As the first modern Trading Card Game, Magic: The Gathering is inherently deeply collectible. Thanks to this, players don’t necessarily need to fill their shelves and spaces with commemorative tat. Instead, fans and fill boxes upon boxes with draft chaff and push them away into deep storage.
Due to this, there’s a surprising amount of genuine MTG collectibles for players to enjoy. Outside of some pins, shirts, and the occasional mug, it’s almost always gameplay-related gubbins. As a result of this, it can be very exciting new a new actual MTG collectible comes along. This is definitely the case for the new MTG figurines released next year.
Li’l’est Walkers Secret Lair Drop
Last week, at Hasbro PulseCon 2023, Wizards revealed a smorgasbord of new toys and products, as is to be expected. Within this haul of new purchasable goodies, unsurprisingly, a few new MTG products were revealed as well. The most exciting and downright baffling of these is a unique collaboration with Nerf.
Offering a triple dart firing blaster and new editions of
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to any target.
, this Secret Lair is certainly unique. Curiously, however, this wasn’t the Secret Lair Drop that MTG players were actually excited about. Instead, that honor goes to the Li’l’est Walkers Secret Lair which was teased prior to the event.
Continuing now long-running tradition of Li’l Walker drops at PulseCon, this Secret Lair chibi-ified five more Planeswalkers. As was expected following the teaser, one of those Planeswalkers is the goblin
Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
+1: Create a 1/1 colorless Construct artifact creature token with defender.
−1: You may sacrifice an artifact. If you do, destroy target artifact or creature.
−6: Choose target artifact card in a graveyard or artifact on the battlefield. Create three tokens that are copies of it.
. Costing $17 on average, this card is undoubtedly a great inclusion within the Secret Lair.
Thankfully, in a welcome change to previous Secret Lair Drops, this high-value trend continues throughout the rest of the drop.
Chandra, Flame’s Catalyst
Chandra, Flame’s Catalyst
+1: Chandra deals 3 damage to each opponent.
−2: You may cast target red instant or sorcery card from your graveyard. If that spell would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead.
−8: Discard your hand, then draw seven cards. Until end of turn, you may cast spells from your hand without paying their mana costs.
, for instance, sells for around $11 and is receiving its first non-foil printing. Alongside this,
Venser, the Sojourner
Venser, the Sojourner
+2: Exile target permanent you own. Return it to the battlefield under your control at the beginning of the next end step.
−1: Creatures can't be blocked this turn.
−8: You get an emblem with "Whenever you cast a spell, exile target permanent."
is worth $7, which puts them over the break-even point.
Unfortunately, the last two Planeswalkers,
Karn, Scion of Urza
Karn, Scion of Urza
+1: Reveal the top two cards of your library. An opponent chooses one of them. Put that card into your hand and exile the other with a silver counter on it.
−1: Put a card you own with a silver counter on it from exile into your hand.
−2: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with "This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control."
and
Aminatou, the Fateshifter
Aminatou, the Fateshifter
+1: Draw a card, then put a card from your hand on top of your library.
−1: Exile another target permanent you own, then return it to the battlefield under your control.
−6: Choose left or right. Each player gains control of all nonland permanents other than Aminatou controlled by the next player in the chosen direction.
Aminatou, the Fateshifter can be your commander.
aren’t quite as expensive. Priced at around $5 and $2 each, both these cards don’t quite pull their weight in the Secret Lair Drop. Despite this, the entire drop is still worth a commendable $42 which is an instant $12 profit!
As much as free money may seem nice, the real draw of this Secret Lair is obviously the art. So much so, in fact, that prices may vary significantly from the base reprint price.
What’s In The Box?
While MTG players may have been cautiously optimistic about the Li’l’est Walkers Secret Lair Drop, that’s not all Hasbro had up their sleeves. To complement this release, Hasbro also debuted the Secret Lair Li’l’est Walkers Mystery Box. Similarly available from the Hasbro Pulse storefront, this mystery box MTG product contains figurines of the five Li’l’est Walkers Planeswalkers.
Each standing at four inches tall, some of these figurines are absolutely adorable. This is especially the case for Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast. Sitting in their mechanical chair and looking incredibly pleased with themselves, Daretti just looks fantastic. The same can also be said for Aminatou who looks great in the chibi style.
Unfortunately, not every one of the Li’l’est Walkers figurines looks quite as good. The figure for Venser, for instance, could give me nightmares with their haunting gaumless face. Alongside this, the snooty look on Chandra’s figure makes me equally wary about having them on my desk. Thankfully, Karn is totally adorable and could do no harm.
On their own, even if not all perfect, these chibi figurines would definitely be a nice collectible for MTG fans. For better or worse, however, these collectible figures are even more collectible than that! Playing into the collectibility, Hasbro has also created gold versions of each chibi figurine. Each featuring a one in twenty chance of appearing, these gold figures could be worth a lot.
For better or worse, could is definitely the important word in that sentence above. Sure, on the one hand, these gold figures are rare, but they also look terrible in my opinion. As much as it may be fancy, the gold sheen removes all the detail from the figures, making them look even more gaudy than usual.
Expensive Collecibles? Well, I Never!
Given the heading above, you may no longer be surprised to learn that the Secret Lair Li’l’est Walkers Mystery Box is rather expensive. On Hasbro Pulse, the figures are currently sold in a not-so-mystery pack of five. Retailing for $149.99, this bundle is certainly not cheap, however, you are guaranteed to get one of each figure.
If you’re hunting for gold versions of each figurine, according to the odds, you’d need to spend almost $3000. Unsurprisingly, this isn’t something we’d recommend you do. After all, collectibles like this are rarely ever worth their theoretical maximum, as determined by rarity. Instead, the gold figures should be a lot cheaper on the secondary market once the figures launch properly.
Unsurprisingly, beyond being available in this Secret Lair, Hasbro is planning a wider release for the Mystery Box chibi figures. As a result, in March of 2024, you may end up seeing these MTG figurines in your local game store. Hopefully, at potentially $30 a piece, these mystery boxes will still be rewarding to open. So long as you don’t keep finding the same figure of Venser’s gaumless face over and over again.
Currently, it’s unclear if other past and figure chibi Planeswalkers will also get the mystery box treatment. If this initial wave sells well, we can certainly imagine they will do so, however, it remains to be seen whether or not the mystery box will be a success. Whatever happens, we can only hope that both the Li’l’est Walkers Secret Lair and Mystery Boxes won’t be delayed into oblivion like before…