As a Sonic Fan, Magic: The Gathering’s Secret Lair…

Even after Magic: The Gathering players knew about the Final Fantasy, Avatar, and Spider-Man Universes Beyond sets in advance, one more crossover would come speeding out of nowhere faster than anyone could have expected. That honor fittingly goes to the Sonic the Hedgehog Secret Lair collaboration. As a lifelong Sonic fan, seeing the blue blur be brought into MTG with such care and beautiful art made me incredibly excited.

I'll be the first to admit that I got very, very lucky with the Sonic Magic: The Gathering cards. I managed to secure my copy of the foil editions of all three bundles within six minutes of the Superdrop, and I was even included in the orders that got shipped at "Sonic speed." I have them in-hand, and I'm very glad I braved the queue despite how historically terrible Secret Lair ordering has been. My luck has run a bit short, though, as I own three versions of the Master Emerald Shrine, and none of the Chaos Emerald bonus cards.

Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering Cards Have Already Made a Ridiculous Amount of Money

Hasbro's second quarter earnings call reveals the Final Fantasy set of Magic: The Gathering cards have already made a ridiculous amount of money.

Posts 1

By Raul Landaverde

The Chaos Emeralds Being the Chase Cards in Magic: The Gathering's Sonic Secret Lair Just Feels Wrong

When the bonus cards for the Sonic Secret Lair were revealed, it made sense at a glance. If anything, I thought it was a little redundant as the Super State's 7-mana cost felt like a great way to include the Emeralds already. Some other cards had Chaos Emeralds on them in a way that feels like some artists wanted to include all seven for those who missed out on the bonuses, but others didn't get the memo. Making Angel Island into a Land is a great approach overall, and making the Chaos Emeralds into an artifact in Magic: The Gathering feels incredibly right. Now that they're out, and the Emeralds aren't the outlier due to their numbers, I feel the complete opposite about it.

The Chaos Emeralds Aren't This Hard to Find in the Sonic Franchise

It makes sense as to why Wizards of the Coast would make these cards so hard to find. The Chaos Emeralds are mystical gemstones that scatter every time they're used together. Finding all seven is meant to be an incredible feat, and they'd be just a fairy tale if it wasn't for Sonic and his friends proving they exist with wide-scale adventures in games like Sonic Unleashed. Making them rare cards makes sense in theory, but there are seven of them, and they have a habit of showing up when needed. There's only one Master Emerald, and it's kept considerably more secret.

The Master Emerald is the neutralizing force of the Chaos Emeralds. It was an important (almost literal) cornerstone in the culture and history of the Echidnas, which is why Knuckles guards it so diligently. The Master Emerald's history and presence are incredibly important to the Adventure games. I adore Sonic Adventure, and I was happy to pull the card at first because of its importance to the story, Tikal, and Chaos. Even Professor Gerald Robotnik's writings in Sonic X Shadow Generations show that while he adored its beauty, he felt it was best left alone. Luckily, Knuckles has made it clear he typically patrols Angel Island for safety while avoiding boredom, so the Master Emerald is kept far away from the public eye, unlike the Chaos Emeralds.

Even in terms of just the games themselves, the Master Emerald only plays a key role (not counting being mentioned or explaining why Knuckles is off his island) in eight of them. The Chaos Emeralds are found and scattered in almost every game, playing all sorts of roles. They're used in Colors to unlock Super Sonic for fun, and then jump to being integral to the story in games like Sonic Adventure 2 or Sonic Frontiers. They add challenge in the special stages in trying to collect all seven, but those challenges don't cost real-world money.

As a Yu-Gi-Oh Player, I Owe Everyone Who Recommended Magic: The Gathering an Apology

After years of dodging constant Magic: The Gathering recommendations to stay loyal to Yu-Gi-Oh, I now realize MTG fans have been right all along.

Posts 5

By Zackari Greif

The Chaos Emeralds Being Chase Cards Doesn't Do Magic: The Gathering Any Long-Term Favors

I get the fact that one of the reasons the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald are in this situation is because the cards they're reprints of, Lotus Petal and Command Tower respectively, reflect this with their rarities. Making a rare Lotus Petal card irritates the fact that the base card is roughly $35 on the market right now, no matter how you look at it. However, printing more Chaos Emeralds instead of tons of Master Emerald Shrine would feel far better with the rest of the care given to the Sonic Secret Lair set. To me, it feels like one big glaring oversight to not let players get at least one or two Chaos Emeralds, and then be blessed by the Master Emerald Shrine and all of its meaning by pure luck.

More Chaos Emeralds and less Master Emerald Shrine would lead to a far less expensive Command Tower chase reprint by a large margin as well. Right now, obtaining just one Secret Lair Chaos Emerald would run players over $200 USD easy. There's an argument to be made that this is fitting considering the mythical reputation of the Emeralds themselves, but the idea of paying that much for a cardboard image of one seems like a line that I dare not cross no matter how Sonic- obsessed I may be.

While the Chaos Emerald cards are expensive, they're nowhere near the price of MTG's 1 of 1 The One Ring card from the game's Lord of the Rings set, which was sold to rapper Post Malone for $2.6 million.

This approach heavily mirrors what happened with the Traveling Chocobo cards from the Final Fantasy sets. Those were in booster packs, though, which brought the price down considerably in comparison. There may not be an even rarer variation to chase with the Chaos Emeralds unlike that gold Chocobo, but I don't feel like they need one considering they were released in a rare Secret Lair Superdrop that has already cost me over a hundred and practically all of my luck to get.

All I wanted was just one Chaos Emerald card. If things were reversed, I'd at least have three right now. Instead, I've got three Master Emerald Shrines that I can't even trade for as they've been printed so much that they sell for lower than a dollar. My best hopes are either to snag extra copies of the Sonic Secret Lair and take the chance from another fan just like me, bite the bullet these ridiculous prices became, or wait for the cost to go down in the future. No matter what angle you look at this situation from, it's just no good.

Image