Love them or hate them, it’s hard to deny that Collector Boosters have had a huge impact on Magic: The Gathering. Ever since their proper debut in 2019’s Throne of Eldraine, these premium packs have shaped the game in ways few players fully realize. Collector Boosters often catch heat for being too expensive or having poor quality control; however, this week, players are noting their annoyance with the fact that Collector Boosters can contain MTG cards using an alternate language.
This is a relatively recent phenomenon. Over the last year or so, as part of its big push from the Japanese market, Wizards has added rare Japanese cards to English-language Collector Boosters. While this was a fun novelty at first, players are quickly starting to tire of it. When you consider all the problems that an initiative like this introduces, it’s hard not to agree with them.
Alternate-Language Cards In MTG Packs
English Collector Boosters containing MTG cards of an alternate language were first trialed in 2021 with Strixhaven’s Mystical Archive series. Every card in this series had a regular and a Japanese variant, the latter of which came with exclusive art. Each English Strixhaven Collector Booster was guaranteed to feature at least one Japanese Mystical Archive card, which was a pretty radical move then. Notably, some Japanese cards from this cycle were excruciatingly expensive, adding to the hype of finding a card that some could not read.
Fast forward to 2024, and this idea reared its head again with Duskmourn. This set debuted the Japan Showcase card style and offered players the chance to open the cards in Japanese a third of the time in English Collector Boosters. Clearly, Wizards liked this setup as it’s remained the same in every Standard set since. Foundations, Aetherdrift, and Tarkir: Dragonstorm have all offered the same chance, at the same rate.
Now that we’re over six months into this new initiative, the cracks are starting to show. What started as a fun novelty has quickly become an annoyance for players, a major one, in some cases. In a recent post on the r/mtgfinance subreddit, LordTetravus made an impassioned case against this idea:
“Tarkir Dragonstorm solidified a pretty clear problem that needs to be addressed quickly – putting chase cards in English packs that can be found in English and Japanese languages, without the Japanese version having unique art (like Strixhaven), is a major feel bad for most players on several levels.”
LordTetravus, via r/mtgfinance
LordTetravus wasn’t the only one with this complaint, either. Across Magic: The Gathering Reddit, many players have expressed frustration about the concept in the last few weeks. ProgramHippie kicked off a 953-comment thread last Monday with a post beginning “Unpopular opinion maybe, but is anyone else really annoyed when you pull a Japanese text card from a collectors pack?” Things have actually gotten to the point where jokes and memes about Japanese pulls are showing up regularly.
Fashion Over Function
This growing reaction makes perfect sense when you consider the problems that having alternate-language cards in English Collector Boosters presents. For the most part, these problems are twofold. Firstly, Japanese cards make actual gameplay difficult. Second, they’re likely to sell for much less money than their English counterparts.
To that first point, the simple fact is that most English-speaking Magic: The Gathering players don’t also speak Japanese. This means that someone wishing to play with a Japanese card will need to look it up and memorize its effect, or have Scryfall on hand constantly during games.
This obviously adds a ton of inconvenience to games, which isn’t great for a “premium” printing. Some players argue that memorizing your Japanese cards isn’t a major deal, but with how complex Magic has gotten lately, it’s a non-insignificant problem.
“Okay but my 8 year old doesn’t know “common cards” like Demonic Tutor. I don’t want unreadable cards. Period. This game has a high enough learning curve for new players without making them have to learn Japanese.”
RoryJSK, via r/mtgfinance
As if this weren’t enough, the financial aspect of Japanese cards is poor too. Because of the point above, the audience for these cards is much smaller than that of their English counterparts. This has two big negative effects on selling these cards. First of all, you’re likely to get much less from selling a Japanese card than its English equivalent. In their post, LordTetravus pointed out some wild price disparities in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Most egregious was Halo Foil Clarion Conqueror, which is worth $90 less in Japanese than in English.
“My LGS doesn’t even buy non-English cards. Overheard one of the staff commiserating with a customer about how they both pulled expensive foil cards from Tarkir, but they were in Japanese so they couldn’t even sell them back to the store.”
Parabrella, via r/mtgfinance
On top of that, even if you wanted to sell your card for a big discount, actually doing so is tricky. A lot of local retailers won’t buy them, and online sales can be slow to resolve. Because of this, opening a Japanese card can feel like getting saddled with an unwanted burden in many cases. The fact that they replace English cards in the same slot adds an extra sting, too.
These issues would be more manageable if, like the Strixhaven Mystical Archive cards, the new Japanese cards came with exclusive artwork. This would at least guarantee a decent value for the cards, despite their lack of functionality. As things stand, the current model is the worst of both worlds.
A Step Too Far?
The addition of alternate-language MTG cards to English Collector Boosters is part of Wizards’ wider Japanese expansion effort. The game has always had a few nods to Japanese culture, like the anime art planeswalkers from War of the Spark, the 2008 Jace vs. Chandra Duel Decks, etc. In recent times, however, this effort has become a lot more pronounced.
Not only are we now getting Japan Showcase cards in every set, but we’re also seeing a huge range of Japan-exclusive events and promos. A few weeks ago, Wizards released a full three-minute song to promote a Japan-only event. We also saw the Spring 2025 Planeswalker Series promos revealed, which are excellent but, again, Japan-exclusive.
Wizards are clearly pushing hard here, and that makes sense. Japan has a huge TCG market, and Magic currently takes up very little of it. Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! are much more dominant there at present. By investing further into events, promos, and alt-art cards that speak to Japanese players, Magic could very easily improve its position.
Unfortunately, the way Wizards is going about things now, English-speaking players are starting to catch strays. Missing out on exclusive events is one thing, but the Japanese strategy is becoming a bigger part of English products with each new release. On top of the Japanese chase cards in Collector Boosters, Foundations Jumpstart had a whole range of legendary creatures that only came in anime art.
Hopefully, Wizards takes the feedback they’re seeing right now on board, and only sticks to Japanese chase cards with unique artwork in the future. Players often feel left out of exclusive Japanese artwork, but if it’s not exclusive, it’s unnecessary.
