0:00 Secret Lair's new Goblin Storm Commander deck costs $149.99. My scratch math has it around $250 in singles. That means the question isn't whether the value's there, it's whether this is one of the Secret Lair Commander decks people are going to regret missing, and are we even going to be able to buy it? Hey, I'm Joel. I cover magic prices and products so you can play more and waste less. Subscribe if you haven't, but you've been thinking about it. Today, we're talking about the new Secret Lair Commander deck, Goblin Storm. The reprint math, the Wizard of Barge collector angle, and whether you need to be ready when this goes live on May 18th.
0:45 Look, I spend most of my time on this channel telling you to buy singles. I stand by that, but I also know that some part of you, maybe a big part of you, might just want to crack packs. I get it. I'm right there with you. Packs.com is where you go when that part wins. Think of it as a place where they've put together custom collector packs just for you. Here's how it works. You crack digital packs of real cards right there in the browser. You can sell back whatever you pull that you don't want instantly, or just say, "Mail me that." and they'll ship you the actual cards. Real cards, your address, done. And these aren't just regular packs. Packs.com has specialty packs you can't find anywhere else. Things like the Expedition pack where you're guaranteed to pull a Zendikar Expedition, and the Masterpiece pack where every single pull
1:31 is a Kaladesh Invention. Those packs exist. You can open them right now. Now, let me be clear. Just like opening physical packs, you're almost certainly going to lose money doing this. It's not an investment strategy, but if you've already done the right things, your budget is locked, you know what I'm saying when I say the words Roth [music] and IRA, and you still have that itch to crack something open, Packs.com is a fun way to scratch it. You know the odds going in, and if you don't pull what you want, sell the cards back and buy what you actually need from their marketplace of cards. Use my link in the description and the pinned comment for 5% on your deposit. And hey, catch me live streaming because I'll be giving away cards directly from pax.com. At $149.99, I think Goblin Storm is a great buy if you want it. Not a cute Secret Lair buy
2:18 where the art's fun, and then you look at the singles and realize you paid $40 for $12 of cards and a dream. I mean, the actual reprint value is there. Using current pricing, the deck is around $250 in singles before I give much of a premium to the new Wizard of Barge art, the foil borderless cards, those panoramic mountains, or the secret card that's probably also got Barge art. The top of the value is Roaming Throne, Throne of Eldraine, you've got Shenanigans, Ruby Medallion, Arena of Glory, Seething Song, Goblin Lackey, Goblin Chieftain, and then a pile of one to five-dollar Commander and Goblin cards that add up faster than you'd think. Roaming Throne's around $45 to $50 by itself. Throne of Eldraine's around 30. Ruby Medallion, Arena of Glory are in that $10 to $12 range. Even when I'm conservative on the prices,
3:04 [music] the deck clears MSRP easily. So, my verdict up front, if you like Goblins, Wizard of Barge, sealed Secret Lairs, or strong mono-red Commander decks, be ready. The reason I'm confident in this product is that Secret Lair Commander decks already have a real sealed track record. These do not behave like normal precons. Raining Cats and Dogs is around $490 market with listings basically [music] in that 500-plus range. Angels They're Just Like Us But Cooler and With Wings is around 575 market. From Cute to Brutes around 335. 20 Ways to Wind is 245. Everyone's Invited is the most useful recent comp. It dipped under $200 briefly, but now it's back in the high 200s. Depending on the source, you're around 270 to 285, up about 10% over the
3:51 last 6 months and 16% on the year. That's the pattern I care about. Goblins gives this one a bigger audience than a random novelty deck. Roaming Throne gives it a value headline. Wizard Barge gives it a collector angle. That's a really strong setup. It also seems playable out of the box. Maybe we swap the commander though and take that storm subtheme out. The artist angle is the part that can push this secret layer over the top. Wizard Barge does not feel like a normal magic artist where people assume the style will show up in standard [music] sets, then commander decks, or bonus sheets, and some random jumpstart cards 3 years from now. This is an artist people already collect outside normal magic behavior. And the art style doesn't fit with typical magic releases. That means if you want Wizard
4:37 Barge magic cards, you are limited to secret layer. The clothing sells, the accessories sell, the style has a real audience. Secret layer is the cleanest place for Wizards to use that kind of artist, which makes these feel more collectible than normal reprints. And this deck gives you a lot of the art all at once. You get 12 foil borderless cards with new Wizard Barge artwork. You get 22 foil borderless panoramic mountains that match the whole Goblin chaos world. Then you get three more non-foil reprints with new art, Goblin Chieftain, Goblin Lackey, and Vandalblast. And look, the mountains matter more than people may realize. There are seven of the one side, eight of the middle, and then seven of the other side. So, the deck actually keeps the panoramic going instead of giving you one cute basic land of each and then 20-something
5:23 normal mountains that wander into the wrong party. By the way, if you bought earlier Wizard Barge cards, especially that Mimeoplasm drop, this looks like the next part of that collection. Get your Soul Ring. The reprint value on this Secret Lair deck starts with Roaming Throne. That's the financial headline here. Roaming Throne is a commander monster. It goes into kindred decks. It goes in value decks, decks where the commander has a triggered ability, decks where you might just need a chair, a big chair that doubles your farts or something. I don't know. And it keeps showing up as one of those cards people need but don't want to pay $50 for. So this was a reprint we needed and honestly need more of and the art style matters here. Before this you basically had the normal copy and the showcase copy and the showcase copy is not exactly [music] universally loved. It's
6:09 just cheaper. Now you get a wizard of barge version inside a limited secret lair commander deck. That could easily become the main copy that people [music] want. After that, Throne of Eldraine is the big artifact hit. It's a scarce mono color mana artifact from Wilds of Eldraine commander and it has not had the kind of broad reprint that pushes a price. Ruby Medallion is another real inclusion. It got a Modern Horizons 3 reprint and still climbed back into that $10 to $12 range because cost reducers are eternally useful in commander. Then the deck has some depth. It's a carousel of red or colorless playables. Seething Song, Goblin Lackey, Goblin Chieftain, Skullclamp, Sol Ring, Past in Flames, [music] Great Train Heist, Brightstone Ritual, Goblin Bombardment, War Room, Den of the Bugbear, Castle Embereth, Foundry Port. That's why the value works
6:55 here. It's not just one expensive card at the top doing all the work while the rest of the deck bombards its own goblins in the corner, if you know what I'm saying. The other thing I like is that Goblin Storm looks playable right out of the box. A lot of secret lair products are basically collector objects first and game pieces second. This [music] kind of reads like a real deck. Zada Hedron Grinder is the face commander and that makes the storm plan make sense. [music] You target Zada with something like Fists of Flames. Zada copies it for each other creature you control and suddenly you're drawing a bunch of cards, attacking with your army of goblins and counting higher on storm. That's the game plan. You've also got in the deck uh Krenko, Mob Boss and Pashalik Mons if you want to rebuild [music] toward normal goblin swarm instead of storm. Krenko makes too many
7:42 goblins, somebody removes him, you recast him, somebody sighs. Tale as old as time. The lands really help here, too. Arena of Glory is about $10 to $11 and giving a creature haste is a huge deal in Commander. Chinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep, is a scarce legendary land that makes sense in a mono-red deck with legendary goblins. Then you get Den of the Bugbear, Castle Embereth, War Room, Fountain Port, and those panoramic mountains. It really is a good package. My final verdict is simple. At $149.99, I think Goblin Storm is a buy. If you want one of these things, I would be there when it goes live on May 18th at 9:00 a.m. Pacific with fingers crossed. If you're buying to hold, think in terms of year plus, years plus, because that's way healthier with Sealed Magic. Let me know if you're buying this one, and if
8:28 you are, tell me whether you're buying it for the deck, the reprints, the art, or because you saw a bunch of goblins and just blacked out. Jump in the Discord if you want a community that stays on top of this stuff when products go live. Subscribe with notifications on. I'll see you next week.
