Secret Lair Definitively Answers Age-Old Question: Cats or Dogs?

Last updated on March 30, 2025

Plains | Illustration by Alayna Danner

Two of Magic's latest Secret Lairs have set out to settle, once and for all, the age-old question: Who's really the goodest boy?

On Monday, Wizards of the Coast launched two back-to-back Secret Lairs as part of the Chaos Vault: Cats Are Better Than Dogs, and Dogs Are Better Than Cats.

The twist? Both Lairs have the exact same cards, namely Escape to the Wilds, Rip Apart, Titanic Ultimatum, Arcane Signet, and Basilisk Collar, but with different art – as you may imagine, cute kittens in one, playful pups in the other.

And here's the kicker!

Whichever Lair out-sold the other would get a Super Drop in 2026 repeating the theme. As WotC described it: “This event is all about Cats vs Dogs—because we just can’t agree on which pet should inspire an entire Superdrop next year. That’s why we’re asking you to decide for us.”

Source: WotC – Secret Lair Website

And for those that have a soft heart for both pets, WotC's staff even listed the objective, scientific pros for both of them:

Fighting Like Cats and Dogs

Both teams put up a really fierce fight, so much so that these Dogs versus Cats Lairs even surprised onlookers from the MTG finance subreddit, many of whom assumed these Lairs would sell poorly. After all, when you go by reprint value, you could buy all five of these cards for a cool $5: Commander players are by now buried in Arcane Signets, and while the other four cards all see EDH play, two of them costs half a dollar and the other two you can get for about $2-$3.

“Another secret lair with cards worth less than a booster pack,” was one way a disgruntled redditor described them. 

But jaded card traders should not have underestimated the power of fuzzy cuteness…

Source: WotC – Secret Lair Website

… as witnessed in all four Lairs – both the regular and the foil versions of each – being sold out in a matter of hours!

So who out-sold who, if they all sold out?

Well, it turns out that when it comes to buying shiny things…

Source: WotC – Secret Lair Website

… cat people have the fastest wallets.

“As someone who owns both,” noted u/Hmukherj, “this makes sense to me. I definitely spend way more on random [expletive] that I hope will entertain my cat than I do on my dogs.”

What Will the Cat Superdrop Be About? When Will it Release?

The Cats are Better than Dogs victory promises a cats-only Superdrop some time in 2026, but says nothing about what the cards will be.

One possible guess is WotC issuing new art for cards that already have cats in them. Magic has more than 300 cats, and cards like Jetmir, Nexus of Revels or Lurrus of the Dream-Den are among Magic's best-known staples. And that's not counting planeswalkers that, while technically not having the cat creature type, are obviously in the same group, like Lord Windgrace and Ajani's gazillion versions.

If we go by yesterday's Cats versus Dogs Secret Lairs, though, it looks like WotC prefers new art for non-creature spells. Given how good MTG artists are, all bets are off about which cards they could reimagine as adorable kittens.

The only solid hint from these two lairs is the commander color identity: two are colorless cards and the other three fit with a Naya commander, as a clear nod to the Rin and Seri, Inseparable “Raining Cats and Dogs” deck from a previous SL. If you need more Rin and Seri, we have an EDH deck guide all about this animal pair.

As a consolation prize for the runner-up, dog lovers can rest assured that, no matter how many pets WotC puts a Basilisk Collar on…

… no version will beat Fallout‘s best boy.

And, who knows? Although Team Kittens won and the 2026 Superdrop will be cat-themed, maybe WotC will still throw Team Pups a bone!