Tome of the Astral Sorceress Secret Lair Boasts Gorgeous Cards with Dismal Value

The Camp Totally Safe Superdrop is barreling towards release on September 30th and it’s shaping up rather nicely. From an unexpected crossover with Chucky to a collection of cards highlighting the talented artist Peach Momoko, this drop offers a lot of different themes for those interested.

Unfortunately, the one area this group of Secret Lairs mostly falls short on is overall reprint value. Today, we have yet another Secret Lair that falls into this category. Known as Tome of the Astral Sorceress, this product contains four cards, only one of which holds a decently high price tag. Despite this slight disappointment, the Time of Astral Sorceress offers some absolutely stunning art for players to enjoy.

Back to Basics

Back to Basics is the first card in this Secret Lair drop, and definitely the most exciting. If you’ve ever played against this card, you know how backbreaking its effect can be. It’s made appearances in decks like Azorius Miracles in Legacy in the past, punishing decks with greedy mana bases.

Back to Basics debuted in Urza’s Saga and has since been reprinted in Ultimate Masters and Mystery Booster 2. Even still, this powerful rare has maintained a rather hefty price tag. It currently sits at about $11 in its cheapest non-foil form, according to TCGplayer market price.

Preordain

The rest of the cards in this Secret Lair, while beautiful, don’t hold much financial value. Take Preordain, for instance, which is one of the stronger cantrips in MTG. It was even banned in Modern for quite some time, before being unbanned a little over a year ago. The selection it provides is strong for combo decks, such as Tameshi combo in Modern. It’s also a nice inclusion in Izzet Murktide, helping you fuel both Murktide Regent and enable Delirium for Dragon’s Rage Channeler.

The downside here is that it holds very little reprint value as it sits just above $1 in its cheapest form. Preordain has been reprinted countless times. It even appeared in a previous Secret Lair, which currently sells for around $14. Nonetheless, for players looking to add some flashiness to their decks, the artwork is very unique.

Sphinx of the Second Sun

Sphinx of the Second Sun is our third card, and this one has a really sweet ability to build around in Commander. It definitely reads a bit weird, but there are a number of ways to abuse this trigger. The first is to play permanents with elite triggered abilities that happen during your upkeep. Cards like Tamiyo’s Journal and Replicating Ring, for example. Sphinx of the Second Sun also pairs nicely with Suspend cards, letting you remove time counters quicker. As such, Sphinx of the Second Sun is a nice inclusion in Jhoira of the Ghitu decks.

The biggest weakness associated with Sphinx of the Second Sun is the mana cost. If an opponent removes your eight-drop, it’s a real bummer. Combine that with its relatively narrow effect and it makes sense why copies of Sphinx of the Second Sun from Murders at Karlov Manor Commander don’t even crack 50 cents.

Teferi’s Ageless Insight

Lastly, we have Teferi’s Ageless Insight. Teferi’s Ageless Insight is a sweet addition to any Commander deck focused on drawing extra cards. Legends like Morska, Undersea Sleuth become card advantage engines with Teferi’s Ageless Insight in play. All your cantrips becomes Divinations. It’s no wonder this card is a popular Commander option.

Once again, though, the value is lacking. This enchantment is worth just under $2. This places pretty much all the financial appeal on just Back to Basics.

Total Value and Player Reaction

Terrible card value once again, pretty good art soiled by awful value
— 🦆duck🦆 (@That_Weeb24) September 21, 2024

When totaling the reprint value of all four cards up, this Secret Lair contains less than $15 worth of cards. Given that non-foil Secret Lairs generally go on sale for $29.99, that makes this product rather mediocre in that department. There also aren’t any wild differences in price between the non-foil and foil copies of any of these four cards, which removes some of the attraction of picking up the foil Secret Lair for $39.99.

As you might expect, many players are disappointed with how cheap the contents of this Secret Lair are yet again. Another common complaint is that there are only four cards in this group besides the bonus card, while most others have at least five.

While the value may be disappointing, it’s not all bad news. The art, for instance, has been praised for looking good while also being distinctly readable. On top of this, each of the cards is also rather playable, so there could be a lot of interest in this Secret Lair from that perspective.

For fans of this art style and blue Commander decks, the Tome of the Astral Sorceress Secret Lair will be available for purchase when the Camp Totally Safe Superdrop goes live on September 30. So don’t miss your chance!