Review: Beadle & Grimms X Secret Lair Or … The Unboxing of Dragons and their Joyful Treasure

On Sunday a delightful box appeared on my doorstep: the Beadle and Grimm’s X Secret Lair.

Once upon a time, when I was a baby astrophysics major, we used to sit around a table outside the conference room and work on homework sets together, and when we were done we’d play this new game called Magic the Gathering. For me, this card game will always mean, “I have completed a difficult thing in the company of others, and now we shall play.” From the summer of 1993 through to my graduation in 1996, I was a player who ran an artifact deck, mono green, and a red+black (Rakdos) as my go to methods to beat other players.

Then graduate school happened. Then a bad breakup happened that took all my good cards and the hallway door knob.* Between too much work to do and too little money to start over my Magic the Gathering habit, I moved on with my life until @tinyintern got me playing again last fall. Now, as an adult of sound body (sorta) and sound mind (I hope), I have chosen to invest in a gazillion little pieces of shiny cardboard.

I no longer run an artifact deck. Today… when it isn’t Goblins striking with a hundred 1/1 strikes, it is Dragons flying under Tiamat, the Dragon God.

When I saw that Beadle and Grimm’s was coming out with a D&D themed, Dragon-filled Secret Lair collaboration… I clicked buy before my brain thought through my budgeting.

And I have to say, past me loved current me, because when that box arrived so many months later, it was joy.

My goal was to do your standard unboxing video, but, ah, mistakes were made. It turns out that back in the day, when I had a Bark Box subscription (Hi Barkbox, Imma renew soon! I promise!) I used to do unboxing videos with Eddie. This means Eddie believes that when there is a box, and a phone video taping the box, he should get to open the box.

This made unboxing … a lively experience.

Luckily, Eddie could be placated with the cardboard outer box while I explored the inner box. He had a grand time. The box… the box is dead and probably no longer recyclable (but it does have a future in composting).