Unboxing MTG The Brothers’ War Set Booster – Robots in Disguise

Magic: The Gathering’s newest set, The Brothers’ War, is released for tabletop today. It is the second instalment in MTG’s four-part Phyrexian storyline, and it is a crossover with Transformers – yes, that Transformers. Robots in disguise!

To celebrate the launch of the new set, Wizards of the Coast sent us a Set Booster box of The Brothers’ War to check out. If you’re interested to pick up the new set, here’s our unboxing of the Set Booster. Aside from some cool Transformers cards, the set features a number of other eye-catching cards too.

Unlike a Draft Booster, a Set Booster is meant to be more “exciting” to crack open. This is probably why it is popular among folks who just enjoy opening booster packs instead of using them for Limited play, such as Draft or Sealed.

So what exactly makes a Set Booster more exciting to open? Well, quite a number of things. There is a structure to this 14-card pack for The Brothers’ War. 12 of them are guaranteed Magic cards, while the other two are an art card and a token/ad card; the latter has a chance to be replaced with a card from “The List.”

When you crack open a Set Booster, the first card you’ll see is an art card, followed by a basic land or full-art mech basic land card for The Brothers’ War. If you’re lucky enough, there is a 15% chance that this land card will be foil. If you do get a foil land, it doesn’t prevent you from getting another foil card in the pack.

After the basic land card, you’ll also get six regular commons and uncommons with some form of “connection” to each other. In the case of The Brothers’ War, these cards will be three commons and three uncommons; simple enough.

Aside from these common and uncommon cards, The Brothers’ War’s Set Booster also includes two “wildcards” of any rarity, so you can get anything from a common to a mythic rare card. On top of that, there’s a chance that these cards can be The Brothers’ War Commander cards, Jumpstart Booster rares, Transformers cards, or retro artifacts and retro schematics – the latter two are quite eye-catching.

Of course, the Set Booster pack will also have a guaranteed rare or mythic rare card, which is no different than the same slot found in Draft Boosters. You also get a guaranteed foil card, and it can be of any rarity, including borderless rares, Transformers cards, retro artifacts, retro schematics, Jumpstart cards, or Commander cards.

Last but certainly not least is a token/ad card. However, there is a 25% chance this will be replaced with a card from “The List” – a list of 300 interesting cards from Magic’s past. If a Set Booster pack has such a card, it can be of any rarity. We got a very nice Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools card in one of our packs.

That is basically what a Set Booster is. Its unique card structure certainly makes it interesting to crack open, especially with the increased chance of getting a rare or mythic rare card. Who doesn’t like the feeling of getting a valuable card?

And that’s our unboxing of the Set Booster of Magic: The Gathering’s new The Brothers’ War set. If you’re keen to check out this new set, give your nearest hobby shop a visit. If you’re a new or returning player, check out The Brothers’ War Jumpstart Booster; it is a great way kickstart your MTG experience.