Six Card Booster Pack

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Very interesting news today over at WoTC. We now have a new Magic : The Gathering product format . . . A six-card booster pack. You may be wondering if April Fool's Day came early and say "CopySix - go pull the other one", but I am not joshing you - just check the article out on Daily Arcana.
So, if you find yourself in a large mass-market store like Target or WalMart in the near future, you might see one of these. Well, here in my part of Canada, one is unable to purchase any WoTC product at a SprawlMart and must make a trek to the local gaming store, which is rather fine with me as I would rather provide patronage to the retailer that plays host to me (almost) every Friday evening.

That said . . . if I did find myself out and about after regular business hours and happen to be in a 24-hour WalMart with an MTG itch I had to get a hit of cardboard crack, then perhaps I might pick up a few cards. Before this, let us have a look at what we are getting . . .

This new product format offering starting with Conflux we will call 'The Six Card Booster'. Thankfully, it will not replace regular booster packs, and it will only appear in mass market stores. The manufacturer's suggested retail price for this pack is $1.99 or approximately 900 Canadian pesos.

WoTC provides no guarantee as to the rarities of cards within packs, but one may expect a tips/token card, 1 land, 3 commons, 1 uncommon, and 1 'Wild-Card' slot that has an equal chance of being rare/mythic, uncommon, or common. We are informed that there may "even have a chance of opening a foil card".

In comparison, a regular MTG Booster pack contains 16-Cards : 1 Rare/Mythic Rare (Mythic rares are approx. 1 in every 8 rares), 3 Uncommons, 10 Commons, 1 basic land, 1 Token/Tips & Tricks card.

For those gamers out there who continually contemplate the odds of the long-shot, here are the approximate numbers for the Wild-Card slot :

A Common ~ 33.5 %
An Uncommon ~ 33.5 %
A Rare ~ 29 %
A Mythic-Rare ~ 4 %

In Canada, a typical (15 card ) booster pack goes for $5.00 and I would expect the 6-card booster (if they become available here) to retail for about $2.50 to $2.75. As I am not very much of a betting gentleman, I would most likely not bother to pick one up unless it is intended as a Christmas stocking stuffer for the spouse / kids. The community appears highly divided as to this new product offering just as they were upon hearing the announcement that Tournament Packs were to be discontinued.

So, as WoTC states, you will always get a rare or mythic rare in a regular booster pack, but if you find yourself in a mass market store and only have a couple of bucks to spend on scratching your Magic itch, you now have this as an option.