"The Secret Lair Slot Machine"

 "The Secret Lair Slot Machine"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

I love Magic cards, and I love playing the game of Magic: The Gathering.

But Wizards of the Coast has been milking the players of this game for a very long time.

They pioneered the direct-to-player release of cards through Secret Lair. These were curated selections of reprints, alternate-art cards, or occasionally a mechanically unique card that could only be found in a particular drop. It was all the rage. People wanted the unique-looking cards, the exclusives, and the feeling that they were getting something special.

At least in the early days of Secret Lair, your biggest problem was simply getting one.

You had to queue for a chance to buy the product, and sometimes you didn't get it. But if you did manage to get one, at least you knew exactly what you were paying for and what you were getting.

Well, except for the occasional bonus card that changed from drop to drop.

That was Secret Lair.

It has been that way for years.

But apparently, Wizards of the Coast no longer wants you to gamble only with Play Boosters and Collector Boosters.

Now it wants you to gamble with Secret Lair as well.

Enter Secret Lair x MSCHF: The Zeta Set.

For the first time, Wizards isn't simply selling you a collection of Secret Lair cards.

It's selling you booster packs of Secret Lair cards.

Think about that for a moment.

The whole appeal of Secret Lair was that you knew what you were buying. You saw the cards. You knew the treatment. You knew what you were paying for.

Now we're taking that concept and putting it into a booster pack.

To be clear, these cards are inspired by the original Magic playtest cards. They are not the original playtest cards themselves.

Instead, we're being given a carefully constructed nostalgia package based on the materials, fonts, and general aesthetic supposedly associated with the playtest era of Magic back in 1992.

And honestly?

Such nostalgia baiting. Such bullshit.

Most players would never know what those original playtest cards actually looked like.

Most would never know what materials were used to make them, what fonts were used, or what happened to those cards afterward.

Many of them may not even exist anymore.

But that doesn't matter.

Because Wizards has figured out that it doesn't have to sell you the history.

It just has to sell you the idea of the history.

And targeting some of Magic's oldest players with a product built around that nostalgia feels particularly cynical.

These are the players who remember when Magic was new. The players who remember the game's early years. The players who have been around long enough to recognize the references.

And now that nostalgia is being packaged into a product where you don't even know exactly what you're going to get.

That is where this starts feeling less like Secret Lair and more like a slot machine.

And perhaps that's exactly what this is:

An experiment.

Wizards has increasingly been experimenting with how much the Magic collector base is willing to tolerate—and, more importantly, how much it is willing to pay for.

If people buy this, if people enjoy opening these Secret Lair booster packs, and if the product generates enough money, then Wizards has learned something.

It has learned that players will accept randomness in a product that was originally built around certainty.

And once that door is open, where does it stop?

Secret Lair Boosters.

Secret Lair Mystery Packs.

Secret Lair Collections where you have no idea which cards you're actually buying.

Suddenly, the thing that used to be a guaranteed purchase becomes another opportunity to roll the dice.

And of course, the house always wins.

Mark my words: if this works, I wouldn't be surprised if Wizards eventually finds a way to use the same model for products that never sold particularly well.

Those Secret Lairs sitting in warehouses?

Those cards that didn't move?

That "Wildcard" they are advertising as potentially being of any rarity?

Well, what do you think the odds are that you're going to open something amazing?

Maybe I'm being cynical.

But we've played this game before.

The wildcard could be something nobody wanted in the first place.

Or, in the case of a re-release, it could be something that already sucked—

and now sucks twice.

That's the part that bothers me most.

Not that Wizards wants to make money.

Of course they do. Magic is a business, and nobody expects Wizards to give away cards out of the goodness of its heart.

What bothers me is the constant search for another way to monetize the people who already love the game.

We buy the cards.

We buy the sets.

We buy the boosters.

We buy the Collector Boosters.

We buy the Secret Lairs.

And now we're apparently being asked to gamble on the Secret Lairs themselves.

Maybe the Zeta Set will be a huge success.

Maybe players will love it.

Maybe I'm completely wrong about where this is going.

But if this experiment succeeds, I fear it won't remain an experiment for very long.

And that is what makes this such a sad turn of events for a game that I genuinely love.

Magic has always had randomness built into it.

I just never thought the randomness would eventually extend to whether the product I'm buying is worth buying in the first place.