Wizards of the Coast is merging draft boosters and set boosters into a single MTG booster pack, and this has one clear consequence for the draft format – it’s now more expensive. Some fans have voiced concerns about the new ‘play boosters’, but Magic: The Gathering designer Mark Rosewater assures us that the change aims to boost draft play rather than reduce it.
MTG play boosters are color-balanced for MTG drafts like draft boosters, but like set boosters, they potentially contain wildcards, cards from The List, and art cards. The number of cards and the MTG card rarity slots of play boosters are somewhere in the middle of the two soon-to-be-outmoded booster packs.
Rosewater already stated in an article on October 16 that the change targeted inventory, sales, and play problems caused by the disparity in popularity between set and draft boosters. Basically, set boosters were so popular that draft boosters were getting shoved aside.
Further social media comments from Rosewater back this argument up. Replying to a Twitter comment on October 16, Rosewater says “If we didn’t do anything, draft boosters were going away”. “This whole change was to save drafting (and other limited MTG formats).”
Rosewater then expanded on this in a tweet from October 17. “We do a lot of future forecasting”, he adds. “Had trends continued the way they were going, we believed the draft booster were in danger of going away due to market forces.” “No one in Wizards/Hasbro was trying to get rid of limited play”, Rosewater says.
Play boosters won’t be introduced until the release of Murders at Karlov Manor, an MTG set planned for the 2024 MTG release schedule. For more recent Magic news, keep a close eye on the MTG 2023 release schedule. We can also point digital trading card game fans to the best MTG Arena decks and MTG Arena codes around right now.