Is Double Masters spicy enough for you to buy some boosters?

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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 3 years ago

Are you going to buy Double Masters to inject some life into your commander collection?

Here is a list of what I'd consider premium pulls for me personally.
That's not to say that there are not lots more playables, but when you could probably buy most of them for well under $5 anyway, paying $8 for that chance seems pretty bad.

Note that there are 203 of 382 Rares and Mythic and that includes doubling up of the borderless art alternatives.


These figures are for me personally to see if it would be worth it or not.
$380 (box) / 24 = $16 per booster. 2 x rares per booster = $8 average per rare.
$300 (box) / 24 = $12.50 per booster. 2 x rares per booster = $6 average per rare.
So out of significant cards for me personally that would be about 36/203 = 18% chance of pulling a significant rare/mythic per rare slot. About 1/5 chance.
The totals of these rares rounded up to about $1000 (mtggoldfish), so about $25 average value per these rares I'd like to pull, but this doesn't include showcase versions which of course sell for much more.
If I'm spending about $6 per rare on the boosters, then I need to spend about $30 worth of boosters to get my $25 card.
I get my 4 x "chaff" rares and all the uncommons and commons as well however, but those are pretty y..a.....w..n.

Not going to lie, I'd love to have the full art versions of Brainstorm, Cyclonic Rift, Exploration, Crop Rotation,

I might be doing my math wrong but it seems like a big discrepancy for me personally in value between just buying them as singles and going for the lottery.


Anyway that's just me, does anybody else feel like they are going to get great value as their collections are much more in need?
Last edited by darrenhabib 3 years ago, edited 2 times in total.

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pokken
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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

Nope. I am never buying randomized sealed product again.

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Post by Mookie » 3 years ago

I was initially in the 'no, never' bucket, but I've shifted into 'probably not'. Might be interesting if I had some friends to split a box with and draft, but that currently isn't looking likely. There are a lot of cards in the set that I want, and the draft format does look to be pretty sweet. However, the price per pack is too high for me to justify doing a draft (and definitely too high to justify just cracking packs, not that I ever do that anyway).

That said, there are a bunch of singles I'm looking to pick up now that prices are coming down. Unfortunately, I suspect a lot of cards I want will still be above the threshold of what I'm willing to pay for them, but even just being more widely circulated in trade binders is still a big improvement.

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Post by DirkGently » 3 years ago

If it's the only option to draft at my LGS, I'll probably do it once.

Otherwise double no. No because cracking packs is a bad way to collect cards, and no because I don't need reprints.
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Post by Card Slinger J » 3 years ago

Not at $100 a booster pack.
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Post by darrenhabib » 3 years ago

Card Slinger J wrote:
3 years ago
Not at $100 a booster pack.
Note that's a separate offer of a "VIP" edition with 2 x borderless art + 2 x rare/mythic.

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Post by Sinis » 3 years ago

Booster boxes are selling for $300, with 24 packs per box. That's about $12 a pack.

Are the two rares you open going to be worth it? My guess is no; there's a lot of bulk or sub $5 rares/mythics in the set. Except for the big ticket items, it would probably be more efficient to just buy singles.

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Post by Dunharrow » 3 years ago

I ordered a box because I like drafting and because I will not be attending any in-store drafts until there is a vaccine out. Figured my only chance at drafting what seems like a really cool format was to get a box. With a box I figure I have about 30% chance of making my full money back... a lot of luck to say if I get Force of Will vs a foil Sword of War and Peace... It is very swingy and to make your money back you need to get a couple expensive foils and maybe a chase mythic or two.

But, I also know I am getting 2 box toppers and a Wrath of God and Chord of Calling promo. The box toppers are interesting because they are mostly worth a lot of money.

Who knows. I just want to draft more than anything and hope I don't have a terrible box.
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Post by Ertai Planeswalker » 3 years ago

pokken wrote:
3 years ago
Nope. I am never buying randomized sealed product again.
Yeah this. It was always a lottery, and I feel Wizards is doing everything they can to crank this effect up to 11 with normal boosters, fancy boosters, glitter boosters, superboosters, megaboosters, hyperboosters, supermegahyperboosters, special case boosters that have an extra mythic if opened between 12:00 and 14:00 on a rainy sunday if you're wearing something blue and whatever else they come up with.

In the end, I only end up buying specific cards I need for decks. It also makes me look for other hobbies more, because I just can't keep pace anymore.

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Post by ironic gesture » 3 years ago

Hell no. Already began ordering a handful of singles, though, since the prices have come down significantly.

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Post by Hermes_ » 3 years ago

I may buy a booster or booster pack like I always do for most sets.
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Post by darrenhabib » 3 years ago

Sinis wrote:
3 years ago
Booster boxes are selling for $300, with 24 packs per box. That's about $12 a pack.

Are the two rares you open going to be worth it? My guess is no; there's a lot of bulk or sub $5 rares/mythics in the set. Except for the big ticket items, it would probably be more efficient to just buy singles.
Well that means I'd be spending about $30 on average to get my $25 rare/mythic, which is much more reasonable given that I'd still be getting other cards along with it.

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Post by Ertai Planeswalker » 3 years ago

@darrenhabib : Don't forget that these kind of statistics are based on chance calculations, which means that you hit the mentioned percentages if you have a significantly large sample size (= open a large amount of packs). If you buy anything less than a box (and maybe a box isn't even enough if it contains only 24 packs) then the variance increases greatly.

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Post by RxPhantom » 3 years ago

Quadruple the price.
Triple the bulk.
Double Masters.
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

I'm sorry, Deluge is HOW much? Jesus. I hope that comes down.

Very much a no, partially because cracking packs is a rough way to get what you want, and mostly because the price point of this product is obscene. Whether or not it's the right place to mention it, they really could've designed the set better in terms of access to staple reprints. There's nothing wrong with having a standard/marginally more expensive than standard release, and a 'whale' edition that has all the borderless alt art and double rare double foil variants. I just object to selling a kidney to get access to this stuff, it's a crock. And that party line of 'not every set is for every player' is pure garbage.

Anyway my plan is to see what happens to singles and go from there. I'd love a few more deluges, a stoneforge and some swords of x and y, but we'll just have to see how it goes.
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Post by TheAmericanSpirit » 3 years ago

Heck no. This game is too expensive already, no reason to add more "gambol gamble" crap to it. Anyone fortunate enough to afford cracking boxes just for the fun of it, good for you. Anyone looking to develop a frugal, steady, and predictable upgrade plan for their roster of decks should just buy singles.

The math doesn't lie; that plastic booster wrapping is deceptively expensive.

Edit: I AM going to get a copy of that rfk toxic deluge though. Lord, bless that man's artistic eye.
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Post by duducrash » 3 years ago

I usually get "draft packs" I used to play this game where id build my deck something I pulled. Now I crack packs whenever they are on a big sale or I dont want change and a pack is arround the price. Im not into Premium packs, just get the singles I want and move on

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Post by ISBPathfinder » 3 years ago

I don't think there is legitimately a sealed product that I would buy packs for outside of supporting a LGS. If the expected value of a product is so good that you are expected to make money then one of two things will happen. 1) prices drop 2) the product becomes scarce and under printed.

Generally speaking the first of those happens 99% of the time. Of all the products wizards has ever made, very few of them have the second one happen to them. Its like.... Modern Masters the original, FTV products, and the one out of four or five commander decks per year that is impossible to get ahold of.

Do yourself a favor, go buy singles and buy them 1-6 months after products release.
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Post by umtiger » 3 years ago

ISBPathfinder wrote:
3 years ago
I don't think there is legitimately a sealed product that I would buy packs for outside of supporting a LGS. If the expected value of a product is so good that you are expected to make money then one of two things will happen. 1) prices drop 2) the product becomes scarce and under printed.

Generally speaking the first of those happens 99% of the time. Of all the products wizards has ever made, very few of them have the second one happen to them. Its like.... Modern Masters the original, FTV products, and the one out of four or five commander decks per year that is impossible to get ahold of.

Do yourself a favor, go buy singles and buy them 1-6 months after products release.
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Post by abel88 » 3 years ago

Double masters is extremely high variance. iv'e bought 4 of the $40 3 pack draft packs they sell at walmart. i bought them two at a time. the first two gave me a HUGE return. Imperial recruiter, stoneforge mystic, cylconic rift, sword of fire and ice, and Mana Crypt. The second two packs i bought didnt even cover half the cost i spent and had nothing of note.

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