What are Play Boosters, and How do They Work?

Hello and welcome back! There’s been a development in Magic recently about the basic way cards for the game are distributed. Wizards of the Coast recently posted an article on October 16th written by Mark Rosewater going in depth about a new booster pack called a "Play Booster" and how it came to be. In this article I’m going to go over some of those points in general, but more what it might mean going forward.

A Booster Recap

The Play Booster begins being available with Murders at Karlov Manor in 2024, so until then the regular Draft and Set Booster will be available, along with the Collector Boosters which are not affected by the new Play Booster.

via Wizards of the Coast

How the new booster has come about is largely due to Wizards of the Coast wanting to keep limited formats an option for playing Magic. With the Set Booster introduced with Zendikar Rising, it has quickly become the preferred way to buy cards between it and the Draft Booster. This has left the Draft Booster on the losing side on many fronts, from distributors trying to sell them to the LGSs to them being dead weight inventory for those LGSs.

Specifically for the LGS, especially smaller ones, deciding which boosters to buy to sell became an easy choice with Set Boosters bringing in more money. This is another major reason for the switch. As Mark says his article, the draft boosters were going by the wayside, which would have eventually had the limited formats fade away. With the new booster, LGSs don’t have to choose which they need to make money and they can support the limited formats they might host.

There are other reasons for the transition to the new booster as well, like the related cards being unliked by many in Set Booster, a lack of cool extras in the Draft ones, and product confusion, but in this article I’ll concentrate on what the new booster brings.

The Play Booster

via Wizards of the Coast

With the love for Set Boosters eclipsing the Draft Booster but with Wizards of the Coast wanting to support the limited formats, they have decided to combine the two into the new Play Booster. To simplify the description, think about it as a draftable Set Booster.

There are differences with the new booster as opposed to the old ones. The key differences are the new boosters are draftable, so unlike the set booster it will have more playable cards and the cards won’t be related. Unlike the draft booster, only occasionally there will be an art card, a card from The List, and the chance for extra rares and only 14 cards per pack.

How this will affect limited environments is still up in the air and frankly it’s too early to tell let alone speculate. It would really depend on how Wizards decides to seed cards throughout to produce the limited environment they want. In Mark’s article, he specifically states they have increased removal to deal with potential limit powerhouse cards which is reassuring. All in all, the feeling I get from this is Wizards are trying to be very careful with the implementation of the Play Booster.

Booster Thoughts

I’m looking forward to the new combination booster itself. There is a price increase coming per box since they are going to be sold at 36 packs per box instead of 30, but the packs themselves are going to remain the Set Booster price individually (see Mark’s article). Outside of that, I think it was a good solution to the problem of supporting limited as is for the comparatively small amount of people who love the format and keep the majority enjoying the product they love otherwise.

We’ve got a while to go until we get our hands on these with Murders at Karlov Manor in 2024, so we have plenty of time to get ready for that transition. It will be nice not to have to worry about buying the wrong pack on accident and always having a chance at extra goodies. To this day I still check my bundles to make sure they have Set Boosters in them. Call me paranoid.

While I’m leaning positive on this, what are your thoughts? Do you play lots of limited, and if you do, how does the price increase affect you? Do you look forward to a few extra bombs to play with? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time, I hope you always get an extra rare or mythic.