Play Booster Boxes Reduced To 30 Packs, Starting With AEtherdrift
Start your engines! Beginning with AEtherdrift, the next expansion set on the conveyor after Foundations, Play Booster displays (also known as Play Booster boxes) will contain six fewer packs. This means that boxes will only contain 30 booster packs, rather than the original norm of 36 packs.
According to a thread on r/MagicTCG, several European distributors listed boxes of AEtherdrift at a quantity of 30 packs each, rather than the usual 36. This caused a bit of commotion, to the point where a Redditor created this thread. A member of Wizards of the Coast's Community Team replied to the thread, confirming the rumor as true:
Hey there everyone. We'll have some more information and details to share about this on December 10th when we talk about Aetherdrift on WeeklyMTG, but I wanted to address a few things here.
This change in the number of Play boosters per "display" (what most people call a "box") is happening starting with Aetherdrift but will be true of other set releases going forward. After the release of Play Boosters with [Murders at Karlov Manor] we started taking in feedback from WPN stores and players in our surveys and other places. One of the most consistent pieces of feedback from stores was that they preferred 30-count displays to 36-count displays. We heard this pretty much immediately with the release of MKM, and this was the soonest we could implement the change.
For clarity, the returning MSRP is for individual Play Boosters rather than a whole box. 30 Play Boosters will have a lower MSRP than 36, but the individual pack MSRP isn't changing with this update.
Thanks for your patience as we get ready to share more on December 10th!
Play Booster Shrinkflation? Ramifications Of Reduction
As a reaction to this surprising news, some players may be upset about the lack of packs in a given booster display. The bright side to all of this is that the MSRP for sealed booster products is based on the pack itself, not the display. Therefore, a box of 30 Play Booster packs will cost less than the current 36-pack Play Booster display. You aren't spending more for less product. In that way, shrinkflation is not a financial consequence to this... currently.
The bigger issue that surrounds this new paradigm is that Limited players who purchase booster boxes in order to play Draft or Sealed with friends will now have to account for this. A 36-pack display is good for six players in a Sealed environment, or double that for Draft. a 30-pack box is good for only five Sealed players and only 10 in Draft. As such, a friend group of six Sealed players will have to inevitably purchase more sealed products to play, be that six Play Boosters or a whole new box. It might not cost more, per se, but it will see more product changing hands.
But let's hear from you. Does this change affect you? Is it a positive or a negative for you? Do you like this change, and why? Sound off below!