Oh hell, it finally happened. Magic the Gathering revealed a Secret Lair that I actually want to buy – several of them, in fact. Wizards of the Coast has revealed eight new lairs that will go on sale on October 12, and no less than three of them are based on Jim Henson’s 1986 classic fantasy movie Labyrinth.
The ‘Fear Me, Love Me’ Secret Lair is all about Jareth the Goblin King – in fact it stars him, with a reskin of the card Muxus, Goblin Grandee illustrated by the impeccable Magic artist Rebecca Guay in her trademark expressionistic style.
It’s not a flattering portrait of Bowie but it feels very accurate to Jareth, capturing the intensity, mysticism, and also the slight fragility of a character who may be just a living story created by Sarah.
Sarah stars on a card of her own, a reskin of ‘Jodah the Unifier’, also illustrated by Rebecca Guay. The two cards make a matched pair recreating Sarah and Jareth’s dream ballroom dance. This comes in the ‘Should You Need Us’ Secret Lair.
The same etched linework that makes Jareth’s hair look wild and unruly here defines the carefully placed flowers and feathers in Sophie’s hair, mirroring them while also distinguishing them.
Leaving aside Rebecca Guay’s cards, the cards in Jareth’s Lair recreate scenes from the movie in hyper-real detail, while Sarah’s Lair focuses on her companions and those who helped her, from Sir Didymus to Ludo, with art that reminds me of Arthur Rackham and early 20th century children’s book illustration.
The third Lair, ‘Through the Labyrinth’, is a grab bag of other scenes and characters, from The Cleaners to the Fireys, with illustrations that wouldn’t look out of place in mid 20th century children’s literature.
I’ve focused on the art because, frankly, the art is why I’d consider buying these. I’ve looked up the market prices of the constituent cards on MTG Goldfish, and each Lair is worth at least its face value (assuming these printings don’t drop below the cheapest versions of these cards on the market). But I didn’t want any of those cards yesterday.
My thoughts on Secret Lairs are mixed. There’s nothing immoral about WotC offering a product for collectors or players who love to customize their decks. The Secret Lair series gets artists paid, always a good thing, and there’s real creativity and innovation in many of the card illustrations that have been created. The mechanically unique cards haven’t had the negative impact on eternal play many feared, and some of the original designs are inspired – ‘Deadpool, Trading Card’ is just a hoot.
But researching the lawsuits aimed at WotC earlier this year, I’ve read accounts that suggest the business’ enthusiasm for Secret Lairs is much more cynical – they’ve got a very, very high return on investment, and can be made with much less effort than proper MTG sets. And I react badly to products that make me feel like a paypig.
There’s one more Labyrinth Secret Lair card, with art of the moment when Jareth and Sarah look out across the Labyrinth itself for the first time – mechanically it’s a reprint of the Maze of Ith. That’s a fantastic mechanical match for the theme of the card, and it makes a wonderful addition to the set. It’s available as a free promo – provided you spend at least $199 in the Secret Lair store.
Contemplating this purchase, I’m thinking about the things that make me love Labyrinth. Mostly, it’s because my daughter is obsessed with it. She enjoys the zany characters, rollicking adventure, and unbridled creativity of the Henson studio. I enjoy all those things, and – because I’m a wretched adult who cannot help but intellectualize – I also enjoy how it works simultaneously as a completely earnest heroes journey, and an examination of romance, the desire to live in a story.
I enjoy how Jareth is an excuse for Bowie to chew the scenery, and a metaphor for the same kind of predator that the Grimm’s fairy tales warned little girls about. I love how Sophie’s final words of power are both a perfect fairytale banishment, and a genuinely good mantra for anyone dealing with emotional manipulation. I hope that my daughter is learning strange, uncomfortable, powerful lessons from the film, as well as enjoying it. I hope that I can learn those lessons.
So in that spirit, I say this – Secret Lair Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, you have no power over me!
Right. Now I’m done being overly dramatic, I’m going to mutter in the Wargamer Discord community about how they completely missed a trick by not making a card based on Bowie’s bulge.
Source: Wargamer
