Draft Booster

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. 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.

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.

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:
  • Six commons and two uncommons (there were no rares).
• 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:
  • 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.
    • Dominaria, War of the Spark, Zendikar Rising, Dominaria United: each booster pack contained a certain type of card, uncommon at lowest rarity; if rare or mythic, there were three uncommons. Dominaria and Dominaria United was a legendary, War of the Spark was a planeswalker, and Zendikar Rising was a modal double-faced land.
    • Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance used Gates instead of basic lands.
    • Kaldheim: a snow land replaces the regular basic land.
    • Strixhaven: School of Mages: a Mystical Archive card replaces the basic land, and a Lesson card at either rare or common.
    • Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, Innistrad: Crimson Vow: A common double-faced card replaces a common, while another slot of the appropriate rarity is replaced with the uncommon or higher double-faced card.
    • Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty: A common or uncommon double-faced Saga replaces a common, additionally, the rare slot may be replaced by a rare or mythic Saga.
    • The Brothers' War: a Retro Artifact card replaces a common.
    • March of the Machine: a Multiverse Legends card replaces the basic land, a battle double-faced card replaced an uncommon or rare, and a double-faced Phyrexian of any rarity replaces a common.
    • Wilds of Eldraine: an Enchanting Tale card replaces a common.

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. It turned that Draft Boosters were outsold by Set Boosters to the point that they were on the road to extinction. For Murders at Karlov Manor they were both replaced by Play Boosters.

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