I’ve been taking a break from Magic since the beginning of Caves of Ixalan for a number of reasons, but am wanting to check out Bloomburrow. Since part of the reason I stepped away was the Play Booster changeup for drafting, I was wondering how people are feeling about it. I’d be particularly interested in reading your thoughts on it if you were a hater that has ultimately come around to the change.

  • prodigalsorcerer
    5·
    2 months ago

    The good:

    • My LGS doesn’t have to order 3 different types of boosters and guess how much everyone wants of each. They have run out of draft boosters before, and they’re stuck with a bunch of extra boosters from sets that didn’t sell so well. This is partially just a reality of running a store, but only having 2 types of boosters with vastly different audiences is better.

    The bad:

    • Sometimes there just isn’t a pick 1 in your colors in packs 2 and 3 (on Arena). This is especially obvious in MH3 with the colorless theme, but it’s also possible in normal sets. I don’t know if this is different in arena vs. in paper.

    • Everything costs more. I’m in Canada, so draft prices were going up well before the switch, but this made it even more expensive.

    • Sealed is swingier. With a chance at opening up to 4 rares in a pack, those that do will have more bombs and more powerful cards in general. OTJ was very bomb heavy, so sealed was even more lopsided. This also affects drafts somewhat, but I think that can be fixed with design balancing once they get used to the changes. I don’t think sealed can be fixed with card design.

    Ultimately, I think this is worse for players and better for businesses and way better for WotC. They can fix most of the problems, but price isn’t something they’re interested in fixing (and, to be fair, the price of a booster has stayed well below inflation). Unfortunately, this means that some people just can’t draft anymore or as often.

    • Ech@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      That’s unfortunate to hear, though it tracks with my expectations. How was MKM in regards to swinginess?

      • prodigalsorcerer
        4·
        2 months ago

        MKM was less bomb-heavy than OTJ, so at least drafts seemed better. I missed the prerelease, so I don’t know how swingy it was in limited. I suspect quite a lot anyway - prereleases have always been swingy, and as long as rares are more powerful than commons, more rares in a pack will always make it swingier.

      • prodigalsorcerer
        2·
        2 months ago

        If you’re talking about the “Value” booster, your LGS probably won’t (and shouldn’t) stock those. That’s for grandmas to buy at dollar stores and Walmart checkout aisles. It’s an absolutely scummy product, but it shouldn’t cause SKU issues at your LGS.