Regardless of whether you love it or hate it, there’s no questioning the amount of art that has been created for Secret Lair. From niche Artist Series to entire Commander decks, Secret Lair has already done it all, much to MTG players’ delight. As, alongside providing gorgeous new artwork, Secret Lair drops also delight MTG players with easy access to beloved reprints.
Unfortunately, as much as they are beloved, Secret Lair has also caused a few controversies throughout the years. From delayed products, Universes Beyond, and NSFW artwork, the sub-brand is hardly immune from trouble. Equally, however, it seems Secret Lairs are able to get away with quite a lot. After all, the latest piece of NSFW artwork doesn’t have players reaching for their pitchforks just yet. In fact, it seems quite a few players rather like it!
Suspect Serializations
Earlier in May, once MagicCon: Minneapolis got underway, MTG players were swiftly inundated with plenty of news. Thanks to Wizards’ Preview Panel, players were finally given details about the Wilds of Eldraine, Doctor Who, and the Tales of Middle-earth sets! While these topics continued to command headlines for the following days, there were plenty more events and reveals happening. For instance, Pro Tour March of the Machine! Or, if you’re after something more casual, the latest whimsical Un-Known event!
Alongside all of these, MTG players at the event were able to admire the latest Secret Lair offering from Wizards. Following in the footsteps of MagicCon: Philadelphia, this card was another serialized Secret Lair. As you can tell from the title of this section, this card was Giant Growth. In reality, however, it really didn’t matter what card Wizards reprinted. After all, if there are only 295 copies of it in existence, it’s going to be prized, even if it’s Storm Crow.
Unfortunately for Storm Crow aficionados, it seems unlikely this beloved card is going to get the serialized treatment. As from the two serialized Secret Lairs we’ve seen so far, Wizards appears to be reprinting classic cards from Limited Edition Alpha. Alongside this rather typical theme, the serialized Secret Lairs have also had one unusual detail in common. Their art seems to be rather NSFW.
Kicking off this trend was the Shivan Dragon from MagicCon: Philadelphia. To put it bluntly, upon first inspection, it looked like the dragon was jacking off two volcanoes. Now, in the art of Giant Growth, it seems this trend continues. To put it bluntly, once again, Giant Growth has tits.
Gawdy Giant Growth
First posted to Reddit by u/SaltedDucks, the art for the new Giant Growth is just… a lot. I could try and find a better way of saying it, but it really just looks like a grimy goblin with unabashedly explicit breasts. Considering that Wizards recently chose to remove the sexually explicit elements of Stonecoil Serpent recently, this art is certainly a choice.
When looking past the border at the entire art, thankfully, the art by Wooden Cyclops seems to be more sensible. As, rather than this goblin seemingly just growing breasts, it’s obvious they’re squashed inside of a room. Or rather the card frame itself. While this has resulted in their rather unfortunate positioning, it is somewhat explainable at least.
Despite this rational explanation, MTG players on Reddit were still baffled by this interesting artwork, to say the least. “I know some fans wish for a return to a more… revealing art direction, but not sure goblin tits is the way to do it,” u/mariustargaryen commented. Similarly, a baffled u/Absolutionis mused that this art is even kinkier than expected, likening it to inflation and vore.
Somewhat remarkably, despite this art being… well, just a lot really… some players were more than happy with it. Reddit user u/HeroicTanuki, for instance, commented, “I love this. I’m glad everyone else doesn’t.” With this being the only supportive comment on Reddit, it certainly seems this artwork is more despised than adored. This doesn’t mean that NSFW artwork is always hated, however. After all, Stonecoil Serpent’s extra serpent was beloved by players, all the more so after Wizards removed it.
Value Value Value
At the time of writing, the new serialized Giant Growth does not yet have a listing on TCGplayer. Subsequently, it is somewhat hard to judge the value of the card, since there is no sales history to go off. That being said, however, the price of this Giant Growth should be on par with that of the recently serialized Shivan Dragon. Subsequently, it appears this card should be worth up to $2,400! Whether or not this Giant Growth and its interesting art will reach that price point, however, remains to be seen.
Given MagicCon: Minneapolis is the second MagicCon in a row to have these serialized cards, it certainly seems this trend will continue. Just how long it will go on for, however, is unknown. However, it’s possible it could go on for literal decades. With only two serialized Secret Lairs having been released thus far, we can’t definitely claim to have cracked the code. What we suspect, however, is that Wizards is reprinting Alpha cards, as we mentioned before. If this is the case, Wizards has 243 non-Reserved List Limited Edition Alpha cards to choose from.
While this is certainly one option to keep Wizards busy for the next few decades, it’s more likely one Alpha card of each color will be reprinted in the short term. If we’re to guess what those might be, I’d suggest Serra Angel, [tooltip]Counterspell, and Dark Ritual. With the next MagicCon (MagicCon: Barcelona) scheduled to take place from July 28th to 30th, it won’t be too long till we find out if any of those guesses are accurate.
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