WotC Shockingly Delays Monster Hunter Superdrop After Overwhelming Fan Backlash

Magic: The Gathering‘s recently announced Secret Lair drop for Monster Hunter is being delayed and reworked. Despite the many issues with Secret Lair drops in Magic: The Gathering, they are some of the most sought-after releases for collectors. This is because each Secret Lair drop includes alternate-art cards for existing ones, and sometimes even mechanically unique cards that can’t be found elsewhere.

Magic: The Gathering‘s Secret Lair Encyclopedia drop is a great example, as it includes multiple cards from the game’s history that are worth your dime and then some, all while making great new art for them. However, not all Secret Lair drops are a big win for MTG. Some Secret Lair drops are criticized for their poor value, card selection, and even how they represent the IP behind them. In the case of the Monster Hunter drop, all these things were true.

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MTG Officially Delays Monster Hunter Secret Lair, Reworks it Entirely

MTG‘s Monster Hunter Secret Lair drop was announced just last week, with a leak detailing the cards included in it a little earlier. However, it was received very poorly, and Wizards of the Coast just published an announcement post stating that the entire drop will be reworked and delayed back to 2026. Not only will cards get new art, but the card selection will change to reflect better the world of Monster Hunter, as well as how that translates into MTG.

Issues with MTG‘s Secret Lair drops are not uncommon, and while most of them are related to the queue on the website and the stock (or lack thereof) of each product, there have been technical issues in the past, too. For example, Wizards of the Coast recently stated that it would delay MTG Secret Lair products in some cases because of manufacturing issues and potential quality mishaps. The current backlash from the Monster Hunter Secret Lair drop is very different from other releases in the past, as fans were unhappy with the value of each drop, which was never even on par with the cost, the card selection, and the fact that other characters or IP-relevant elements could be represented better.

For example, popular Magic: The Gathering content creator The Trinket Mage took to Twitter to discuss how the Monster Hunter Secret Lair drop included a special version of MTG‘s Sol Ring, but this time featuring a dragon rather than an actual ring-like artifact. This makes sense, as Sol Ring is an artifact, first and foremost. Instead, the art depicting Valstrax from Monster Hunter is just a dragon. While there is some sense to it, as Valstrax’s chest uses gaps to pressurize air like a jet engine, and it uses its dragon energy to create red flames, it’s still a bit vague for Sol Ring’s design. It can also be confusing to use a creature like a dragon as the main element for an artifact card, and another popular content creator by the name of PleasantKenobi highlighted the same.

The issues with the art selection for Sol Ring echo the doubts raised by fans when seeing the pizza lands coming with MTG’s TMNT set in 2026. This may be the sign of a bigger problem that WotC needs to address.

On top of that, the value of each drop was very low. This was as follows:

Secret Lair x Monster Hunter: The Hunt – Total value: $8.20
Secret Lair x Monster Hunter: The Hunters – Total value: $25.50
Secret Lair x Monster Hunter: The Monsters – Total value: $10.15
Secret Lair x Monster Hunter: The Monsters 2 – Total value: $9.15

Considering that each drop was sold for $30 for the base version and $40 for the foil version, the value of the cards was extremely low for The Hunt, The Monsters, and The Monsters 2, topping at around $10 against the $30 or $40 expense for buying the drop. Likewise, the Sol Ring card was not exactly a very valuable one, but the issue is that it was only given as a promo for purchasing bundles, and only until supplies lasted. This was a controversy waiting to happen, so it makes sense to have scrapped the project for the time being.

It’s unclear when the Monster Hunter Secret Lair will return, but Wizards of the Coast’s announcement post states that fans should keep their eyes peeled in the next few months, with more information coming in 2026. It’s unclear how this will fit the release schedule for Magic: The Gathering in 2026, but since it’s a Secret Lair drop, WotC could launch it at any time.