MTG Secret Lair bonus cards include new outlaws, trolls and Hatsune Miku
WotCMagic: The Gathering’s Spring Secret Lairs are starting to arrive, with players getting their hands on Hatsune Miku: Sakura Superstar, Goblingram, Outlaw Anthology, and more. These Secret Lairs have proven more popular than MTG’s Winter Superdrop and hopefully signal an upward trend in fan interest.
Alongside the previously revealed cards, several bonus cards have been found among these Secret Lair releases, giving the sets an added sense of completion.
Outlaws Anthology bonus card: Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Grand Cenobite marked the debut of New Phyrexia’s tyrannical white-mana Praetor, Elesh Norn. Making quite the impression on fans, Norn has only risen in popularity and prominence over the years, serving as the Big Bad of the Phyrexian Invasion arc.
Though she and her fellow Praetors were finally defeated in the March of the Machine set, Norn’s memory lives on in all white mana players looking to buff their board and drain opponents’ life.
With Norn’s role in MTG’s story coming to a close, this bonus card has a little more fun with the character than is typical in MTG’s premier sets. Her cruel and unusual combat pose/temporary headwear hasn’t gone unnoticed, as pointed out by Reddit user jakobpinders: “It’s a literal “cowboy” hat. Not sure how that has not been mentioned.”
Poker Faces bonus card: Fierce Empath
A classic piece of green mana support, Fierce Empath has very little combat presence in its own right but can be used to fetch your highest-value Creatures and set up for an explosive turn.
Fierce Empath – arriving with the Poker Faces Secret Lair – is the outlier among these bonus cards, being a Rare with little relevance to modern-day Magic outside of mono-green.
Secret Lair x Hatsune Miku bonus card: Encore Electromancer/Snapcaster Mage
The best value bonus card among these Secret Lairs by far, Snapcaster Mage has given players yet more reasons to be excited about Miku’s 2024 collaboration with Magic.
Snapcaster Mage has historically been a major force in the Modern format, and for good reason. Packing the Flash ability and granting an Instant or Sorcery in your graveyard Flashback, Snapcaster allows you to get additional use out of a key spell exactly when you need it.
Goblingram bonus card: Thrun, the Last Troll
Thrun has the honor of being the Spring Secret Lair 2024 bonus card that is by far the best at being incorporated into its set. Thrun acts as a literal internet troll throughout the Goblingram set, leaving snide comments below each post.
With a small presence on each Goblingram card, it was only a matter of time until Thrun got a Secret Lair card of his own, and this final bonus doesn’t disappoint. The card was hinted at so well throughout the set that Thrun is the – as Reddit user Packrat1010 put it: “Least surprising bonus card so far.”