Ornithological Studies was a five-card Secret Lair drop that reimagined Magic's bird-themed cards as natural-history illustrations, depicting the creatures as though they belonged in a real-world field guide. Artwork by Ovidio Cartagena and Allen Douglas gave the cards a cohesive, classical scientific aesthetic that contrasted with Magic's usual fantasy presentation. The drop was part of the Summer Superdrop and was also available through its bundle, making its distinctive art direction the primary draw for collectors.
({W/U} can be paid with either {W} or {U}.)
Whenever a player casts a noncreature spell, counter that spell. That player creates X 1/1 white and blue Bird creature tokens with flying, where X is the spell's mana value.
Flying
When this creature enters, create a Food token. (It's an artifact with "{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: You gain 3 life.")
{1}{G}, {T}: Create a Food token.
{T}, Sacrifice a Food: Add one mana of any color.
Given the rarity and limited information on some bonus cards, this may not be a complete list of all potential bonus cards available in this Secret Lair.
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
Nicol Bolas has all loyalty abilities of all other planeswalkers on the battlefield.
+1: You draw a card. Each opponent exiles a card from their hand or a permanent they control.
−3: Destroy target creature or planeswalker.
−8: Each opponent who doesn't control a legendary creature or planeswalker loses the game.
Colorless spells you cast cost {2} less to cast.
+1: Exile the top card of your library face down and look at it. Create a 2/2 colorless Spirit creature token. When that token leaves the battlefield, put the exiled card into your hand.
−3: Destroy target permanent that's one or more colors.
