Wizards of the Coast has given us a glimpse of the brand new Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair drops coming next year — including a preview of five Secret Lairs coming in 2021, and one in 2022.
In a recent WeeklyMTG livestream on Thursday, Wizards revealed their plans to release more Secret Lair drops in 2021, and they announced that 2021 will almost entirely use the "Superdrop" model, which were made up of multiple individual drops that could purchased over a longer period of time instead of individual drops that are available for only 24 hours.
"We've learned [over the last year] that, for a lot of our fans, those bigger event-style sales are really convenient," explained Mark Heggen, Product Architect at Wizards of the Coast. "There's less to track, you can check in, […] see what's for sale, [and] see if anything works for you."
"Our plan right now is to run almost [every Secret Lair Drop] through these superdrops next year," he added. "There will always be exceptions—there will be a specific drop here or there that calls to stand alone. For example, we did a drop with Extra Life that was raising money for their campaign and that's the kind of thing that just works best on its own."
According to Heggen, the first 2021 superdrop will be in February, which "will be a similar size and scale" to the current Secretversary Superdrop, and that there will be another superdrop in "a couple months after that and [another] a couple months after that."
Heggent also talked about how 2021 Secret Lairs will be more focused on artists. The Secretversary Superdrop included the first Artist Series Secret Lair featuring the art of Seb McKinnon. Wizards will continue this in 2021 starting with Artist Series: Johannes Voss. Although WotC didn't reveal the contents of the drop, they shared a preview of art from one of the cards:
Wizards is also teaming up with Kaja and Phil Foglio, Seattle-based writers/artists best known for their steampunk-fantasy series Girl Genius. They will also produce their own Artist Series, which is set to release in 2022.
Here's a sketch from the Foglio Secret Lair: Artist Series:
Wizards also said that they are planning to bring new artists to Magic in 2021, and award-winning comic book artist Fiona Staples will be the featured in a Secret Lair. She is best known as the illustrator and artist of the graphic novel SAGA, written by Brian K. Vaughan.
"We also have a lot of new artists, people who haven't ever done a Magic card but they're amazing artist talent and we want to bring them in," Heggen said. "So we're going to try a new thing next year as almost more of a ‘special guest.'"
Heggen also said that they plan to release more full-frame treatments similar to Party Hard, Shred Harder drop cards. He previewed a card from an upcoming Secret Lair that continues the concert poster theme but it doesn't have the death metal style of Party Hard, Shred Harder. Check out Nature's Lore by Jeff Soto that will be featured in a Secret Lair drop in 2021:
Last month, Wizards ran a poll asking fans to choose between two creature types. In one poll, Dinosaur beat Knights, so Wizards will be releasing a Dinosaur Secret Lair in 2021.
The last Secret Lair teaser Wizards shared reveals an image with a "Read the Fine Print" drop in a split-second image that appeared on the screen. The drop will feature four creatures and one enchantment, but they didn't reveal any information about it. That's probably Liliana's four demons and the enchantment is Demonic Contract.
Wizards also said that starting with this week's Secretversary Superdrop and continuing next year, customers can preorder a drop and then be charged around the time the product is ready to ship. The company will send an email when the drop is ready to ship, and there will be a two-week window in which customers can pay.
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