Exclusive: Tomb Raider Comes to Magic: The Gathering Next Week
Magic: The Gathering’s video game crossovers just keep on rolling, and this time we’ve got the exclusive first look at a seven-card Secret Lair for the Tomb Raider series – including a brand new, mechanically unique card for Lara Croft herself.
Flip through the slideshow below or watch the video above to see all the cards, and read on to hear a bit about the drop from Wizards of the Coast.
Next year Magic has both commander decks for Fallout and a full crossover set for Final Fantasy coming, but next week’s Secret Lair Secretversary Superdrop will add Lara Croft to the game’s quickly expanding recognizable roster with a smaller video game crossover. This drop will include five reprinted cards with new Tomb Raider art, a unique treasure token, and a brand new Lara Croft card.
While Secret Lairs have done plenty of video game crossovers in the past, they’ve generally either been all mechanically unique cards like the Street Fighter drop or all reprints with new art like the Fortnite drop. This one has both, and Wizards of the Coast Senior Product Designer Daniel Nguyen says that every Secret Lair drop is different thanks to a whole bunch of different factors.
“The goal is always to create products that respect and celebrate the partner, the fans, AND that the cards in the drop feel like they belong in someone’s deck,” Nguyen explains. “All are important, and it’s a delicate balance to strike. There are a LOT of conversations that happen during product development with a number of different factors considered, and the inclusion of mechanically unique cards is one of them.”
Nguyen says that Secret Lairs are special within Magic partly thanks to their “ability to experiment and push the boundaries of what people expect” from a typical card. I assume that feeds into why it’s no coincidence that, while Lara is a unique card that could be used as a Commander, the other cards are all ones you might play in a deck with her at the helm – not dissimilar to the recent Lord of the Rings Scene Boxes.
As to whether or not we’ll see more drops with this structure in the future, Nguyen says they’re “always listening to feedback (yes, we read ALL of the comments) and you can expect us to take in that feedback and apply it to future drops that you see.”
One thing we’re certainly going to see more of in Magic’s future is crossovers in general. In addition to the ones mentioned above, as well as other recent crossovers like putting Chris Pratt on a Jurassic World-themed Magic card, Wizards of the Coast recently dropped a bombshell that Marvel crossover sets were coming starting in 2025.
Tom Marks is IGN’s Senior Game Reviews Editor. He loves card games, puzzles, platformers, puzzle-platformers, and lots more.
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