Summary
Some of the coolest cards that have been released inMagic: The Gatheringhave come through Secret Lair Drops over the years. Many of the more valuable cards in the game have been released through this program, with special variants and exclusive artworks hidden among the various collections.
These cards generally aren’t found in regular Secret Lair Drops, and instead are bonus cards released in random drops for a limited time, with an extremely limited print run and no guarantee you’ll open one of these rare cards.
The prices of these cards come from TCGplayer’s Market Price and will fluctuate over time, especially since it doesn’t look like Magic is ending Secret Lairs anytime soon.
11Quick Sliver
Full-Art Foil - $78.88
Slivers do a lot of things that break the game in terms of traditional rules. Just one little creature can give major boosts to every other Sliver in play, multiplying your army many times over with just a could of creatures.
Among the more powerful Slivers to grace the game is Quick Sliver, a somewhat unassuming creature compared to some of the other bombastic creatures in the kindred type. What makes this Sliver so good is that it lets you cast all your Sliver spells at instant speed, letting you cast them at any time.
10Galerider Sliver
Full-Art Foil - $78.94
Among some of the first highly sought-after Secret Lair Bonus cards, the various Sliver card released became instantly coveted by players. For many of the Sliver-related cards released this way, it was the first time they were available in a modern frame, not to mention being full art variants.
Galerider Sliver takes the first slot on this list given its ability to give all your Slivers a huge advantage with their aerial superiority.Giving only your Slivers flyingis a departure from the usual flair of Slivers giving all creatures that share the type an ability, but it does make it the best way to give your Sliver creatures evasion.
9Gemhide Sliver
Full-Art Foil - $89.65
Another Sliver joins this Bonus Card list with Gemhide Sliver, an amazingly efficient mana ramper that has all your other Slivers joining the party to dump your hand out as quickly as possible. This two mana creature turns all your Slivers into Birds of Paradise, letting you tap them for a mana of any color.
Gemhide Sliver is an essential card for any Sliver-themed Commander deck, giving you all the mana you could possibly need or want, assuming you have a few Slivers out as well.
7Sliver Hive
Full-Art Foil - $225.86
The last of the Sliver-themed cards to top the Secret Lair Bonus card prices, Sliver Hive is the top land to play in any Sliver deck. It can add any mana of any color, but only if you’re casting a Sliver spell off of it.
The real importance of the card comes from its ability to create 1/1 Sliver tokens for just five mana. Even though those tokens don’t give anything to your other Slivers, they do receive all the bonuses your other Slivers grant.
6Shadowborn Apostle
#683-685 Alternate Art Foils - $80.70 - $265.44
There are only a few cards that bend one of the most basic rules of Magic, that you’re able to only have four copies of a card in your deck (or just one copy if you’re playing a singleton format like Commander). Shadowborn Apostle is one of the more popular cards that does this, letting you play as many copies of it in your deck as you like.
This version of the card features artwork from Meyoco, taking the usually very dark artwork for the card and giving it a lovely pastel feel.
5Jace, The Mind Sculptor
Wizard Of Barge Variant - $341.58
One of themost powerful planeswalkers ever printedand the boogeyman of Modern for years, the planeswalker Jace, the Mind Sculptor received a special Secret Lair card that was only available to a select few.
This variant was a participation promo for players who competed in either a Pro Tour or the World Championship events throughout 2023. If players placed in the Top 16, they would also have picked up a foil version of Jace. It’s not known exactly how many of these cards exist, but it’s likely in the low thousands, making it incredibly rare.
4Persistent Petitioners
#595 Borderless Foil, Casimir Lee Artwork - $342.00
Another card that bends the rules of Magic to the point of breaking, Persistent Petitioners lets you play as many copies as you’d like in your deck, though has a different end result than Shadowborn Apostle.
One Persistent Petitionerscan mill a player one card. Four mills them twelve. Keep playing more and more of them and you’ll be milling your opponents out in no time. There are eight Secret Lair variants of Persistent Petitioners, but the Casimir Lee one is by far the most valuable of them.
3Magic: The Baseballing Autograph Cards
Liliana, Garruk, and Chandra - $300.99 - $747.99
Every now and then a Secret Lair drop really nails the feel that it’s going for and one that truly knocked it out of the park was the Magic: The Baseballing drop. Based on classic baseball card designs, this drop took all the original planeswalkers and placed them together on a team, The Gatewatch.
The incredibly rare autographed cards became an instant favorite among fans, giving the original Lorwyn planeswalkers a new twist for collectors. At the time of this writing, the top three signed cards are Liliana, Garruk, and Chandra, with Liliana taking the top spot at more than $700.
2MagicCon Serialized Secret Lair Cards
Lord Of The Pit, Merfolk Of The Pearl Trident, and Swords To Plowshares - $600.00 - $998.99
Another very special Secret Lair drop, the three MagicCon Serialized cards are special classic Magic cards with a special twist. Each card in this limited drop is serialized, with only 295 copies of each available. You cannot purchase this Secret Lair, they are randomly distributed to attendees of MagicCons so all you can do is attend while feeling particularly lucky.
Among the most valuable of these cards include Lord of the Pit, Merfolk of the Pear Trident, and with Swords to Plowshares taking the top spot at $998.99 for a copy at the time of this writing. Don’t be surprised if more classic and iconic cards join this list as more MagicCons are hosted throughout the year.
