Magic: The Gathering’s Secret Lair Winter Superdrop 2023 Includes Snakes, Phyrexians, And ’90s School Stationary

Quick Links

• Phyrexian Faves

• Showcase: All Will Be One Step-And-Compleat Edition

• Artist Series: Sam Burley

• The '90s Binder Experience

• Draw Your Hand

• City Styles

• Ssssssnakessssss

• Bundles

Magic: The Gathering’s latest Secret Lair superdrop has started, offering a bunch of cards based on not just the intense body-horror of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, but also snakes, city fashion and, of all things, ‘90s Lisa Frank binders.

Like all Secret Lairs, these cards will only be available through the official Secret Lair site for a limited time – until March 26. Once the sale has ended, no more of these cards will be printed, and they won’t be made available for purchase again.

Phyrexian Faves

To tie in with the latest set, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, the first drop gives five popular cards their own Phyrexian language translations.

This is the second time in less than a year than K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth has shown up in a Secret Lair, last appearing in the Post Malone crossover in October. However, this is the first time it’s been given the Phyrexian language treatment, which for a commander as popular as this will be exciting.

The big hitter in this drop, though, is Inkmoth Nexus. This is one of the scariest infect cards in the game, as it’s an uncounterable land that can turn into a flying creature with infect. It’s hard for your opponent to deal with, and in just a few turns can easily knock you out the game. It alone will likely be worth the price of this drop, which is good when the other three cards are Batterskull, Glistener Elf, and Blighted Agents – good cards, but not particularly valuable.

Phyrexian Faves will cost $29.99 for a non-foil, and $39.99 for a regular foil edition.

Showcase: All Will Be One Step-And-Compleat Edition

The second of two Phyrexia: All Will Be One drops makes use of the set’s ink-splash showcase style, alongside the new ‘Step-and-Compleat’ foil treatment otherwise only found in Collector boosters. This treatment covers the foil in holographic Phyrexian symbols, like the galaxy shapes we saw in Unfinity’s own galaxy foil.

The five cards include Phyrexian classics like Phyrexian Unlife, Ertai, The Corrupted; Glissa, The Traitor; and Plague Engineer. They’re all iconic cards that fans of Phyrexians would probably want with the Step and Compleat foiling, but they’re not exactly big money cards either. The biggest inclusion in this drop is Phyrexian Crusader, whose protection from red and white and infect make it good enough to see play in some infect-heavy Modern decks.

The question here is how much do you value that Step-and-Compleat foiling and the harsh splashes of Phyrexia’s showcase style, because card-wise there isn’t a whole lot on offer here. Buy it for the theme, not for the value.

This drop is only available in one, Step-and-Compleat foil edition for $49.99

Artist Series: Sam Burley

The latest Artist Series highlights one of Magic’s most prolific artists, Sam Burley. Burley is most known for their lands, having illustrated many from recent sets like Strixhaven, Streets of New Capenna, Ikoria, and, most famously, the full-art constellation lands from Theros: Beyond Death.

This set gives Burley room to flex their artistic skills on four Jund-themed cards. Unfortunately, for as wonderful as the art is, the cards themselves are lacking. Perhaps the most interesting here are Braid of Fire – which gives you a gradually increases pool of red mana every turn – and the Dragon commander Karrthus.

However, none of the cards here are the most valuable, and being printed in regular MTG card frames takes some of that illusive Secret Lair sparkle away. This is a drop for if you’ve already got a black/red/green deck and are a particularly big fan of Sam Burley. Otherwise, it’s a hard sell.

Artist Series: Sam Burley is $29.99 for the regular edition, and $39.99 for regular foil.

The '90s Binder Experience

My personal favourite of this superdrop, the ‘90s Binder Experience channels Lisa Frank’s overwhelmingly colourful visual style that was on every pencil case, notebook, and binder in the ‘90s. With art by Paul Mayafon, these are possibly the most garish, beautifully eye-bleeding cards Magic has ever produced.

The drop includes five decent cards: Alms Collector is the perfect way to punish your opponent for drawing too many cards, while Crested Sunmare is a great payoff for lifegain decks by giving you a herd of horses. And, of course, Exotic Orchard is a staple for almost any multicoloured Commander deck, giving you access to any colour your opponents’ lands could produce.

The two most interesting cards are the legendary creatures. Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma is perfect for green stompy decks that want to throw out massive creatures, while Rin and Seri, Inseparable is popular for throwing Cats and Dogs together in one deck.

While none of these are big bucks, they’re all played reasonably often. Combine that with the incredible art, and this is a drop I just can’t say no to.

The '90s Binder Experience is $29.99 for the regular edition, and $29.99 for regular foil.

Draw Your Hand

One of the most exciting Secret Lairs of last year was Shades Not Included from the 2022 February superdrop. It was the first time an artist better known for their Magic proxies (unofficial cards) was brought in to do an official Secret Lair in a move that was universally praised by the community.

Draw Your Hand follows that up with another proxy artist, Tyler “RopeArrow” Day. These four cards are inspired by everything from Art Noveau to ‘60s and ‘70s horror movie posters, giving a colourful, abstract look.

Value-wise, the two biggest cards are easily Counterbalance and Eldrazi Conscription, which have only been reprinted twice each and combined make up more than the cost of the drop. Eldrazi Conscription turns your creature into a horrific 10/10 with annihilator 2, while Counterbalance is a popular control piece in both Modern and Legacy thanks to it effectively being able to counter spells for free.

While they look stunning, Bruna and Deafening Silence aren’t as big pulls. They’re not bad cards by any means – Deafening Silence is a good piece in both Hatebear and Stax decks, while Bruna seems purpose-made to go with Eldrazi Conscription in one big, scary Aura-focused Commander deck.

Draw Your Hand is $29.99 for the regular edition, and $39.99 for the regular foil.

City Styles

Secret Lair has been experimenting with fashion recently, with the October superdrop featuring Jack Hughes’ If Looks Could Kill. This time, we’re getting a Japanese urban twist on it, with Tsubonari’s City Styles.

These five cards give us so much raw fashion, while also having probably the most consistent card quality in the entire superdrop. Every card here sees play in Commander, particularly the board-wipe-on-a-body Massacre Girl and go-to Aristocrats commander Teysa Karlov.

Azusa, Lost But Seeking is a a fantastic way of ramping ahead of your opponents (or just abusing the landfall mechanic for value). There’s also Sakashima the Impostor, whose ability to enter the battlefield as a copy of another permanent allows it to make use of all kinds of enters-the-battlefield effects.

Finally, the only noncreature here is Paradise Mantle, which allows a creature to tap to produce any colour of mana. That on its own is good ramp, but costing zero to cast also means it plays a part in Cheerios decks, Storm, any anything else that cares about you casting a free artifact spell.

Like the other drops, City Styles is $29.99 for the regular edition, and $39.99 for a regular foil printing.

Ssssssnakessssss

The final drop celebrates one of Magic’s slithery-est creature types, with five of its most notable snakes reimagined by a bunch of different artists.

Among the cards are Hexdrinker, whose ability to level up and gain protection from everything is incredibly powerful. Lotus Cobra is a big player in green decks, particularly those focused on the landfall mechanic, as it gives you quick and easy access to mana. And, of course, Stonecoil Serpent is a classic, being slightly tricky to remove and easily become a threat.

Ice-Fang Coatl is more played for its ability to draw you cards at instant speed than its snow-centric effect, but it still sees plenty of play. Finally, Seshrio the Anointed is the perfect Snake commander to tie all the other cards together in one deck.

This drop has one of the lowest total values in this superdrop, but the art is the real winner here. With the return of Crocodile Jackson’s cartoony style that conforms to the frame of the card, or Laynes turning the Stonecoil Serpent into a train of junk, this is perfect for if you already have a Snake deck you want to bling out, or have been considering making one soon.

Ssssssnakessssss's regular edition costs $29.99, while the regular foil edition is $39.99.

Bundles

As with most superdrops, you can buy collections of individual drops.

If you want just the bare minimum, The Prophets Predicted Non-Foil Bundle includes the six non-foil drops, which means it does not include Showcase: All Will Be One Step-And-Compleat Edition. This bundle costs $152.99.

To also get the Step-and-Compleat foils, you'll want the Prophets Predicted Foil Bundle. This includes foil copies of every drop, which includes the Step-and-Compleat foils. All that foil adds up, though, as it costs $247.99.

Finally, if you want to just get absolutely everything from the Winter 2023 Superdrop, the Prophets Predicted Everything Bundle includes all six of the non-foil drops, and all seven of the foil ones for a total of 13 drops. This is the most expensive option, costing $397.99.

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