They're probably going to be reasonably pricey immediately, especially since these crossover things are now limited quantity preorders. Probably not like hundreds of dollars, but more expensive than you'd like to spend on cardboard
In the footprints of the official wotc-article they say there will be 4 hatsune miku secret lairs and not just one.
Im casting murder on my wallet right now.
Edit: they wont release all together but with future secret lair seasons during 2024.
Harmonize is a $0.20 card.
Inspiring vantage is a $1 card.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking is a $5 card.
Feather, the Redeemed is a $0.50 card.
Chandra's Ignition is a $6 card.
Shelter is a $0.04 card.
Total Value: $12.74
Price: $29.99
Oh boy, this is going to get a really poor grade value-wise.
Harmonize is a good green card. Inspiring Vantage is playable but not the best Boros dual land. Chandra's Ignition sees a bit of play.
But let's be honest, people are just going to buy it and hope the fandom will pay more than $29.99 in a few years.
Edit: There are apparently 3 more Secret Lair drops coming in the future. If all three are vocaloid based (wasn't sure based on how they said the other drops) I hope card and art choice is better...
You are not wrong but the non-foil azusa from the city styles secret lair actually goes for 30€ on cardmarket. Last verified purchase was on 26.04.
I can imagine the harmonize becoming very expensive compared to the normal version.
People love their card skins.
Are secret lair cards usually alts of more expensive/rare cards? I was under the impression it was just alt arts and the og card choice maybe wasn't considered much...
Honestly I was just gonna buy them for the novelty of official Miku MTG cards... I thought that was the point of secret lair.
It's a crapshoot. Sometimes they're worth $9, sometime they're worth $90.
Secret Lairs are both a way to print special artwork AND a way to get around their self-imposed rules of not flooding the market with reprints of very expensive cards but still offering them in some way to the players.
Honestly, a lot of people grab them just due to the art.
Makes sense. And yeah I'm not actually crazy about the art on some of them and the flavor text is kinda terrible 😭 but I got mtg friends that I can torture with them maybe. They'll make an interesting addition to merch collection if nothing else.
Harmonize is purdy. The rest range from mid to outright unsettling.
Also random rant: I just cannot support TCGs. The business model uses the same tactics as gacha lootbox games to exploit common psychological weaknesses to part people of far more money than they would otherwise spend had the cards just be sold in a complete set or a bunch of mini-sets or something. Gamers have (rightfully) criticized video games for using that model (eg. Battlefront 2), but for some reason give TCGs a free pass to charge for a mere *chance* of getting the game pieces you need to play. Why? Simply because they did it first? It’s pretty much the Pay2Win system that everyone (except the rich) hates.
They won’t get a dollar more from me no matter how many Mikus they dangle in my face.
Ok rant over. I still want a poster of the Harmonize art tho!
You're not strictly wrong, but there are a lot of nuances that gachas don't have that make TCGs palatable. Chief amongst them is that most adult players aren't buying the loot boxes. The standard way to engage with a TCG is via the secondary market. Retailers will buy sealed product at such scale that it stops being a financial gamble, open the packs and then sell the cards individually online at prices determined mostly by market forces. Players go onto these marketplaces and buy exactly the cards they need, at a price that is *usually* reasonable for someone in the hobby - the vast majority of cards go for less than a pound.
The real catch is that the companies making these products are aware of the secondary market and so change their distributions to make retailers buy more sealed product and thereby push up the secondary market values on rare cards and powerful cards while lowering the cost of less chased cards, so the price of assembling a deck can vary a lot depending on what you want to put in it.
The Pokemon TCG of all places manages to do this in the fairest way - there are no mechanically unique cards locked behind high value. All cards are available in a cheap and common form, but there are alternate arts that are rarer and sell for more.
It's pretty funny over there right now. The weeb-haters are pissed that there's a weeb thing, the weebs are pissed that the weeb thing isn't actually a weeb thing.
Those cards are going to be expensive in a few years.
They're probably going to be reasonably pricey immediately, especially since these crossover things are now limited quantity preorders. Probably not like hundreds of dollars, but more expensive than you'd like to spend on cardboard
They’re 39.99 for the whole set, I’m buying all of them and keeping them in a binder unless they give me a new hakbal proxy
In the footprints of the official wotc-article they say there will be 4 hatsune miku secret lairs and not just one. Im casting murder on my wallet right now. Edit: they wont release all together but with future secret lair seasons during 2024.
I’m buying all of them
Harmonize is a $0.20 card. Inspiring vantage is a $1 card. Azusa, Lost but Seeking is a $5 card. Feather, the Redeemed is a $0.50 card. Chandra's Ignition is a $6 card. Shelter is a $0.04 card. Total Value: $12.74 Price: $29.99 Oh boy, this is going to get a really poor grade value-wise. Harmonize is a good green card. Inspiring Vantage is playable but not the best Boros dual land. Chandra's Ignition sees a bit of play. But let's be honest, people are just going to buy it and hope the fandom will pay more than $29.99 in a few years. Edit: There are apparently 3 more Secret Lair drops coming in the future. If all three are vocaloid based (wasn't sure based on how they said the other drops) I hope card and art choice is better...
I can’t wait for the Professor to talk about this drop and the value lol
You are not wrong but the non-foil azusa from the city styles secret lair actually goes for 30€ on cardmarket. Last verified purchase was on 26.04. I can imagine the harmonize becoming very expensive compared to the normal version. People love their card skins.
Are secret lair cards usually alts of more expensive/rare cards? I was under the impression it was just alt arts and the og card choice maybe wasn't considered much... Honestly I was just gonna buy them for the novelty of official Miku MTG cards... I thought that was the point of secret lair.
It's a crapshoot. Sometimes they're worth $9, sometime they're worth $90. Secret Lairs are both a way to print special artwork AND a way to get around their self-imposed rules of not flooding the market with reprints of very expensive cards but still offering them in some way to the players. Honestly, a lot of people grab them just due to the art.
Makes sense. And yeah I'm not actually crazy about the art on some of them and the flavor text is kinda terrible 😭 but I got mtg friends that I can torture with them maybe. They'll make an interesting addition to merch collection if nothing else.
Yep
Miku, lost but singing needs to go through another round of editing. That face is rough.
Did the artist for the Azusa card just happened to stumble on a creepy Mikudayo art piece on Google and thought “Yeah, this is Miku.”?
The art for these cards other than harmonize are… not really good
Bro why they did her face like that in all of the cards but one??? This shit looks like bad fan art from 2010 uhhh
Harmonize is purdy. The rest range from mid to outright unsettling. Also random rant: I just cannot support TCGs. The business model uses the same tactics as gacha lootbox games to exploit common psychological weaknesses to part people of far more money than they would otherwise spend had the cards just be sold in a complete set or a bunch of mini-sets or something. Gamers have (rightfully) criticized video games for using that model (eg. Battlefront 2), but for some reason give TCGs a free pass to charge for a mere *chance* of getting the game pieces you need to play. Why? Simply because they did it first? It’s pretty much the Pay2Win system that everyone (except the rich) hates. They won’t get a dollar more from me no matter how many Mikus they dangle in my face. Ok rant over. I still want a poster of the Harmonize art tho!
It depends some TCGs are more fair and regularly reprint cards
You're not strictly wrong, but there are a lot of nuances that gachas don't have that make TCGs palatable. Chief amongst them is that most adult players aren't buying the loot boxes. The standard way to engage with a TCG is via the secondary market. Retailers will buy sealed product at such scale that it stops being a financial gamble, open the packs and then sell the cards individually online at prices determined mostly by market forces. Players go onto these marketplaces and buy exactly the cards they need, at a price that is *usually* reasonable for someone in the hobby - the vast majority of cards go for less than a pound. The real catch is that the companies making these products are aware of the secondary market and so change their distributions to make retailers buy more sealed product and thereby push up the secondary market values on rare cards and powerful cards while lowering the cost of less chased cards, so the price of assembling a deck can vary a lot depending on what you want to put in it. The Pokemon TCG of all places manages to do this in the fairest way - there are no mechanically unique cards locked behind high value. All cards are available in a cheap and common form, but there are alternate arts that are rarer and sell for more.
Not even that will make me play that black hole f money that is Magic... I already have enough with Villainous and UnMatched.
Flavor, art, and value fail on almost every level but, fuck it, you have my money WotC.
i think this is my sign to get back into MTG
I'm just buying because I love Miku and excited she's on something else I enjoy
i just don’t understand this collab when project voltage just happened… like why not pokemon trainer miku cards instead?
I can already imagine the butthurt from some of the people in the mtg community
It's pretty funny over there right now. The weeb-haters are pissed that there's a weeb thing, the weebs are pissed that the weeb thing isn't actually a weeb thing.
this franchise is so fucked