The new reversible art treatment appearing in Tarkir: Dragonstorm is revolutionary. This would never work in the good old days when no one used sleeves, but times have changed. Now that protecting your Magic cards is essentially a requirement, these treatments can work. Sure, not everyone is going to love the baby-style artwork on these Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards, but that’s okay. If it’s not your cup of tea, then you can just play the grown-up cards instead.
To celebrate this new artwork, a rather nostalgic Secret Lair drop was just announced. While they’re not appearing in the main set, the original Tarkir Dragonlords are still getting some love. Playing into their importance, these five cards are getting featured in a brand new Secret Liar drop. While it won’t be for everyone, this new Secret Lair will certainly have its fans.
They Grow Up So Fast
The new Secret Lair drop featuring the original Tarkir Dragonlords is called They Grow Up So Fast. Available next week on March 24th, all five Dragon Lords from Dragons of Tarkir will be available with new reversible art.
Out of the bunch, Dragonlord Dromoka is arguably the most exciting thanks to being one of the best Grand Abolisher effects available in Magic. Not only will this Selesnya Dragon stop your opponents from interacting with you, but the card is also uncounterable. This makes Dragonlord Dromoka an incredible Commander card, but it even sees occasional Pioneer play in decks like Lotus Field Combo as a foil to control strategies.
Dragonlord Dromoka currently has three printings, including a List appearance, but maintains a secondary market value of about $10.50 for its cheapest variant. Among the non-foil prices for this cycle, Dragonlord Dromoka is the most expensive.
Dragonlord Silumgar
Dragonlord Atarka is a classic top-end MTG threat that offers a gigantic body and instant board stabilization. As a result, this has been a go-to threat for many ramp decks over the years. Outclassed by the new Temur Dragon in Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Dragonlord Atarka may start to fall out of favor completely.
Besides Dragon Commander decks, you might be hard-pressed to find a deck that wants this card. Dragonlord Atarka is generally outclassed by other larger creatures nowadays, or by payoffs with more specific value to certain strategies.
Despite this, the card maintains a $4 reprint value at its cheapest. Some existing premium versions of this card go for about $14, which is likely closer to what this card will be worth.
Dragonlord Kolaghan
Dragonlord Kolaghan is a very unique creature. Not only does this give everything you have Haste, but it seriously punishes players casting spells that already exist in their graveyard. Unfortunately, that rarely has a useful effect in Commander, which makes it difficult for this card to find a home.
In addition to Dragonlord Kolaghan’s ability being useless in Commander, its mana value is generally too high for constructed. Six mana generally needs to be doing more than what Kolaghan is capable of. If it triggers, the card is certainly worth it, but if not, it’s just a 6/5 flyer with Haste.
Regardless of whether you find a home for it or not, Dragonlord Kolaghan’s secondary market price is currently about $5. This is primarily due to a lack of reprints. Notably, the card does appear in a Secret Lair already, and that card goes for about $12. This is what I would expect this variant of Kolaghan to retail for.
Dragonlord Ojutai
As far as reprint value goes, Dragonlord Ojutai is the most disappointing. This dragon has seen a series of reprints across different sets and Commander decks. The card itself isn’t bad, though. This won’t see play outside of Commander, but Dragonlord Ojutai can be very difficult to remove.
Give this creature Vigilance, and you have a Hexproof threat that draws cards and deals damage. That’s certainly good enough to warrant consideration in any Commander decks that can give this card the keyword. Outside of that, Dragonlord Ojutai is still a mediocre card in Dragon decks.
Thanks to an abundance of reprints, Dragonlord Ojutai is only worth about 50 cents.
Dragonlord Silumgar
Dragonlord Silumgar is the last of the five Dragonlords appearing in this Secret Lair. This card also has very few reprints but has one of the most infamous reprints in existence. This card appeared as a particularly questionable Regional Championship promo. Considering that the card doesn’t see play anywhere, players were not pleased.
Despite this, Dragonlord Silumgar is a decent card. You get to take control of an opposing creature, which can be deadly in a game of Commander. Players can’t put a Commander they lose control of back in the Command Zone, so they need to deal with Silumgar before they can get their Commander back.
Dragonlord Silumgar’s cheapest printing is worth $3.50, but it’s most expensive variant goes for $14.50 in non-foil. This will likely fall somewhere between.
Grand Total
Like most Secret Lairs, They Grow Up So Fast has a $29.99 nonfoil price tag and a $39.99 foil one. The total value of the cheapest reprints for these cards comes to $23.50, which means if you’re trying to save money, this Secret Lair is not for you.
Foils are the better deal of the two Secret Lairs this time. Most Dragonlord printings aren’t easily available in foil, so these cards break even with the Secret Lair cost. Because they’re double-sided, there’s a decent chance that curling won’t be a massive issue with these foils, either. For those reasons, we would recommend the foil bundle between the two.