The artistic concept of Secret Lair being the home of reprints with all kinds of different art styles is good. But cutting out your game store partners to make more money seems pretty short-sighted. And I agree, they will absolutely have a randomized booster box product at some point. It seems like the 30th Anniversary Countdown Kit was the first pass at such a thing. Wasn't foil/non-foil the random element in that case?
Very good video, Louie- and lots of interesting thoughts behind it. I haven’t spent much time thinking about secret lair, as I have never cared to buy one, but I completely agree this is the direction Wizards will move it in with randomization.
They care about preserving the reprint equity because it's the only thing that justifies them charging crazy prices for sealed products. It doesn't cost them any more to print a Mana Vault than it does to print any other card. But if there's a 0.001% chance of getting a $180 card they can justify the cost! (in this instance I'm referring to Mana Crypt, the most expensive The List card). My math is based on Thunder Junction Play boosters 1.56% chance for a rare or mythic from The List, and there are 1,149 rare/mythic cards listed on Scryfall The List; meaning the chances of opening a particular rare/mythic from the list is like a 1 in 100,000 pack chance of getting a particular card? Sorry if my math is wrong.
The first email went out for low stock several hours after it started. I got a full set of 3 in foil. They just arrived today and no mana vault BUT im happy with the secret lair as is and had wanted one as a big magic and fsllout fan
I was complaining about the lack of vault boy art in Fallout boosters and sure enough they shoved them into a supplementary direct order product in limited quality. Did score a reflecting pool for $5 and a bojuka bog for $5.5 so it wasn't a total whiff. Wished that vault boy mana vault was cheaper as the art is super cool but they just had to turn up the greed. I suppose they threw us a bone with the thunder junction breaking news reprints with $.50 surgical extraction, $2 contagion engine, $3 reanimate and $5 force of vigor. Fingers crossed for $20 mana drain but we may not get there.
Wizards has gotten LAZY on some of their Secret Lairs. I can't see paying the prices for some of these Secret Lairs where you get commons, uncommons, and lands with a rare. Wizards likes to go CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP on a lot of these. Plus, they have done nothing to fix the pringle problem with the foils. I have only bought one secret lair which was the one for charity. Thank you for the video Louie.
Yeah that Fallout Mana Vault should have have been included in the secret lair. They could have just made the lair like around $100. I already have a Mana Vault and I'm not super into Fallout but it must suck for actual fans who want that card. I haven't bought a SL in about two years and probably never will again. I just get whatever SL singles off of tcgplayer and ebay lol
Not being able to buy the latest commander deck really ticked me off.. i would of liked the option just to get a lair with the 5 alt arts of the kitties and dogs
Didn't we already have a Mana Crypt, or Vault as an add in? As far as the advertisement of this one, I feel like it was needed to prevent "I would have bought it if I knew I could pull a Mana Vault!" type of whining. For me, even in a case of Secret Lair Universes Within, I don't think any of it matters. Secret Lair is all optional, and until that changes I can't feel any major beef with it. If we got a standard set that was a Secret Lair exclusive I'd be mad, but as long as it's cosmetics and reprints I'm pretty whelmed with whatever WOTC wants to do. Every pack is a gamble, and buying 30 SLs to hit the vault isn't that different to me than buying 30 VIP packs. (Natural there is a bigger conversation about WOTC circumventing the LGS and their treatment of game stores, but that exist even in a world where SL doesn't) Thanks for the video.
Secret lair is awesome and there is absolutely no problem having a randomized component. The issue was revealing the randomized cards. They showed us the 3 cherry jackpot on the machine and people gobbled it up leaving a feel bad for a majority of fallout fans who now have to pay scalper prices. If they left it as a mystery it would have been no issue. Secret lairs are fine, the product is not for everyone but it is for many. You get to choose something you like and you get what you want. Frankly my secret lair binder is worth more than my revised set... figure that one out lol. The secret lair booster box take is a blatant theft of Rudy from years ago...
The scalper take is bad imo. Card prices are below the value of the secret lair. So they have full opportunity right now to get the cards and they also had ample time to get them on release if they wanted. I haven’t heard that Rudy take, but seems like something he’d say for sure. 👍🏼
@@KitchenTableTCG Isn't like the whole point of "Secret" Lairs to have a really cool rare card in the back? You buy the cards they show(Most of the time at a loss compared to the real card). I can understand your direct to consumer issue as a TCG business owner. Would you be more happy if they released more limited Secret Lairs to brick and mortar stores? As a store do you not buy Secret Lair singles or sealed?
I LOVE Secret Lair. I buy all of them. It's the only magic product I spend money on anymore. But I agree, putting a random mana vault in only a small percentage of these lairs feels really, really bad.
Even if I wanted to order a set from you. You would still want more then the cost of the cards. I say fuck wizards of the cost me and my friends will be proxying the cards we want to play with not supporting scummy card stores and scalping
