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 power of Rakdos Dragons in this midrange Magic: The Gathering deck. Unleash combos, removal, and ramp for competitive edge in Standard.

This Deck is Sneaky Good! Get Ready for RAKDOS Dragons!

You didn't think I could only give you one dragon deck, did you? I honestly saw too many fun options to do just Boros, so today I'm bringing you another. This one steers toward the more midrange, good ol' honest Magic side of things. I wanted to center a deck around something that is more consistent with the status quo of dragons: carnage and destruction. We have plenty of removal in this deck, and a creature that doubles as a board wipe when needed. Since we aren't doing a super fancy combo in this deck, I wanted to add element of ramp to get to the higher mana spells that we have in the deck. We will be able to use early creatures to help out with that, and also a new fancy artifact. We will torch the board and force our opponents to be more resilient than we are, while flying over the top of what they might manage to keep on the board. Let's take a look at the deck and then I'll tell you some of my favorite things about it. You can see some of the fun that we will have right off the bat with this deck. We are looking to smash aggro decks, and still punish other decks that don't play to the board. Although this one has fewer dragons on paper, we have a few permanents that can actually turn into them, and this leads to some cheeky interactions. Let's check out some of the new cards from Tarkir Dragonstorm that are in this deck, and then we will go over some fun combos! Key New Cards

It's Time to Mobilize the Aristocrats with Mardu Combo!

There is an ongoing argument in both Standard and Pioneer currently. What color combination is the best for aggressive decks? We have seen people try out Jeskai Aggro to try and incorporate the best of both worlds between Azorius Aggro, and Boros Aggro. Some like to stick with Gruul Aggro because of the high rolls that it allows for, and there is also an argument that sometimes all you need is mono red - and the results have proven as much in major events. There has been a bit of a surge of some Mardu Aristocrat/Sacrifice decks, and today's list will follow that to some degree. We went a little bit more aggro-based, but there is a combo element to it, along with a healthy sideboard that should provide for balanced gameplay. We will look to get a bunch of creatures onto the board, and then create a bunch more based on the amount that we have, while punishing the opponent when they die. If that isn't enough, the go-wide strategy should also allow us to swing for ample damage at an ample pace. A new ability called Mobilize that is being brought to us in Tarkir Dragonstorm is going to allow us to pull off some pretty powerful swings in combat. Mobilize allows us to create a bunch of tapped and attacking 1/1 tokens based on either the number behind it, or circumstances that pertain to "X." Something that is particularly fun is that we can benefit from our creatures dying, because the mobilize ability requires us to sacrifice the creatures that we get from mobilizing at the beginning of our end step. This is yet another deck that can allow us to win on the end step which is always fun. Another fundamental reason why I think the deck is good is because we are rewarded for something that would normally be considered a setback. If you find enough ways to turn negatives into positives, it usually can translate into the small margins that win you a match. Enough of me blabbing. Let's take a look at the cool new cards! Key New Cards

Demons Are Getting New Toys, and This Deck is ROTTEN

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Free Dragons = Turn 4 Wins!

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I See a Monument and I want it Painted Black

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

The economy on MTG Arena has always been a pain point, and a grand debate over how far a digital version of a card game should go to ensure players feel as if they are getting proper value for their time. Wizards has two different versions of its beloved game on the internet, and they both seem to have their benefits and drawbacks. On February 11, Arena launched the Achievement System to reward players for hitting milestones in-game, and completing specific tasks. While it is always fun to do these kinds of things in each game, something that gamers always do is assess whether the reward for doing so in-game is worth putting forth the extra effort for the task. While there are some things in the achievement tab that I believe to be kind of fun, and certain things that I know people will want, I view the entire thing as largely a waste of time. Today we will look at why the new feature on Arena simply isn't enough for what the game should have, and what it could be. The Good and The Bad There are plenty of things that we love about Arena, with how it is the easiest way to play our favorite decks from Standard, and not spend thousands of dollars in doing so. It is probably the most efficient way to try out decks. We also love the wildcard system. Although it is not the easiest to obtain them, it is great that a rare/mythic wildcard could buy a rare/mythic card that is of any value and it still just costs one wildcard. This was especially helpful in getting a play set of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. I still don't have a play set in paper simply because I don't want to spend that much money on it, but on Arena it was easy. I had the wildcards to do what I needed. The only part where this may be lacking is the economy itself. What if we could earn wildcards for hitting certain achievements (I.E. the achievement tab giving us wildcards instead of sleeves, etc.)? I believe that the rewards from this new feature being solely cosmetic underscores the ongoing issue of the economy on Arena simply not being enough for us.

This Deck is Sneaky Good! Get Ready for RAKDOS Dragons!