The highly anticipated Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair 30th Anniversary Countdown Kit launch was marred by website checkout issues that thwarted orders from early purchasers and drew fan backlash on social media at the direct-to-consumer launch. The checkout issues continued for approximately 15 to 30 minutes, and the set was sold out in the U.S. shortly afterward.

The drop launched at 11 a.m. CT, and within minutes, it was apparent that there were issues with ordering the kit. Customers flocked to social media to complain at Wizards of the Coast, citing 502 Bad Gateway errors, failures to process credit card or PayPal information, and incorrect quantities of sets being ordered. Soon after the initial social media backlash, the MTG Secret Lair Twitter account acknowledged the problems (see below), which led to more customer backlash.

Among the reactions we saw on Twitter was the suggestion that this release could have been handled by local game stores, which would have eliminated checkout malfunctions; limited edition Secret Lair Drop Sets have been released and successful through the retail channel in the past (see "Finally! A 'Magic: The Gathering' 'Secret Lair' for Retailers").