Secret Lair Secretversary Superdrop 2023 Announced

To the surprise of absolutely no one, last week's announcement of Magic's Tomb Raider Secret Lair crossover was followed up this Monday with the announcement of a full Superdrop. This one is the annual Secretversary that celebrates the anniversary of the Secret Lair brand, which had its first release at the tail end of 2019. This Superdrop includes nine new Secret Lairs as well as a special promo version of The Locust God for those who place an order totalling $200 or more.

Here's a super brief look at what you can expect in the individual Lairs:

• Secret Lair x Jurassic World: Dr. Ian Malcolm - This lair focuses on the character Ian Malcolm, played masterfully by Jeff Goldblum. Ian, Convalescent Charmer - a reskin of Tasigur, the Golden Fang - has gotten a lot of love and attention online since the Lair's announcement.
• Secret Lair x Jurassic World: Life Breaks Free - This Lair focuses on some incredibly stylized renditions of specific dinosaurs from within the Jurassic World setting put instead to iconic dinosaurs from past Magic releases.
• Secret Lair x Tomb Raider - Covered last week, this Lair focuses on bringing the adventures of Lara Croft into Magic with a special Universes Beyond Lair.
• Showcase: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan - This Lair focuses on reprinting several classic legends from the original Ixalan block, this time in the special unique showcase frame reserved for the set's legends.
• Mycosynthwave - Do you like Mycosynth - or simply Mirrodin - cards? Do you like the Synthwave aesthetic and music? Well then do I have a Secret Lair for you!
• Gift Wrapped - This cute Lair presents artwork made to look life gift wrap you might use for holiday presents, all the while choosing cards with names that appropriately define the vibe of the holidays.
• Paradise Frost - This Lair provides five new full-art pieces for one of each snow-covered basic land with gorgeous artwork by ELK64.
• Tales of the Time Stoppers - Here we get a bunch of cards referencing time effects represented over the game's history with fancy poster treatments. This Lair is notable for including the first non-foil printing of Nexus of Fate.
• Through the Wormhole - This final Lair includes several iconic Commander staples all placed in one solid package. While none of these cards are particularly pricey in their basic versions, these specialty versions almost certainly will be, and they'll make a great way to bling out your favorite decks - especially with those galaxy foils.

You can find the full details and see all of the cards here in Wizards' full announcement.

If you want to preorder them for yourself, make sure you check out the official Secret Lair website. Everything has an additional 10% off through the weekend until November 27th!

Art Controversy with Wayfarer's Bauble

Last Saturday, November 18th, Magic artist Lorenzo Lanfranconi - who has done pieces such as Storm of Saruman and Radiant Grove - noted on Twitter that there was something peculiar about a new card's art. Classic Fifth Dawn card and Commander Staple Wayfarer's Bauble saw a reprint in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan's Commander decks. With it came new artwork meant to better represent the setting. Lorenzo noticed that the background for the art seemed to be a mirrored and reworked version of a piece of artwork that they had previously done.

The artist of the new piece - David Sondered - was then said to be in contact with Lanfranconi as well as Wizards. Sondered soon after posted a statement and apology of his own, however since then he has deleted his Twitter account. On the following Monday, November 20th, Wizards put out a brief statement confirming the issue and stating that they would no longer be working with Sondered until further notice.

MagicCon Chicago Details Announced

On October 20th, I noted in that week's This Week in Magic article that the initial details for MagicCon Chicago were announced. However, at the time we only had basic information including dates (February 23-25, 2024) and the location (McCormick Place Lakeside Center), as well as various applicant information. This Tuesday, Wizards officially announced more lengthy details. These included badge packages, merchandise previews, ticketed event lineups, and more. They even showed off the following promo cards as well:

The Counterspell promo is being given out to all ticketed guests. The promo recalls the textless Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile promos formerly given out at MagicFests prior to the pandemic. The Ponder is a special Secret Lair variety promo that you get a copy of for every $150 you spend at the merchandise booth. The art utilizes several Chicago references, such as deep dish pizza, Chicago hot dogs, and local meme celebrity Chonkosaurus - a snapping turtle pictured on a chain.

You can find the full details here. There's far too much for me to list out in a small news article such as this and I highly recommend giving it a look through yourself if you're planning on going to Chicago. I'll be there myself with a creator pass, and you can be sure to catch me slinging some Pauper and talking up the format at the Pauper Cup event being held that Saturday!

JudgeApps Returns

Since 2020, longtime judge resource JudgeApps has been relatively unused. It never truly went away, but during the pandemic it wasn't exactly the spot judges went to organize, communicate, and plan their upcoming events. This Tuesday, Paul Baranay announced that JudgeApps would be making its grand return! The classic website will be utilized in tandem with the new Judge Foundry service. For more information, check out Paul's official announcement here.

PureMTGO Comes to a Close

Long time MTGO resource PureMTGO.com - an article news site associated with MTGOTraders - is coming to a close. The final article was announced to be Joshua Claytor's 750th State of the Program, which you can find here. The site has been around for many years and has been a helpful tool for many Magic Online players over the years. We bid it a fond farewell as another classic content site is sunset. Check it out and give it some love one more time.

Decklist of the Week

Quintorius Combo | Pioneer | triosk, MTGO Pioneer Showcase Challenge 1st Place

• Companion (1)
• 1 Keruga, the Macrosage

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Clever Impersonator
• 2 Greater Tanuki
• 4 Beanstalk Giant
• 4 Spark Double
• 4 Trumpeting Carnosaur

• Instants (3)
• 3 Consign // Oblivion

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Herd Migration

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Leyline Binding
• 4 Virtue of Persistence

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Quintorius Kand

• Lands (25)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Island
• 1 Plains
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Swamp
• 2 Indatha Triome
• 2 Ketria Triome
• 2 Raffine's Tower
• 2 Xander's Lounge
• 2 Zagoth Triome
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Stomping Ground

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Keruga, the Macrosage
• 2 Shefet Monitor
• 4 Bedeck // Bedazzle
• 4 Repudiate // Replicate
• 4 Thought Distortion

Buy This Deck Export text

When it was first announced that Discover was coming as a fixed Cascade, players eagerly awaited to see how it might break given Cascade's history in the game. As it turns out, they wouldn't have to wait long. The finals of the 431 player Pioneer Showcase Challenge ended up being a showdown between two different Discover combo decks. The second place list relied on Geological Appraiser and a number of cheap clones while the winner did so using Quintorius Kand. The deck utilizes a lot of cheap spells that avoid Discover such as Adventure spells and split cards to help control the game until you can reach Quintorius Kand. When you do, you use -3 ability to enable you to Discover 4. Since your only Discoverable spells are Clever Impersonator and Spark Double, you're able to clone Quintorius and do it over and over again. Each time, you drain away your opponents' life, and is accelerated by hitting a single Spark Double as it allows you to get multiple copies of Quintorius on the battlefield at once. Many players have excitedly commented how powerful the deck seems, but time will tell if these Discover combo decks maintain among the format's top dogs.

Paige Smith

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