2024 has been an incredibly busy year for Magic: The Gathering. Not only have there been more sets than many players can keep track of, but Secret Lair crossovers are popping up non-stop. Just when we thought we finally had a moment of calm to enjoy Bloomburrow, another set has been announced. Revealed at Gen Con 2024, Mystery Booster 2 is a brand-new Draftable MTG set coming this year.
Mystery Booster 2
Rather aptly, details about Mystery Booster 2 are fairly few and far between at the moment, Thankfully, this is set to change soon. According to the set’s barebones announcement post, Wizards will be sharing details and cards on August 6th during their WeeklyMTG livestream.
Before this, we’re already starting to see spoilers for this barely announced set trickle in online. On Reddit, a white-bordered Ponder and Future Shifted Commander Tower have both been revealed early. As if these reveals weren’t enough, a cryptic event that Gavin Verhey is running may spoil even more cards very soon.
Much like its predecessor, Mystery Booster 2 is bound to contain a lot of reprints from throughout Magic’s history. As we’ve already seen, some of these cards will get seriously unique and novel treatments. On top of these reprints, Mystery Booster 2 is also going to include plenty of unique and experimental playtest cards.
While this is all very mysterious so far, thankfully the set’s product page reveals more information about what to expect.
“This Festival in a Box is your first opportunity to get your hands on the Mystery Booster 2 Display Box. Inside, you’ll find 24 packs of cards with up to nearly 200 set symbols, Future Sight frames, the first white-border cards released in boosters in 19 years, and more: three Collector Boosters, a Secret Lair drop, and promo cards.”
Wizards of the Coast
As you may have noticed from the above quote, Mystery Booster 2 will be available in the next Festival in a Box. Releasing for MagicCon: Las Vegas, this product will likely be available around late October. Alongside being available in the Festival in a Box, Verhey has stated the set will be playable at MagicCon: Las Vegas.
Potentially Amazingly Unavailable
While we don’t know a lot about Mystery Booster 2 yet, there’s a lot to be excited about. The original set offered one of the most unique and interesting Limited environments in all of MTG. Even if Mystery Booster 2 is just more of the set, it’ll be a fantastically fun set to play.
Unfortunately, while fun is practically a given, getting your hands on this set may be a lot easier said than done. For better or worse, Wizards will sell the Festival in a Box, which contains Mystery Booster 2, via MagicSecretLair.com. This has many MTG players worried that Mystery Booster 2 will be a limited-run product that’s basically unpurchasable.
Despite the benefit of speeding up shipping times, the move to limited-run Secret Lair drops has been almost universally hated. MTG players have been routinely annoyed when exciting drops sell out in mere hours, largely thanks to scalpers. Should this happen to an entire MTG set, there are going to be a lot of extremely disgruntled players.
Admittedly, getting worked up about the Festival in a Box now is a little premature. Since Wizards has barely revealed anything about it, there’s a chance there will be plenty of supply. There’s also been no word on the price of Festival in a Box, or even when it will go on sale. These details will likely be revealed next week during the WeeklyMTG livestream.
For now, we’re cautiously optimistic about Mystery Booster 2. While it does add to an already extremely bloated year of releases, it should be a fantastically fun time. Provided you can actually get your hands on it, that is.
Read More: New 50th Anniversary Dungeons & Dragons MTG Secret Lair Series Announced!
