2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the legendary game Dungeons and Dragons. To help celebrate this wonderful journey, Wizards of the Coast has taken it upon themselves to create a Secret Lair drop dedicated to Dungeons and Dragons. We’ve already seen multiple Secret Lair products revealed thus far, each with their own unique twists.
Well, just recently, another intriguing Secret Lair known as “Death is in the Eye of the Beholder I” joined the party. Set to release later in August, this collection of cards is all within the Dimir guild. Xanathar, Guild Kingpin leads the charge as the primary legend of choice, while the other five inclusions all fit well into a Xanathar Commander deck. What better way to commemorate Dungeons and Dragons than by highlighting a mythical monster from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms?
Xanathar, Guild Kingpin
Kicking things off, we have the aforementioned Xanathar, Guild Kingpin. Xanathar is a rather strange Commander option that essentially provides the ability of Future Sight, but you play cards from an opponent’s library, not yours. As long as you can keep Xanathar in play, it’s easy to generate lots of card advantage. Cards that can manipulate the top of the opponent’s library in some fashion, such as Memory Lapse, give you a lot of agency.
Xanathar, Guild Kingpin has yet to be reprinted since its appearance in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. It currently sits at about $3 in its cheapest traditional form. Commander players now finally have access to an alternate art version of this sweet card.
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Bribery
The rest of the supporting cast is made up of cards that a Xanathar Commander deck could utilize. As you can tell from the art, each card depicts a ferocious-looking Beholder in the background, which is very thematic.
Bribery is another card that lets you steal big, scary creatures from the opposition to use against them. In a multiplayer Commander game, you’re sure to find a player with huge haymakers to take. Bribery was reprinted in Commander Masters, but still holds a roughly $6 price tag.
Stifle
Up next, we have a Stifle variant with rather menacing artwork. Stifle is a powerful card. While it can’t outright counter a spell on the stack, there are plenty of good enters-the-battlefield effects worth negating in Commander. In Legacy, Stifle is often paired with Phyrexian Dreadnought, allowing you to get a 12/12 Trampler into play as early as turn two! Of course, getting to counter a Fetchland activation can also be devastating in a Constructed setting.
Stifle was originally printed in Scourge, before seeing a reprint in Conspiracy. It currently sits at about $14, making it the best card in this Secret Lair from a reprints value perspective. Notably, though, the card is also appearing in Mystery Booster 2, which could potentially drive this price down a bit.
Delay
Up next, we have Delay. Delay is a decent piece of interaction that can counter even the biggest of spells. Unfortunately, Delay doesn’t actually deal with the problematic spell long term. This major downside has prevented it from seeing much Constructed play. In a singleton format like Commander, though, the card still shows up in decks with lots of Counterspells as an efficient option that can counter anything.
As an uncommon that was reprinted in Time Spiral Remastered, Delay isn’t worth too much. It has a price tag of just over $2.
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Blood Money
Blood Money is a very strong board wipe option in Commander. Commander games very frequently result in big board stalls, making board wipes strong inclusion to begin with. This one has a good chance of coming with a boatload of Treasure tokens alongside it, which is a huge upside. The Treasures do enter tapped, but if you get to untap with them, the world truly is your oyster.
The fact that Blood Money has shown up in multiple Commander Precons (most recently in The Lost Caverns of Ixlalan) has really hurt its financial value. The card does not even crack $1.
Drown in the Loch
Lastly, we have Drown in the Loch. Drown in the Loch is a very versatile card that gets better as the game progresses. Getting to kill a creature or counter a spell for only two mana is incredible. The key is making sure your opponents have enough cards in their graveyards. As such, not every deck can utilize this well, but decks like Modern Mill make perfect use of it. In Commander, as games go long and players trade resources, Drown in the Loch is bound to do its job.
As strong as Drown in the Loch is, it’s still only an uncommon. It’s worth roughly $1 in its cheapest traditional form. Adding up all the cards in the Secret Lair, the non-foil product has a total reprint value of about $27. Considering that these typically go on sale for $29.99, this isn’t too bad, especially when factoring in the sweet new artwork.
Bonus Cards
Based on the unboxing video that revealed this Secret Lair to the public, it appears that two associated bonus cards have been revealed, too. Unlike with the rest of the Secret Lair, players don’t know exactly which bonus cards they will receive until opening the product.
In this case, the two bonus cards revealed were Battle Angels of Tyr and Prosperous Innkeeper. Battle Angels of Tyr is the heavy hitter of the two. Thanks to Myriad, there’s a good chance you’ll receive some sort of bonus when you connect in combat since you get to attack all of your opponents at once.
Battle Angels of Tyr has only appeared in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate, so a full art bonus card is gladly welcome. The card is worth just over $9 in its cheapest form. Meanwhile, Prosperous Innkeeper is an uncommon that has seen a multitude of reprints. As such, it sits at about 25 cents.
It’s worth mentioning that these bonus cards, despite being revealed alongside this specific Secret Lair, may have a chance of showing up in any product. Some players are speculating that these bonus cards are simply chosen from a pool of Dungeons and Dragons-style reprints, appearing in products randomly.
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled as more Secret Lairs continue to get revealed in the coming days.
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