Hey Mark, why was it decided to remove the draft and set the booster because of confusion amongst them, but putting value booster is better, is supposed to be a support for pauper/pauper commander?

You’re conflating two things that have nothing to do with one another. Draft boosters went away because the majority of the audience preferred set boosters. Play boosters were a way to keep the essence of set boosters while still providing limited play. All of that is mostly centered in local game stores. Value boosters are addressing a need of certain mass market stores to have Magic boosters at a lower price point. They are not a product the vast majority of enfranchised players will ever interact with, and their existence has nothing to do with organized play.

Hey Mark just wanted to say that the news about the new "value boosters" feels like a kick in the teeth as someone who has had to give up drafting as often as I used to enjoy because of the removal of draft boosters increase in costs (not to mention how that affected how limited plays). I'm all for having more afforable ways to interact with this game obviously, but when you tell me that I can't play draft at the price point I could afford before because they were too niche to sell then follow up by releasing a new niche pack type I can't help but feel betrayed. I love this game and I love how fun limited has been in recent years just wish something similar to draft boosters (which was already a budget version of our new play boosters) could have been a priority.

Not enough players wanted to buy the draft booster. That’s why it went away. It was nothing nefarious. We can only sell something that there’s a large enough market for.The value booster is an attempt to solve a completely different problem. There are a lot of stores that want a lower priced Magic booster option, so we’re experimenting with something for them. If there isn’t an audience for it, this too will go away.The two boosters are quite different from one another and serve very different audiences.

Is the list different from bonus sheet?

Yes. For example, the bonus sheet has a crime theme and shows up once per booster pack (draft boosters). The List doesn’t have a connective theme (it’s valued reprints reskinned to Thunder Junction) and shows up at a lower frequency than the bonus sheet.

For someone buying Play Boosters as a replacement for Set Boosters, the price of a booster has not changed. For someone buying Play Boosters as a replacement for Draft Boosters, the price of a booster has increased.

You are getting something for that price increase, more rares/mythic rares per dollar spent.

Opened a bundle for OTJ today, and noticed that it had a game card from Magic Core Set 21 explaining how to play Draft when the box contains Play boosters. Is this a slight oversight? I thought new product would include updated game cards explaining how to play with Play boosters instead of referring to Draft?

Whether or not you’re using Draft boosters or Play boosters, you’re still drafting or playing (booster) draft.

Hi Mark, big fan here. Just wanted to say I do not enjoy the framing of Play boosters as "to save limited" I understand the context but the reality is that without limited ,magic as a whole would suffer probably catastrophically, hence the implication that limited was the weakest link is not fair.As a limited fan, I do not like reading those words and would like the framing to be less derogatory to my favorite format. Words matter; something like "We created them for the health of the entire game" would be easier to parse, and more accurate to be honest. If I come off combative, I apologize, I love the game, and I understand why the change was made; I just don't like reading the word limited in a precarious situation.

The writing was on the wall. The market wasn’t supporting draft boosters. We had, at best, a couple years before market forces drove them away. How was this possible? Well, the vast majority of Magic players don’t play limited.Play boosters’ whole existence came from a profound understanding by R&D of the importance of limited play. If anything, play boosters are a testament to how fundamental limited is to the game, not a knock of it.

The limited sets in the past 4 years have been unbelievable! I have been having an absolute blast, I have drafted them all! I was crushed to hear that draft boosters were going away. Why were draft boosters added, taken away, and replaced with play boosters? With the additional rare slot and less commons to fuse with the now obsolete set boosters, it feels like the push to make everything more profitable is creeping into limited play. Some things I like about limited 1) Each set is usually not impacted by must-have or oppressive commander or modern cards. 2) I like is that it's common centric. 3) I like that there is a lower frequency of rares. 4) low cost of entry, 15 bucks at my local lgs, 10 on Arena. In general, I am not happy about the limited booster changes but I will wait to try them.I am concerned that one day limited will be deemed "not profitable" and this golden age will end.

Play boosters are us ensuring that draft continues on. Draft boosters were selling so poorly, they were eventually going to be eliminated. We took steps to make sure you can keep drafting.

Play booster question: in LCI, draft boosters have a chance to contain a cave in the basic land slot. In upcoming sets that use play boosters, will some of those sets use the basic land slot for other lands like LCI, MOM, DGM, and FRF did?

It’s an option available.

The move away from draft boosters frustrates me more with the audience for Magic products than with the product itself. Magic has always been special to me because my experience with it was of making do with what you have: 'kitchen table' play. To see that when faced with the choice between "a unique way to play Magic and collect cards" and "collect cards", people chose the latter to the point that the market does not want the former... It makes me feel very alone in my impression of the game. I don't know. Maybe I'm unique in this.

The reality of the Magic audience is it’s very diverse and wants lots of different things. Juggling all those audiences is the biggest challenge of making Magic.

It’s really disheartening to hear so many people nonchalantly ask or suggest if Limited should be shelved. (I understand this was never WOTC plan). I get they may not like the Play Booster change, but to suggest eliminating the source of happiness for myself and others, it smacks of zero empathy from my community. I would ask those people to really think about how what they are advocating for impacts others. Do they really want to take away my whole experience to avoid a change to theirs?!

R&D (and Wizards as a whole) understand the importance of limited and all of our actions were insuring that it didn’t go away. We recognize there is a substantial audience that cares about it. As for the larger community, it’s true that a lot of people see Magic through the lens of how they play, and don’t truly grasp that what makes the game special to them is very different from what makes the game special to other players.My best guess is that some interpret draft boosters not be sustainable long term to there not being a big enough of an audience, which isn’t true, but I get how you could make that assumption. The market is weird in a lot of ways and can do things that aren’t necessarily logical if you don’t understand all the nuances of it.