Magic: The Gathering Is Totally Upending How You Buy Cards This February

Wizards Of The Coast has announced a major change in how Magic: The Gathering players will purchase cards. The company plans to combine current pack formats into a new offering, the Play Booster, and the change is scheduled to begin with the Murders At Karlov Manor set in February.

Play Boosters will replace both Draft and Set boosters on store shelves, though they will maintain the slightly-more-expensive Set Booster price point. Each booster will contain 14 cards, with every slot in the pack potentially containing special "booster fun" variants or subset cards.

Play Boosters come five years after the release of Set Boosters, which were designed to cater to those who did not play Magic in limited or sealed format. According to the official Magic: The Gathering blog post on Play Boosters, Set Boosters eventually eclipsed Draft Boosters in popularity, which led to some stores abandoning Draft Boosters--and by extension, the limited Draft format.

Play Boosters will also mark a significant change for The List, which is a subset of special cards from throughout the game's history. Previously, cards included in The List numbered in the hundreds and were reprinted without new art. Now, with the release of Play Boosters, the allotted slot for cards from The List will instead feature only 40 of those non-new-art cards, while also including Special Guest cards like the Jurassic Park subset revealed last month.

The blog post also details what each slot of the new 14-card Play Booster pack will entail. That breakdown is as follows:

• Slots 1-6: Commons
  • Common cards from the main set. Some may be "booster fun" variants.
• Slot 7: Common/The List Card
  • This could be another common or one of the cards from The List. The chances of pulling each type of card are:
    • 87.5% – Common from the main set
    • 9.38% – Common or uncommon normal reprint from The List
    • 1.56% – Rare or mythic rare normal reprint from The List
    • 1.56% – "Special Guests" card from The List
• Slot 8-10: Uncommon Cards
  • Uncommon slots from the main set. Some may be "booster fun" variants.
• Slot 11: Rare/Mythic Rare
  • A guaranteed rare or mythic rare from the main set. Some may be "booster fun" variants.
• Slot 12: Land
  • Basic or common-rarity land. This card has a one-in-five chance of being foil.
• Slot 13: Non-Foil Wildcard
  • This can be any card from the main set, at any rarity, and either regular or a "booster fun" variant. It will always be non-foil.
• Slot 14: Traditional Foil Wildcard
  • Same as Slot 13, but it is guaranteed to be a traditional foil card.
• Slot 15: Non-Playable Slot
  • This will be either a token, an art card, or an advertisement. Percentages are below:
    • 65% – Token or ad card
    • 30% – Art card
    • 5% – Art card with signature

Finally, the blog post breaks down the major differences between the new Play Booster and the formats it will be replacing, Draft and Set Boosters:

• Set Booster differences
  • Two more playable cards
  • Commons and uncommons will not be connected
  • One less non-foil wildcard slot
  • One less nonplayable slot (token/art/ad)
  • 33% chance of art card (Set Boosters were guaranteed an art card)
• Draft Booster differences
  • One less playable card
  • Three less common cards
  • One more non-foil wildcard slot
  • One more traditional wildcard slot
  • The chance for a card from The List/Special Guest subsets
  • 33% chance of art card (Draft Boosters never contained an art card)

Play Boosters will debut with the Murders At Karlov Manor set, which is scheduled for release in February. The next two sets--The Lost Caverns Of Ixalan and Ravnica Remastered--with maintain the separate Draft and Set Booster offerings.