Wizards of the Coast has revealed a new type of Magic: The Gathering booster. As part of their latest set, the tabletop company has introduced Bloomburrow value boosters. These are designed to be cheaper alternatives to collecting Magic cards, and it is a decision that has lead to some friction.
The Bloomburrow Value Boosters Announcement
In an official blog post, Wizards of the Coast explains the creation of Bloomburrow Value Boosters. According to the post, value boosters are smaller, lighter boosters. They are designed to be budget-friendly compared to the Play Boosters and Collector Boosters.
A single Value Booster will contain three commons, two uncommons, one wildcard of any variety, and one card that may be a land, traditional foil, or a Special Guests card. Aside from these values, the post is light on further details, including MSRP or the business decisions that informed the booster’s development.
Thankfully, head designer Mark Rosewater held an informal AMA on his personal Tumblr.
One of the questions voiced concern that the Bloomburrow Value Boosters were malicious on WOTC’s part, given their decision to remove Draft Boosters and introduce Play Boosters. Rosewater responded that Value Boosters is an experiment in providing cheaper booster options for pharmacies, grocery stores, and toy aisles.
This shift in price informs other parts of the Value Boosters. Because it is a low-cost alternative, Value Boosters do not guarantee rare cards. Since Value Boosters are meant for general stores and not dedicated game shops, they cannot be used for Draft.
Lastly, Rosewater confirmed that Draft Boosters were dropped because there wasn’t a large enough market buying them. And if the Bloomburrow Value Boosters end up the same way, they will be dropped as well.
Bloomburrow’s Prerelease begins July 26. Those attending this year’s GenCon can also experience Bloomburrow events from August 1-4.
