The Best MTG Secret Lair Drops 2024

Magic: The Gathering's Secret Lair Drop series had a huge year in 2024 – but not without controversy. On January 2, 2024, Wizards of the Coast announced that the company was abandoning what had been the standard method of printing Secret Lair Drops (print-to-demand) in favor of a limited edition model. This meant that instead of having a reasonable chance of snagging a Secret Lair Drop that you might be interested in, the most highly anticipated were now almost certain to sell out within hours.

Such was the case with the titanically hyped Marvel Superdrop, as these sets sold out almost immediately, leaving many fans upset and angry at the handling of these hugely popular releases. But despite these pitfalls, 2024 may have been the best year ever for Secret Lairs, so let's take a look at the best of the year that was.

10

Starring: Peach Momoko

Amazing, disturbing artwork and great reprints

Around the time the Duskmourn: House of Horror set was released, cartoonist Peach Momoko's stylings were included in this Secret Lair Drop as part of the Camp Totally Safe Superdrop.

With incredibly striking (and disturbing) artwork from the talented artist on exciting cards like Time Sieve, Psychic Corrosion, and Aetherize, it's no surprise that this set was one of the many Secret Lair Drops that sold out pretty quickly in 2024.

9

Just Add Milk: Second Helpings

A unique use of double sided cards

Just Add Milk: Second Helpings was released as part of the 2024 Winter Superdrop to kick off the year and was a sequel to the highly regarded Just Add Milk Secret Lair Drop from December 2022.

These cards are stylized as fun, cereal box-inspired cards that feature the card's text on the back—much like how the back of a cereal box is usually home to a game, maze, trivia, or other exciting content for kids. These colorful cards were home runs that featured great reprints like Sakashima of a Thousand Faces and Adrix and Nev, Twincasters.

8

Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Vol. 2

“What… is your favorite color?”

When Wizards announced that they would be releasing not one but two Secret Lair Drops based on the beloved cult classic Monty Python and The Holy Grail, fans of the film rejoiced. Yes, “there was much joy.”

But that joy was short-lived, as these limited editions sold out within hours, with many people waiting in the digital queue for hours only to be told that the card they placed in their cart was no longer available. Despite that debacle, the second volume of cards in the drop is a tribute to Magic's past as well as a fitting homage to one of the funniest movies of all time.

7

Marvel's Wolverine

Nothing to see here except Adamantium, Bub

Another Secret Lair Drop that sold out almost immediately was the Marvel Superdrop, which may have been the most hyped Secret Lair Drop in the program's history – and that's saying a lot.

All of the Marvel drops were home runs from a design standpoint, and while Wolverines might not be the best value overall, it still featured a slew of strikingly powerful reprints, like The Ozolith and Berserk.

6

D&D: Karlach's Rage

Our Tiefling Queen gets a top layer

Dungeons & Dragons celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024, and MTG (owned by D&D's same parent company, Hasbro) celebrated the momentous birthday with its own Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop, which was full of amazing reprints with artwork dedicated to the best tabletop RPGs ever.

Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro also wanted to cash in on the success of multiple Game of the Year winners Baldur's Gate 3 by including the two most beloved companions in the game on MTG cards: Astarion and Karlach. In this case, everyone's dreamy favorite Tiefling got the superior cards (like Dolmen Gate and Stranglehold) and thus the better overall Secret Lair Drop.

5

Marvel's Iron Man

Tony Stark's Drop was thematic and powerful

Iron Man is known for his brilliant inventions as well as his leadership and charisma, and Secret Lair Drop built around Mr. Tony Stark really delivers on that.

With the best reprint in all of Marvel Superdrop with Commander's Plate – a fantastic piece of equipment for the Commander format – as well as a striking Sol Ring with artwork of the iconic Arc Reactor, it's no wonder this drop (and the Marvel Superdrop itself) sold out within a few hours.

4

Artist series: Rovina Cai

A fan-favorite artist gets great reprints

This Secret Lair Drop is the perfect combination of top tier reprints (Aether Vial, Sword of the Animist) and a beloved MTG artist coming together to highlight an under-the-radar, but no less awesome, Secret Lair Drop from 2024.

This drop was released as part of the Equinox Superdrop 2024 in mid-April and also featured Inalla, Archmage Ritualist, which contains the extremely rare eminence keyword. This keyword triggers both when it's on the battlefield and when it's in the command zone, meaning you get value whether you've played it or not.

3

Fallout: Vault Boy

Amazing reprints, amazing artwork…and the Mana Vault (if you're lucky)!

Included as part of the Equinox Superdrop 2024 was a series of drops dedicated to the Universes Beyond: Fallout set that was released around the same time as this Superdrop. While there were a number of notable reprints among these, the best drop of the bunch, by far, was Fallout: Vault Boy.

Not only did it contain some aggressively annoying Stax pieces (like Trinisphere and Sphere of Resistance), but this drop also had the potential to include a Mana Vault, which is among the most valuable MTG cards released in 2024 – even if the odds of drawing it was small.

2

Marvel's Storm

The best Marvel Secret Lair Drop is almost the best of 2024

The best Marvel Secret Lair Drop was the one dedicated to Storm from the X-Men. With a blizzard's worth of unmatched reprints, like one of the few ever reprints of Ice Storm and a rare reprint for Manamorphose, this drop had it all.

Perhaps the most notable card in this drop was the actual “face” card, aka Storm, Force of Nature, which provides the hugely powerful storm keyword for the next moment or spell you play, as long as Storm deals battle damage to a player. Unsurprisingly, Storm's foil Secret Lair Drop is in the top three for value among Marvel drops.

1

Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Vol. 1

“It's just a flesh wound”

While the Monty Python Secret Lair Drop was not without its share of controversy, it cannot be denied that Secret Lair x Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Vol. 1 drop was the best Secret Lair had to offer in 2024 – hands down (or 'arm's off', so to speak).

Sure, not many people got to buy it when it was released, but the main reprints (Dismember, Birds of Paradise, Three Visits) along with cards depicting classic scenes and jokes from one of the funniest comedy films of all time – including in-jokes for MTG old-timers like making a Prodigal Sorcerer card named Tim – meant this drop was a tasty slam dunk for fans of all stripes. Although unfortunately there was no mention of spam.