Wizards of the Coast has revealed a brand new Secret Lair focused on fan-favorite artist Seb McKinnon. The drop, called Artist Series: Seb McKinnon, will feature four cards with brand new illustrations by the artist. It will be part of a larger superdrop to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Secret Lair Drop Series that will be available from November 30 to December 14.
Artist Series: Seb McKinnon will contain four cards with brand new art by Seb McKinnon: Sower of Temptation, Damnation, Enchanted Evening, and Swamp. All four will be available in both foil and non-foil, while the Swamp—and only the Swamp—will be full-art. The foil drop will cost $39.99, while the non-foil drop will cost $29.99, both of which will include codes for an Enchanted Evening MTG Arena sleeve and one of each card on Magic Online.
The Seb McKinnon drop is both the first Artist Series drop as well as the first announced drop that will be part of the “Secretversary Superdrop,” which will be available from November 30 to December 14 in the Secret Lair store.
Update: Wizards has also announced a Bob Ross-themed drop, Happy Little Gathering, as well as A Box of Rocks and the heavy metal-inspired Party Hard, Shred Harder drop.
Similar to the Summer Superdrop in June, the Secretversary Superdrop is comprised of several drops that will be available for individual purchase. Non-foil drops are priced at $29.99 while the foil versions are $39.99.
They will also be available in three different bundles. There will be an all-inclusive bundle for $229.99, which will include both the foil and non-foil versions of the Artist Series: Seb McKinnon, Happy Little Gathering, and A Box of Rocks drops, plus one Party Hard, Shred Harder drop (only available in non-foil) and one We Hope You Like Squirrels drop (only available in foil). Additionally, all four non-foil drops will be bundled for $99.99 and all four foil drops will be bundled for $139.99.
The Secret Lair Drop Series was originally announced last November with its first superdrop, which contained seven unique drops that were available beginning on December 2, 2019. Since then, the series has produced a total of 29 drops, with the Secretversary Superdrop’s Artist Series: Seb McKinnon, Happy Little Gathering, A Box of Rocks, Party Hard, Shred Harder, and We Hope You Like Squirrels drops becoming the 30th through 34th.
McKinnon Chose These Cards to Tell a Story
Tom Jenkot, Senior Creative Art Director at Wizards, reached out to McKinnon last year and asked him to pick the four Magic cards he most wanted to illustrate.
“For an illustrator, it doesn’t get better than this,” McKinnon said. “Dream commission. For me, whether the cards fit together or not wasn’t so much a concern; what I really wanted to do with ‘my’ secret lair was tell as story.”
Swamp
The art for Swamp from the Artist Series: Seb McKinnon Secret Lair drop.
“First, we set the scene. A knight-errant wanders under an old dead tree, surrounded by water lilies. Searching for something,” McKinnon wrote. “Swamps are my personal favourite basic lands in the game, and this was my chance to finally illustrate one.”
“Swamps/marshes in nature have this interesting aura about them,” he continued. “[I]n myths and folklore, it’s often a place where heroes are lured into traps, where they are put to the test, where they lose themselves.”
Sower of Temptation
The art for Sower of Temptation from the Artist Series: Seb McKinnon Secret Lair drop.
“In the swamp, the knight-errant hears a beckoning voice…One of the Fae Folk, luring him deeper into her realm, but to what end?” McKinnon said.
The story is also represented in the flavor text of the cards, which was written by Liam McKinnon, Seb’s brother. “He came up with the flavour text on the card,” Seb said. “[T]he first lines of a poem that will continue onto the next [cards]; ‘Moth to my light, cease resistance. Hand over the reigns to your mind.'”
Damnation
The art for Damnation from the Artist Series: Seb McKinnon Secret Lair drop.
“The Faerie enters the knight-errant’s mind, and becomes witness to his tormented soul,” McKinnon wrote as he continued his story. “All his past evil deeds weigh onto him, torture him, his fractured mind a hellscape.”
The Faerie present in the upper right-hand corner “enhances the Knight’s guilt/torment, makes him face it, makes him feel the pain inflicted onto others,” he continued. “Both characters are depicted in the art. Liam’s poem continues as the Faerie says: ‘All deeds once committed, repaid now in kind.'”
Enchanted Evening
The art for Enchanted Evening from the Artist Series: Seb McKinnon Secret Lair drop.
“In torment, in darkness, the Faerie offers the Knight a way out of hell: rebirth,” McKinnon concluded. “The Knight accepts… and is transformed, living in the reflection of the world, at peace, symbolized by the glowing tree.”
Along those lines, Liam’s accompanying poem-as-flavor text concludes with: “Tempest ends, and water stills, gently reinventing the shape of all things.”