Secret Lair Unbans Make Budget Bird Soar 972% in Price

Last updated on September 8, 2026

Baleful Strix | Illustration by Nils Hamm

The price of Baleful Strix skyrocketed over Labor Day weekend following an announcement from Gavin Verhey that the little bird, along with a handful of other commons, would become legal in Pauper after being printed at common in Secret Lair x MSCHF: The Zeta Set, rescinding a previous statement.

Source: MTGStocks

This graph shows the Double Masters print of Baleful Strix spiking a cool 271% over the past month, most of the attention applied recently. But this applies to all 19 prints of Strix prior to Zeta (prices for the three new versions in Zeta are unavailable at time of writing). The once $2 card can't be found for less than $10, with the price spike driven by Pauper hype.

How Is Baleful Strix Legal In Pauper?

Secret Lair x MSCHF: The Zeta Set is an experimental product, the first and perhaps last attempt to print a Secret Lair product in booster packs, mimicking the design of a regular Magic set. Using booster packs means using a rarity system to sort out what goes in each pack. This meant a handful of cards needed to be at common, which would invite Pauper legality…except some of these commons were extremely strong.

Initially, Gavin Verhey, speaking on behalf of the Pauper Format Panel, announced that these cards would not be legal in Pauper as they were printed with no regard to the format and some, like Narcomoeba and Price of Progress, were likely to warp the format. However, this decision was overturned as the PFP saw that the Pauper community was largely in favor of playing with these cards.

Starting September 7, the 12 common downshifts from The Zeta Set became Pauper legal, though Narcomemba and Price of Progress were immediately added to the Pauper ban list, and Baleful Strix, along with Vandalblast, Cut Down, and Dispatch put on a watch list to make sure they don't cause issues.

Why Is Baleful Strix Good in Pauper?

The most obvious benefactor of Baleful Strix are various flavors of ninja tempo that gained an evasive creature with a strong enters ability to bounce with Ninja of the Deep Hours and Moon-Curcuit Hacker, but I suspect more decks will play it because Baleful Strix is perfect for Pauper.

In the commons-only format, card advantage is king because the threats are…not weak, but rarely capable of dominating a game; there's no parallel to Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes or White Plume Adventurer to just sit behind and win the game (though Writhing Chrysalis comes close) but great removal abounds, so winning a Pauper game often has more to do with seeing more cards than sticking a better threat faster than your opponent.

The Strix does this on all points. The ideal play pattern is to play this on turn 2, then attack on turn 3 and bounce it with a MCH and replay it, drawing three cards and sticking two threats for 5 mana. But the Strix doesn't need ninjas to present an advantage because of that tricky keyword deathtouch.

Baleful Strix always trades, and it almost always trades favorably since it cantripped when it entered. How can you justify sending your Tolarian Terror into a Strix when they drew a card, but you didn't? Even the most effective reach creature, Writhing Chrysalis, struggles favorably. Playing Baleful Strix gives its controller card advantage and incredible control over the combat step. While it dies to most removal, a Lighyning Bolt still favors the Strix player; the best answers are spells like Electrickery and Pestilence that can remove the Strix and multiple other threats at once, but these are either rarely played or kept in the sideboard.

I'm not versed enough in Pauper to make a strong claim as to whether or not the Strix is too powerful for the format, but it will absolutely reshape the format as one of its premier staples.