A booster pack is a sealed package of random Magic cards from a particular expansion set, designed to add to a player's collection. They have a fixed distribution based on rarity. A regular booster pack nowadays contains 15 playing cards and a marketing card.
An Antiquities booster pack
Fourth Edition Booster Pack
Contents and cost
Over the years booster packs have grown in size and cost:
- Arabian Nights was sold in 8-card booster packs for $1.45US per pack. Each pack contained:
- Antiquities was also sold in 8-card booster packs.
- Legends booster packs contain 15 cards.
- The Dark, Fallen Empires and Homelands boosters contain 8 cards; At least for Homelands, each pack contains 6 commons, and has 2 slots that can be either uncommon or rare. This makes a double rare or no rare pack possible. The ratio for each slot is roughly 2/3 for an uncommon, 1/3 for a rare.
- Alliances and Chronicles booster packs contain 12 cards:
- 8 commons, 3 uncommons and 1 rare.
- From Mirage until Coldsnap, booster packs contain 15 cards:
- 11 commons, 3 uncommons and 1 rare.
- Unglued boosters contain 10 cards:
- 1 land card, 6 commons, 2 uncommons and 1 rare.
- In core set booster packs from Seventh Edition to Ninth Edition 1 common was replaced with a basic land card. These boosters contain 15 cards:
- 1 basic land, 10 commons, 3 uncommons and 1 rare.
- The price went up to $3.29 starting with 9th Edition.
- The Time Spiral block has "timeshifted" cards and due to this their rarities in booster packs are different, though each booster pack contains 15 cards.
- Time Spiral booster packs contain 10 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare, and 1 purple-rarity timeshifted card.
- Planar Chaos booster packs contain 8 commons, 2 uncommons, 1 rare, 3 timeshifted commons, and 1 uncommon or rare timeshifted card.
- Future Sight booster packs contain 11 commons, 3 uncommons, and 1 rare, any of which might be a timeshifted card.
- Tenth Edition booster packs introduced an additional marketing card and thus contain 16 cards:
- 1 marketing card, 1 basic land, 10 commons, 3 uncommons and 1 rare.
- From Lorwyn to Eventide, booster packs contain 16 cards:
- 1 marketing card, 11 commons, 3 uncommons and 1 rare.
- From Shards of Alara on, both core set and expansion booster packs contain 16 cards:
- 1 marketing card, 1 basic land, 10 commons (one maybe premium card in any rarity), 3 uncommons and 1 rare (occasionally, about 1 in 8 packs, replaced by a mythic rare).[1][2]. However, some of the sets may contain different configurations on particular cards:
- Sets having double-faced cards (except Magic Origins): The basic land slot contained 1 basic land as usual, or 1 checklist card, which appear in 3 out of 4 packs.
- Innistrad, Dark Ascension: one common slot was replaced by a double faced card (which can be anything from a common to a mythic rare).
- Shadows over Innistrad, Eldritch Moon: one common slot was replaced by a common or uncommon double faced card. And, occasionally, about 1 in 8 packs, one additional common slot was replaced by a rare or mythic rare double faced card.
- Dragon's Maze, Fate Reforged(excluding languages that had no Intro pack or Fat pack): The basic land slot contained only nonbasic lands.[3]. For Fate Reforged, booster packs in languages that have no Intro Pack or Fat pack, most of the cards in land slots are basic lands.
- 1 marketing card, 1 basic land, 10 commons (one maybe premium card in any rarity), 3 uncommons and 1 rare (occasionally, about 1 in 8 packs, replaced by a mythic rare).[1][2]. However, some of the sets may contain different configurations on particular cards:
The latest expansion set's booster pack retails for $3.95US.
Non-regular boosters
Six card boosters
Conflux 6-card booster
Conflux was the first set to be sold in 6-card booster packs containing a tips/token card, 1 land, 3 commons, 1 uncommon, and 1 slot that had an equal chance of being rare/mythic, uncommon, or common. These packs are exclusively available from Gravity Feeds.[4] These could be found at mass-market retailers like Target and Walmart. 6-card boosters were at least available up until Dragons Maze. They seem to have been abandoned for Magic 2014, Theros block and further sets.
Demogame boosters
Free 24-card Demogame boosters were available for several starter-level sets and Core Sets.
Sample Packs
Free 10-card Sample Packs were available for several starter-level sets and Core Sets. 6-card Sample Packs were given available for Duels of the Planeswalkers-users.
Seeded boosters
A seeded booster is a special set of cards that is made available at some prereleases.[5] It consists of playable cards that help to create a coherent deck, so that way more people (especially newer players) have a good time. There are limited combinations of cards that can appear in a seeded booster,
Standard Showdown prize boosters
Special promotional prize boosters introduced in 2016 for the Standard Showdown, containing three cards each. One is a premium card from a currently legal Standard set, including Masterpiece Series, and two are non-premium cards that are either a rare or a mythic rare from a set currently legal in Standard.[6]
Holiday Buy-a-Box Promotion
Treasure Chest booster
- Kaladesh: as a holiday promotion, purchasers of a booster box received two bonus holiday packs.[7] These boosters had the same content as the previously announced Standard Showdown prize boosters (for a total of 2 foil cards of any rarity - excluding double-faced cards - and 4 foil rare or mythic rares).
- Ixalan: purchasers of a booster box received the Buy-a-Box Treasure Chest booster, containing 2 foil cards of any rarity from any Standard-legal set, 4 rare or mythic rare cards from Standard-legal sets, 2 foil basic lands, and 1 out of 10 possible alternate art, foil double-faced cards.[8]
Theme Boosters
With the release of Dominaria, Wizards of the Coast began testing a new product at 300 Walmart locations across North America called the “Dominaria Theme Booster”. These contain 35 cards (a variable amount of commons and uncommons, and 1 rare or mythic rare) from a given color and theme, as well as artifacts and colorless cards. The MSRP is $6.99. By limiting this test to a single large account, WotC hoped to perform a controlled test that allowed them to more efficiently and accurately interpret sales results that would help inform future decisions about this kind of product.[9][10]
Apparently deemed a success, Theme Boosters also appeared with Guilds of Ravnica. This time around, they were bi-colored.[11]
Packaging
Planar Chaos blister pack
Magic 2013 booster sleeve
The first booster packs had a fairly simple packaging, where the sets only were differentiated by the color. Core sets were brown, Arabian Nights was purple, Antiquities was silver grey and so on. A problem was that this early packaging was slightly transparent.
Fourth Edition was the first Core Set, and Ice Age the first expansion, with packs made of foil flow wrap and the first with artwork on the wrappers.
From the Time Spiral block on, Booster packs could be sold in blister packs. A blister pack is putting plastic and a cardboard backing around the booster pack, this is somewhat of a theft-deterrent and adds the possiblity of hanging the boosters on pegs (usually found in mass-market venues like Wall Mart, Target etc.). This kind of packing can add cost to the booster pack. Blister packs can hold one, two, or three booster packs. Starting with Magic 2013, the blister packs were replaced with cardboard booster sleeves.[12] and about printing and collation issues.[13]
With Modern Masters 2015 WotC experimented with recyclable paperboard booster wrappers.[14] Soon rumors abounded about the ease with which these new cardboard packs could be repacked.[15] Also, the cards had room to move and could be damaged during transport. Mark Rosewater later admitted that some challenges had to be solved, before the experiment would be repeated. [16]
Modern Masters 2015 paperboard booster
Booster box
A booster pack box (or simply “booster box”) nowadays consists of 36 (12 × 3) booster packs, with the exception of sets like Conspiracy and Masters series, whose booster boxes consist of 24 (8 × 3) booster packs. Earlier sets had different sizes for booster boxes, depending on the size of the booster packs. This wasn't very efficient in view of production costs. Each booster box can be flipped open to adverize the set with an appropiate piece of art.
Booster case
A booster case nowadays consists of 6 booster boxes, or 216 booster packs. Local game stores usually buy new sets by case.
Draft Packs
Conspiracy: Take the Crown draft pack
Conspiracy: Take the Crown introduced Draft Packs for sale in North American mass-market stores. The Draft Pack features three Booster Packs. [17]
Unique packages
Resale pack
- The Ravnica block has been sold as a "perfect for draft" piece. This includes one booster of Ravnica, Dissension, and Guildpact, and a spindown life counter. Retail price: US$11.99.
- The Alara Premium Foil Booster pack contained fifteen foil, black-bordered cards from Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn. It was released on January 8, 2010 at an MSRP of $11.99.[18]
Resale packages
Additions
Wizards of the Coast toyed with the idea of scratch-off cards in boosters of Unglued 2. Another idea they explored was having it come with pieces of bubble gum. But it turned out that putting something edible in the booster packs created a whole series of stricter rules, and it turned out to not be feasible. [19]
Artwork
Core sets
- Alpha packs through Revised packs have no card artwork.
- Starting with Fourth Edition, packs from most Core Sets feature artwork from one of several cards.
- Sixth Edition packs have all the same promotional artwork.
- Magic Origins packs have original artwork of five planeswalker by Chase Stone : Gideon Jura / Kytheon Iora, Jace Beleren, Chandra Nalaar, Liliana Vess and Nissa Revane. The art for these packages is not found on any card of the set.[20]
Expert-level early sets
- Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, The Dark and Fallen Empires packs have no card artwork.
- Homelands packs have no card artwork, but have a green and red textured frame.
Expert-level expansion sets
- Starting with Ice Age, large expansions sets feature artwork from three to five cards. Until Onslaught block, small expansions only featured one card art. This was later expanded to three.
Compilation sets
- Chronicles packs have no card artwork, but have the Chronicles globe graphic.
- Masters Series sets feature artwork from three different cards
Starter sets
- Portal packs feature artwork from one of the cards: Merfolk of the Pearl Trident, Elvish Ranger and Spined Wurm.
- Portal Second Age packs feature art from Relentless Assault.
- Portal Three Kingdoms packs feature art from Riding Red Hare.
- Starter 1999 packs featured the art from Denizen of the Deep.
Supplemental sets
Unglued horizontal booster
- Unglued was the first set to feature horizontal art on the packs. It featured Jester's Sombrero.
- Unhinged boosters featured art from Richard Garfield, Ph.D., Mana Screw and Gleemax.
- Conspiracy was the second set to feature horizontal art. The boosters featured artwork from Dack Fayden, Magister of Worth and Scourge of the Throne.
- Conspiracy: Take the Crown features horizontal artwork from Queen Marchesa, Kaya, Ghost Assassin (foil alternate art version) and Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast.
References
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- ↑ Error on call to {{WebRef}}: Parameters url and title must be specifiedMark Rosewater (September 23, 2018). "". Tumblr.
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- ↑ Dominaria Themed Boosters Found at Walmart (Reddit)
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- ↑ Barry White (August 15, 2018). "Guild of Ravnica Theme Boosters, Guild Packs Detailed by WotC". GeekNifty.com
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- ↑ Error on call to {{WebRef}}: Parameters url and title must be specifiedMark Rosewater (June 17, 2016). "". Tumblr.
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