Wizards of the Coast has officially confirmed a Monster Hunter-themed Secret Lair, ending roughly a week of rampant speculation sparked by a teaser on the Secret Lair website (and some subsequent data-mining that essentially confirmed it). Last week, the Secret Lair homepage quietly swapped its banner text to “Hunter Rank required: ???” a direct Monster Hunter reference that made the impending crossover obvious. Data-miners then uncovered early references to a “Monster Hunter Superdrop” which meant we’d be getting multiple card bundles as opposed to just one. Then on Tuesday, Wizards dropped the formal announcement: Launching Dec. 1, the Superdrop features four themed mini-sets called The Hunt, The Hunters, The Monsters, and The Monsters II. Each will be available in both English and Japanese with both foil and non-foil variants with various bundles going up to the “Master Rank Everything Bundle” that includes, well, literally everything from the superdrop for $559. 84. There’s also the Amped State Surge Foil Bundle which is the only option for surge foil versions of these cards. As is the case with every Secret Lair drop, most of these cards are reprints of pre-existing cards, reskinned with Monster Hunter art and flavor text. Considering it’s largely a bunch of giant monsters and the heroes who hunt them, it’s a perfect fit for Magic. Select bundles from this superdrop will also include a foil Sol Ring promo card featuring Valtrax as he vents dragon energy from its wings, fitting for a card that generates two colorless mana when tapped. The Hunt Blind Obedience as “Crimson Moonlight” Snap as “Kushala Daora’s Fury” Village Rites as “Song of the Barbarous Beast” Mizzium Mortars as “The Rage of Yian Garuga” Tooth and Nail The Hunt features two Instants, two Sorceries, and one Enchantment. Crimson Moonlight, Kushala Daora’s Fury, and Song of the Barbarous Beast are all cheap spells with decent effects. The other two, however, seem hugely powerful, albeit super expensive. The Rage of Tian Garuga deals 4 damage to a target creature you don’t control for only two mana, which itself is solid. But for an additional six mana, Overload lets it target all of your opponent’s creatures as opposed to just one. In a lot of cases, this could wipe out all of your opponent’s creatures for eight total mana. That’s a lot of mana to pay for just about anything, but it’s easy to imagine a card like this working really well with the new Firebending mechanic if you can find a way to give all of your sorceries Flash. Tooth and Nail is similarly an expensive but potentially game-winning gambit. For seven mana, you can search your deck for up to two creatures and put them in your hand OR put two creatures from your hand onto the battlefield. But for an additional two mana with Entwine, you can do both. So if you have nine mana handy, you can basically just draw out your two biggest and best creatures and dump them right into the fight. For a franchise like Monster Hunter, this flavor is spot-on and it’s easy to see this card winning games when combined with all of the mana generating tools that Green has in Magic, especially something like Badgermole Cub. The Hunters Grand Abolisher as “Dual-Bladed Hunter” Archaeomancer as “Hero of Hoarfrost Reach” Grim Haruspex as “Nargacuga Stalker” Imperial Recruiter as “Bherna Huntmaster” Champion of Lambholt as “Champion of Kotoko” Each of the Hunters here is a relatively cheap mono-colored creature that really leans into each color identity. There’s not really anything game-winning here, but Nargacuga Stalker sets up a nice draw engine for any Black decks focused on sacrificing creatures. And Champion of Kotoko can really thrive in Voltron decks focused on +1/+1 counter generation. Pair it with cards like Ouroboroid from Edge of Eternities, and things can spiral out of control for your opponents pretty quickly. The Monsters Nezahal, Primal Tide as “Lagiacrus, Lord of the Seas” Drakuseth, Maw of Flames as “Rathalos, King of the Skies” Ziatora, the Incinerator as “Fatalis, the Black Dragon” Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire as “Nergigante, Herald of Destruction” Sarulf, Realm Eater as “Zinogre, Lord of Lightning” These are, fittingly, absolute monsters expensive, huge creatures that could play really well as Commanders. Lagiacrus seems like the standout here, setting up a bit of a draw engine while also granting you no maximum hand size. Being able to discard three cards to exile and bring it back to the battlefield is a great way to avoid him getting KO’d as well. The Monsters II Razaketh, the Foulblooded as “Gore Magala, Dark Eclipse” Kalamax, the Stormsire as “Brachydios, Brutish Indigo” Wasitora, Nekoru Queen as “Nargacuga, Ever-Present Shadow” Amareth, the Lustrous as “Velkhana, Silver Sovereign” The second batch of Monsters is largely more of the same: massive creatures that are dinosaurs, demons, or dragons that could each headline a Commander deck. Brachydios and Nargacuga seem like the standouts here. Brachydios is relatively cheap at four mana, and you get to copy any instant if it’s tapped, and doing so just makes him stronger by giving him a +1/+1 counter. Nargacuga also seems cheap at five mana for a 5/4 with abilities this good. With Flying and Trample, he’ll almost always hit an enemy player in combat. Doing so then forces them to sacrifice a creature. If they can’t, you get a 3/3 cat dragon. What could be better than that?.
https://www.polygon.com/mtg-monster-hunter-secret-lair-superdrop/
