As someone who mostly prefers playing Magic: The Gathering with whatever crummy cards happen to be sitting around as opposed to spending lots of money collecting them, I’m not really the audience for Secret Lair. Even so, I have to admit that the recent Goblin Storm Commander Deck was pretty neat. The goblin-themed deck features a number of cards with incredible new original art by the talented Dakota Cates, aka Wizard of Barge, as well as some other reprints with new and old artwork. It’s a very cool set for fans of weird little dudes, and so even though it costs a whopping $150, I can understand why a lot of people really wanted to get their hands on this.
Of course, it sold out in 34 minutes.
It sold out that quickly in spite of a one-deck-per-person limit, and in spite of a purchasing cue that let people sit in a virtual line to get one…if they could even get the site to work. On social media, many folks reported entering the queue right when it opened, wasting half an hour watching it, and still not being able to purchase a deck. The artist himself, Cates, was not even able to buy a deck through the system, according to a post he made on Reddit yesterday:
“I’m obviously super disappointed in how the drop was handled,” he wrote. “I woke up just like all of you to try and buy a second copy (yes I only get one), and just like many of you, it sold out while it was in my cart.
“I spent months on the concepts and art for this deck, and it truly was my dream project with Magic, as many of you know. We promoted the deck around me as the artist, and I did everything they’d let me to prioritize my fan base, many of which were planning to get into Magic via this deck.”
What’s worse is that even with the one-per-person limit, scalpers still managed to get ahold of decks and are now selling them for absurdly high prices on eBay. A quick check of the listings shows one deck having sold for a whopping $999, while more decks have already gone for prices in the $400-$600 range.
You could maybe argue that this is to be expected with exclusive, expensive items like this, but what’s really making fans angry is that Secret Lair hasn’t always been this way! Back in 2024, Secret Lair used to be print-to-demand: you’d order what you wanted during a set time period, and they’d just print however many cards were needed to fill all the orders. Wizards of the Coast has previously explained that the change took place because despite being billed as print-to-demand, it was actually pre-printing cards and only printing more once the initial supply ran out. As such, it was losing money from unsold product sitting on shelves. But if it moved to true print-to-demand, shipping times would be astronomical due to the time needed to actually print and ship that many cards—something that players did experience in the early days of Secret Lair when it was truly print-to-demand.
But based on fan feedback now, it seems like the wait might be worth it, both to ensure people can actually buy the cards they want at a reasonable price and to deter scalpers. Numerous comments across Reddit, Threads, and other platforms are begging Wizards of the Coast to return to print-to-demand, or at least consider doing a second run of the cards.
So far, Wizards of the Coast is silent, though Cates himself has made multiple statements on his frustration with how things played out. At the time this piece was written, his Instagram included a silly Story of someone painting a wall green with the text “I SURVIVED GOBLINGATE2026 AND ALL I GOT WAS SCALPED BY BOTS.” One fan has posted a screenshot of another Story allegedly posted earlier and no longer available with text from Cates reading, “Personally, I’d rather yall bootleg the entire deck than pay these scalper prices. GOBLINS ARE FOR THE PEOPLE!!!!!!!” That call is being echoed by numerous fans, who are already sharing PDFs of the cards for fans to “proxy” and essentially print their own versions of the decks for use in casual play.
On Reddit, Cates said he’s speaking to Wizards of the Coast to see if it can bring more Goblin Storm decks into circulation, though he’s “not counting on it.” Kotaku has also reached out to Wizards of the Coast for comment.