Cards To Watch in the Sonic Secret Lair

The time has come for another Universes Beyond product. From the pineapple under the sea to the green hills, MTG is collaborating with Sega on three Sonic Secret Lairs. With the products, we have two that are reskins and one that includes seven brand new cards. But more on that later.

We’ve now seen a fair share of these products, like The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Tomb Raider, and Hatsune Miku. The key here is that most of these cards are simple reprints with new art, while some are brand new cards with a rather limited supply. 

Now, the limit of Secret Lairs and the cards included in them have long driven the prices upwards over time. Just look at Rick, Steadfast Leader, and how the price remained climbing up until the second coming of Greymond, Avacyn's Stalwart.

Bloomburrow Comeback

As for brand new cards, there is quite a lot to cover here, as the entire Lair is dedicated to characters. Before we delve into the characters themselves, there is one card that sticks out that begs to be covered.

Super State is the newest in a limited number of legendary enchantment Auras, and by far will be the strongest for the foreseeable future. Given the benefits that it provides as well as the ability to close out any EDH game quickly, I see this as a near must-have for the Voltron-style decks. Currently, the price is in the $13 range and beginning to climb slowly as the products are arriving with buyers. This will likely keep climbing until the $20 mark and onwards unless we see a definitive reprinting.

Shadow the Hedgehog is likely to be the next most wanted card from this drop. While the initial ability is appealing, it's the second that’s likely to draw it more into cEDH. Given the price change over time so far, I would pick up copies sooner rather than later. In the longer term, I would expect Shadow to move and stay in the $30-$35 range quite comfortably.

1st Gear

Chasing Adventure and Turbo Gear are the remaining two Secret Lairs from this series. Both are functional reprints of existing cards and provide no value outside their novelty.

I'm not the biggest fan of these Secret Lair treatments and generally stay away from Universes Beyond. Although I can be convinced, on occasion, if the cards included capture my interest or are genuinely a good investment, either to resell or collect. 

However, the highlights here being the Piko Piko Hammer - Hammer of Nazahn and yet another Sol Ring (2093), I can’t bring myself to like it. The reprint of Hammer of Nazahn may help to curb the ever-increasing price point as the card sees a decent amount of EDH play in Voltron-based strategies. The reprinting here in Secret Lair form will likely not decrease its $19 average by a huge margin. Rather, I would expect another reprint to appear in the next 1-2 sets in some other Commander product.

For Sol Ring, the price history on similar variations shows a slow and steady incline in price. With that in mind, the starting price on this particular Sol Ring is slightly higher than I would have expected. Due to this, I think that in the long term, let's say two to three years from now, we might see it climb towards the $40-$50 range.

Serialized Chaos

In a rather unexpected twist of events, the bonus cards included with these Secret Lairs are rather good. Just to clarify, the bonus cards included in roughly 6% of bundles are Lotus Petal specifically. Sticking with the current trend of different color treatments, there are several colors available for the Lotus Petal to mimic the pattern seen in Sonic’s media.

Due to the low opening chances, multiple colors, and a good card selection for the bonus card, the prices are currently ranging between $200-$260. Over time, I suspect that these will continue to climb due to the Secret Lair not being printed to demand. There are only so many copies of these that will ever be printed. 

They may as well have been printed with serialized numbers as I don't believe that there are more than a few hundred copies of each color.

This One Is for the Fans

Crossovers target a smaller section of the collectors that would have an interest in both the game and the Universes Beyond IP. While I'm not entirely sure what percentage of people are genuinely interested in Sonic, at least there's something for players not interested in characters, as there are still collectibles available. 

We’re likely past all of the major IP crossovers already. As such, I think that there will be multiple smaller IPs being presented in this manner. That being said, there is still a marvel to get through........

Join me again next time as we feel the tingle of great power.

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