5, Feb, 25

Ultra Rare $750 Card Likely to Balloon in Price Even Further

Last week, the fourth Hatsune Miku Secret Lair product was officially revealed after initially getting leaked earlier that same day. Superdrops in the Spring, Summer, and Fall of 2024 all featured Hatsune Miku Secret Lairs, so it was only fitting that there would be one revealed for the following Winter Superdrop as well.

Even before its reveal, this product received a lot of hype for one main reason: Snapcaster Mage. Snapcaster Mage appeared as an ultra rare bonus card in a handful of Hatsune Miku: Sakura Superstar packages. The lack of supply caused this variant to balloon in price, with the lowest current TCGplayer sales listing at $750 and up!

However, one collector claims they received their Hatsune Miku Winter Secret Lair early at FNM a few days ago, and not only is the bonus card not Snapcaster Mage, but it’s incredibly disappointing to boot. With this being the case, the rare Snapcaster Mage could easily climb in price even further.

Technically, this information could be fake, as the product hasn’t officially dropped yet. Nonetheless, everything does look legitimate, so we will continue under the assumption this is the correct bonus card. Wizards doesn’t usually officially reveal bonus cards, but if you’d like to wait on the matter, consider this your spoiler warning.

Now, before we jump in and talk about how players hopes have been dashed, let’s take a look at the bonus card in question.

Beloved Princess

Beloved Princess

This time around, it appears as though the bonus card is Beloved Princess. Beloved Princess is a random common from Throne of Eldraine, and is essentially nothing more than draft chaff. The card sees no significant play in any competitive format or Commander.

As expected, players are quite disappointed. Even ignoring hopes of a more plentiful Snapcaster Mage, the choice to feature such a mediocre common left many frustrated. It also has no mechanical overlap with any of the cards featured in the Secret Lair itself. For instance, an Angel or a piece of countermagic would have at least been more thematic.

Add on the fact that lots of players genuinely don’t like the art, and we’ve got a full-on dud as a bonus card. Of course, this only makes the fact that Snapcaster Mage isn’t the featured bonus card that much more painful.

Fading Hopes

Snapcaster Mage

For those unfamiliar, there were a number of reasons why players felt confident that Snapcaster Mage would appear as the Hatsune Miku Winter bonus card. First and foremost, the collector’s number being exactly 808 made a ton of sense.

For reference, the Spring, Summer, and Fall Hatsune Miku releases featured bonus cards with numbers 805, 806, and 807, respectively. Even though a bonus card with collector number 804 hadn’t been revealed yet, it would make perfect sense that the bonus cards would go in order according to their release schedule.

Yet, instead, we were given Beloved Princess with collector number 804. This angered players even more, with some stating that they felt like Wizards was deliberately trying to trick them.

Furthermore, there was reason to believe that for a Secret Lair crossover with such high demand, all the cards would at least be somewhat easy to obtain. After all, many fans of both franchises clearly were interested in getting all the Hatsune Miku cards. Now, players are forced to either shell out a ton of money or accept that they won’t complete their Hatsune Miku MTG collection.

On top of that, one player pointed out they’re disappointment with the fact that Snapcaster had “the best art” of the series. They claimed that all of the drops should have featured a similar style, but many fell short as a result of not being designed by Japanese artists.

Snapcaster Mage on the Rise?

With all that being said, the one group of players that this decision does benefit is anyone who happened to open an “Encore Electromancer” Snapcaster Mage bonus card in the first three Superdrops. If Snapcaster Mage ended up being the Winter bonus card, a lot more players would’ve gotten their hands on the card, and the price would’ve significantly decreased as a result.

Now, anyone lucky enough to have opened one and held onto it can sell it for a fortune in the future. While non-foil copies are going for $750 or more on TCGplayer, the rainbow foil variant is so rare that there are currently on three listings on TCGplayer, with the lowest being for $1200!

As insane as these prices are, once the Hatsune Miku Winter Secret Lair is out of circulation, these prices seem poised to increase, since players presumably won’t be opening these Snapcaster Mages much anymore. That said, this still isn’t 100% confirmed, so don’t be surprised if some players start opening Snapcaster Mage once the Winter Hatsune Miku Secret Lair goes for sale officially. Anyone who wanted to pick up this fancy bonus card at a reasonable price has every right to be upset.

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