Am I the only one who gets a pit in their stomach whenever Wizards of the Coast announces ‘changes’ nowadays? Wizards of the Coast is switching things up with Magic: the Gathering Play Boosters and Collector’s Boosters once again, and fan reactions are predictably mixed. While some of the changes make sense from a play standpoint, and some are exciting in their own right, there’s also a few ‘business’ decisions that draw eye-rolls at best and outrage at worst.
The Good
We’ll start out with some of the better news from the recent Magic: the Gathering press release! First off—God Packs are making their return after a thirteen year hiatus. We last saw God Packs in 2014 as part of the Journey into Nyx set. The chance of pulling one back then was 1 in 1,000. Wizards of the Coast has improved the odds to 1 in 300 this time around. While the God Packs will no longer include fifteen God cards from the Theros block like the God Packs of yore, they will still consist of all Rare and/or Mythic cards.
Additionally, it’s cool that Japanese Showcase cards will now occasionally crop up in Booster Packs, not just Collector Boosters. We’re also getting increased drop rates on foil rares and foil mythics for Booster Packs, which I shan’t complain about.
Lastly, we’re getting some general branding changes. In 2024, during the Murders at Karlov Manor block, Draft Boosters and Set Boosters were replaced by Play Boosters. Play Boosters are now bowing out for just Booster Packs. Failing anything else, it does simplify things.
The Bad
Okay, so maybe this is just me, but that ‘you did it!’ card at the front of the God Packs makes me want to scream. No thank you! Give me another playable card, please, not a cardboard pat on the head! While the increased odds of pulling a God Pack are a great boon to players and collectors alike, it should be noted that a pack of 14 Rare/Mythic cards could still equate to a pretty low value pack, depending on the set and cards in question. Just because a card is Rare or Mythic, doesn’t mean it has a high price point, or a great amount of utility in play.
There’s also mounting concerns about changes like this further compromising the secondary card market, and making it a predatory playground for scalpers. Who are these changes for? Us? It certainly doesn’t feel that way. It feels like this is to make sure Hasbro’s shareholders can buy more yachts. How long until things are just as dire as they are for Pokémon TCG players, with the market being largely driven by speculative hoarding?
The Ugly
“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.” -Blake Rasmussen, Communications Director
Well, that is one hell of a way to spin getting three fewer cards in each pack! While the announcement post goes out of its way to state that none of the changes being made will result in higher Booster Pack prices, paying the same amount of money for less cards, is in fact paying more! I guess one way to make room in a pack is to empty that son-of-a-gun out. This is banana nuts, c’mon.
The blog post seems tone-deaf to the fact that the problem players have with Foils is not, “oh, I got an Uncommon/Common Foil, lame.” I don’t know what influencers are being watched by higher-ups, but from someone within the community, the long-standing problems with Foils is entirely with quality, not the literal presence of the Common and Uncommon Foils in a pack. Foils increasingly come pre-Pringle’d, already curving in the middle when you draw one out of the pack. Often in the secondary market, you’ll see Foils go for less than their basic counterparts. You know what Magic: the Gathering tournament organizers really don’t like you to use? Bent cards.
Also, didn’t they justify raising the price of Booster Packs years ago because they’d started coming with guaranteed Foils? That was a flawed premise to begin with, but now they’re taking that out, and…hold on, let me check my notes again…yes, still charging the same price. It’s almost like they want us to make proxies. Or just play Magic: the Gathering Arena.
Less is Not Actually More…
The world is not exactly in the midst of an economic upturn. While years of mounting prices have excluded more and more players from enjoying Magic: the Gathering to its fullest extent, we seem to be reaching a peak of inaccessibility. Universes Beyond is certainly lining Hasbro’s enormous, well-tailored pockets, but a lot of these changes are making the MTG fanbase that’s been here for years steadily lose faith in the product, or at least the ‘return on investment’ aspect of things.