Whoa, things are getting crazy. Zendikar Rising will introduce a brand new style of booster pack, keeping all the other products we’ve come to expect and bumping the total count to four… even five, if we count the Welcome Boosters!
Remember when we reported how Core Set 2021 comes with a ton of products? Well, it looks like Wizards isn’t happy with the number, so they keep bumping it up!
Zendikar Rising will have the premium and expensive Collector’s boosters, the “normal” ones used for Limited that from now on will be known as Draft Boosters, the Theme Boosters, the recently introduced Welcome Boosters, and the brand new pack dubbed Set Boosters.
In short, these work a lot like the draft boosters, but they are balanced for the cool factor, instead of playability. A Draft Booster needs to have a set amount of Commons, Uncommons, Rares, and Mythics (though this is slightly thrown off with the occasional inclusion of a foil card), and needs to be divided somewhat equally among the colors to make the things playable in Limited.
The new Set Boosters do not need to honor these restraints and instead will pack connected cards that tell a story together. This means that most of the cards in a pack could be of the same color, tribe, or keyword.
The Set Boosters will also include a guaranteed full-art Zendikar land and a special card with extended art or another form of visual novelty - namely, a yet unannounced special type of card tied to Zendikar Rising.
According to lead Magic designer Mark Rosewater, opening one of those new packs will give the player a journey - an art card for a start, followed by a land, followed by thematic commons/uncommons, followed by a “head-turner” (those flashy box-topper-style cards), culminating in 2 Rares/Mythics and ending with a token or a foil card.
The idea here is to oblige those players who enjoy cracking packs in search of value cards and not a Draft experience.
Honestly, this sounds like a great idea and now that Wizards have announced it, it almost seems like no-brainer product long overdue.
It is estimated that those new packs will cost about $1 more from the normal Draft ones. We will keep you posted with all the news regarding Zendikar Rising and its associated product line.
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