In Defense of the Fortnite Secret Lair Drops
This week, Wizards announced its 2022 product lineup, ranging from a return to Dominaria in Standard to a D&D-focused Commander Legends set to a slew of Universes Beyond crossover products. Out of the more than a dozen products announced, the one to draw the most ire and disappointment from the community— by far—was also one of the smallest: Fortnite Secret Lair drops. If you're somehow not familiar with Fortnite, it's a massively popular (typically one of—if not the most—watched games on Twitch) battle-royale game where you aim to battle your way through 100 other players and be the last player standing once everyone else has been eliminated.
According to the announcement, unlike some other Universes Beyond products, the Fortnite Secret Lair drops will all be reprints—basically reskins of current Magic cards, somewhat similar to the Godzilla cards from Ikoria —which is exactly how Universes Beyond Secret Lair drops should be. My biggest concern with Universes Beyond Secret Lairs isn't so much that they feature other IPs but that releasing any new cards (Magic IP or otherwise) through time-limited, FOMO Secret Lair drops is a really bad idea. Sure, Wizards has halfheartedly tried to answer this problem by saying the cards will eventually have Magic versions reprinted in "The List" in Set Boosters, but the list is so big and the odds of opening any specific card are so small that unless Wizards is going to massively increase the drop rate of Secret Lair reprints, it will likely end up being a wholly unsatisfactory response to potential supply issues.
While the scarcity of cards on The List probably deserves it's own article, here's a super quick breakdown of the issue. First, The List contains 300 cards (it's updated every set, but here's the most recent Adventures in the Forgotten Realms version). Second, these cards only show up in set boosters, so players opening draft or collector boosters won't get cards from The List. Third, even if you open a set booster you'll only get a card from The List 25% of the time (which means the average set booster box will have 7.5 cards from The List). Fourth, even if you open a card from The List in your set booster pack, it will likely be a common, since normal rarity rules apply. While we don't yet know the rarity of the Universes Beyond Secret Lair reprints, assuming they will be rares or mythics, at current drops rares it could take hundreds of boxes for a single copy to enter the market. While Wizards has mentioned increasing the drop rate of the Universes Beyond reprints, unless they are willing to massively increase the drop rate (which seems unlikely, because if everyone knows they can easily get Magic versions of Universes Beyond Secret Lair cards in a few months they might be less likely to buy the Secret Lair drops, and Lairs are hugely profitable for Wizards and Hasbro), it doesn't seem likely that The List "reprints" will be enough to solve the supply issues that could arise if one of the exclusive cards becomes a format staple.
Would Magic be better if there were no Universes Beyond crossovers at all? That is certainly open to debate. There are pros and cons, and personally I'm unsure how Universes Beyond will play out long term. The best case scenario is that they anger some long-time Magic fans, but their complains are mostly just noise and the product line brings in a bunch of new players, which in turn causes the game to grow and thrive for the next decade. The worst case is that Universes Beyond really does cause some long-time players to quit the game, and while Universes Beyond sells well, it's mostly a novelty item that fans of other IPs buy as a joke or to fill our their memorabilia collection, but few actually starting playing the game of Magic, which would be fairly disastrous. What I am certain of is that Wizards is full speed ahead with the Universes Beyond product line (if the extreme backlash to The Walking Dead Secret Lair drop didn't sour Wizards on the idea, it's unlikely anything else will). The battle against crossovers and Universes Beyond was lost when The Walking Dead drop ended up the best-selling Secret Lair drop of all time. As such, rather than trying to win a war that simply can't be won, my opinion is that we should instead focus on pushing Wizards to release Universes Beyond cards is the least harmful way possible. In many ways the Fortnite Secret Lair drop is an example of Universes Beyond done right. So, why is the product causing such angst in the community?
The reason seems to vary from person to person. While some players dislike Secret Lairs or crossover products in general, which makes them against the Fortnite drops on principle, even if the specific IP isn't a big concern, others seem to dislike Fortnite players, and some dislike Fortnite itself because it's a "predatory" freemium game. Others see it as a "cash grab," Magic "jumping the shark," or "selling out." Perhaps the least logical part of the whole saga is that Wizards also announced Street Fighter Secret Lair drops (featuring new cards only found in the Secret Lair drops), and these reportedly received applause from the same people who groaned about Fortnite, which clearly suggests that—at least, for some people—it's not about other IPs coming to Magic in a broad sense; it's about the specific IP and a dislike of Fortnite itself. Let's take these criticisms one by one.
Anti-Secret Lairs/Crossovers In General
First, some people dislike Secret Lairs and / or crossover products in general. From my perspective, this is a legitimate position to take. There are, without a doubt, downsides to Secret Lairs, ranging from the FOMO sales model to Wizards funneling more money away from local game stores and into its own pockets with direct sales. The same is true of crossover products. While there are benefits, like potentially bringing the game to new audiences, it is true that attacking with the Fortnite bear-head mascot thing into Chun-Li from Street Fighter only to have your opponent follow up with Daryl from The Walking Dead isn't exactly traditional fantasy, which is what Magic has done so well for so many years. If you're someone who strongly connects to the Vorthosian flavor aspect of the game, I can see how this could break your immersion and make your experience worse. (It is worth pointing out that one of the Standard sets announced is set in a modern urban environment and is about five Mafia-like crime families, which is also pretty far from traditional fantasy, so perhaps the Vorthos-focused criticism isn't really about Secret Lairs or IP crossovers but the direction that Magic is heading as a whole.)
If your problem with the Fortnite Secret Lairs is that they are Secret Lairs or that you prefer the game to remain "high fantasy" and not stray into other areas, I can certainly respect and empathize with that position. While some people look to write off these concerns as players being afraid of change, and this might be true to some extent, it's important to realize that Magic means many different things to many different people. Personally I don't have a strong connection to the fantasy genre, but there are plenty of people who do, and while some of the criticism from this group (things like "if someone plays a Universes Beyond card against me I'm selling my collection") comes across very hyperbolic, I do think it's true that there are people who will enjoy Magic less as it moves into other IPs and further away from its fantasy roots. Rather than bashing these people for being afraid of change with some social media hot take, a better approach is to emphasize and realize that for people who care deeply about the Vorthos aspect of the game, including other IPs in Magic really does have potential make their experience worse and diminish their enjoyment of the game.
Take the band Weezer for example. They made two great albums that I still love in The Blue Album and Pinkerton, but managed to follow them up with many albums I consider truly horrific like Raditude and Hurley. Does disliking new Weezer make me afraid of change or an old many yelling at the clouds? I don't know or really care. What I do know is that something I loved changed in a way that made it unlovable. You can disagree and tell me I'm wrong, but no matter how much you yell or what logic you present, you're unlikely to change my mind because it's not about logic as much as a feeling. I imagine this is the same feeling that some Vorthos Magic players have at the moment, and their feelings are legitimate.
Dislike of Fortnite the Game
On the other hand, it's really difficult for me to see why people so strongly dislike the Fortnite Secret Lair drops specifically. Thanks to Showcase cards and other Magic-focused Secret Lair drops, we already have a ton of cards that don't much look like "traditional" Magic cards. Why is having a handful of these cards look like Fortnite characters such a big deal to so many people?
Some people just don't like Fortnite, which is fine. The thing is, in a world of crossover Secret Lair drops, as much as I hate to use this line, it really is true that some products just aren't going to be for you. While this might sound like heresy, personally, I can't stand Lord of the Rings. I find the movies incredibly tedious and often downright boring. At the same time, I know a lot of people love Lord of the Rings, and I can certainly respect its influence on Magic and the fantasy genre as a whole. Even though attacking with a Gandalf means nothing to me, I can appreciate that it does mean something to other people and, much like with Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, and find some joy in others getting to experience something they deeply care about in a new, exciting way.
Even though I have no interest in playing with Fortnite cards, there is a reason I'm a little bit excited for the drops: I've been teaching my 8-year-old nephew Magic, and while he likes Magic he loves Fortnite. I'm sure he'd be thrilled to have a few Magic cards that look like characters from one of his favorite games. The cards could even be something that keeps him interested in Magic during a time when he's experimenting with a bunch of different hobbies, ranging from Pokémon to skateboarding. Sure, he's only eight and not going to add much to Wizards' bottom line or to the Magic community in the near future, but who knows? Maybe the Fortnite cards are what keep him around and a few years from now, he'll be playing FNMs or Grands Prix or winning Arena opens. While it is true that the Fortnite playerbase skews younger than the Magic playerbase, is this really a bad thing? For the game to continue to succeed in the long-term, it needs to keep attracting new, younger players. If a Fortnite Lair drop or two can help do this, it's a win for the game as a whole, even if there is a cost to having Fortnite characters in the Magic multiverse.
Dislike of the Fortnite Community
Perhaps my least favorite argument against the Fortnite Secret Lair drops is that they're bad because Fortnite itself is bad, thanks to its predatory pricing model, or because Fortnite players themselves are "toxic." I really hate to be the one to break this to everyone, but Magic Arena has a horribly predatory pricing model, and our community has certainly dealt with some well-publicized issues ranging from cheating to sexual harassment to gatekeeping and more. We're not in a position to be casting stones at other games, and I think there's a solid argument that writing off the entire playerbase of another game as "toxic" is itself a form of toxicity. Plus, considering that the Fortnite playerbase skews younger than the Magic playerbase, how much of the perceived "toxicity" is actually just immaturity? I know that my current self is a lot different than my 14- or 15-year-old self was. Writing off an entire community of teens with undeveloped brains and social skills as "toxic" strikes me as absurd. Teens learn. Teens grow.. Most will be very different people in the future. Rather than trying to keep Fortnite players out of the game, what if instead we welcomed them, modeled positive behavior and helped them grow?
It's a Cash Grab
As far as the Fortnite Secret Lair drops being a "cash grab," this very well might be true, assuming the definition of "cash grab" is something along the lines of "a product that doesn't have much / any long-term benefit to the game and is designed exclusively / primarily as a way to make a quick buck." While personally I don't think this is 100% true of Universes Beyond products (at a minimum they have the potential to bring new players into the game, which would be beneficial over the long term), for the sake of argument, let's just say that the Fortnite Lair drops (and really, Lair drops in general) are "cash grab" products. Is this really a bad thing?
Secret Lairs (especially ones that are all reprints, like the Fortnite drops) are optional. There's no gameplay value to buying them. If you don't want the cards or like the art, you can just play the Magic versions. Sure, you might not be able to completely avoid them since an opponent might play with them, but considering the popularity of card alters, there is no guarantee you'd never play against a card with Fortnite, Lord of the Rings or Street Fighter art even if the Universes Beyond product line didn't exist. If some players love them and buy them, and Wizards makes a huge pile of money as a result, I see that as a good thing. I want Wizards to make a lot of money because it means Wizards will keep making Magic products. Even if I don't care about all of the products Wizards makes, I will care a lot about some of them, so in theory, this should be a win-win.
My issue isn't Wizards making optional "money-grab" products but where the money from those products is going, which is very clearly not to fixing issues with Arena (where the economy is still brutal and tournaments are still a joke, thanks to the lack of a spectator mode), supporting Magic Online (where we've stopped getting Commander precon cards in a timely manner), or organized play (which Wizards recently seemed to kill with no replacement for the current system announced). Instead, it seems to be going into investors' pockets or toward buying new IPs to make more products to make more money to put into investors' pockets.
If players felt like at least some meaningful percentage of the money Wizards is making off of products they might not personally like were going to help improve and fund the aspects of Magic that they do personally care about, then players would probably be way more forgiving with things like crossover products and Secret Lair drops. My guess is that if Wizards made a Secret Lair drop to fund organized play, it would sell extremely well and be widely accepted by players. Instead, we're in an era when Wizards is making more products than ever, selling them more directly than ever, constantly talking about how it is making more money than ever, but in the minds of at least some players, offering less of the Magic they love than ever.
From the perspective of long-time enfranchised players, it all comes across as incredibly greedy. If the game were struggling, players could probably accept the cutbacks, but knowing that—at least, financially—the game is doing the best it has ever done makes it really difficult to accept organized play going away as well as the long-term problem with lack of improvements on Magic's digital clients. If organized play were thriving and Arena were improving, I think a lot more enfranchised players would be willing to overlook some things they might personally dislike because those things would be helping to support the aspects of the game they appreciate the most, as opposed to now, when the general feeling is that all that really matters to Hasbro—and, by extension, Wizards—is making sure that profits are up quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. It sometimes seems like no matter what Wizards announces, there is a negative reaction from the community, and I believe this is the primary reason why: enfranchised players feel like Wizards simply doesn't care about them anymore, and it's hard to blame them for feeling that way when many of Wizards' recent actions send the message that it's true, whether it really is or not.
Wrap Up
Wrapping this all back around to the Fortnite Secret Lair drops, we live in a world where Wizards has made it abundantly clear that both Secret Lairs and crossover products are here to stay. If the reaction to The Walking Dead Secret Lair drop didn't scare Wizards away from the idea, nothing will (and considering that, according to Wizards, The Walking Dead drop was one of the best selling of all time, from a business perspective, it probably shouldn't). Fighting against the very idea of Secret Lair drops and crossover products is a losing battle. This is the multiverse we now live in, for better or worse.
Within this context, the Fortnite Secret Lair drops are exactly the sort of Lair drop and IP crossover we should be encouraging, rather than fighting. They are mostly harmless reskins of current Magic cards, not really much different than Fortnite alters that already exist. They're 100% ignorable. Rather than fighting the unwinnable battle against Secret Lairs and crossovers, what we should be doing is fighting to make sure that these products happen in a way that is as positive as possible for the community, which means pushing against unique cards in Secret Lair drops and doing all that we can to make sure that at least some of the money from these products is going toward supporting and improving the game. The big problem isn't IP crossovers and Fortnite Secret Lair drops; the problem is Hasbro's greed and unwillingness to reinvest in the game even while it is making more products and money than ever.
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
