Play Booster

Magic Play Boosters are a product introduced for Murders at Karlov Manor in 2024 to replace both Draft boosters and Set boosters. Going forward, they will be part of the regular product line of every set that comes with boosters.

Description

In September 2023, Mark Rosewater first admitted that the existence of both Set Boosters and Draft Boosters had created a few issues and that audience confusion was one of them. The decision to combine Draft Boosters and Set Boosters was published a month later.

The Play Boosters combine characteristics of their predecessors. They are designed to be draftable, while retaining the fun opening experience of finding surprise cards or card treatments. They contain 14 playable cards (one less than in Draft Boosters, but two more than in Set Boosters), and one non-playable card. Play boosters are the same cost as Set Boosters.

Every playable card (as opposed to a token or art card) in a Play Booster can be drafted. This especially means Special Guests and other reprints from The List.

Because of the decrease in common cards in a pack, the total amount of common cards in a given set ia also going down? R&D lowered the number of commons from 101 to 80 (and increased uncommons from 80 to 100).

Background

The big reason behind the change was that the extra type of booster was a load in practice that escalated as the system went would have causing the Draft Boosters to go extinct. Stores and players couldn't manage having both after decades of not needing to choose, and each cycle of product ordering typically tilted towards Set Boosters, while Draft Boosters needed a much higher minimum count in order to support Limited events. Reportedly, some stores were capped on the Draft Boosters they could order, resulting in players less able to purchase Draft Boosters for personal Limited play as stores needed them for their own events. Attempts to play Limited with Set Boosters has been less enjoyable, while Limited players miss out on the various treatments on offer.

Structure

Slot	Quantity	Type	Chance of surprise
#1-6	6	Common	Opportunity to get Booster Fun versions.
#7	1	Common or The List	12.5% chance of a List card playable in Limited
#8-10	3	Uncommon	Opportunity to get Booster Fun versions.
#11	1	Rare or Mythic Rare	Opportunity to get Booster Fun versions.
#12	1	Basic land	In sets with no basic lands, this will be a common land.
#13	1	Non-foil Wildcard	A card of any rarity from the set.
#14	1	Foil Wildcard	A foil card of any rarity from the set.
#15	1	Token, Art card, play aide, ad	Non-playable card, excluded for draft.

MTG Arena

In alignment with tabletop, limited packs on MTG Arena will include the features of a Play Booster, starting with Murders at Karlov Manor. Packs for Limited play events (Draft and Sealed). will include Special Guests and cards from The List. Because MTG Arena's older formats are different from those of tabletop Magic, the designers of MTG Arena have worked with the Play Design team on a few card swaps on The List.