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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Explore the thrilling "Gruul Surprise" deck in Magic: The Gathering's Standard format. Cheat out powerful creatures, ramp efficiently, and counter control decks.

The Overlords Have Spoken! GRUUL is Surprisingly Fun!

It's no secret that in Standard we have some absolutely monstrous creatures right now. There are multiple ways to cheat them out, and the most immediate one that comes to mind is reanimator. With Foundations, we also get a bit more access to ramp, and the overlords from Duskmourn have been pretty impactful in the format as well. So the idea is that we can center a deck around having a bunch of enter-the-battlefield effects or attack triggers that allow us to commit some serious shenanigans. In Gruul Surprise, we are going to cheat out the big guys as best we can, be it ramp, or with a card that says we can simply put them on the board. Since we can sometimes do this at instant speed, it insulates us against board wipes, and allows us to set up one-turn kills. The idea is that we can get around control decks and punish opponents who didn't leave up any blockers. We are also looking to ping our opponents for tons of damage just by having creatures enter under our control. Since we are playing 7 overlords, we are also going to play Up the Beanstalk because it will allow us to draw a bunch of extra cards. OK, I have hyped up this fun deck enough. Let's take a look at the list! The addition of Llanowar Elves has really helped this deck to be more consistent and possibly try to keep up with the fast meta. We have access to the smaller board wipes that deal with aggro decks, while not killing all of our stuff. The deck does a great job of going over the top and running away with the game if left unchecked. Most of the time, playing against it feels like a ticking time bomb. We are able to deal pretty significant damage that forces the opponent to be very selective with when they attack, and when they leave up mana for removal. Let's take a look at some key cards. Relevant Cards

Reviewing the Standard Metagame and the Domination of Aggro

We are a couple of weeks into Foundations, and it feels like the meta is starting to respond. There were some good staple creatures added to the format, and we even got back some nostalgic burn spells. Midrange is still pretty good, but the decks are forced more and more into a sideboard plan that is almost entirely geared toward dealing with aggro. If you hadn't noticed how prevalent aggro has become recently, it now accounts for 74% of the decks that are listed in major tournaments in Standard. The most recent MTGO Challenge actually featured an entire top 8 consisting of assorted aggro decks. One could make the argument that some of the decks were more tempo than aggro, but the decks have aggressive creatures nonetheless, and they also all tend to have a low curve. We could also conclude that the addition of Llanowar Elves makes the Golgari decks that much faster, and then in some instances they could have been considered an aggro deck. Mono red is also taking up more and more of the competitive metashare, and is positioning itself as a deck to be reckoned with ever since its strong showing at the World Championships. We will look over some of the archetypes in Standard right now that are consistently performing well in challenges and other tournaments. Red Deck Wins This has remained a relevant deck for over a year now, and has endured many changes. It seems that the deck can always find a worthy replacement once a card either rotates or becomes subpar. There are a few new burn spells in Foundations, so it has become evident that burn could be here to stay for the next few years. It's going to be strong most likely for as long as Bloomburrow is in Standard. I think this is good for the game, and lines up with what Wizards wants. You want people to get into your game and garner new players with Foundations, so why not make sure mono red is good? It is one of the preconstructed decks on Arena, and it is one of the easier archetypes for a new player to learn. It lines up with everything that they want, and also allows for newer players to have a positive experience with a good deck that can win games early on in their journey. It is also pretty helpful that a lot of the cards are on the cheaper end. Just make sure you save up for your sideboard - Screaming Nemesis is steadily climbing and could get to fifty bucks soon!

The BEST New Deck to Play with Pioneer Masters!

Pioneer Masters is coming in December, and we officially have some spoilers. We won't go over all of the new that were announced recently, as there aren't quite enough to devote an entire article to yet, but we have some good news that confirms the inclusion of key decks and archetypes into the explorer format that will eventually convert to Pioneer on Arena. Something that we have to consider is that Explorer on Arena is far from actually being Pioneer. There are a ton of cards that are missing, and in turn, there are very powerful decks from the format that we have never seen on Arena before. If you don't play Pioneer in paper, or in MTGO, you may not have ever heard of some of the stuff that's coming. I have some advice: prepare yourself. There will be a brand new meta after Pioneer Masters hits Arena, and Explorer will look nothing like it did before. Today I have a deck that I believe to have an incredibly high power level, and also one of the decks that I believe to be the most consistent in the format. It has the best removal possible, has a spell that tutors and allows you to cast the spells for free, access to five colors, and some powerful creatures and planeswalkers that allow you to close out the game. Let's take a look at Niv to Light. Niv to Light is a deck that has been played for a few years in Pioneer, and it seems to get updates here and there. There are some new cards from Foundations that are seeing play in the deck, and I'm not sure if that is the final version of it, or if people are simply trying out some of these new cards. What I will say is that the deck has been doing very well in some of the recent Pioneer challenges on MTGO, with this list winning one just a few days ago on the 23rd. If you aren't familiar, there is a key combo in the deck that actually allows you to tutor out a seven mana planeswalker and cast it for free, amongst a plethora of other value spells. We'll take a look at that particular combo, and then other key cards of the deck. Relevant Combo Cards

This Deck is on DEMON TIME

We went into Foundations knowing that the demon deck was a top archetype in Standard, and even in Pioneer, but the question still remained: with new cards coming, would it still be good? And if it's still good, what could we do to make it better? Foundations gives us some key cards that almost appear to be made for the deck, and we won't scoff at that. The set is made to be a basis for many different archetypes, so it was nice that we got some decent demons with our core set. Something we'll have to worry about going forward is all of the other decks that will be popping up. We will be vigilant about our sideboard choices and stay prepared to make the changes that are needed. We do have some cards in the sideboard from the new set, so let's take a look at the deck itself that will show us main deck and sideboard additions from Foundations. We are following the previous demon archetype, but now we are able to be a little bit more well-rounded, and we have cut down on some of the cost by building the deck in paper. One could also argue that the deck has a better mana curve, as the previous version ran 10 four drops. Since we took out two copies of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, that lowers the cost of the deck by about $150 USD. While some argue that we have taken out one of the best cards in the format, we are also helping the deck stay more true to its goal, while making it more accessible to newer players.

It's TIME for the Way-Too-Early Mono Black Foundations Deck!

Foundations has almost fully been spoiled, and I believe that it is safe to say that we are in for some fun times in Standard. There will be a lot support that is coming for many different archetypes, and they have made some evergreen cards available in the set that should help the format be very and healthy. There are some that I like, and some that I hate, so we can conclude that they likely made well-balanced decisions with their card choices. Wizards has also come out and stated that they have good consumer support for this set so far, and I fully believe that. Sadly, we will not be having early access for this set, so I will be dropping a lot of decks here in order to get my ideas officially published somewhere. For today, I made a new Mono Black Midrange Deck (like I do for each set) and I think this one is pretty sweet. We are going to be able to do our gain and drain combo for a long time in Standard, and it's about time I get started trying to find the best deck. You know what we are going for here. There are so many tools to resolve our combo, and we can even make a ton of vampires that have lifelink to get extra triggers off of tenacity. We are creating a good bit of ways to gain life in the deck without even having to splash for another color. We also have a sneaky way to add a bunch of mana with the vampire subtheme that we have in the deck. Even if some of our initial game plans don't pan out the way we want them to, we were fortunately able to include a ton of good midrange cards that grind well, and amass tons of value. Relevant New Cards

This New Rakdos Reanimator Deck Will Give You FOMO!

Dusmourn gave us some new bombs to reanimate in one of our favorite archetypes. There are good options that are both legendary and non-legendary. One thing that people don't always think about is: How can we creatures into the graveyard? How can we get them out of our hand when we accidentally draw them? There are a few cards that came out that can solve both problems for us. We also get to use a familiar friend from Bloomburrow as another discard outlet, and, in doing so, we are able to cast spells for free! You can probably guess who the new reanimation target is, as we are using Rakdos Joins Up to bring back our favorite legendary creatures. If that wasn't enough action, we also got another easter egg from the set in the form of a one mana creature that allows us to reanimate anything for four mana. This deck is sure to have some very high power level turns and will be incredibly explosive if left unchecked. Let's get into the cards! As you can see, the deck is actually capable of playing a bit of a midrange game and has other combos available outside of simple reanimation. There will be times where we have two combat steps and cast two cards for free, or maybe we simply attack with an Atraxa twice for 14 damage. Some of the new cards from Duskmourn allow this to be more than a reanimator deck, and demand respect from the opponent as such. Relevant New Cards

The Overlords Have Spoken! GRUUL is Surprisingly Fun!