I think Secret Lairs are a cool idea. There, I said it. I know it’s a product that, as a community, the Magic player base has been mixed on over the years. But as a concept? The idea of getting reprints of cards that are either super expensive or super rare with new art is a brilliant one - though recent events has made it difficult to get your hands on them (Wizards of the Coast, listen to your fans and go back to print-on-demand, we really didn’t mind the extra shipping times if it meant we could actually buy the damn things).
The problem is - Wizards haven’t seemed to want to use these drops to their fullest potential. Let’s pull up one of the lairs in the most recent Superdrop (currently ongoing, as of the time of writing this), shall we? Here’s what you get in the EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE lair:
Via the MTG Secret Lair X account
If we take the non-foil prices, then this is a total value of $2.66. If we take the foil versions, then it’s $4.75. There are three different versions of this drop: non-foil, foil, and raised foil, retailing for $29.99, $39.99, and $99.99, respectively. It is categorically not worth your money. The art in the lair is gorgeous, but the value in the cards just isn’t there, and it’s not an isolated issue with just this drop. So, when Wizards said they were going to do a set of Final Fantasy Secret Lairs, I was mildly concerned. There are just so many ways to botch this. But after seeing the cards? My concerns have been put to bed.
Let’s talk value, first. There are three different drops - Game Over, Grimoire, and Weapons. Here’s what each of these contains:
Via Wizards
Game Over
Via Wizards
Grimoire
Weapons
Before I get into how good the reprints here are, let’s look at prices. Each of these lairs is selling for $29.99 for non-foil variants and $39.99 for foil variants. No extra stuff to worry about, just those two options.
So, for Game Over, you’re looking at around $36 worth of value when counting up the non-foil versions of these cards. Grimoire has around $52 worth of non-foil reprints, with a hefty amount of that owing to the fact that Cyclonic Rift is one of the cards. For Weapons, you’re looking at around $57 for non-foil (it is worth noting here that the Sword specifically pushes the value up a whole bunch, but each card is still worth decent enough money).
All of this without factoring in the price increases when looking at the foil versions of these cards, AND the fact that the unique art here from a beloved franchise is likely to push up that price point further. So, the reprint value is absolutely here, and it’s what Secret Lair should be doing - releasing valuable cards with new art treatments so that more people can actually play the game.
Moving swiftly onto a non-corporate-brained point of view, though, these are absolutely gorgeous cards. Almost everything from the Final Fantasy set so far has felt thematically on-point and flavoured to perfection, and these don’t change that. From showing Ardyn’s challenge to the throne on the art for Praetor’s Grasp, to showing Aerith using Curaga on the art for Heroic Intervention, to making the wonderful decision to make Tidus’s sword the art for Sword of Truth and Justice, everything here is proving that when Wizards wants to make Secret Lair worth your time and money, they can do it.
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