Secret Lair Festival in a Box Boasts Pricey Reprints

Last updated on May 6, 2025

Oloro, Ageless Ascetic | Illustration by Eric Deschamps

The Secret Lair drops keep coming and they won't stop coming. This time we've got news of MagicCon Las Vegas's exclusive Festival in a Box, containing an array of experimental promos and a Secret Lair drop that you'll otherwise only be able to get in person at the Las Vegas Convention Center in June.

What's In the Box?

Box of Free-Range Goblins | Illustration by Chris Seaman

Festival in a Box is a product linked directly to big MagicCon events, available only to people who attend, or to anyone who's lucky enough to beat the Secret Lair website and buy one during the short window they're available online. The Vegas version will be available on magicsecretlair.com on May 19, starting at 9:00am PST. If previous FiaBs are any indication, it'll sell out quick.

Here's what you can expect from the Vegas Festival in a Box:

• 1 Mystery Booster 2 Booster Box
• 1 Slay the Day Secret Lair Drop
• 3 Exclusive promos

Mystery Booster 2

Mystery Booster 2 released in 2024, and consists of a whopping 1,800+ cards with all sorts of different frames, treatments, and surprising inclusions. The sequel to 2019's well-received Mystery Booster upped the ante (don't worry, no ante cards were included), and really went out of its way to feel like something special. You can open playtest cards, reprints with white borders or Time Spiral frames, and even Arena-only Alchemy cards like Oracle of the Alpha, which were printed in paper with acorn stamps for the first time. It has a goofy and random feel to it, but it's a blast to draft, and there's definitely value hiding in that massive pool of cards.

Slay the Day Secret Lair

The Slay the Day Secret Lair is a Commander-forward drop featuring a quartet of popular legends illustrated by Craig Drake. The drop features the following cards:

• Sythis, Harvest's Hand
• Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
• Liesa, Shroud of Dusk
• Marwyn, the Nurturer
• Likely a fifth bonus card, unknown at the time.

Notably, Sythis and Oloro are in the top 100 most played commanders of the last two years according to EDHREC, and Liesa's just short at #112. And there will always be an elf following in Magic, so there's a home for Marwyn too, which overall makes this a pretty respectable Secret Lair drop for Commander players. Oloro's really the only card of value here, but having this as a throw-in with the rest of the FiaB package makes the individual card values a bit more tolerable.

These cards all appear in rainbow foils, and interestingly, this is the first time any of these cards have been featured with brand-new artwork.

Exclusive Promos

As with the exclusive Secret Lairs, each big MagicCon of 2025 will feature different promos as part of its Festival in a Box. The Vegas rendition has the following:

• Traditional foil, retro-framed Ugin the Spirit Dragon, with an alternate planeswalker textbox.
• Sliver Hive, also as a traditional foil retro border reprint.
• All-You-Can-Eat Buffet playtest card. Fairly useless but a fun little Future Sight variant that lets you eat off the top of your library.

The cheapest versions of Ugin are currently around $17-20, and Sliver Hive is roughly the same. The latter is a welcome reprint, especially considering how badly Wizards fumbled by not including it in the Sliver Swarm sliver precon from Commander Masters. The only other printing comes as a random bonus card across some older Secret Lair drops, and runs upwards of $150-200 right now.

Is It Worth It?

Revel In Riches | Illustration by Eric Deschamps

The initial announcement didn't mention a price, but the previous 2025 Festival in a Box from Chicago MagicCon was sold for $200. So, assuming that price isn't being hiked up for this one (bold assumption), is it worth $200?

Here's a quick napkin-math breakdown of what you're getting:

• Mystery Booster 2 Booster Box: About $240-270
• Sythis, Harvest's Hand: $2
• Oloro, Ageless Ascetic: $25
• Liesa, Shroud of Dusk: $0.50
• Marwyn, the Nurturer: $3
• Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: $17
• Sliver Hive: $18
• Playtest Card: Likely worthless

You could've stopped at the booster box and been fairly happy, but the grand total on the low end is roughly $315. Adjusting for slight price differences, the potential for an expensive Secret Lair bonus card, various collectability modifiers, and, of course, inflation, you're getting your $200's worth here.

It remains to be seen if it'll actually be sold at that price point though. After all, the upcoming Everyone's Invited Secret Lair Commander deck is being sold for $50 more than previous Secret Lair precons, so who's to say that won't happen to this Festival in a Box too?

Remember, if you want to snag a copy for yourself, the sale starts on May 19 via magicsecretlair.com, 9:00am PST. And if you're attending MagicCon Las Vegas, you can purchase the FiaB on-site, June 20-22. If you end up going, keep it to yourself! What happens in Vegas, you know?