.
A Playable Bonus Card
As revealed in an unboxing video from Good Time Society, Return the Favor is a possible bonus card for the Return to the Mystical Archive drop. This follows the rest of the drop in that it uses the Japanese Mystical Archive art for the card, but with a more traditional Magic layout and English text.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t do much to address the big problem players had with this drop: its incredibly low financial value. Thanks to the Mystical Archive, Return the Favor is available for around $0.35 right now, so it doesn’t move the needle much there. While it’s undeniably great in Commander, showing up in over 164,000 decks in total, it’s also an uncommon that just got a ton of extra supply, so it’s hardly in huge demand.
What is interesting about this bonus card, however, is that it seems to appear alongside the metal printing plates that were revealed in this drop previously. Good Time Society opened both in their drop, which suggests this is possible for all who buy it. Right now, while this is expected to be extremely rare, no one knows quite how uncommon this is. If it turns out every drop comes with a bonus card and a plate, however, then this could be a much better deal than advertised.
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