General Secret Lair Spoilers

[MilesOfficial]

A better -- though much more complicated to read -- Searslicer Goblin. I like that she's legendary and can get an extra damage in on turn 2 if you played a 1-drop. I don't like that she's "Ellie" or a "brick master" or, most importantly, that she makes a stupid token type.

Will need to evaluate a lot of feelings, but probably will be swapping these two.



I like having one card in each 3-color combo for my 720-card Cube, and I've been looking for an upgrade in the Esper section. This is a sweet Magic card that probably does too much, but I like how it asks you to only send a single creature into combat. I also like the subtle "you can either guaranteed draw 1 card or chance a block but draw 2" mini game. Neat design overall, I'm a fan.



I think this might be a cool single-card archetype-enabler. It's not oppressively powerful and demands a lot of deck building decisions, but there are 69 cards in my Cube that either are artifact creatures or make them in some way -- that's nearly 10% of the Cube! That's very doable for building around, and blue already has a lot of artifact love. Discover is a powerful mechanic that would be sweet do to every turn, and yet it feels like it makes you work enough for it here.



This dude is cool as hell. I normally would avoid triple-pips like this, but this just feels like A Red Magic Card....ironically. I've been eying Gornog, the Red Reaper recently but I think this is better for storytelling equity.

It's annoying that I haven't played any of these games or care about any of these characters but at least they (mostly) look like Magic cards enough to me.

 

[Seeker]

I don't like that she's "Ellie" or a "brick master" or, most importantly, that she makes a stupid token type.

you'd think if they wanted to combine all three of these things they'd remember the piece of technology they already have:


bring back rock (clap emoji)

 

[Velrun]

 

[ravnic]

They can do in SLD whatever, I stopped caring long ago

 

[Seeker]

They can do in SLD whatever, I stopped caring long ago

on the one hand I stopped caring

on the other, as I said to my old college roommate, they repeated the SpongeBob feat of "so ugly it wraps back around to an incredible shitpost" not once but twice:

in summary

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1971726915397640634

 

[MilesOfficial]

New mechanically unique card:



Stardew Valley

What I like: The Shire was perfectly fine, but making it colorless makes it potentially easier to slot in for me. Having card draw as an emergency button on a land is also pretty sweet, even if it won't be used too often. I feel like it'll play similarly to Fountainport, a card I like well enough, have played, is still in my on-deck binder, and makes sense in plenty of Cubes that already support tokens / trinkets.

What I don't like: It's called "Stardew Valley". I actually like Secret Lair as the means of distribution for mechanically unique cards, and I can tolerate UB, but that doesn't mean I'm happy with how it's done. So the only version of this card that exists, and will likely ever exist, is a pixel art version with pixel text? I mean, it's cute, and it's nowhere near as bad as Jaws, Relentless Predator, a card I mechanically really want to play in my Cube but that I can't tolerate from a readability POV, but I really like the clarity and even the aesthetic of the proper Magic frame. When will they ever reprint this as a normal-looking Magic card? I'm not holding my breath.

I remember being excited when MaRo promised that they'd re-print the mechanically unique Marvel legendary creatures from a 2025 Secret Lair in or around the MSH set, but then the only versions they did print were also full art.

Even earlier in this thread I talk about other SLD exclusive cards I like Ellie, Brick Master would be much easier to recommend, even with their custom tokens, if they had a text box and art that had a little more clarity.

On the plus side though, we're getting Hatsune Miku basic lands.

 

[MilesOfficial]

Dune Secret Lair leaked today with 9 mechanically unique cards and some reprints. I liked the OG Dune movie and the first of the new trilogy quite a lot but still haven't seen the new ones, nor have I finished the book (despite starting twice).

Some great designs. Two of them are fantastic mechanically, even if I don't plan to use them for anything:



Paul is the kind of anti-Riptide design in that it's its own payoff and engine, but it does make you work for it all the same and it's quite clever in how it plays out/reads.

The Emperor is the latest in the royalty cards giving you the monarch in ways I find both mechanically and flavorfully satisfying like Chief Magistrate of Mercadia, Ginger, Queen of Sweets, and Tamiyo, Upriser Crowned. It also feels like an Emperor striking down the insolent. I'm a big fan.



But here's my favorite of the bunch. I'm annoyingly insistent on having one card of each three-color combination for spreadsheet/novelty purposes even if I acknowledge it's not necessarily helpful for my Cube's gameplay. Right now I'm running Ureni, the Song Unending for my Temur slot, and it's fine, but this...this is the kind of card I love. Self-mill and delirium are, again, overly obvious in how it's supposed to play out, but this card works so well with my other cards that I'm going to adore casting it. I don't know the most about Dune lore but I do think it's clever that he can see the future, and act on it more the more delirious he gets. Can't wait to grab a copy.

 

[LadyMapi]

As a Dune fan, I'm very glad that we got a secret lair for Dune and not a draft set. As funny as it would be to have multiple Duncans, it'd probably end up full of Brian Herbert's garbage.

Also, I'm a bit bummed that the only Fremen we get are Chani and Usul, and that they decided to give them landfall as their shared mechanic. Granted, I could also quibble a bit about what colors each character ended up in, but that's neither here nor there.