The Hobbit Secret Lair I’ve had circled on the calendar since last month is finally here: the A Marvelous Mathoms Superdrop goes live today at 9 a.m. Pacific, three days after the main set hit shelves. Five drops themed on Bilbo’s journey, and one of them might be the most gloriously unnecessary Magic product ever printed. I mean that as the highest compliment. Let’s tour the pantry.
First, Vocabulary Class
A "mathom," in Hobbit lore, is a thing with no immediate use that’s far too interesting to throw away — hobbits gift them, regift them, and let them pile up until the house is full. Naming a Secret Lair Superdrop after the concept of charming clutter is astonishingly self-aware for a product line I’ve spent all summer both loving and warning you about. Whoever named this gets it. Respect.
The Star of the Show: Seven Meals, Seven Tokens
The headliner drop is Second Breakfast and Beyond: seven Food tokens, one for each proper Hobbit mealtime — Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch, Afternoon Tea, Dinner, and Supper — at $29.99 (or $39.99 in foil). That’s the entire drop. Seven tokens that all do the same thing.
And here’s the thing: by pure reprint-value math, thirty dollars for tokens is silly. By kitchen-table math? Anyone running a Food deck, a hobbit deck, or a family table with a sense of humor is going to announce every single mealtime as they make tokens, forever, and that’s worth real money in table joy. This is the most honest Secret Lair ever made — it’s purely for delight, and it knows it.
The Rest of the Hoard
The other drops cover the journey: Over the Edge of the Wild brings claymation-style art on a genuinely useful spread of casual staples (including a card renamed "Quite a Merry Gathering," which is also my goal for every game night). A Smaug-worthy artifacts drop delivers exactly what a dragon would hoard — Sol Ring, Lightning Greaves, and friends, with a Fellwar Stone dressed up as an "Erebor Heirloom." Wizards is also teasing a brand-new foil treatment described as "unseen footsteps" — invisible-burglar Bilbo foils, presumably — and something dark from under the mountain that has precious written all over it. Spend $199 and there’s a promo Arcane Signet styled as the Arkenstone thrown in.
The Dad Buying Advice
Standard sermon, Hobbit edition. These are open-window drops but hype is high, and note the fine print: your cart does not reserve anything — only completed checkout does. So decide before 9 a.m., not during. My honest tiering: the Food tokens are a pure-joy purchase and the easiest yes if your table will love the bit; the artifacts drop is the practical one (those are cards every Commander deck actually plays); the rest is art-taste territory, and cheaper versions of every reprint exist if you just need the card.
As for me: after a prerelease, a booster box moment of weakness, and a release weekend, Dad’s August envelope has been thoroughly Smauged. But seven mealtimes on seven tokens… reader, I am only a hobbit at heart. Elevenses may win. Eat responsibly, friends.