Wizards of the Coast has announced that they’re ditching the ‘Set Booster’ and ‘Draft Booster’ split and combining boosters for Magic: The Gathering into one pack again.

So why are Wizards of the Coast making this change again? It was sparked by the significant popularity that Set Boosters had over Draft Boosters and its effect on some areas and stores worldwide. Stores in smaller markets couldn’t afford to buy both Draft and Set boosters, and because the Set Boosters sold so much better, they’d order those but couldn’t run MTG Limited formats. And if they did, they soon found that running Limited formats like drafts and sealed would be a bad time as the Set Boosters aren’t designed with these formats in mind. 

“Once upon a time, a store just had one booster to buy for any one Magic set, so that’s what they bought. Now, every set releases with both Set Boosters and Draft Boosters. Most of their customers prefer Set Boosters, but Limited play, which fosters community and can be additional income for a store, requires Draft Boosters. How much do you get of each? Get too many Set Boosters and not enough Draft Boosters, and you can’t run Limited events, which costs the store money. Get too many Draft Boosters and not enough Set Boosters, you run out of what the customer wants to buy, which also costs you money.”

As announced in a blog post, many other issues with the Set and Draft boosters are listed. The one mentioned above, combined with the confusion among some players and the inventory problems, seem to be the main ones behind this new booster change.

‘Play Booster’ will be the new booster type as we advance from MTG: Murders at Karlov Manor, which is set to release in February 2024. These boosters are going back to being built around limited formats, hence the “play” in the name, but they’re also meant to be balanced, so those looking to primarily focus on collecting Magic: The Gathering can enjoy opening them as well.

Slots 1-6 will be common cards from the set, Slot 7 will be either another common or a card from The List, Slots 8-10 will be uncommon cards, Slot 11 will either be a rare or mythic rare, Slot 12 will be a basic land, Slot 13 will be a non-foil wildcard from any rarity in the set, Slot 14 a guaranteed foil, Slot 15 a non-playable like a token or art card. Every slot except the ad/art card can be “Booster Fun,” which means alt-art variations or whatever that particular set of MTG is using as “fun.”

“We’ve been working very hard for years to understand the impacts the Play Booster will have on Draft, and we’ve adapted how we’re building the sets to accommodate. Murders at Karlov Manor was designed and balanced with Play Boosters in mind. Will there be lessons to learn as we adapt to a new system? Of course, but Magic constantly evolves, so we’re pretty good at adapting.”

Playing Limited at your local game store is going to go up, however, as the new Play Boosters will cost the same as Set Boosters, not Draft Boosters. There will be more value in these boosters, of course, but it may be a little annoying for those wanting just to play Limited. 

What do you think about the changes? Let me know in the comment section below.