Tokens have long been the subject of debate in Magic: The Gathering. It seems that every new set uses them more prominently, with last year’s Bloomburrow being a particularly egregious example. Despite this, they remain annoyingly tricky to actually acquire. With Aetherdrift, Wizards is taking a step towards fixing this problem by finally removing ad cards from MTG packs.
This change has been a long time coming. Since 2007’s Tenth Edition packs have contained these cards, which are ultimately useless for players. Cutting them out entirely means packs are much more likely to contain tokens, which should combat the issues faced previously. That said, new developments mean this isn’t a total fix. We may not be entering a new token paradise just yet.
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. In the section covering the contents of Play Boosters, it simply states “Please note that Play Boosters no longer contain ad cards.” This follows a line noting that each Play Booster contains “1 Art card or non-foil double-sided token.”
This is a bigger deal than it sounds at first. For many players, ad cards have been part of the game as long as they’ve been playing. They were introduced back in 2007, as an extra ’16th card’ in Tenth Edition Boosters. These cards promoted many different aspects of Magic, including new sets, events, and partnerships with other brands. Ad cards were paid for by the Wizards of the Coast Marketing department, but R&D was able to use the back sides for gameplay tips and tricks instead.
At first, ad cards were very common. They showed up in around 1/3 of core set packs, and 2/3 of expert set packs. According to the MTG Wiki, this ratio shifted heavily in favor of tokens starting with Battle for Zendikar, where tokens allegedly appeared in 9 out of 10 packs. This ratio was reportedly increased yet again for Murders of Karlov Manor, before Aetherdrift did away with MTG ad cards entirely.
For most players, the above figures won’t feel exactly right. If tokens appeared at a 90% rate, surely there wouldn’t be so many complaints about their scarcity? There are other factors at play which we’ll get to later, but suffice to say those figures likely aren’t fully accurate.
An Unexpected Value Boost
With ad cards out of the picture, MTG Aetherdrift Boosters now only have two options: tokens or art cards. It’s hard to get an exact figure for the ratio of token to art, but the Collecting article for Outlaws of Thunder Junction gives us a solid place to start. In that set at least, players had a 35% chance to open an art card, and a 65% chance for an ad or token. With the removal of ads, this would leave a 65% token chance, assuming the art ratio remained the same.
This is fantastic news, both for players and collectors. On the player side, tokens are a crucial part of gameplay. Many have to resort to using lands or spare bulk as tokens in games for lack of the ‘official’ option. With more tokens out there, this should be a scenario that crops up less often.
On the collector side, tokens are a surprisingly valuable addition to Booster packs. There are plenty of tokens that hold very real monetary value, for one reason or another. Some are old, like the Alara Beast token. Some are required for popular meta cards, like the Goblin Shaman from Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. Others are just flashy, unique characters, like Mechtitan from Mechtitan Core.
All of these tokens go for upwards of $7 on the secondary market right now. That’s more than most rares or mythics these days, and a serious boost to any pack they’re found in. Of course, with more tokens out there, the chances of any being scarce enough to reach these prices is lower. That said, I’d still expect useful tokens to outpace useless bulk rares in many scenarios.
Not A Full Fix
An increased number of tokens in MTG Boosters is great news. There is one fly in the ointment, however, and that’s the continued presence of art cards. Players still have a chance to hit one of these instead of a token in each pack, and we’ve had no confirmation on the ratio just yet. It could be a 35% chance as before, or it could be closer to 50% now that ad cards are gone. We just don’t know, but in either case the existence of these cards means less tokens to go around.
Now, art cards are much better than ad cards from a player perspective. While an ad would likely go straight in the bin or the back of a bulk box on opening, art cards do at least have some collectability to them. Some players enjoy gathering these cards and arranging them in binders, where they admittedly create a visually appealing display. The rarer signed variants push this element further.
On the other hand, these are just as useless in gameplay as ad cards were, without the potential for marketing revenue. From Wizards’ perspective, it makes little sense to keep including these cards in packs for that reason. There’s the notion that making tokens rarer creates secondary market demand, which in turn drives pack sales. That said, pricey tokens tend to be more of a nice bonus. Players opened Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty for Fable, not for the token it created.
Most players would likely prefer a 100% token ratio as well. For Prerelease in particular, it would be a massive help. Will we see art cards removed completely at some point? It’s very possible. Now that MTG Aetherdrift has totally ditched art cards, I’d say anything is possible.
