The festivities at PAX East 2026 have only just begun, and already we’re seeing a bunch of MTG goodness revealed. In addition to some fresh Secrets of Strixhaven spoilers, a new Secret Lair drop, titled So Salty, has also made its debut.
As the name suggests, this drop brings together some of the most notoriously unfun cards in Magic history. In a welcome twist, it’s also one of the more high-value Lairs we’ve seen recently, offering plenty of bang for your buck.
The So Salty MTG Secret Lair Drop
All of the cards in the So Salty Secret Lair drop are notorious to a certain degree, but Winter Orb is the clear frontrunner. This is a card that’s been eliciting groans since Magic’s very first expansion, as one of the cheapest, most reliable forms of land denial of all time. While it’s not as well-played today, it still sees scattered use in Premodern. The card also remains quite pricey, with copies going for around $11.72 on the low end.
Though mass land denial restrictions do limit Winter Orb in Commander, the card isn’t actually on the Game Changers list. The same can’t be said for all the cards in this drop, mind you, with Narset, Parter of Veils holding a spot there. Narset was added to the list last April due to its unfair interactions with wheels and generally frustrating play patterns. While it’s not the most expensive card at just $1.75, it’s still undeniably oppressive in Commander.
In a similar vein, Expropriate was also part of the Commander Game Changers list until late last year. While it’s expensive at nine mana, the typical scenario of taking an extra turn and stealing three permanents is hugely powerful. The format panel has since cooled on the card, hence its removal from the list, but its awful play experience remains. Expropriate is also the most expensive card in the drop right now, at around $13.67 a copy on the low end.
While the first three cards in the So Salty Secret Lair drop get the theme bang-on, the last two feel more like misses. Scrawling Crawler can certainly be an annoying card, but it was only released in 2024, so it hasn’t really had the time to build up a seriously salty reputation. It is at least a great value add, mind you, at around $7.51 a copy. Worst Fears is another odd inclusion in this drop, since it’s simply not that good at what it does. The card’s price bears this out, too, with copies only going for around $2.50 at present.
A Surprising Value Win
Unfortunate misfires aside, So Salty is still a very solid Secret Lair drop. The overall value here, based on low-end current prices, is around $37. The images from Lunargrave reveal the price of the drop’s foil version as $39.99, so we can assume the usual $29.99 for the non-foil version. In this case, it’s an easy $7 profit, before taking into account the usual price markup for Secret Lair variants.
As for when this drop will be available outside of PAX East, we don’t have any information yet. It could be part of a Superdrop with the Deadpool drop on April 1st, but we’ll likely have to wait longer than that to pick this one up.
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