MTG Play Booster Box Changes: Lower Packs, Higher Concerns

A Product Change is Coming to Play Booster Boxes, and People are NOT Happy

Discover the controversy surrounding Magic: The Gathering's Play Booster Box changes, impacting draft and pricing strategies in the upcoming Aetherdrift set.

Although we are still getting used to the new cards brought to us by Foundations, we have begun to get announcements about the next Standard-legal set, Aetherdrift. Aetherdrift will be the first set to come out in 2025, and it will also be the first Universes Beyond Standard-legal set. For those who aren't familiar, Universes Beyond sets are the ones that do not exclusively involve the traditional MTG characters and planes, although they can still be incorporated. What they do for the characters in the Universes Beyond sets is to have somewhat of a crossover between MTG and another universe in popular culture. We have seen them do Lord of the Rings, Assassin's Creed, etc. What is unique about the Universes Beyond sets going forward is that they will now be Standard-legal - something that has not been the case up until now. In fact, almost all of the Universes Beyond sets were strictly Commander, Legacy, and Vintage-legal up until now, with the exception of Lord of the Rings also being legal in Modern. That is a change that we did know about , however, but the latest updates follow up on the new changes that we will see starting next year.

Changes to Play Booster Boxes

So what is this big change? How will it affect MTG?

Wizards has announced that Play Booster Boxes will now come with 30 booster packs, instead of the usual 36 that have been in each box since the product debuted with Murders At Karlov Manor. The Play Boosters themselves still aren't everyone's favorite, and drafters have argued that it has had a negative impact on the drafting process itself. These same drafters are not happy with this new change either.

One of the most convenient things about doing a draft lately was that a relatively smooth system was developed for prize payouts, and overall draft process in general. The box would have 36 packs in it, so 24 packs would be used for the regular drafting pod, then the other 12 packs would be administered for prizing to be given out based on results. It allowed for there to be a clean cut for dividing up the winnings amongst those who participated. Each player drafts a total of 3 packs in a draft, and of course with 8 people in a pod, that covers the 24. The rest are given out based on standings after three rounds of limited play as prizing. The new announcement appears to complicate that process, and leads to a bit of inefficiency - especially for those who want to do a private draft. Obviously at a local game store, they can take an extra six packs out of another box to fulfill the prizing payouts, but those who want to get together with some friends to draft and also have prizing at the end are now in a bit of a weird spot. They would have to only have 6 packs for prizing, or purchase additional loose packs for extra money. One could make the argument that we will just go back to how it was done previously, because draft boxes used to come with 30 packs. This is reasonable, but people may start to wonder what the point of doing 36 packs was in the first place, and why we have to constantly change things when they are functioning properly.

Something that we can hope to see that may alleviate the aforementioned issue of purchasing extra packs is Wizards lowering the overall cost of a Play Booster Box. Right now they go for around $130 USD, and it is going to be interesting to see if maybe it gets lowered to a price that is closer to $100 USD. This would make buying the packs a little bit less painful, and it would also be more of a clean price for a newer player who is interested in purchasing their first box. This speculation also still follows the general rule of thumb when trying to predict what a major corporation will do: You have to rely on them to keep the consumer in mind when making decisions. As consumers, particularly in America, we know we generally are not thought of in these decisions more often than we are. Our silver lining in this scenario is that the design of this is going to be to attract new players to the game, so there has to be a focus on the consumer to some extent.

When considering the psychology of pricing and spending money, a price point of $99.99 just looks and sounds better than $130. I can see this being a big reason for making a change. Foundations also brought along a few new products with the set, so it could be the case that there is a need to shake things up. I think it is also worth noting that they may view the Play Booster product in general as imperfect, and in turn, the new Universes Beyond sets can be the time to experiment with a different allotment in packs for each box.

Does this Have any Bearing on Standard Players?

This shouldn't affect most constructed players that much. Generally speaking, constructed players are more likely to buy individual cards, and it is generally viewed as a waste of money to simply buy boxes and hope that you get the cards that you need from a given set. What I do worry about for constructed players, however, is that it may decrease the likelihood that they may want to draft, or if somehow there are just fewer people drafting because they aren't happy with the process. While I am a constructed player at heart, focusing on draft over the last two years has made me a better constructed player. The play patterns in limited help us to improve our fundamentals, and learn how to evaluate cards. I fear that if fewer people start drafting, newer constructed players could miss out on opportunities to draft, and won't get the same opportunity to improve their skills in the game. There hasn't been a ton of communication on this, and Aetherdrift still is a good bit away, so we are sure to receive further updates from Wizards. We will have to cross our fingers for lower pricing on boxes, and hopefully a somewhat logical reasoning as to why they made this change. Be sure to stay glued to MTGCircle, as we will keep you updated on this as things develop!

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I am a Magic The Gathering competitive player, and streamer. I specialize in homebrew decks. My favorite formats are: Standard, Pioneer (Explorer on Arena), and EDH. I first started playing MTG in 2001, and have played on and off since then.

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We've had a Couple of Weeks to Try Achievements on MTG Arena, and I have Opinions

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Recapping the Pro Tour and Examining the Deck that ALMOST Obliterated Us All!

Pro Tour Aetherdrift has concluded, and it was no surprise that Domain is still the best deck in the format. It is too powerful, and the high amount of mana availability simply provides too much value for other decks to consistently have a chance against it. Matt Nass was able to secure the win in the mirror match, as Domain Overlords were the most popular deck in the top 8. Since we have a new set that just came out, that calls for innovation and some overall spice. The deck that we will examine today isn't exactly a new concept in the meta, but it certainly is something that nobody previously has had the stones to enter as a list in a Pro Tour Event. There were a couple of well-known pro players with this list, including Javier Dominguez, who has been known for having some unique decks in the competitive circuit. Although Javier didn't do as well as we normally see this past weekend, Christoffer Larsen nearly made the top 8 with this list. The deck went 9-1 in Constructed, and it's safe to say that it was one of the top performers on that side of things. Had Larsen maybe won one more match in Limited, he would likely have been in the top 8. It goes without saying that this deck has a spot in the current meta, and probably has some legs in Standard. It was something that was rather unexpected in the event, sure, but the high roll of the combo within the deck is undeniable. Even without the combo that the deck has, outside of that, it is simply a Golgari Midrange Shell. Those decks always carry a competitive win rate, so everyone has to keep it on the radar either way. We will take a look at the deck, and then I'll go over the combo, then see if we can figure out why the deck is seeing a resurgence. Obliterator is an incredibly fun card. Everyone wants it to have a home in some format, because there are few things more satisfying than watching your opponent sit there trying to figure out which land(s) they are going to keep, or deciding if they want to keep playing after they were just forced to sacrifice all of their permanents. We historically think of this interaction happening during combat. What makes this deck fun is that it can happen during combat, or with a simple one - mana fight spell. Something else that is noteworthy is the fact that this deck plays only 23 lands. My best explanation for it is that the spell that allows you to fight for one mana also allows you to get any basic land from the deck for the same price. I think that this almost treats it as having 27 lands, and in turn helps figure out what cards to remove in order to squeeze in the extra spell. Let's take a look at the relevant cards, then we will see why it's back and better than before.

Examining the Aetherdrift Mechanics, and Rating them for Limited or Constructed

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Zombies are Coming back from the Dead with Aetherdrift

Whenever I see the word "Zombie" in a new set, I always like to revisit the archetype a bit in order to see if anything could be good. I decided to raise these zombies from the dead due to some cards that I saw from Aetherdrift, and I thought that we could at least make a deck that is fun, and who knows, it may be competitive too. We have received decent support lately with cards like Gisa, The Hellraiser. Although she isn't a zombie herself, she creates them every turn, and acts as a lord for them. Not to mention, the ward cost on her makes it so that she adequately fills out the top end of our list. She will help us immensely with swarming the board with skeletons, and efficiently rebuilding after board wipes. There are also going to be some ways to play our zombies from the graveyard, whether it be re-casting or embalming. Since we have the opportunity to raise our dead, we have to give it a shot. There is too much flavor that entices me. This will be my mono black list for the new set, as I think this is the best mono black deck to showcase as many new cards as possible. Any other mono black deck would likely just be adding one or two cards into an already good mono black deck, so I wanted to give you as much as I can with the new cards showcase. Without further ado, let's check out the deck! As you can see, we have plenty of lords in the deck. We are going to make these vanilla zombies huge, both to use as infinite blockers, and to have a threatening attack. We also brought back Unstoppable Slasher for some extra fun, and to guarantee that we have alternate win conditions when needed. In typical zombie fashion, we also don't mind getting rid of some of our creatures if it produces extra value for us. We can get rid of one of our zombies to deal with any problematic creature with Final Vengeance. I chose this over Eaten Alive because it allows us to sacrifice enchantments too, and there are some useful enchantments that support our zombies, so that could prove useful too. There are new cards in the deck, so let's take a look at those. Aetherdrift Zombie Support Cards

This Deck is Sure to be EXHAUSTING to Play Against

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I See a Monument and I want it Painted Black