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.

Starting with Throne of Eldraine, regular boosters were rebranded as draft boosters, to distinguish them from theme boosters and collector boosters. Set boosters were introduced for Zendikar Rising.

Draft Boosters

Draft booster is the modern name for the original booster product. They have a fixed distribution based on rarity. A draft booster pack contains sixteen cards: fifteen Magic cards and a marketing card / token. Of the fifteen Magic cards, one is a basic land, ten are common, three are uncommon, and one is rare or mythic rare. There is also a chance for one of the common cards to be replaced by a premium foil card of any rarity. This results in a booster pack with one basic land, one foil card, nine common cards, three uncommon cards, and one rare or mythic rare card.

While most modern sets follow this distribution in draft boosters, some sets have unique requirements, such as having at least one double-faced card in every Innistrad pack, which skews the typical distribution of rarities and card types. Draft Boosters were obsoleted starting with Murders at Karlov Manor.

Targeted boosters

Starting in 2018, Wizards of the Coast began to create special boosters targeted at special audiences.

Theme Boosters

Theme boosters contained 35 cards (a variable amount of commons and uncommons, and 1 rare or mythic rare) from a given color or theme. The MSRP was $6.99. These are targeted at deckbuilding players, providing a greater number of cards that could go straight into their deck. They also play up a set's flavor for those that might be interested in sampling a slice of a particular aspect of the world. Theme Boosters were obsoleted starting with Dominaria United.

Collector Boosters

Collector boosters were introduced for Core Set 2020. They are targeted at collectors and sold for $12.99. Unlike draft boosters, which optimize the draft experience with a lot of repetition and a huge number of commons, collector boosters are maximized for more diversity in content, with more rare, foil, extended art, borderless, and showcase cards.

Set Boosters

Set boosters were introduced for Zendikar Rising in 2020. They are targeted to players who are not interested in draft or limited formats, and sell for a slightly higher price than draft boosters. Each pack comes with fourteen cards, twelve of which are Magic cards, with a higher variety in rarities and unique treatments. Set Boosters were obsoleted starting with Murders at Karlov Manor.

Jumpstart Boosters

Starting with Dominaria United in 2022, Jumpstart boosters replaced theme boosters for premier sets. They were canceled for Wilds of Eldraine.

Play Boosters

Play Boosters were introduced for Murders at Karlov Manor in 2024 to replace both Draft boosters and Set boosters. Going forward, they are the "foundation product" of every premier and tentpole set. Play Boosters are designed to combine the characteristics of their predecessors; they are draftable per Draft Boosters while retaining the fun opening experience of finding surprise cards or card treatments per Set Boosters.

Non-regular boosters

Six-card boosters

Conflux Gravity Feed for 6-card boosters

Six-card booster packs contain a tips/token card, one land, three commons, one uncommon, and one slot with an equal chance of being rare/mythic, uncommon, or common. The packs were packaged in gravity feeds rather than booster boxes and could be found at mass-market retailers like Target and Walmart. English six-card boosters were produced for Conflux through Magic 2014. They were available in Japanese from Magic 2010 to New Phyrexia. Spanish six card packs of Magic 2011 and Magic 2012 were included with several Salvate Magazines.

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 also given to Duels of the Planeswalkers users.

Seeded boosters

A seeded booster is a special set of cards 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 were 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 cards, 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.
• Ixalan: purchasers of a booster box received a 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.

Twenty-card boosters

Commander Legends draft boosters and Jumpstart boosters contain 20 Magic cards. Commander Legends boosters also include an additional marketing card.

Prerelease boosters

Boosters containing one random prerelease card.

Epilogue boosters

March of the Machine: The Aftermath boosters were marketed as "epilogue boosters", said to be "lore-packed boosters that continue the story in between sets". Each 5-card epilogue booster contained 1 to 3 cards of rarity rare or higher, and the remainder were uncommon. 1 or 2 of the cards were traditional foil, and one was in the set's showcase frame. These boosters were not designed to be used for drafting.

The release of March of the Machine: The Aftermath was met with an extremely negative reception and epilogue boosters were heavily criticized for their small size and price point. The poor reception caused Wizards to cancel an already designed epilogue set for Outlaws of Thunder Junction and restructure the way Beyond Boosters were designed for Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed. Future micro-set releases with epilogue boosters are highly unlikely.

Beyond boosters

Beyond boosters are a unique booster pack for Universes Beyond products introduced for Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed. Similar to Set and Collector boosters, Beyond boosters are not designed to be used for drafting.

Packaging

Wrapper

Plastic

The first booster packs had fairly simple plastic wrappers, primarily differentiated by color. Core set packs were brown, Arabian Nights were purple, Antiquities were silver-grey, and so on. This early packaging was slightly transparent, making it possible to see what cards were in a pack without opening it. The top and bottom of each wrapper is sealed 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.

Metal foil

Beginning with Fourth Edition, booster pack wrappers have been made of opaque foiled plastic, which prevents the contents from being viewed without opening them.

Origin

Quality may differ by origin. Boosters with vertical crimps to seal the pack are made in the US or Belgium. Boosters with a grid pattern seal are made in Japan. Japanese packs tend to be looser and have more of the booster wrapper. The order of rares, uncommons, commons may be different. The cards themselves also have differences in things like card stock, feel, and color saturation.

Paper

See through paper booster

WotC experimented with recyclable paperboard booster wrappers for Modern Masters 2015 . Soon rumors abounded about the ease with which these new cardboard packs could be repacked. The cards could also move around more and be damaged during transport. Mark Rosewater stated afterwards that some challenges had to be solved before the experiment would be repeated.

In August 2019, Hasbro announced that it would begin phasing out plastic from new product packaging starting in 2020. This included shrink wrap, window sheets, and more. Virtually all plastic packaging was to be be eliminated by the end of 2022. Paper booster packs were to be revisited.

The first waxed (or possibly glassine) see-through paper packaging appeared in late 2022 on bundles and Secret Lairs.

Markings and symbols

The packaging features several markings and symbols. The CE mark, together with the name and address of the first supplier, is required by law to appear on all toys placed on the market in the European Union on and after January 1990. The Lion Mark was developed in 1988 by the British Toy & Hobby Association as a symbol of toy safety and quality for the consumer. The Green Dot is an internationally recognized symbol that shows a company’s commitment to environmental protection.

Booster box

A booster pack box, booster display, or simply booster box, contains 36 booster packs for most sets. Exceptions include supplemental sets like Conspiracy, Jumpstart, Epilogue, and Masters sets, which contain 24 packs. Booster boxes of several early expansion sets contain more packs, but have fewer cards per pack. The top of each booster box can be flipped open and tucked in behind the packs to advertise the set with an appropriate piece of art.

Set booster boxes have 30 packs.

Collector booster boxes have 12 packs.

Booster case

A draft booster case consists of 6 booster boxes, or a total of 216 booster packs. Local game stores usually buy booster boxes of new sets by the case. The number of boxes and total number of boosters for non-draft booster products varies.

Blister packs

From the Time Spiral block until Magic 2013, blister packs containing one to three booster packs were available, primarily in large retail stores. A blister pack is a plastic front and a cardboard backing used to hold the boosters and allow the unit to be hung on store pegs. It also provides somewhat of a theft-deterrent as it is larger than an individual booster pack. This kind of packing adds cost and increased packaging waste.

Booster sleeves

Starting with Magic 2013, blister packs were replaced with cardboard booster sleeves. The sleeve is a cardboard overwrap around a regular booster pack. The bigger package makes the packs a little harder to steal, while reducing the plastic content. Booster sleeves were distributed in display boxes containing 12 or 48 booster-sleeved packs.

Draft packs

Conspiracy: Take the Crown introduced draft packs for sale in North American mass-market stores. These draft packs feature three boosters in a blister pack. Time Spiral Remastered and subsequent draft packs are packaged in booster sleeves instead of blister packs.

Unique packages

• For Ravnica block, a "perfect for draft" product was produced. Each includes a Ravnica block draft set - one booster each of Ravnica: City of Guilds, Dissension, and Guildpact - and a spindown life counter. Retail price was US$11.99.
• Shards of Alara block Premium Foil Boosters contain a random assortment of fifteen foil cards from Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn. They were 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 putting something edible in the booster packs made them subject to stricter rules which could not be complied with.

Artwork

Core sets

• Alpha through Revised packs have no card artwork.
• Starting with Fourth Edition, packs feature artwork from four or five cards in the set, with the exception of Sixth Edition packs, which all have the same promotional artwork not found on any card in the set.
• Magic Origins boosters have original artwork by Chase Stone for five planeswalkers in the set: Gideon Jura / Kytheon Iora, Jace Beleren, Chandra Nalaar, Liliana Vess and Nissa Revane. The booster art is different from the art on the cards.

Early sets

• Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, The Dark, and Fallen Empires boosters have no card artwork.
• Homelands boosters have no card artwork, but have a green and red textured frame.

Expansion sets

• Starting with Ice Age, large expansion set boosters began featuring artwork from one of three to five cards in the set. Small expansions prior to Onslaught block feature art from only one card in the set, but subsequent small expansion boosters feature art from one of three cards in the set. With the introduction of set boosters for Zendikar Rising, draft boosters reverted to featuring a single art, to help clearly differentiate between different types of boosters.

Compilation sets

• Chronicles packs have no card artwork, but have the Chronicles globe graphic.
• Masters series sets feature artwork from three different cards in the set.

Starter sets

• Portal packs feature artwork from one of three cards: Merfolk of the Pearl Trident, Elvish Ranger, or Spined Wurm.
• Portal Second Age packs feature art from Relentless Assault.
• Portal Three Kingdoms packs feature art from Riding Red Hare.
• Starter 1999 packs featur the art from Denizen of the Deep.

Supplemental sets

• Unglued boosters were the first to feature horizontal art. They feature Jester's Sombrero.
• Unhinged boosters feature art from Richard Garfield, Ph.D., Mana Screw, or Gleemax.
• Conspiracy boosters were the second to feature horizontal art. They feature artwork from Dack Fayden, Magister of Worth or Scourge of the Throne.
• Conspiracy: Take the Crown boosters feature horizontal artwork from Queen Marchesa, Kaya, Ghost Assassin (foil alternate art version), or Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast.

Rules

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

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Booster Pack

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

Booster Fun

In 2019, R&D introduced "Booster Fun" as the collective name that R&D uses for the types of card frames (also called card treatments) that could appear in Collector Boosters Booster Fun cards evolved from Masterpieces. The difference is that the Booster Fun cards are versions of cards in the set, not from outside of the set. The following card treatments can show up:

• Extended art
• Borderless art
• Showcase cards (a catch-all term to cover a variety of different treatments that embody the spirit of the relevant sets.)
• Retro frames

These all may also have foil, foil-etched, and/or alternate art versions.

Booster Fun was extended to Set Boosters in 2020 and their successor Play Boosters in 2024.

Foil and non-foil Booster Fun cards may also appear in draft boosters, but at a much lower frequency. Non-foil versions appear in the same rarity slot as the original card. Foil Booster Fun cards appear in a common slot like other foils.

See also

Mystery Booster

Mystery Booster is a Magic booster set, designed for Chaos Draft. It was released in 2019.

Welcome Booster

Welcome boosters were introduced for Core Set 2021. They are free gifts for beginning players. Each welcome booster for a particular set is exactly the same and contains a sample of legendaries, planeswalkers, showcase cards, and more.

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

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  Throne of Eldraine Collector Booster

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  Throne of Eldraine Collector Booster with booster sleeve

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  Commander Legends Draft Booster

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  Booster dispenser (2021 WPN Premium benefit)

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  Dominaria United Jumpstart Booster

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  Phyrexia: All Will Be One Prerelease Booster

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  March of the Machine: The Aftermath Epilogue Booster

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  Ravnica: Clue Edition Booster

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  Assassin's Creed Beyond Booster