K-Pop Demon Hunters may be last year’s big thing, but that still makes it two decades more current than most of the brands Wizards of the Coast has worked into Magic the Gathering via the Universes Beyond initiative. Unfortunate, then, that ‘Secret Lair X K Pop Demon Hunters: That’s How It’s Done’ is among the weaker offerings in the latest round of Secret Lair reveals.
The Lair consists of seven cards, and card count is the only domain in which it’s above average. All seven are reprints of existing Magic cards, and all seven feature recycled art. It’s very good art, production art from K Pop Demon Hunters by freelance development artist Scott Watanabe and production designer Helen Chen, as well as one piece that is only credited to Netflix. But the only original creativity in the product is the choice of which cards to stick to which art – the branded lunch box of Secret Lairs.
Weirdly for a franchise with such big characters, none of the cards is a creature. The absence of cards for each member of HUNTR/X feels like a really odd omission. The one upside I can suggest for K Pop Demon Hunters fans is that perhaps this omission is a sign that there’ll be another lair in the future – maybe with original card designs? But it’s not here now.
The lair also isn’t packed with high value reprints. Going off market prices on MTG Goldfish, you could buy all the cards in the basic $29.99 version of the Secret Lair for $36. Swan Song, Dawn’s Truce, Freed from the Real, and Underworld Breach all see decent play in a few formats and make up the bulk of the value, but they’re not so rare as to be bank-breakers. I must acknowledge that the cards in the $39.99 foil Secret Lair are worth around $100, $60 of that from the foil Swan Song, which has precious few printings.
Nevertheless, if the goal is to make a good first impression for the franchise, How It’s Done isn’t how it’s done,. It’s not a tonal mismatch on the level of the delayed Monster Hunter Secret Lair, but it does feel like a minimum viable product. As an adaptation of an existing IP, it compares poorly to the lavish Labyrinth Secret Lairs revealed in this drop. And in both artistic terms and value for money, it’s greatly outdone by Secret Lair: Peace, Love, & Treefolk, which I’m mentioning because it’s such an oddball.
Peace, Love, & Treefolk is the least expected Secret Lair in this drop, a selection of five Treefolk first printed in the original Lorwyn block. All five are illustrated by Ashley Dreyfus in an art style I can only call “1970s psychedelic children’s book”, making this an Artist’s Series drop by another name. And having scarcely been reprinted since they first appeared in Lorwyn, the regular version five cards currently have a total market price of around $50, while the foil versions are again worth around $100. And something I always look for when judging a lair – the strong typal theme makes it obvious that you could run all five of these cards in the same deck.
What do you think? Are you going to grab any of these Lairs? Which legendary creatures do you think would make good stand-ins for the members of HUNTR/X? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community!
Source: Wargamer
