Magic: The Gathering adds rare God Packs and cuts foil commons

Magic: The Gathering is overhauling its card packs starting next year, per a blog post from Wizards of the Coast. The changes, set to begin with the Nauctis: The Sunken Realm set, include the introduction of ultra-rare "God Packs."

According to Kotaku, these special packs will contain only rare or mythic rare cards. They will be extremely scarce, appearing in roughly one out of every thousand standard booster packs. The odds are better in the premium Collector Boosters, where one in every three hundred packs will be a God Pack.

For tournament play, Wizards has a fix. If a player opens a God Pack during a draft event, they are required to replace it. Official rules will give that player a fresh pack on the house to maintain deck-building balance.

The update also trims foil cards from lower rarities. Standard booster packs will no longer contain foil commons or uncommons. Collector Boosters will lose three cards total, with two common and one uncommon foil slot removed entirely.

The company's stated reasoning, per the blog post, relates to content creators and player excitement. It claims most people skip past these lower-rarity foils in pack-opening videos, so removing them "makes room" for cards that generate more buzz.

Other tweaks include making special Japan Showcase cards available outside of Collector Boosters and increasing the rate of foil rares and mythics in standard packs. Wizards of the Coast is soliciting feedback on the changes via its official Discord server.