The Encyclopedia of Magic, the latest drop from Magic: The Gathering’s Secret Lair, includes 26 cards, one for each letter of the English alphabet. It’s the first Secret Lair Countdown (SLC) kit since 2022, with each card illustrated by a different artist. Some are Magic art veterans, some are still breaking in, and others are brand new to the game, making their debut
This article first began as an attempt to lightning round this new set: something quick and easy about each one that folks might find interesting, or not be able to find elsewhere. But I found that almost across the board, the information I discovered was linear:
An artist’s first card
A card’s first new artwork
A reprint to make a card more accessible
The first reprint in a decade (even if it wasn’t needed)
And on, and on, and on.
In many cases, the cards in this set do only have a handful of appearances, and maybe two or three other artworks or printings. For some cards, like Brain Freeze and Krak-Clan Ironworks, it’s the first new artwork in a generation (let that sink in for a moment).
Both of these cards got their first new artwork in twenty years
This is ultimately a good thing; it allows new players access to ‘old’ cards presented in a fresh way, and gives new artists an opportunity to illustrate ‘old’ Magic. That’s a win-win for everyone.
These cards each have over a dozen different artworks, and even more printings
There are also a handful of inclusions that are not new to the changing sands of artworks and frame treatments in the Magic universe of 2025; both Llanowar Elves and Wasteland have more than a dozen each, and still found their way into the Countdown. Cards that get played a lot need ways to stay relevant, and for folks to find them amongst the deluge of new products. This is also not a bad thing: the person playing Ampreh’s Llanowar Elves probably isn’t interested in Anson Maddock’s version, and that’s ok too.
But no card is quite like the artifact that everyone loves to hate in 2025: Sol Ring
Sol Ring by Souther Salazar
This new Sol Ring means that there are 50 artworks for the seminal card (and in fact, I think this might actually be #50 in earnest), with approximately 125 printings since Magic’s inception in 1993. That’s a LOT.
The card is ubiquitous to the Commander format, almost to its detriment. Versions can be found in every Commander-specific or adjacent product since they began 15 years ago. And nearly half of those aforementioned different artworks have come in the last five years as a part of Secret Lair. That’s a pretty big push in a very short amount of time.
Arguments of Commander being a 99 card format (because of Sol Ring’s automatic inclusion) to whether or not it should be banned have seemed to crop up monthly over the last few years. Some thought it could have (or should have) been included in the great swath of bans that took place last October. And others have already begun to take it out of their decks; just two weeks ago, Rachel Weeks of the Command Zone began doing exactly that and replacing it with other on-theme cards for her deck.
But what if there might be more to this misunderstood card, used to propel the money-machine format that is Commander into the next decade? What if we looked at Sol Ring just a little differently, not as a card, but only as a work of art.
Two weeks ago we got the best opportunity yet to do just that.
Sol Ring by Souther Salazar
This new Sol Ring was seen for the first time in September, previewed fresh at MagicCon Atlanta:
Just another Sol Ring, right? With another new artist making their debut in Secret Lair, right? Because we need to have another take on the classic card to fill a spot and keep the value engine moving, right?
Wrong. This one is different. Enter, Souther Salazar.
The artist at work. Image by Adam Wallacavage
Portland-based Souther Salazar does a little of a lot of things. He works in mixed media and assemblage, not quite collage but certainly in more than two dimensions. In doing so, he adds both physical and literal depth to the meaning of what he creates, in his words “half-remembered, half-imagined places where stories can develop and take on a life of their own.”
Beyond Fear by Souther Salazar
These Dreamscapes range from incredibly detailed and complex to compositionally concise, each one rich with story. Entire new worlds are found here: unnamed characters from far away places, where side quests abound. Everything is here, and yet nothing is truly as it seems.
I Like the Sound of That by Souther Salazar
His artworks feel as if they could be entire storybooks, at the very least chapters in an anthology telling the tales of the people and places and things we see. What are their names? Where are they going? And can we come along?
Mural at Siteworks, Portland, OR
Salazar is also known for his mural work between Portland, OR and Toronto, Canada and you can see here the groundwork that appears in his Magic: The Gathering card ten years later; bold, legible, colorful, interesting and conversational.
Halo Foil Sol Ring. Image from Reddit
Souther Salazar’s Sol Ring is a shining example (quite literally in Halo Foil, seen above), of the depth and breadth that Secret Lair can bring to Magic, even on a card with dozens of artworks and printed more than one hundred times.
The work is simple and straightforward, but rich with color, deep with layers, and intentional with marks made to tell an unsung story. It’s an artist from outside the game, who has a tried and true style unlike anyone else, lending those talents to a perfectly crafted commission. It’s a 2.5” x 3.5” card, yes, but it’s a monumental mark upon the game, both for the card it represents and the context in which it premieres. Cheers to Jacob Covey for bringing him into the fold, and cheers to Souther for knocking this card clear out of the park.
Wrapping Up
I cannot remember where I heard it, but Sam from Rhystic Studies told a story about watching a new Magic player at a MagicCon walk to a vendor booth, and exchange two crumpled dollar bills for a Sol Ring. There is something pure about watching something like this happen. Did they discover the card at the event, watch its power across the table, and want one for themselves? Had they been waiting for the right time to drop two hard earned dollars on a new card? Was it an upgrade? Was it a gift for someone back home?
Whatever it was, Sol Ring is a compliment found in the common language that is Magic: The Gathering, and when a truly exceptional example comes along, I think it should be celebrated, regardless of your feelings on the card itself.
Sol Ring is not rare, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. But I think that it’s one of the greatest vehicles to tell a story with a Commander deck that we have in Magic today. I’m going to keep running it in my Commander decks, and being an absolute nerd about which one I pick for my yearly new deck.I hope Magic keeps giving folks an opportunity to reimagine the game we love, just like Salazar did.
I’ll long remember 2025 by the Souther Sol Ring, and I think that’s pretty cool.
Donny Caltrider (he/him) has been writing about Magic: The Gathering art since 2018. He has an M.A. in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University, and works in varying capacities as an agent with nearly 50 Magic artists.
He likes baseball, Magic, good cards, great art, whiskey, and you.