Draft Booster

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Fourth Edition Booster Pack

Draft Booster is the modern name for the original booster pack. The re-branding started with Throne of Eldraine, where the Draft Boosters which formed a line up with the newly introduced Theme Boosters and Collector Boosters.[1] A later addition in the line-up were the Set Boosters in 2020. In early 2024, Set Boosters and Draft Boosters were combined in Play Boosters.[2]

Draft Boosters have a fixed distribution based on rarity. A regular booster pack nowadays contains sixteen cards: fifteen playing cards and a marketing card / token.[3][4]

Of the fifteen playing cards, one is currently a basic land, ten are common, three are uncommon, and one is rare or mythic rare. This distribution was introduced with Shards of Alara and facilitates Limited play (Draft and Sealed).

History

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:
  • Antiquities was also sold in eight-card booster packs.
  • Legends booster packs were the first to contain fifteen cards.
    • Eleven commons, three uncommons, and one rare.
  • 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.
  • Ice Age booster packs contain fifteen cards:
    • Eleven commons, three uncommons, and one 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:

In 2023, Mark Rosewater admitted that the existence of both Set Boosters and Draft Boosters had created a few issues and audience confusion was one of them.[8] It turned that Draft Boosters were outsold by Set Boosters to the point that they were on the road to extinction.[9][10] For Murders at Karlov Manor they were both replaced by Play Boosters.[2]

The latest expansion set's Draft Boosters retailed for US$3.95.

References

  1. Mark Rosewater (July 21, 2019). "Project Booster Fun". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  2. a b Mark Rosewater (October 18, 2023). "What are Play Boosters?". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  3. Mark Rosewater (October 04, 2019). "A long time ago, the 15th card slot got changed to a basic land. Why did they do that?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  4. Mark Rosewater (October 05, 2019). "what made the packaging for Modern Horizons special to allow the seventeenth card (the art card)?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  5. Mark Rosewater (Monday, June 2, 2008). "The Year of Living Changerously". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  6. Wizards of the Coast (Monday, June 2, 2008). "Changes as of Shards of Alara". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  7. Blake Rasmussen (December 24, 2014). "A Fetching Look at Fate Reforged". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  8. Mark Rosewater (September 10, 2023). "May I request that we get draft boosters with different artworks on the packaging again?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  9. Mark Rosewater (October 16, 2023). "What data (besides profits) could convince the powers that be to reinstate the (draft) booster as it is today?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  10. Miles A. (October 17, 2023). "The Numbers That Killed Draft Boosters". Cardboardbythenumbers.com.