The full decklist for an upcoming Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair precon has leaked online, and goblin fans are in for a real treat. Leaks related to this deck began circulating in February with a sampling of cards from what looked like a mono-red goblin deck. The cards feature cartoonish art by Wizard of Barge for various cards like Pashalik Mons and Zada, Hedron Grinder. When some players who purchased the Dandan Secret Lair deck earlier this month received a commander deck called Goblin Storm instead, it confirmed the leaks were real.
On Sunday, entire decklists were posted to sites like Moxfield and Archidekt, and based on the estimated reprint value across all the cards, this deck could be worth up to $423. Zada, Hedron Grinder is placed as the commander. Every time you cast an instant or sorcery on just Zada, it copies that spell for each other creature you control that the spell could target — and each copy targets a different one of those creatures. The wording is a bit convoluted, but that way it would execute here would be to cast something like Wild Ride on Zada while you have a bunch of other goblins on the board. Zada would get +3/+0 and haste, as would every other creature on your side of the board.
This deck ramps up quickly and builds toward a large pile of goblins that can pick up blanket buffs in this way to ultimately end the game in one fell swoop.
For alternate strategies, there are a few other legendary goblins in here that could also slot into the commander role, like General Kreat, the Boltbringer; Krenko, Mob Boss; or Grenzo, Havoc Raiser. Kreat has the highest value among these with a price tag of around $10.
The real value in this deck, however, has nothing to do with goblins. Roaming Throne is the most expensive reprint here by a wide margin, coming in at around $60. Why? Roaming Throne is an absurdly powerful card with any kind of typal strategy. When you play it, you get to choose a creature type, then any triggered ability on a creature of that type activates a second time.
Consider Grenzo, Havoc Raiser. With his triggered ability, you choose one of two options whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player: goad one of their creatures into attacking another player or exile the top card of that player’s deck and then cast it. If Roaming Throne is already on the board, you can do both. Because you can select any creature type and it’s a colorless artifact creature, Roaming Throne is the kind of card you could pluck out of this precon and put in all sorts of other decks — like my beloved Jenova, Ancient Calamity mutant deck, for instance. The fact that Roaming Calamity also has ward 2 and has a solid 4/4 body all for a cost of only four mana makes it that much more enticing.
Other high-value cards in the deck include Throne of Eldraine, Ruby Medallion, and Arena of Glory. Throne of Eldraine’s price hovers just under $40, and with good reason. It’s a five-cost legendary mana rock that overperforms in mono-colored decks. Ruby Medallion reduces the cost of red spells you cast by one and only costs two mana itself, and every reprint of it so far is worth at least $10. Meanwhile, Arena of Glory is one of the best red lands ever, since you can exert it to generate an extra mana and give a creature cast with it haste.
Other notable cards include Moggcatcher, Goblin Trashmaster, and Seething Song. Moggcatcher has a three-cost activated ability that lets you search your deck for any goblin card. The Trashmaster gives you a blanket +1/+1 boost to all of your goblins (which is very solid when most goblin strategies involve a legion of 1/1 tokens. Seething Song offers a quick boost to your mana pool at instant speed. All things considered, this deck feels like a must-buy for goblin fans, but even more broadly, it has some really great, high-value red cards also worth considering.
We still don’t know exactly when Goblin Storm might be released or how much it’ll cost, but previous Secret Lair commander decks — like last May’s Everyone’s Invited! deck — have been priced at $200. If that’s the case with Goblin Storm, then you’re getting more than double that value in cards.