Last updated on September 28, 2025
Dwight's Weapon Stash | Illustration by Greg Staples
Contrary to popular belief, the term “jump the shark” doesn't come from the Jaws franchise, but rather from an episode of Happy Days. Regardless, it couldn't be more on the nose for Magic: The Gathering's most recent wave of Secret Lair announcements, which include some truly cool and inspired ideas, and also some very, very bizarre collaborations.
Ever wanted Dwight Schrute from The Office on your Magic cards? Well now you can!
Big Day for Secret Lair
Umbris, Fear Manifest | Illustration by Antonio José Manzanedo
MagicCon Atlanta brought players some huge news on Friday, including the majority of the 2026 Standard set line-up, as well as some sweet new previews from Lorwyn Eclipsed. There was also a massive Secret Lair showcase, which had people both amazed and confused at the same time.
It's safe to say Secret Lairs have become much more experimental over time, but something about the latest set of drops they announced is baffling. Of course, the strength of Secret Lair drops is that even the weirdest ones appeal to someone, and there's definitely a crowd that's going to lose it over having Dwight Schrute in their command zone, but it's pretty clear Secret Lair is just kind of throwing anything and everything at the wall. Some of it just barely sticks, some of it lands with a resounding splat, and the rest is down-right strange. Let's look at everything that was announced this week.
The Secret Scare Super-Drop
Releasing on October 13, 2026, the Secret Scare Super-Drop includes 10 individual collections of cards, with a light but inconsistent horror theme throughout. There are some pretty cool collabs in here, like the Artist Series: Kieran Yanner, featuring some sweet new art by the namesake artist on iconic cards like Armageddon and Demonic Tutor.
There's also the cool black-and-white Dreaming Darkly drop, as well as the fun Trick or Treat featuring kids in Halloween costumes of some popular legendary creatures. From there you get into some strange territory.
The Iron Maiden drops aren't so bad. Not everyone's cup of tea, but these are the perfect example of drops that are probably huge for fans of the band, and easy to skip over for anyone who's not invested. You can Run to the Hills yourself and grab two separate Iron Maiden-themed drops, one using album art from the band's discography, and the other depicting the band's mascot, Eddie the Head, on other classic MTG cards, like Nekusar, the Mindrazer, and of course, Iron Maiden itself.
Moving a wrung down the weirdness ladder, we've got an entire drop dedicated to Jaws. You know, the shark movie from 1975 your dad never shuts up about. Honestly, it's not that bad, it's just a little jarring at first. And the card quality's fine; you've got a copy of Sneak Attack, as well as the first-ever reprints of Descent into Avernus and Reckless Endeavor, both highly playable EDH cards. This drop also contains the mechanically unique Jaws, Relentless Predator, which Wizards confirms will get an in-universe reskin at some point in a future product. And you know what? It's rock solid, as a Charging Monstrosaur with a Blood-making ability that feels perfect for a bloodthirsty shark. It's still weird though, no getting past that.
And here's where we get into some truly deranged territory. Secret Lair x The Office: Dwight's Destiny, a collab no one asked for, depicts Dwight Schrute from The Office in some of his weirder scenarios from the American version of the television show. It's truly baffling in the most disturbing way, and falls straight into meme territory. Look, Rainn Wilson's been showing up all over the place lately, and power to him, but it's really hard to stomach that these are real Magic: The Gathering cards. The point of no return for MTG, it seems. It wouldn't really be that surprising if the bonus card from this drop ends up being “Kevin's Chili” as a reskin of Hot Soup.
And we can't forget to address the big, wide-eyed, fuzzy Furby in the room. There are three total Furby drops for anyone who grew up terrified of these little nightmares. Wizards even played into the stigma with a fully nightmare-themed drop containing monstrous Furbys (the way many people remember them). Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, Furby is owned by Hasbro. The three Furby-themed drops are:
- Secret Lair x Furby: Doo-Ay Noo-Lah: A random collection of Commander staples depicting Furbys in a sort of magical animated style.
- Secret Lair x Furby: The Gathering: More middle-of-the-road playables (Tormenting Voice is funny, but wildly power crept), mixing Furbys with more traditional Magic elements.
- Secret Lair x Furby: The Oddbodies: Furbys depicted as nightmarish horrors, or as some might say, Furbys in their true form.
The Other Drops
All of the above come from one big super-drop landing in October, but there were other, less bizarre drops coming out too.
We already knew about this one, but there's an entire Forgetful Fish/Dandân drop containing a ready-to-play Dandân deck for those who either love the format already, or want to get into it. That's an 80-card deck where the only creatures are the namesake Dandâns, and everything else is meant to either protect your own Dandâns or remove your opponent's. It's an engaging fan-made format perfect for seasoned or developing control players (shout out to Nick Floyd, who developed the original Forgetful Fish pile).
There's also a pretty sick PlayStation collaboration, featuring mechanically unique crossover cards of some of Sony's biggest video game mascots. There's no Crash Bandicoot in here, but you'll be able to play with the likes of Kratos from God of War, Nathan Drake from Uncharted, and Ellie & Joel (and Abby…) from The Last of Us, plus others. Secret Lair x PlayStation releases on October 27, 2025, and features the following individual drops:
- Secret Lair x The Last of Us Part I
- Secret Lair x The Last of Us Part II
- Secret Lair x God of War: Greek
- Secret Lair x God of War: Norse
- Secret Lair x Uncharted
- Secret Lair x Horizon: Into the Forbidden West
- Secret Lair x Ghost of Tsushima
Note that these drops should be made available at local game stores some time after release, which is the new default for Secret Lair drops with mechanically unique cards.
And finally, there's the Secret Lair Countdown Kit, something we've seen before as part of the 30th Anniversary celebrations back in 2022. The original kit included one iconic card for each calendar year that MTG's been around, with a wide range of flagship cards from Magic's history. That's happening again here, with an “Encyclopedia” theme, AKA one card for each letter of the alphabet.
Something for everyone and at least something for no one, depending on how many fans of The Office are also avid MTG players who want to combine those two things together. Regardless of how you feel about any individual announcement (or all of them as a whole), it's fun to see the experimentation happening with Secret Lair, and there's comfort knowing that some of this (looking at you, Furby) is just a Secret Lair collab, and not a full Standard set.
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7 Comments
(Contrary to popular belief, the term “jump the shark” doesn’t come from the Jaws franchise, but rather from an episode of The Brady Bunch.)
From a basic Google and TVTropes search, it’s not The Brady Bunch either. It was The Fonz in Happy Days.
You kids and your malproper pop culture references.
Yup, definitely botched that one. Fixed now but definitely got my 70s television mixed up.
Argh! It does not come from the Brady bunch. JUMP THE SHARK comes from Happy Days when the Fonz did it in his leather coat.
Jump the shark was coined from the show happy days, not the brady bunch.
Oh, you’re absolutely right. Look at me getting my 70s era sitcoms mixed up.
200% agree with the entire Office part. Its too much, as if we havent had too much already… whats next? John Stewart of the Daily Show? Or a Post Malone planeswalker??
The Office opens the door up to some scary possibilities…
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