Updating Our Boosters in 2027
There's a question that's guided a lot of our thinking about boosters lately: What actually makes opening a booster exciting?
It sounds simple. But when you sit with it long enough, it starts to reshape how you look at everything inside the wrapper. Some things that have lived in boosters for years are there because they've been there a long time, not always because they're exciting or useful. Others are there for good reasons, but those reasons aren't relevant anymore.
Starting with Nauctis: The Sunken Realm , the first Magic set of 2027, we're making a series of changes to Play Boosters and Collector Boosters that reflect what we've learned about what players actually love to open. Some of these changes add things-like more opportunities to open traditional foil Japan Showcase cards or increased rare drop rates. Some remove things-like foil common and uncommon cards. All of them are in service of the same idea: Every booster you open should feel exciting and meaningful.
Oh, and because it will be the first question, none of these changes come with any adjustments to prices. Our overarching goal was to make boosters more exciting to open without increasing the MSRP. Now, let's dig in.
Let's start with the new stuff, because there's a lot of it.
Perhaps most exciting, we're introducing God Packs for every Magic Multiverse set. If you're not familiar with the concept, a God Pack is exactly what it sounds like: an epic, rare booster where every nonbasic card is a rare or mythic rare card.
Starting with Nauctis: The Sunken Realm and continuing with each Magic Multiverse set going forward (with Universes Beyond sets expected in 2028), 1 in every 1,000 Booster Packs will contain 14 rare or mythic rare cards like this:
We expect the first person to open one to briefly lose their mind, and we are fully supportive of that.
God Packs in Collector Boosters ramp up the excitement even more, and 1 in every 300 Collector Boosters will contain the following:
The Collector Booster version is built for the collector experience-stacked with the premium, visually stunning cards that define the set.
Moving back to our core booster experience, we're unlocking a card treatment that was previously only found in Collector Boosters. Japan Showcase cards-some of the most beautiful cards we create that have been the sole domain of Collector Boosters-will be crackable in the wildcard slot in Booster Packs in traditional foil. And while we're at it, we're also increasing the drop rates on foil rare and mythic rare cards across Booster Packs. Combined, we hope these changes will make each Booster Pack just a bit more exciting to open, as the odds of opening up one of the more exciting cards have gone up.
Oh, and one more thing: Play Boosters are now just called Booster Packs. Cleaner. Simpler. Easier for me to type out.
Part of re-evaluating the excitement of opening a booster is cutting things people found less exciting, or even a detriment to excitement in their opening experience. So first, we're removing foil common and uncommon cards from Booster Packs, and we're no longer guaranteeing a foil card in every pack. Feedback from players has consistently been that these have lost the luster they might have once had. If you do open a foil card in a Booster Pack, it will be a rare or mythic rare card. That increased drop rate we mentioned above helps make up some of that gap.
Similarly, Collector Boosters will be removing two commons and one uncommon from the foil slots, and those three cards will not be replaced. The common and uncommon cards were the least-exciting parts of these opening experiences and were often passed over. We're still keeping some number of foil common and uncommon cards in Collector Boosters, as they won't be available in Booster Packs.
How does removing cards make opening Collector Boosters more exciting? We'll be honest here-it doesn't. But we do know that most people who open Collector Boosters mostly skip past these cards. Not everyone, but enough of a majority. You can see it in virtually any Collector Booster opening video, where the video practically skips over that section of the booster. Removing them isn't about shrinking the experience; it's about making room-in terms of both printing capacity and player psychology-for cards people actually get excited about.
That's part of the trade-off here. As booster printing becomes more complex, we need to make trade-offs in both complexity and capacity. We wanted to add God Packs and include Japan Showcase cards in Booster Packs, but to do so we needed to find room in our printing capacity to enable that. The items we're removing are both unlikely to be missed and create enough space in our capacity to enable the cool things.
We know some of these changes will prompt questions, which is why we've set up a space to discuss this on our Discord in addition to following the conversations online.
Taken together, these changes are about the same thing: making every pack opening feel more meaningful. A booster that has a chance to be a God Pack, surprise you with a Japan Showcase card, or have even more rare or mythic rare cards in it, is a booster you open with a little more anticipation. That is, ultimately, the goal.