An inadvertent announcement of a new high-profile crossover was made by Capcom in a leaked document about a new Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair intended for the world of Monster Hunter. The press notes summarily posted online before being pulled talked about the contents, pricing for the highly anticipated crossover between Wizards of the Coast and the long-standing action RPG franchise, and a December 1, 2025, target date for release. Leaked info indicates 4 different Secret Lair sets focused around the characters, monsters, and hunters of the various Monster Hunter titles indicating a very aggressive continuation of MTG’s “Universes Beyond” strategy well into the new calendar year.
The four drops branded and announced are The Hunt, The Hunters, The Monsters, and The Monsters 2. Interestingly enough, the leak states that all card types in these sets are reprints and there are no mechanically unique cards listed. The Monsters series features Legendary Creatures such as Razaketh, the Foulblooded reimagined as the Gore Magala, and Drakuseth, Maw of Flames arted as the Rathalos. Meanwhile, The Hunters drop includes staples like Imperial Recruiter and Grand Abolisher clad with iconic monster armor sets including Rathalos and Tigrex variants. This exclusive art treatment is what sells the most, taking advantage of the rich visual palette associated with titles like Monster Hunter World: Iceborne and Monster Hunter 4.
The sales structure for the drops remains faithful to past Justice Lair releases, with a price of $30 for the base non-foil edition and $40 for the foil edition. Because of this, the overwhelming community reaction has been largely negative due to the low price of the selected reprints on the secondary market. The card list incidentally highlights cheap, underplayed cards that significantly lower the value of the whole bundle; for example, the cards in The Hunt drop are only worth about $8.20, raising immediate questions about the perceived value for its price tag.
This brings us back to another contentious issue among the Magic: The Gathering collector community with Secret Lair products: the measure of desirability for the IP crossover vs the measure of financial utility. While the artistic treatment for the world of Monster Hunter is undoubtedly appealing, the underwhelming selection of cards with minimal reprint value has thrown water on the excitement. As Wizards of the Coast strives to keep up with its ambitious work schedule in Universes Beyond projects, this leak may very well serve as a lead data point in that even with this high-profile collaboration, the reception will not be positive if the backgrounds do not point toward competitive or monetary viability in fulfilling community expectations.
