The Coziest Secret Lair Potentially Points to a Big Change in Commander

Most Secret Lair Drops these days come with some controversy. The Secret Lair x MSCHF Zeta Set can reasonably be called a fiasco with its randomized packs, outrageous pricing, and low supply; the experimental set’s online release went so poorly that Wizards issued an apology.

Many other popular, small print-run drops are met with widespread righteous indignation. The Goblin Storm Secret Lair preconstructed deck quickly selling out, presumably to many bots and scalpers, induced such a massive backlash that it seemed to single-handedly bring back print-to-demand for Secret Lair Commander decks.

One of the more unexpected Secret Lair collabs — the Lofi Girl: Beats To Cast To Secret Lair Drop (and accompanying vinyl release on Lofi Girl Records) — created a new variant of Secret Lair controversy: why wasn't this card Rhystic Study?

Art Study

Before I break out the whiteboard and start covering it with lines and scribbled notes, I'm not the only one that thought that this art of the iconic looping animation of Lofi Girl sitting at her desk, eternally studying day and night, was perfect for Rhystic Study: it was such a perfect fit that there are several digital alters and proxies of Rhystic Study that use this exact scene.

As someone who's appreciated Magic art and artists ever since I started playing in 1995, I can see the love, care, and skill put into the Magic card rendition of Lofi Girl studying at her desk. Tetsuko took the reference image, recreated it with incredible fidelity, and added a sunset, backlighting the scene in warm yellow hues. The sun's glow is visible across Lofi Girl's back, forearm, and scarf. It lights up her cat's fur, making a feline halo.

This is purely speculation, but this art commission was likely in the higher tier of Wizards' standard rates for art. It's not a secret that commissions for commons and uncommons aren't as lucrative as chase mythic cards and important characters. This art, based on my subjective appraisal of the complex lighting and shading, is squarely in the latter category, and the artist almost certainly took extra time to make it perfect — and it really is perfect.

Careful Study

Careful Study is a card that sees very light play in Commander, making it an odd choice for a Secret Lair reprint since Commander players are the primary audience for Secret Lair Drops. Weirder still is the fact that it's the second time it's happened. Players of other eternal formats tend to like their cards in the original border; pros like Andrea Mengucci love to roast Magic cards that don't look like traditional Magic cards. Careful Study has seen more play in Legacy recently as a way to fill the graveyard in Dimir reanimator decks ever since Entomb was banned. Its price has risen slowly over the years as it hasn't seen any large-scale reprint in a long time and is currently worth around $3 at time of writing.

Rhystic Study

Look, I don't have any connection to Wizards or knowledge of how they've been talking internally about Rhystic Study lately. I do know, however, that it's an incredibly contentious debate among players, up there with the hybrid mana debacle. The Commander Format Panel's statement about it back in February of this year was that the volume of negative sentiment towards Rhystic Study wasn’t anywhere near the amount of support they would need to consider banning the most powerful, and most popular, card in high-powered games of Commander.

But here's what I think might've happened.

The messaging after the last format Banned and Restricted announcement acknowledged Rhystic Study's controversial-yet-beloved status. They didn't go so far as to call it "iconic" — a label applied only to Sol Ring so far. The Commander Format Panel (CFP) members who were most familiar with cEDH were firmly in support of banning Rhystic Study, and for good reason. Anyone familiar with tournament cEDH knows how much time the Rhystic Study triggers devour during tournament rounds. Many players bring their own "Trigger" or "Do you pay the 1?" tokens so they can represent the stack of triggers that gets created when someone simply casts a spell.

Knowing the card's reputation, my best guess is that, in a vacuum, Rhystic Study would be banned, along with a slew of other cards that generate too many triggers for regular game actions, but Magic doesn't exist in a vacuum.

Multiple CFP members came out and provided some insight into their decision; people just like the card too much, and it's too expensive to ban. I want to qualify and defend the second statement before pitchforks come out. I don’t believe they are implying that the literal dollar value makes it less likely to be banned. The issue is both price and ubiquity. Rhystic Study was just reprinted in the FINAL FANTASY: Through the Ages bonus sheet and it was one of the best pulls you could get from a FINAL FANTASY Play booster pack. No one should be concerned that someone who can afford a $1,500 confetti foil Rhystic Study would lose the potential resale value. My concern is that someone who wanted to push their Y'shtola deck to the next level just spent $65 on the cheapest copy of it, which could be three to four hours of wages from their job. And because it was originally printed at common rarity back in Prophecy, and reprinted many times solely for its playability in the Commander format, copies are everywhere, and yet it’s still in high demand.

Game Theory

At the end of the day, Magic's just a game, and of all the formats that demand a high level of curation and balance considerations, Commander needs it the least. The Bracket system has taught the community a lesson in pre-game conversations, and in being considerate of the rest of the pod when you build your own deck.

I was sad to see Jeweled Lotus banned because I saw other people sad about it. Sure, I got steamrolled by a turn one Jeweled Lotus once in a while, but the same is true of Sol Ring now, or green players ramping green-ily. For that reason, as someone who doesn't own any non-playtest copies of Rhystic Study, I would be sad to see it banned, too.

Wizards has a difficult choice when it comes to Rhystic Study. Some people would be devastated by a ban, but others are frustrated by inaction. Stale metagames create stale games. However, Commander isn't about a meta, it's about a slower, more casual version of Magic where you create memorable match-ups and boardstates rather than play the zero-sum game of one winner and one loser.

Where am I going with this? Good question. If I were Mr. Coast and I wanted to ban Rhystic Study, step one would be: stop printing it. Don't print it on bonus sheets, as promos, as Secret Lairs — anywhere. In a year or two, its price will make it less attainable and a less frequent sight in people's decks and at your local pod. Then Wizards can more safely pull the plug on Rhystic Study.

Secret Lair production has a much faster turnaround than full set production, so when the Secret Lair team put Rhystic Study on their list of cards they wanted to reprint for the Lofi Girl Secret Lair collab, I think they got a hard "No" from the top brass. So what does the team do? They already have this beautiful rendition of the Lofi Girl animation commissioned. Hit up Scryfall, search for "study," and pick the next-closest fit.

Hypothesis vs. Reality

There's a strong counter-argument to this theory; the iron grip that Wizards has on reprint equity. Starfield of Nyx, Felidar Guardian, Merchant Scroll, and Paradise Mantle are all reasonably valuable cards and the total value of the cards in the Lofi Girl Secret Lair adds up to what we are used to seeing out of Secret Lairs these days. Including Rhystic Study would've made this Secret Lair one of the most valuable Secret Lairs released in a long time, adding $65 to the already-respectable $30 of value from the other cards.

Do I really think Rhystic Study is definitely getting banned in the next year or two? I'm actually doubtful. For all the debate, I just don't see it in many games anymore. It's still wreaking havoc on tournament cEDH, but they have other tools in the toolbox to manage that issue if they finally decide to do so.

However, the choice of reprint for this rendition of Lofi Girl's studious pose, with her cat enjoying the distant city view from the windowsill, is a gigantic miss. Putting this illustration on Careful Study, blue's weaker precursor to Faithless Looting, rather than a staple card like Rhystic Study was a notable misstep from the Secret Lair team and Wizards. Careful Study is just a sorcery; it sits on the table for a few seconds, you resolve the spell, and it's in your graveyard. If they used this art for an enchantment, at least it could live on the battlefield while you play, a mirror of the Lofi Girl stream that lives in another tab of my browser as I write this.

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