Notice something funny about the packs? I haven't opened too many, but I got three packs this morning from my LGS and all three packs started off with Ichorclaw Myr, Plague Stinger, and Lumingrid Drake. Two of them went a step further with Origin Spellbomb. :/
I didn't notice it with packs I opened, but in a draft I did notice that the last 5 or so passes had the same 3 cards being passed. I've never seen that in a draft before.
I haven't opened enough packs to see it though.
That's how common print runs work. It's odd that you got 3 packs starting at the same point in run A, but once you did, the first 3-5 cards were going to be the same. I could explain further if anyone is interested, but it's a pretty dry topic.
cards are printed in large sheets. each sheet has X cards on it. not sure precisely, but it is some large number. just as an example, imagine a sheet is 8 cards wide by 12 cards tall. that would put 96 cards on each sheet. the sheets are then cut and stacked in some order, such that the stacking order is the same for each sheet with the same printing layout.
the sheets are all printed with the same rarity on them. so there's sheets of all commons, sheets of all uncommons, and sheets of all mythics/rares.
when a pack is collated it takes 1 rare from the top of the rare stack. 3 uncommons from the top of uncommon stack. 10 commons from the top of the common stack, and 1 basic land.
there's usually more than one different printsheet layout so there's significant variety in how packs end up, but it is the case that if a pack's commons are added it to starting at the same part of one of the common sheets they will have many of the same cards in the pack.
this is an artifact of the manufacturing process and is mostly unintentional by Wizards. however, it does demonstrate that packs are not truly randomly seeded. there are deterministic factors at some of the stages of pack manufacture.
Large sets have two common sheets. Each sheet is 11 cards by 11 cards (121 cards/sheet)
There are 4 print runs.
Run A contains 33 unique cards, each in the run twice. This is the run you see when you first open a pack, usually 3-4 cards.
Run B contains 22 unique cards, each in the run thrice. This is the next group of cards in the pack, and generally 2-5 cards per pack.
Run C1 contains 28 unique cards; 27 in the run twice and 1 in the run once.
Run C2 contains 19 unique cards; 18 in the run thrice, and 1 in the run once.
The card in C1 and C2 once is the same card (Except for RoE*), otherwise the cards are unique to their respective print run.
So, Common sheet 1 contains print runs A and C1, and Common sheet 2 contains print runs B and C2. To even out the rarities (mostly) Sheet 1 must be printed three times for every two times sheet 2 is printed. One card (the card in both C1 and C2) is slightly more rare than the others, printed 5 times while the other commons are printed 6 times.
* In RoE, instead of having one card short printed, they added an extra copy of two commons. So for every 6 copies of most of the commons, one common eldrazi has 8 copies, and the other has 9.
Uncommons and rares work similarly, but are harder to determine.
Small sets work similarly too, but use 80 card sheets instead of 121 for rares (and maybe uncommons, the math works both ways and I've never done the work to figure it out)
OCD, a lot of time, an eye for patterns and opening several cases worth of product =)
I've done the work for Shards, Rise and M11 and all worked the same way (with the mentioned exception for Rise). I haven't done the work for any of the small sets, but my assumptions make logical sense based on what I know. It is possible small sets work slightly differently (2 runs instead of 4, on one sheet), I had hoped to see my FLGS bust their overstock of Worldwake to find out for certain, but was unable. Next time, I guess.
You guys have never noticed there's a box-mapping thread for every set?
This is why they do them. There's a pretty big advantage in limited to being able to tell exactly what card was taken out of a pack by the person who opened it.
I'm assuming the comments here concerning sheets and print runs are true, because I've noticed such patterns when buying packs before, it's happened way too often.
Whether or not it worked does not validate the play. That's hindsight probability. Let's say I offered you a bet -- I'm going to flip a coin and if it's heads, I'll give you 1 dollar but if it's tails, you'll give me 2 dollars. This is obviously a terrible bet for you. Accepting it is a bad decision. You can't justify it afterwards by arguing that you won the flip, therefore you made the right decision.
Is what I do.
I haven't opened enough packs to see it though.
Is what I do.
cards are printed in large sheets. each sheet has X cards on it. not sure precisely, but it is some large number. just as an example, imagine a sheet is 8 cards wide by 12 cards tall. that would put 96 cards on each sheet. the sheets are then cut and stacked in some order, such that the stacking order is the same for each sheet with the same printing layout.
the sheets are all printed with the same rarity on them. so there's sheets of all commons, sheets of all uncommons, and sheets of all mythics/rares.
when a pack is collated it takes 1 rare from the top of the rare stack. 3 uncommons from the top of uncommon stack. 10 commons from the top of the common stack, and 1 basic land.
there's usually more than one different printsheet layout so there's significant variety in how packs end up, but it is the case that if a pack's commons are added it to starting at the same part of one of the common sheets they will have many of the same cards in the pack.
this is an artifact of the manufacturing process and is mostly unintentional by Wizards. however, it does demonstrate that packs are not truly randomly seeded. there are deterministic factors at some of the stages of pack manufacture.
Large sets have two common sheets. Each sheet is 11 cards by 11 cards (121 cards/sheet)
There are 4 print runs.
Run A contains 33 unique cards, each in the run twice. This is the run you see when you first open a pack, usually 3-4 cards.
Run B contains 22 unique cards, each in the run thrice. This is the next group of cards in the pack, and generally 2-5 cards per pack.
Run C1 contains 28 unique cards; 27 in the run twice and 1 in the run once.
Run C2 contains 19 unique cards; 18 in the run thrice, and 1 in the run once.
The card in C1 and C2 once is the same card (Except for RoE*), otherwise the cards are unique to their respective print run.
So, Common sheet 1 contains print runs A and C1, and Common sheet 2 contains print runs B and C2. To even out the rarities (mostly) Sheet 1 must be printed three times for every two times sheet 2 is printed. One card (the card in both C1 and C2) is slightly more rare than the others, printed 5 times while the other commons are printed 6 times.
* In RoE, instead of having one card short printed, they added an extra copy of two commons. So for every 6 copies of most of the commons, one common eldrazi has 8 copies, and the other has 9.
Uncommons and rares work similarly, but are harder to determine.
Small sets work similarly too, but use 80 card sheets instead of 121 for rares (and maybe uncommons, the math works both ways and I've never done the work to figure it out)
Certified Rules Advisor
I've done the work for Shards, Rise and M11 and all worked the same way (with the mentioned exception for Rise). I haven't done the work for any of the small sets, but my assumptions make logical sense based on what I know. It is possible small sets work slightly differently (2 runs instead of 4, on one sheet), I had hoped to see my FLGS bust their overstock of Worldwake to find out for certain, but was unable. Next time, I guess.
You guys have never noticed there's a box-mapping thread for every set?
This is why they do them. There's a pretty big advantage in limited to being able to tell exactly what card was taken out of a pack by the person who opened it.
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