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Arcane being the number one most-watched show on Netflix isn't reason enough for Riot Games to stop its promotion of their hit new League of Legends animated series. This time around, Riot Games partnered with Wizards of the Coast to bring to you Arcane Secret Lair Magic cards.
For those who aren't familiar with either one or the other, then this is a great opportunity for both Wizards of the Coast or Riot Games to hook you into their fantasy worlds. Arcane is a brand-new animated series on Netflix by Riot Games, based on their hit multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) League of Legends. League of Legends is a popular game that generates millions in revenue yearly, which also has one of the most lucrative esports leagues in the world.
Meanwhile, Magic the Gathering is a decades-old card game with a rich history and long-running lore. Developed in 1993 by Richard Garfield, Magic the Gathering, or MtG, remains one of the most popular tabletop and trading card games in the world. Secret Lair is a series of card sets that are produced by Wizards of the Coast separate from Magic the Gathering‘s main, tournament-centric sets. Secret Lair is the bridge of any other franchise, brand, or IP outside of the Magic Gathering Universe to make their way into the card game. Simply put, Secret Lair is a non-canon, non-tournament-legal set of cards, mostly targeted towards collectors.
Previous Secret Lair iterations include cards from The Walking Dead, Godzilla, and future collaborations with Fortnite, Warhammer 40,000, and Lord of the Rings. Reception from the wider Magic the Gathering community on Secret Lairs have been mixed. Some are excited about the prospect of playing with characters from other universes in Magic the Gathering. Meanwhile, Vorthos players (those who are concerned with the lore and flavor of the MtG universe), are concerned with how the lore and flavor of the game will be sacrificed, like how immersion-breaking it is for a powerful being from MtG like Emrakul to go toe-to-toe with Rick Grimes of The Walking Dead. This has resulted in some playgroups banning Secret Lair cards from their games. At the end of the day, the cards are marketed as collectors' items, although Wizards of the Coasts' decision to make the games playable in regular Magic the Gathering games has posed issues with the community.
For the Arcane Secret Lair cards, there are two available sets for purchase. The first set includes Arcane-themed cards for Path to Exile, Rhystic Study, Duress, Seize the Day, Krosan Grip, Counterflux, and Thran Dynamo. Some of the cards, such as Rhystic Study, appear with alternate names (Unstable Harmonics) to reflect more of Arcane‘s universe. This set's regular version costs $29.99, while the foil version costs $39.99.
The second set contains Land cards (sources of mana in the Magic the Gathering universe) with artwork set in the Arcane universe. The regular version retails at $29.99, while the foil version costs $39.99.
To purchase, interested collectors have until November 30 to place their orders. The cards will arrive sometime in April 2022. Once the pre-sale for the cards are done, they will no longer be purchasable from Wizards of the Coast again, and the only chance players will have to snag these cards will be through resellers and the secondary market.
