Previews kicked off in earnest earlier this week for the upcoming Bloomburrow set. Better yet, the first hints of Magic’s first Mustelid typal deck came to light. But not all was good news; Wizards also introduced Value Boosters in a relatively terse announcement. Billed as “smaller, lighter booster that contain a handful of new cards any fan can enjoy,” they come with seven cards and presumably (but not confirmed yet) a lower price.

It was less than a year ago that Wizards announced that it was doing away with both Set and the venerable Draft boosters in favour of a single Play booster meant to offer the best of both worlds. Part of the reason for the decision was to eliminate the confusion between the two types of boosters. According to Mark Rosewater, offering two caused friction and upset players when they felt that they got the “wrong kind” of booster. He specifically excluded the much more expensive Collector Booster from the discussion because “players who buy Collector Boosters enjoy them.” We were left with one booster type geared more at play and another at collecting.

Not long after, Wizards decided to bring back booster confusion when it unveiled March of the Machine: Aftermath and its five card Epilogue Boosters. The set did not sell well (for a number of reasons) and the company quickly killed its latest booster type, rolling up a planned second set into Outlaws of Thunder Junction as The Big Score bonus cards. But it was not done with its experimenting. Earlier this month, it released the Universes Beyond: Assassin’s Creed set with new Beyond boosters. These feature seven cards, three Uncommons, one Land or Scene card, one Rare or Mythic, and a “Booster Fun” card. A pack sells for just under CA$8 at LGS around me.

And now, here come Value Boosters. So what do you get in one of these? It will contain 3 Commons, 2 Uncommons, 1 Wildcard of any rarity, and 1 card that may be a land, a traditional foil, or a Special Guests card. Seven cards and no guarantee that you will even find a rare card. Is that value? They will presumably sell for less than Beyond boosters but I’ll let you decide for yourself if they’re for you.

Value Boosters will launch alongside the upcoming Bloomburrow set at “select retailers.” No details have yet been provided as to who these retailers will be and what the price of a pack will be.

It remains to be seen who is the audience for Value Boosters. Maybe they will end up at big box stores alongside other TCGs such as Pokemon. My guess is that this is a way to offer a lower cost alternative to other boosters as prices continue to tick up (inflation and the lack of MSRP to help regulate). One thing is for sure, I cannot see any collectors picking them up. And a second thing, I have no plans to pick any of these packs up.

Hopefully the booster experiments will come to an end soon.