After returning from their holiday break, Wizards of the Coast has not slowed down in 2024. It’s been barely over three weeks and already we’ve had a set release, a spoiler season, and announcements galore. On their own, any one of these events would be exciting enough, however, this jam-packed year is just getting started.
The spoiler season for Muders at Karlov Manor ended yesterday. Today, the first Secret Lair drop of 2024 was officially revealed. Debuted by ComicBook.com, this new Secret Lair is part of the 2024 Winter Superdrop. Launching in just over one week, the hype train for this new release has already left the station.
Unfortunately, thanks to recent changes, players can’t afford not to pay attention.
Hard-Boiled Thrillers Secret Lair
Following swiftly on from the Raining Cats and Dogs deck selling out, now Hard-Boiled Thrillers has been announced. For better or worse, this Secret Lair isn’t another major Commander deck that players have to throw money at. Instead, Hard-Boiled Thrillers is simply a regular ol’ five-card Secret Lair drop.
Playing into the themes of Murders at Karlov Manor, the Hard-Boiled Thrillers embraces the noir genre. For this Secret Lair, this means each card looks like the cover of a classic murder mystery novel. If you’re eyeing up one of the new preconstructed Commander decks from Murders at Karlov Manor, these cards would certainly make a flavorful addition.
Thankfully, beyond just looking good, the majority of cards in Hard-Boiled Thrillers boast decent value thanks to seeing Commander play. Beyond this always-enticing detail, this Secret Lair gives one card its first foil treatment. First printed all the way back in Exodus, Reconnaissance has never been reprinted before.
Since this card has never had a foil reprint before, you might immediately be excited about the value potential. Unfortunately, Secret Lair drops don’t exactly work that way, even with Wizards’ recent changes. As a result, the new foil variants of Reconnaissance likely aren’t going to break the bank. Still, they’re nonetheless a novelty that should appease this card’s die-hard fans.
Looking back at the Secret Lair Spookydrop 2023, Zombie Master was in a similar situation. Having never received a foil reprint before, the potential for this reprint seemed sky-high. In reality, however, current foil prices for this card sit around $9.33. Curiously, this isn’t much more than the card usually sells for, and is less than non-foil Secret Lair variants.
How Much Is It Worth?
Thankfully, while the foil copies of Reconnaissance might be a red herring, the Hard-Boiled Thrillers Secret Lair still contains decent value. The majority of this value is, somewhat unsurprisingly, made up by Reconnaissance. Currently valued at around $12, this reprint seems like a great hit, however, the value may not last.
Since Reconnaissance has never been reprinted, the card currently has some serious supply issues. Depending on the print volume of Secret Lairs going forward, this could change very soon. Theoretically, this may cause the price of Reconnaissance to plummet, but we’ll have to see about that.
For better or worse, Reconnaissance isn’t the only card in Hard-Boiled Thrillers getting its first reprint. Originally from Shadowmoor, Dire Undercurrents is getting a new variant too. Initially, this may seem very exciting thanks to the $10 price tag, however, there’s not a lot of demand.
Seeing practically no play in Commander and competitively, there are likely few players clamoring for the Dire Undercurrents reprint. Thankfully, the same can’t be said for Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. While they may only be worth around $5, this Jace sees a fair bit of Modern and Commander play.
Similarly to Jace, Black Market also sees a decent amount of play, however just in Commander. Typically costing around $4, this card is hardly expensive but the chase foil variant does draw some eyes. With Foil copies selling for over $115, there is clearly demand for fancy copies of this classic card.
Last and unfortunately least, Obeka, Brute Chronologist is worth just $0.25. Being fairly unpopular in Commander, I’d hardly expect the world in terms of value here. Still, the few fans of Obeka should be very happy indeed.
Real Value Unknown
At the end of the day, while we know the value of currently existing variants, these new Secret Lair cards are unknown. This is all thanks to Wizards of the Coast changing their Secret Lair release strategy. Rather than being print-to-demand as they have been before, this new Secret Lair will be a limited run.
According to Wizards, they’re “aiming to get as close to overall demand as possible,” when pre-printing Secret Lair drops. Considering they’re the ones with all the data, this should be very possible. Whether or not everything goes to plan, however, remains to be seen. Thanks to this being the first new limited-run sale, there’s a chance scalpers will ruin everything.
Whatever happens, Hard-Boiled Thrillers and the entire 2024 Winter Superdrop will be launching soon. According to ComicBook.com, the exact launch date is February 5th, 2024. This sale will last for around a month, ending on March 3rd. Currently, we don’t know much about this Superdrop outside of one other card.
Releasing as part of the Showcase: Murders at Karlov Manor Secret Lair, Gonti, Lord of Luxury is getting reprinted. Since this card is worth just $0.15, unfortunately, this may not be the most exciting reprint. Hopefully, the rest of that Secret Lair will be better, however, we’ll have to wait to find out more.
Read More: Karlov Manor Common Causes 208% MTG Card Price Increase!
