Magic's Secret Lair drop series is returning in just a couple of weeks to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday - Year of the Rat!

This drop within Secret Lair is focused on rats, providing foil alternate-art for some of Magic's most memorable rat cards.

  • Each drop contains a code for MTG Arena that gives you a Year of the Rat sleeve. 
  • There is not a code for an MTG Online redemption. Other drops in the future will have them.
  • Expect more Secret Lair drops this year.
  • Secret Lair Year of the Rat is live for 24 hours starting on January 27 at 9 AM PST (12 PM EST, 5 PM EST).
  • Like the last drops, these are print to demand so everyone who wants one will get one.
  • This Secret Lair drop costs $39.99 USD with a limit of 10 per customer.
  • The drop contains 8 cards, with 8 being the luckiest number in Chinese culture.

 

  

What Does the Year of the Rat MTG Arena Sleeve Look Like?

This is the sleeve you'll get with the MTG Arena code provided in this drop. It features art from Pack Rat with a nice red and gold-trimmed border - very lucky!

Quote From Wizards

Get ready to ring in the Year of the Rat! Known for being quick-witted and resourceful, the clever rat is the first of the zodiac cycle. We're celebrating the 2020 Lunar New Year with eight reveling rodents, featuring art by JungShan, Fiona Hsieh, Kisung Koh, and Jenn Ravenna. These adorable vermin will infest your deck, your collection, and your heart.

Secret Lair Drop Series is kicking off 2020 strong by bringing back some of the best and most beloved Rats in all of Magic's history to honor the Year of the Rat. In addition to gorgeous brand-new art, these powerful critters will swarm the board and ensure victory.

Just like previous Secret Lair drops, Year of the Rat will be available for 24 hours only and will be available at secretlair.wizards.com. This sale starts at 9 a.m. PST on January 27, and you can pick up your copy of Year of the Rat for $39.99. Limit of 10 per customer.

Here's what you'll get with each copy of Year of the Rat:

**[MTG Arena Redemption] is not available in the following regions: China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Year of the Rat is being published in English.

Now that you've fallen head over heels in love, hear a little bit from the creative director of the drop, Meris Mullaley, about how the drop came to be.

"Being Chinese-American, the celebration of Lunar New Year has been as integral to my life as Christmas or Halloween. As art director for the Year of the Rat Secret Lair drop, I wanted to make something for Magic fans and the 1.5 billion people who celebrate Lunar New Year.

On Jan 25, 2020, it will become the Year of the Rat, according to the zodiac that assigns animals (and their personality attributes) to a 12-year cycle. The order of the animals is based on a myth in which the animals raced to greet the Jade Emperor and the rat, being the most cunning, rode on Ox's back and then jumped down at the finish line to be first.

If you're of Chinese descent, you would hear it called "Chinese New Year," but the holiday is known globally as "Lunar New Year" and is celebrated by multiple East Asian and Southeast Asian regions. It was important to me that the artists involved in the project reflected the diversity of cultures that celebrate Lunar New Year and a range of art styles.

Rats in Magic: The Gathering are often depicted as disease-ridden scavengers. For this Secret Lair drop, I worked with Emily Teng to create art descriptions that portrayed iconic Rat creature cards in a harmonious, aspirational manner with symbols of the Lunar New Year (lanterns, firecrackers, fruit, etc.) represented in the art.

It was an honor to work with JungShan, Kisung Koh, Fiona Hsieh, and Jenn Ravenna on these special interpretations of well-loved Magic cards.

Ink-Eyes: is the legendary rat that just jumped off the ox's nose to become the first animal of the Zodiac.

Rat Colony: is a happy, loving family (with whiskers and tails) decorating their den for the new year festivities.

Pack Rat: is leading a procession to bring food, gifts, and good wishes for the new year.

Marrow-Gnawer: welcomes his large family to the new year banquet celebrating good food and good company."

—Meris Mullaley, Creative Producer, Magic TCG

Details

While this Secret Lair drop doesn't come with any MTGO integration (don't worry—more of them will in the future!), it does still come with a code to get Year of the Rat-inspired sleeves in MTG Arena.

When you purchase the Year of the Rat drop, you'll get a follow-up email that will confirm your purchase. Your code will be made available once your item is on hand and ready to begin its shipping process.

Shipping

Similar to December's Secret Lair drops, we want to make sure you can get this drop if you want it. Purchase in the 24-hour window, and you're guaranteed to adopt eight brand-new pet Rats.

Just like last time, we've stocked a limited quantity right away, so we have some ready to head to their forever homes ASAP. The earlier you order, the more likely you'll be part of the stocked wave (and therefore get it earlier)! If you're in the wave that needs to be printed (i.e. any orders that come in after that initial stock is spoken for) you can expect to get yours in a handful of weeks. But don't fear, they'll arrive at your door.

We've also expanded our shipping options starting with this drop, see below!

As you can see, we've heard you and we're working hard to bring Secret Lair to even more places in the world. It was particularly important to us to make sure this product specifically was available in China, and some hard-working people behind the scenes made that possible, and a few other regions as well. While this does result in some regional differences (like MTG Arena codes not being redeemable in some regions), we're making every effort to make Secret Lair as widely available as possible. We hope to add even more locations in the future.

Year of the Rat is our first Secret Lair of 2020—but we have plenty more planned with eye-popping art, fun themes, and some surprises along the way. Watch this space, sign up to be notified on of the newest drops on secretlair.wizards.com, and follow @Wizards_Magic for the next installment of the Secret Lair Drop Series.