Magic: The Gathering's newest Secret Lair drop, one of the most highly anticipated of the year, has resulted in players losing their place in the queue and the product being sold out already. Today marks the release of yet another hyped-up Secret Lair drop, after the multi-IP crossover that was the Secret Lair Superdrop on October 13 and the PlayStation MTG cards on October 27. This time, players are trying to get the Secret Lair Countdown Kit: An Encyclopedia of Magic, which includes 26 cards for $199.

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Special Secret Lair products typically have a lot of success among MTG players, though their launches have been quite rocky in recent times. This is because drops are not printed to demand, which means that it's a first-come, first-served kind of deal. With bot accounts purchasing the products to resell them later, MTG's PlayStation Secret Lair already proved controversial, not to mention last year's Marvel drop. Now, the Encyclopedia of Magic is already impossible to get.

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Magic: The Gathering's 2025, 2026 Release Roadmap Explained

Magic: The Gathering is suddenly filled to the brim with new Secret Lair drops, main Standard-legal sets, and more Final Fantasy cards through 2026.

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Say Goodbye to Magic: The Gathering's Best 2025 Secret Lair

Magic: The Gathering's best Secret Lair drops usually include good value for money, with some great reprints becoming more accessible in a bundle. Such is the case for the Encyclopedia of Magic, which is unfortunately sold out already. It includes 1 card for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet, and they are:

  • Altar of the Brood (around $9)
  • Brain Freeze (around $12)
  • Crop Rotation (around $5.50)
  • Demonic Consultation (around $14.90)
  • Eerie Ultimatum (around $3.60)
  • Field of the Dead (around $40)
  • Gray Merchant of Asphodel (around $1)
  • Hymn to Tourach (around $0.65)
  • Isochron Scepter (around $18.30)
  • Junji, the Midnight Sky (around $0.55)
  • Krark-Clan Ironworks (around $22.70)
  • Llanowar Elves (around $0.45)
  • Myrel, Shield of Argive (around $19.60)
  • Narset's Reversal (around $2.40)
  • Ob Nixilis, the Fallen (around $3.85)
  • Phyrexian Altar (around $62)
  • Questing Beast (around $3.80)
  • Retrofitter Foundry (around $0.65)
  • Sol Ring (around $1.40)
  • Temple of the False God (around $0.15)
  • Urza's Saga (around $35)
  • Vesuva (around $1.70)
  • Wasteland (around $22.90)
  • Xantcha, Sleeper Agent (around $1.90)
  • Yarok, the Desecrated (around $3.55)
  • Zo-Zu the Punisher (around $10.70)

The overall value of the cards in the drop, taken from TCGPlayer and based on the cheapest version of each card, is $298.25, whereas the Encyclopedia of Magic was sold for $199.

MTG Commander decks would have benefited a lot from the new Secret Lair Encyclopedia product, considering that several of these cards are staples in the format already, but the deal is unfortunately gone. Furthermore, many community members are already upset that they lost their spot in the queue when technical difficulties occurred, which led to the drop's launch being postponed by 30 minutes.

Replies to the Twitter post announcing the 30-minute delay are mostly negative, with fans calling for a return of print to demand for all Secret Lair products. Others are lamenting the fact that Secret Lair products are notoriously purchased by bot accounts that later sell them for double the price or more on ebay, TCGPlayer, Cardmarket, and similar websites.

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The same issue occurred with some PlayStation drops and also with one of the October 13 releases, an MTG Secret Lair drop including Demonic Tutor and Armageddon for $39.99, whereas the overall value was over $100.

Secret Lair's Encyclopedia of Magic is unfortunately impossible to get now outside of resellers, so those who spent their time in the queue only to be met with a message saying the product was sold out will walk out empty-handed. This is not a new problem, but it stings even more when considering the technical difficulties that led to some fans losing their place in the queue and others getting a better or worse placement in it.

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Magic: The Gathering Arena Tag Page Cover Art

Magic: The Gathering Arena
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Digital Card Game
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Systems
PC-1
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Top Critic Avg: 82 /100 Critics Rec: 81%
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Released
September 27, 2018
ESRB
T for Teen // Blood and Gore, Mild Fantasy Violence
Developer(s)
Wizards of the Coast, Wizards Digital Games Studios
Publisher(s)
Wizards of the Coast
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DIGITAL
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Genre(s)
Digital Card Game