Secret Lair

Secret Lair is a “sub-brand” of Magic: The Gathering that groups existing cards into small collectible sets with strange themes and wild new art styles.

Description
The Secret Lair Series is Wizard of the Coast's first full foray into selling single reprints directly to players.

The first Secret Lair series all consisted of alternate art reprints. Wizards of the Coast was trying to work with artists they usually didn't: street artists, comic book artists, album cover designers, etc. Alternately, they used traditional Magic artists working with very non-traditional art briefs. In some later series, original art was used in combination with alternate card frames.

With the The Walking Dead series, the premise of only reprints with alternate art was abandoned. Mark Heggen revealed that R&D views Secret Lair platform as a product - testing grounds platform that lets them try things they can't do in normal products. He acknowledged that it had been art up to 2020, but that they had broadened the concept to speak to audiences of different sizes. If they identify a small group that would be thrilled by a specific product, this could cater to them: "like game of Magic the Secret Lair will always try new things and evolve - the first year focused on art which is the low hanging fruit" and "as we have new ideas and want to try new things to make the game joyful for more people, Secret Lair is the place to do that experimentation".

Even though the reaction among the fans was very negative, the Walking Dead was the best selling drop, luring in buyers from outside of the Magic world. This prompted the company to keep on experimenting in this realm and creating the Universes Beyond product line. The 2019 Secret Lair team was awarded with an Heroes of the Realm: Keeper of the Secret Lair.

Drop Series
All cards in the print-to-demand Secret Lair Drop Series have a rare or mythic rare shooting star expansion symbol. The tokens have a common expansion symbol. The Secret Lair Drop Series are in English only.

Each "drop" contains between three and seven cards and/or tokens in a customized collector box, costing either $29.99, $39.99, or $49.99 depending on the drop – some of which use premium foil cards as well. Additionally, the "drops" can contain digital product redemption codes for MTG Arena or MTG Online for various online products to be used in their respective platform. The drops are only available for purchase from the Wizards of the Coast webshop secretlair.wizards.com. The first year, each drop usually only lasted for 24 hours (though there were some exceptions). "Superdrops" were introduced as multi-day sales that include multiple different drops that can be purchased individually or as part of a bundle. Additional information on the contents of each Secret Lair Drop can be found on the webshop secretlair.wizards.com.

In the second year, Wizards of the Coast will focus more on superdrops, with solitary drops still possible for special occasions. In June 2021, it was announced that for upcoming Universes Beyond Secret Lairs, Wizards of the Coast planned to create and print versions of the mechanically unique Secret Lair Universes Beyond cards that are set in Magic 's Multiverse approximately six months (the exact time may vary) after their release in Secret Lair. The in-Magic versions be available on The List. The non-canon cards and the canon cards are considered equivalent game pieces, meaning you can only play four copies (or one copy) of either the Magic version or Universes Beyond version in your deck.

As of June 22, 2020, card 059 is removed from the set and won't be printed. Small numbers of the set were allocated to all WPN locations in September, 2020, to be used at their discretion.

Artist Series
The Artist Series is a sub-series of drops for which a famous artist is allowed to choose four Magic cards they want to illustrate. They get "carte blanche"; total freedom to do what they want. Artists who have received such a series include:


 * Seb McKinnon (2020)
 * Mark Poole (2021)
 * Johannes Voss (to be released in 2021)
 * Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio (to be released in 2022)
 * Sam Burley
 * Nils Hamm
 * Chris Rahn

Expected drops

 * A collaboration in the Universes Beyond series for Stranger Things
 *  (four creatures and one enchantment).
 * A drop focused on Dinosaurs.

Bonus cards
Each drop is delivered with a bonus card in the package. The chosen card may vary, but each drop only comes with a certain selection of cards. This usually has a theme connected to that specific drop.

Ultimate Edition
Ultimate Edition is a different product line under the Secret Lair umbrella with the same sensibility but with a different distribution model (through LGS's).