Yesterday, Magic: The Gathering attempted to release the Zeta Set, a collaboration with the art collective MSCHF, on its Secret Lair online retail platform. We say “attempted to” because it went so poorly that publisher Wizards of the Coast has now apologized and called the events that transpired “a disaster.” “There’s no other way to say it,” reads a bleak apology on Magic‘s website. “We’re incredibly sorry for the experience, and we’re trying to get to the bottom of it.”
Fan complaints about Secret Lair drops are nothing new. Ever since Secret Lair switched from a time-limited print-on-demand model—in which Wizards of the Coast would print as many copies of each set as were ordered during a set span of time—to limited printings of each set that often sell out extremely quickly (leading to scalpers snatching up the limited inventory and flipping them for absurd aftermarket prices), there’s been a general sense of unrest among Magic players and unhappiness with Wizards of the Coast. Usually, though, things don’t get so bad that the company is forced to apologize.
As for what actually happened, even Wizards of the Coast doesn’t seem to know. Forty minutes after the drop went live, Secret Lair posted a message on its X account saying it had temporarily paused the sale while it investigated unspecified technical issues. Fans on social media reported issues with the queue system, difficulty placing orders, not receiving order confirmations, and having their orders canceled seemingly at random. An hour and a half later, the sale resumed, but everything sold out soon after.
In the apology post, Wizards of the Coast listed “a number of possible issues” customers might have faced, including:
- If you’re not sure if you completed an order but think you might have, we’re working through those.
- Similarly, if you received a duplicate confirmation email, don’t be alarmed.
- If you don’t receive a confirmation email within 24 hours but think you did purchase the Zeta Set, please reach out to our Customer Support team and they’ll help get it sorted. We’re getting a ton of contacts there right now and are going through them as fast as possible.
Wizards of the Coast did not provide any details about potential solutions or remediation for customers affected by this mysterious technical issue but did say it would “share as much as we can” once everything’s sorted out.
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