Is It Worth It To Spend $40.00 on $0.36 Worth Of Magic: The Gathering Cards? A New Secret Lair Fail 

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You know it's serious when the prof turns the chair around.

This is relatable because he's sitting backwards on a chair.

That's not just the worst Secret Lair ever, it's probably the second worst magic product ever after those thousand-dollar proxies

The one Secret Lair to sucker them all.

You know what've been a really cool lord of rings secret lair? Cards based on The Hobbit while using the art style from the animated movie. But that'd require effort.

The way my jaw dropped when I saw this LOTR lair first revealed lmaooo

If they get around to having Jim Davis design a Secret Lair, I expect a reprint of Richard Garfield Ph.D as the orange cat, Isamaru as Odie and some lasagna food tokens.

“Gather round everyone, gather round” *all of the secret lair profs are summoned* Love it

These look like the fan art cards you could make on a sketchy app back in 2012 lmao

There's no way they're just selling screenshots right?

I never thought I’d say that I was more excited about the basic lands than anything else but I am a Mountain Goats devotee and those lands are going straight into a binder to gaze lovingly at.

Blown away by the Secret Lairs lately. Just a shame. I kept hoping for things like: Secret Lair LotR: The Fellowship (All 9 members of the fellowship with art from the animated movie) Secret Lair: The Titans (Emrakul, Ulamog, and Kozilek) Secret Lair: Land Warping (Blood Moon, Yavimaya, Urborg) But instead we get: Secret Lair: Give Us Money, Get Junk Back.

It actuallly hurts my heart at how little effort they seemingly put into this LOTR secret lair.. other local players and I have all been eagering guessing and discussing the miriad of options they could and should do, and we got this.. 😢

The mtg card as a pacifier killed me. Well done, prof.

Dang. I was hoping for a new rating of not fail fail, but of expelled.

They are trying to dissociate card price from playability. That justifies magic just as a collectable product, as we see with the push to serialized cards as well. This allows them to profit more without the need to go deep into gameplay considerations, just print artificially scarce cards for whatever price they want.

The mountain goats one is actually really great when you consider the love for lorwyn that went into it

Finally, a Strictly worse secret lair

Plagiarizing is a Expulsionable action in some schools. and thats what happened with the LOTR Secret Lair

Love how much value Prof gets out of his floating heads Genuinely inspiring creativity

I'm just glad to see Mark Riddick getting to do more magic art, too bad the value isn't really there this time, but suckers like me will buy these every single time. Mark Riddick is a legend in the underground death metal world and so many band t-shirts have been made with his iconic ink graphics

I don’t have any clue of how to play magic nor is it my thing but I must say I do find your videos very entertaining and interesting… keep it up

I know the Goblins drop is technically not an "artist series" in name, but it's worth pointing out that the art is all done by the incredibly talented Wizard Of Barge, and he should be named for it

Loved this honest review and thank you for keeping the truth out there for the masses.

They do think we are a bunch of suckers. Imagine everyone around the world opening product thinking The One Ring 001/001 wouldn’t ultimately be opened in the US.

I'm not sure how common it is, but I know Johannes Voss wrote the poem across the 4 cards he did in his Artist Series Secret Lair

I really love the art and flavor text on Reassembling Skeleton.

Man, this video took me back to when I was in high school and our English teacher took us to the gym to lay some truth on us while his disembodied heads floated around him. Very nostalgic. 💗💗💗 love you prof!!

I would love a lovecraftian secret lair with ulamog, koziliek and Emrakul re-skinned as Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep and azathoth respectively. The only secret lair I'm buying from this one will be Mark Riddick's, i have been thinking of making a nekusar deck for a while and I love his art

Currently on the whatnot stream and we can still hear you!

great point of view, as always! ‘overwhelmingly underwhelming’ is my favourite quote! 😁👊🏻

They had a chance to make some key reprints that work in the commander decks. Reskin Parrell lives, thalias lieutenant, dark confidant as grima wormtoung

These are pieces of cardboard that cost next to nothing to print, I'm sure when they got the rights to LotR originally that included the Bakshi film too. They know people will buy them, it's literally the closest a company can get to free money.

Oh that Nemesis of Reason is absolutely going in my Phenax deck. Love that art.

tysm for all the videos prof!

As a Wurm Horde (Horde Magic) owner, it's nice to finally see a Secret Lair I didn't have to think about wanting. An easy yes among a sea of nahs.

While the financial value of each Secret Lair here sucked, I like that each of the non-artist seies lairs were on theme. Hopefully next time, they can make them all on theme while giving us good financial value.

I am very impressed by how fast this video was made and released

Thanks Prof. Great video for all.

I could not agree more! This Secret Lair is a real low point.

I think I'll pick up the Goblin set. I run a deck that has 3 of 5 included that I'll swap out because I love the art as well.

I've seen a million Helix ads now in various videos. This was the best. I watched the entire thing. You're super creative and funny, Prof. Whatever they're paying you, you should probably get more.

I am sure we have all already heard but the one ring has been found can't wait to hear your opinion

I would give it the grade of "Scam" myself

As much as the elemental bundle isnt hugely valuable, their distinctive art is striking and for me a stand out here because elementals can be very abstract.

100% agree. Thank you prof.

I als ways appreciate these evaluations thank you prof! 💙

Shocking they would make this, or, should we have expected it?

This is especially wild because the alter/proxy community have already created really sick-looking cards just by selecting better art from the Bakshi LotR movie.

GZ on breaking whatnot! Stresstests are important :'D

I really enjoyed not watching an almost 6 minute ad for What Not at the beginning of this video! I like giving out As more than Fs too, Prof!

Dear WotC: Please give us a secret lair of Prof's disembodied floating heads.

You broke Whatnot. Lol

can't wait for the stream tonight

Just a stellar video as always Prof!

Reading the card also denotes that the card is called WorldSPINE Wurm, not WorldSPIRE Wurm, but all the rest of what you were saying was legit.

Calling it. These arts are gonna get semi-expensive bc nobody bought them and they were only available for a limited time.

The front part of this video works best when viewed on a CRT tv being played on a VCR

I already did my own anlaysis on this recent drop and immediately said "Can't wait for the Professor's video on this one".

The solution is simple: do not purchase any "Universes Beyond", or "Secret Layer" boxes or cards. If you purchase these sets you are part of the problem this video addresses. Easy.

I love your floating heads so much

I like the Stars Gaze Back art. It reminds me of the Nazca lines.

I really love that terrifying edit of yourself that you've put in the thumbnail a couple of times now, looking forward to it appearing again in the future

This opening was one of your best. Very funny stuff.

Spectra Ward is one of my favourite arts and little accessory pieces in my mono-white soldier decks.

I think the most remarkable thing about this video is that you'd made such an array of expressions in your prep that those floating faces from your past were able to emote as they did at the start here.

Re: flavor text, I believe Randy Vargas’ Grand Abolisher from the last drop had flavor text that he got to pick as a reference to something else. He had mentioned it on Twitter but the exact quote is escaping me.

Amazing video prof! I was hoping for an amazing lord of the rings secret lair but it’s just so BAD. Well deserving of your double fail. I hope you hit 1 million subs soon!!

The Squabblin and Goblin feels like an artist series for Wizard of Barge!

Man I was really excited when I saw this secret lair was announced cause I loved the animated lord of the rings. but as soon as I saw the cards I was baffled. Good to know I’m not crazy thank you prof

So much shade about those world spire tokens. Would have loved the panorama!

I’m glad Dandan got a mention!

Thanks prof. Your floating heads will keep me company in my fever dream nightmares.

I absolutely Love my Tinybones Deck and i'll buy his Secret lair since all cards of it are in the Deck and i Love it

I was looking forward to this.

Professor, you’re the best! 🙌🏻 😊

Goblin Matron is even played in Vintage Goblins :3

Something I really like about all of these drops, even though they have bad value, is that at least most of the cards in a secret lair goes in the same deck. Do you want to bling out your nekusar deck? There is a secret lair you can pick up! Some earlier secret lairs have been kinda the case of pick it up for 1 card, and the rest lives in your binder.

Wizard of Barge is an awesome artist especially on goblins!!!

That's some certified, top of the shelf, bangin', Lizards of the Coast stuff.

Thank you!!!

I've been waiting for this

this intro made me LOL i had to pause the video to comment how hilarious this was and how this brought me back to my middleschool days of peer pressure commercials

You know what the best part for me is? One of those other 'Gandalf, Friend of the Shire' printings (the one in the top right) was the cover art for that weird but amazing animated movie.

6:24 I really looking forward to building 5-color hey which card is that, just need a commander.

The Death is Temporary Metal is Forever is so tight. Reminds me of all the classic metal/hardcore art. So rad.

2:59 YES!!!! And I might actually buy my first Secret Lair.

The intro is freaking comedy gold, Prof LMAO xD

The black and white stuff is interesting because I *love* the black and white ink style. That's what I grew up on, particularly with RPG manuals like Dungeons and Dragons or Vampire the Masquerade that featured heavily stylized, sometimes even expressionistic, artwork that was super evocative. Same with Battletech manuals with mech sketches. But you're 100% spot on about them as play pieces. I did a full set of the Innestrad black and white lands for my Zombie EDH deck, and with that and some of the black and white art permanents my boardstate became something of a blur. It's even worse when the card is monocolor black or white. The colored borders actually can create enough pop to at least some standout distinction. But when everything is black and white AND the text is white on a semi-transparent black border AND the semi-transparent black background sits in front of black and white artwork, it's almost Yu-Gi-Oh esque levels of readability. So for now at least I think I'm gonna replace everything except MAYBE my commanders that I have in black and white with some sort of color-laden alternatives.

In regards to artists and flavor text. It seems that Randy had a hand in the flavor text of both selfless savior (in which the quote is credited to Sarvag, which is an anagram of Vargas) and grand abolisher (which he has confirmed on twitter to be a stormligt archive refrence).

I made proxies with this art a few weeks ago lol.

I actually really like The Stars Gaze Back art, so I might buy it in foil. Maybe. Or I won't. IDK.

I was so excited when I saw in the last video that the whatnot stream was going to be at 3, they usually happen when I'm at work. I downloaded the app to get ready, and saw it starts at 6 local time, and hour after I start work. Guess it just isn't meant to be

Prof Heads on the 9 nazgul cards, new secret lair, print it!

I loved the video and I just wanted to suggest some alternative grades for the lowest grade: expulsion or expelled, academic misconduct, financial aid revoked, scholarship revoked.

Everyone take a second to pause the video when it shows professor in his office look at the shelf and realize that the craterhoof behemoth plush on the shelf is one that looks exactly like the one from loading ready runs video's (the past Friday night magic ones ) just something I noticed little Easter egg that I noticed

Loved the whole thing minus the Helix mattress

Thanks for this review; I actually quite like a fair amount of the artwork here and was wondering if some of those cards were worth it for the reprint value (have a weak spot for Eldrazi, and of course for LoTR). So.... yikes. Maybe hunt for the Snapcaster later...

Love that you broke whatnot