Booster pack

Fourth Edition Booster Pack

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 fifteen playing cards and a marketing card. Starting with Throne of Eldraine, regular boosters were rebranded as Draft Boosters, which formed a line up with Theme Boosters and Collector Boosters.

Draft boosters

Over the years, regular booster packs have grown in size and cost:

• Arabian Nights was sold in eight-card booster packs for US$1.45 per pack. Each pack contained:
  • Six commons and two uncommons (there were no rares).
• Antiquities was also sold in eight-card booster packs.
• Legends booster packs contain fifteen cards.
• The Dark, Fallen Empires, and Homelands boosters contain eight cards; At least for Homelands, each pack contains six commons, and has two 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 twelve cards:
  • Eight commons, three uncommons, and one rare.
• From Mirage until Coldsnap, booster packs contain fifteen cards:
  • Eleven commons, three uncommons, and one rare.
• Unglued boosters contain ten cards:
  • One basic land, six commons, two uncommons, and one rare.
• In core set booster packs from Seventh Edition to Ninth Edition one common was replaced with a basic land card. These boosters contain fifteen cards:
  • One basic land, ten commons, three uncommons, and one rare.
• The price went up to US$3.29 starting with Ninth Edition.
• The Time Spiral block has "timeshifted" cards and due to this their rarities in booster packs are different, though each booster pack contains fifteen cards.
  • Time Spiral booster packs contain ten commons, three uncommons, one rare, and one purple-rarity timeshifted card.
  • Planar Chaos booster packs contain eight commons, two uncommons, one rare, three timeshifted commons, and one uncommon or rare timeshifted card.
  • Future Sight booster packs contain eleven commons, three uncommons, and one rare, any of which might be a timeshifted card.
• Tenth Edition booster packs introduced an additional marketing card and thus contain sixteen cards:
  • One marketing card, one basic land, ten commons, three uncommons, and one rare.
• From Lorwyn to Eventide, booster packs contain sixteen cards:
  • One marketing card, eleven commons, three uncommons, and one rare.
• From Shards of Alara on, both core set and expansion booster packs contain 16 cards:
  • One marketing card, one basic land, ten commons (one possible premium card in any rarity), three uncommons, and one rare (occasionally, about one in eight packs, replaced by a mythic rare). 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 one basic land as usual, or one checklist card, which appear in three out of four 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 one in eight 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. 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.
    • Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance used Gates instead of basic lands.
    • War of the Spark: each booster pack contains a planeswalker card

The latest expansion set's booster pack retails for US$3.95.

Non-regular boosters

Six card boosters

Conflux was the first set to be sold in six-card booster packs containing a tips/token card, one land, three commons, one uncommon, and one slot that had an equal chance of being rare/mythic, uncommon, or common. These packs are exclusively available from Gravity Feeds. These could be found at mass-market retailers like Target and Walmart. 6-card boosters were at least available up until Dragon's 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 ten-card Sample Packs were available for several starter-level sets and core sets. Six-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. 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.

Holiday Buy-a-Box Promotion

• Kaladesh: as a holiday promotion, purchasers of a booster box received two bonus holiday packs. These boosters had the same content as the previously announced Standard Showdown prize boosters (for a total of two foil cards of any rarity—excluding double-faced cards—and four foil rares or mythic rares).
• Ixalan: purchasers of a booster box received the Buy-a-Box Treasure Chest booster, containing two foil cards of any rarity from any Standard-legal set, four rare or mythic rare cards from Standard-legal sets, two foil basic lands, and one out of ten possible alternate art, foil double-faced cards.

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 contained 35 cards (a variable amount of commons and uncommons, and one 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.

Apparently deemed a success, Theme Boosters also appeared with Guilds of Ravnica. This time around, they were bi-colored. Later, Wizards of the Coast announced that Theme Boosters would be part of each main set's lineup going forward. The composition of the these theme boosters differs depending on the properties of the set.

Starting with Throne of Eldraine, nine out of ten Theme Boosters will have one rare, but one out of ten will have two rares. The number of commons and uncommons still varies between boosters, unlike Draft Boosters where the number of each rarity mostly remains constant. You'll always get more commons than uncommons, however. A reference card is added to help expose newer players to different aspects of the game.

Collector Boosters

For Ravnica Allegiance, Wizards introduced "Collector Boosters" that contained fifteen cards for US$12.99: These featured:

• 2 foils of any rarity
• 3 rares/mythic rares
• 10 uncommons

This was a very limited experimental test run. Collector Boosters were only be available in Japan and North America, and even there not be widely available.

Collector Boosters became a regular feature with the release of Throne of Eldraine. This version contained:

• 1 rare/mythic rare with extended art
• 1 foil rare/mythic rare
• 9 foil commons/uncommons
• 3 special-frame cards (showcase or borderless planeswalkers)
• 1 ancillary card
• 1 foil token

Unlike Draft Boosters, which optimize the Draft experience with a lot of repetition and a huge number of commons, Collector Boosters are maximized more diversity in content.

Packaging

Wrapper

Plastic

The first booster packs had a fairly simple plastic 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.

Metal foil

Nowadays, booster packs are sealed with silver foil wrapping to keep all of the cards neatly in place. 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.

The foil, a mixture of metal and plastic, is sealed off with heat, a process called "crimping". In the process of sealing boosters closed, cards can get caught in the heat press and accidentally get crimped, as well.

Paper

With Modern Masters 2015 WotC experimented with recyclable paperboard booster wrappers. Soon rumors abounded about the ease with which these new cardboard packs could be repacked. 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.

In August 2019, Hasbro announced that it will begin phasing out plastic from new product packaging starting in 2020. This will include shrink wrap, window sheets, and more. Virtually all plastic packaging will be eliminated by the end of 2022.

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 advertise the set with an appropriate piece of art.

Collector boosters are packaged 12 to a box.

Booster case

A booster case nowadays consists of 6 booster boxes, or 216 booster packs. Local game stores usually buy new sets by case.

Blister packs

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. and about printing and collation issues.

Draft packs

Conspiracy: Take the Crown introduced Draft Packs for sale in North American mass-market stores. The Draft Pack features three booster packs.

Unique packages

• For the Ravnica block, a "perfect for draft" piece was sold. This included one booster of Ravnica, Dissension, and Guildpact each, 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 US$11.99.

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.

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.

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 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.

Rules

The term "booster pack" also is referenced in the rules.

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (April 12, 2024—Outlaws of Thunder Junction)

Booster Pack

A group of unopened Magic cards from a particular expansion. Booster packs are used in Limited formats. See rule 100.2b.

Gallery

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  Antiquities booster pack

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  Buy-a-Box Treasure Chest booster

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  Unglued horizontal booster

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  Resale pack

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  Modern Masters 2015 paperboard booster

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  Planar Chaos blister pack

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  Magic 2013 booster sleeve

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  Ravnica Allegiance collector booster pack

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  Conflux 6-card booster pack

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  Conspiracy: Take the Crown draft pack