Outlaws Anthology bonus card: Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Magic: The Gathering’sSpring Secret Lairsare starting to arrive, with players getting their hands on Hatsune Miku: Sakura Superstar, Goblingram, Outlaw Anthology, and more. These Secret Lairs have proven more popular than MTG’s Winter Superdrop and hopefully signal an upward trend in fan interest.
Alongside the previously revealed cards, several bonus cards have been found among these Secret Lair releases, giving the sets an added sense of completion.
Grand Cenobite marked the debut ofNew Phyrexia’styrannical white-mana Praetor, Elesh Norn. Making quite the impression on fans, Norn has only risen in popularity and prominence over the years, serving as the Big Bad of the Phyrexian Invasion arc.
Though she and her fellow Praetors were finally defeated in the March of the Machine set, Norn’s memory lives on in all white mana players looking to buff their board and drain opponents’ life.
With Norn’s role in MTG’s story coming to a close, this bonus card has a little more fun with the character than is typical in MTG’s premier sets. Her cruel and unusual combat pose/temporary headwear hasn’t gone unnoticed,as pointed out by Reddit user jakobpinders: “It’s a literal “cowboy” hat. Not sure how that has not been mentioned.”
A classic piece ofgreen manasupport, Fierce Empath has very little combat presence in its own right but can be used to fetch your highest-value Creatures and set up for an explosive turn.
Fierce Empath – arriving with thePoker Faces Secret Lair– is the outlier among these bonus cards, being a Rare with little relevance to modern-day Magic outside of mono-green.
Snapcaster Mage has historically been a major force inthe Modern format, and for good reason. Packing the Flash ability and granting an Instant or Sorcery in your graveyard Flashback, Snapcaster allows you to get additional use out of a key spell exactly when you need it.
Jack Bye was a Games Writer on Dexerto’s UK team, specializing in ecommerce content. He is a Magic The Gathering and DnD expert, covering all things tabletop games. He also has bylines at WePC and VideoGamer.
