No More Ad Cards In MTG Aetherdrift?!

You’d be forgiven for having missed this news. Wizards didn’t make a big deal out of it, instead announcing it with a single line in the Collecting Aetherdrift article back at the start of preview season.

Magic: The Gathering players have long had to contend with the issue of acquiring tokens. Despite their increasing prominence in recent sets, such as Bloomburrow, tokens have remained surprisingly difficult to obtain.

However, with the upcoming Aetherdrift set, Wizards of the Coast is taking a significant step towards resolving this problem by removing ad cards from MTG packs. This change, which was announced quietly in the Collecting Aetherdrift article, will see Play Boosters no longer containing ad cards.

Ad cards have been a part of MTG since 2007's Tenth Edition, serving as an extra '16th card' in Booster packs. These cards promoted various aspects of Magic, including new sets, events, and partnerships with other brands. While the Marketing department at Wizards of the Coast paid for the ad cards, R&D was able to utilize the backs of the cards for gameplay tips and tricks.

Initially, ad cards were quite common, appearing in approximately 1/3 of core set packs and 2/3 of expert set packs. According to the MTG Wiki, this ratio shifted dramatically in favor of tokens starting with Battle for Zendikar, where tokens allegedly appeared in 9 out of 10 packs. This ratio was reportedly increased again for Murders of Karlov Manor, before Aetherdrift did away with MTG ad cards entirely.

However, these figures may not fully align with the experiences of most players. If tokens appeared at a 90% rate, there would likely be fewer complaints about their scarcity. Other factors, which we will discuss later, may have influenced these reported numbers.

An Increased Value Boost

With ad cards removed from the equation, MTG Aetherdrift Boosters now contain only two possible options: tokens or art cards. While an exact figure for the token-to-art ratio is unavailable, the Collecting article for Outlaws of Thunder Junction provides a useful starting point.

In that set, players had a 35% chance to open an art card and a 65% chance for an ad or token. Applying this ratio to Aetherdrift, with the removal of ads, would result in a 65% chance for a token, assuming the art ratio remained unchanged.

This adjustment would be highly beneficial to both players and collectors. On the player side, tokens are a crucial part of gameplay, and many players have had to resort to using lands or spare bulk cards as tokens due to the lack of official options. With more tokens available, this scenario should occur less frequently.

From a collector's perspective, tokens can provide a surprising boost to the value of Booster packs. Several tokens, such as the Alara Beast token, hold significant monetary value for various reasons. Some tokens, like the Goblin Shaman from Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, are essential for popular meta cards. Others, such as Mechtitan from Mechtitan Core, are simply flashy and unique characters.

Currently, all of these tokens are valued at over $7 on the secondary market, which is higher than most rares or mythics and adds substantial value to any pack they are found in. Of course, with more tokens in circulation, the scarcity required to reach these prices will likely decrease. Nevertheless, useful tokens are still expected to outpace bulk rares in terms of value in many scenarios.

Not A Complete Fix

While the increased presence of tokens in MTG Boosters is certainly welcome news, there is one persistent issue that remains: the continued inclusion of art cards.

Players still have a chance to open an art card instead of a token in each pack, and we have not yet received confirmation on the precise ratio. It could remain at 35%, as before, or it may shift closer to 50% now that ad cards are gone. Without further information, we can only speculate.

However, in either case, the existence of art cards inevitably reduces the number of tokens available.

Now, it's important to note that art cards are significantly more preferable to ad cards from a player's perspective. While an ad card would likely end up in the trash or the back of a bulk box upon opening, art cards do possess some collectability.

Some players enjoy gathering and organizing these cards in binders, where they must admit that they create a visually appealing display. This element is further enhanced by the rarer signed variants of art cards.

On the other hand, these cards are just as useless in gameplay as ad cards were, without the potential for marketing revenue. From Wizards'' perspective, it makes little sense to continue including them in packs for that reason.

There is a notion that making tokens rarer creates secondary market demand, which in turn drives pack sales. However, pricey tokens tend to be more of a nice bonus. Players opened Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty for Fable, not for the token it created.

Ultimately, most players would likely prefer a 100% token ratio as well. This would be especially helpful for Prerelease events. As