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Magic: The Gathering Announces New Secret Lair Featuring MSCHF

Magic: The Gathering is taking it back to the pre-launch days in the latest Secret Lair, featuring artwork from MSCHF across the cards.

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Article Summary

  • Magic: The Gathering teams with MSCHF for Secret Lair: The Zeta Set, inspired by Magic’s earliest 1992 playtest cards.
  • The Zeta Set applies Photocopy, Photocopy Negative, and Color Banding treatments across 121 Magic cards.
  • Secret Lair x MSCHF: The Zeta Set is sold as a randomized Zeta Booster with seven cards spanning all rarities.
  • Wizards says the Magic: The Gathering release honors the game’s DIY roots while channeling MSCHF’s disruptive style.

Wizards of the Coast has launched an ambitious new Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair set, as they have partnered with MSCHF to release The Zeta Set. Long ago, in 1992, back when WotC was a smaller company and Magic: The Gathering was still in development, they needed to playtest it before releasing it to the public. Early cards were printed on paper to make test decks and used internally to play against each other to ensure the game's basic concepts worked.

This new Secret Lair set takes us back to the testing days, with art from the MSCHF photo library to create The Zeta Set, the first Booster Set released through the system, with randomized selections inspired by those original playtest cards. We have more details below, along with images of the primary 121 card set, which will launch on September 2 at 9am, sold for $19.92 per pack as an homage to the game's release year, limited to 12 per customer. (We are showing the primary Photocopy version here. You can check out the Photocopy Negative and Color Banding from the set in this gallery.)

Magic: The Gathering Announces New Secret Lair Featuring MSCHF
Credit: Wizards of the Coast

Magic: The Gathering Goes Old-School With Secret Lair's MSCHF: The Zeta Set

Created in collaboration with MSCHF, Secret Lair x MSCHF: The Zeta Set uses public domain imagery, original photography from MSCHF, and a photocopied visual treatment to echo the handmade look of early Magic playtest materials. Art directed by Jacob Covey in partnership with MSCHF, the set applies that approach across 121 Magic cards, ranging from early Magic classics to modern Commander favorites.

Secret Lair x MSCHF: The Zeta Set includes three new visual treatments: Photocopy, Photocopy Negative, and Color Banding. Photocopy uses a black-and-white photocopy look, Photocopy Negative inverts that look, while Color Banding adds CMYK distortion inspired by common printer misalignment.

Each Zeta Booster of Secret Lair x MSCHF: The Zeta Set includes seven randomized Magic cards across 52 cards of common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rarities. The specialty booster pack is packaged in a sealed envelope with visual design from MSCHF to evoke the early days of Magic. Secret Lair x MSCHF: The Zeta Set includes 1 Zeta Booster. Each Zeta Booster contains the following:

  • 7  Magic: The Gathering cards
    • 3 Common cards
    • 2 Uncommon cards
    • 1 Wildcard of any rarity
    • 1 Rare or mythic rare card

"MSCHF has a gift for smuggling ideas into culture through the side door, which made them the obvious partner for a project built on Magic's scrappiest, most DIY chapter, the earliest playtest cards," said Matthew Hodgins, Director of Secret Lair "We were excited to work with them to create something that honors that early part of Magic's history while still feeling unmistakably shaped by MSCHF."

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Gavin SheehanAbout Gavin Sheehan

Gavin is the current Games Editor for Bleeding Cool. He has been a lifelong geek who can chat with you about comics, television, video games, and even pro wrestling. Follow @TheGavinSheehan on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Threads for random pictures and musings.
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