Changes to Magic Boosters in 2027

This Monday, Wizards of the Coast announced that they are making several changes to Magic boosters in 2027. This is a short announcement, but there are some pretty big implications, so let's get right into it.

What's New: God Packs

Starting with the release of Nauctis: The Sunken Realm next year, all Magic Multiverse sets (in-universe sets, in other words) will have a new type of booster called the God Pack.

If you've been in the TCG space for awhile, you've probably heard the term before, referring to a booster pack with an unusually high number of rare cards or value hits. It's a fairly common phenomenon in the Pokémon TCG space, where compilations of viral pack openings make for a big spectacle. For those who have opened up plenty of Collector Boosters, you've gotten a taste of this notion after opening three or four great rares or mythics in a row. Now, Wizards has established the God Pack in Magic in a very real way.

There's even a variant just for Collector Boosters, which is somehow even more decadent than the promised 10 rare or mythic rares:

Thankfully, Wizards is being very transparent about what's coming in these God Packs. Given how many different types of boosters and in-pack slots and other confusing factors there are now, having a clear outline is welcome change. The contents of ordinary-variety God Packs are as follows:

• 1 God Pack celebration card
• 10 Non-foil rare and/or mythic rare cards
• 2 Non-foil Booster Fun rare and/or mythic rare cards
• 2 Traditional foil Booster Fun rare and/or mythic rare cards

For the Collector Booster variant:

• 1 God Pack celebration card
• 1 Foil land
• 3 Foil default frame rare and/or mythic rare cards
• 3 Non-foil Booster Fun rare and/or mythic rare cards
• 5 Foil Booster Fun rare and/or mythic rare cards

As a bit of a footnote, Wizards also announced that they are doing away with the Play Booster title, opting simply for Booster Pack, a return to the old days of early Magic sets.

Though I thoroughly enjoyed the period of the game when Set Boosters were available alongside Draft Boosters, having simplicity and clarity in product nomenclature is an objectively good thing. It's hard to keep track of every variant of Magic product, especially since so many new products are coming out all the time.

He Is Risen, Babygirl

I've been in the TCG space across multiple games now, so God Packs are a familiar experience, albeit not as familiar as I'd like. While God Packs are more or less a freebie as far as benefits of opening packs goes, it's not something to be counted on. Per Wizards' own graphics, the chances of opening a God Pack are relatively low — 1/1,000 for regular Booster Packs, and 1/300 for Collector Boosters. Those odds are much better than some other gamble-y prizes in booster boxes, but it's by no means something you should count on. Overall, though, it's nice to have another chance at receiving a pleasant surprise while tearing through a box of the latest set.

Japan Showcase

Beginning with the release of Nauctis, the special Japan Showcase treatment, which was previously available only via Collector Boosters, can now appear in the wildcard slot contained in Booster Packs.

Special treatments of cards drawn by Japanese artists, or art that appears similar to typical anime style, has been a part of the game for quite a while — I remember the hype surrounding the anime-style planeswalkers in War of the Spark, or the special Japanese Mystical Archive cards in Strixhaven: School of Mages and Secrets of Strixhaven. Starting in Duskmourn: House of Horror, Wizards established the Japan Showcase treatment as a regular card style, appearing also in Foundations, Aetherdrift, Edge of Eternities, Lorwyn Eclipsed, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Reality Fracture. These showcase cards were only available in Collector Boosters, and as a result some of these printings have been exceedingly difficult to acquire, particularly the special foil variants like Fracture Foil.

This is another enhancer for the experience of opening Booster Packs. The wildcard slots — two cards in Play Boosters that could be any rarity, with one being foil — have been a boon for pack-crackers, presenting two additional chances at opening chase rares or mythics. Now that the Japan Showcase treatment is available in this slot, it's another potential big hit that makes packs even more exciting to open. I'm happy to see increased availability of an exclusive, hard-to-get card variant, even if it's still a gamble.

Another footnote: Booster Packs will have an increased drop rate for foil rare and mythic rare cards. Though this change isn't coming for free, it is a welcome one; powerful, shiny cardboard feels great to pull out of a pack.

What's Leaving: Foil Commons/Uncommons and Slimmer Collector Boosters

To try and reduce less-exciting moments while opening packs, Wizards said that guaranteed foil cards will no longer appear in Booster Packs, and the random-chance foils that appear in these packs can no longer be a common or uncommon card. Additionally, Collector Boosters will contain two fewer commons and one fewer uncommon, so foil commons and uncommons will be much rarer across the board.

Though I'm a fan of increasing the rate of foil rares and mythics, I can't say I'm thrilled about the material cost. Foil commons and uncommons might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but I personally really enjoy opening up a shiny version of a keystone uncommon that I want for a deck. Not everyone can afford to go full bling-mode when making their decks prettier, and having simple foil commons/uncommons can go a long way in making a cheap budget deck still look great.

Breakdown

These changes are a net positive, but I'm still a little disappointed. While removing some of the commons and uncommons from Collector Boosters makes sense, it's still mostly a loss. Losing three cards from Collector Boosters in exchange for a 1/300 chance lottery ticket doesn't feel like a fair exchange. Sure, the people opening Collector Boosters certainly aren't opening $165 Collector Booster packs for the purpose of cracking Summon: Fat Chocobo in foil, but this drives down the availability of foil commons and uncommons. They may be an indulgence, but those foils still mean something to the players that want them.

I don't frequently open Collector Boosters myself — spending $75 on a single pack is a tough sell — and even when I've had the luxury of cracking one, I found myself enjoying the extra foil commons or uncommons I could toss in my decks. Though flipping through the foil commons was like eating a bland appetizer just to make dinner taste better, there's an element of suspense created by having a buffer of lesser-value cards before the procession of rare, mythic, and showcase cards.

On top of that, losing the guaranteed foil in Booster Packs hurts a little. Sure, those foils are frequently janky commons or uncommons, but it was still nice to see a foil in every pack. I guess it reduces a little bit of the feels-bad of those undesirable foils, but it's a loss of something nonetheless. Hopefully the increased rate of rares and mythics is noticeable.

As for the new inclusions, they're pretty much all upside. Sure, God Packs may result in Collector Booster boxes being scalped a little harder than they already are, but that ship is already sailing. If you really want a box of Collector Boosters, you're likely mentally prepared to spend a few hundred dollars as it is, and I don't see this change moving the price needle there to a significant degree. And in some sense, Collector Booster boxes lose some luster by no longer being the exclusive source of Japanese Showcase cards and losing out on a few common and uncommon slots.

The increased prevalence of Japan Showcase treatments is also a big benefit. Though it's not really my taste, I know that it's a super popular variant of card, so I'm glad that others will get to experience special versions of powerful cards more often.

I'll miss opening up cool foil uncommons in Booster Packs, but you can be damn sure I'll be phoning my mom when I finally rip open my first God Pack. I wish you luck on your next pack-opening frenzy, and in the new year, I hope we all get to see a God Pack out of our favorite sets. Thanks for reading!