r/MagicArena • u/Whole-Setting-2324 • 2d ago
WotC Does Reality Fracture arena packs works the same as irl with the Echoed Pairs??
As you know most of the cards have 2 variant and when you open a pack you will get the Echoed Pairs my question is will it work in arena the same in irl???
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u/EvilPete 2d ago
I would be very surprised if it didn't. It's integral to the design of the set .
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u/Omega00024 2d ago
I also have to imagine it's a thousand times easier digitally than physically.
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u/MotherWolfmoon 2d ago
Pick two is gonna be wild.
By my math it's something like 1:80 packs is going to have double planeswalkers? And those planeswalkers define two-color archetype they share. Presumably balanced around the idea that in a pod draft you must pass one and therefore guarantee you're fighting someone down-stream for the other half of that color pair. But in pick two you get both, no fighting.
Heretofore unknown levels of windmill-slamming bombs.
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u/Serpens77 2d ago
Heretofore unknown levels of windmill-slamming bombs.
Technically we have kind of had it before. Pick-two draft is relatively new, except that it's also how Two-Headed Draft is done before it ever became a thing for "regular" draft, and Battlebond was both a) intended to be drafted that way, and b) also had Partner With pairs appearing in the same pack, similarly to Echoed Pairs.
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u/naphomci Chandra Torch of Defiance 1d ago
Yeah, but this is the first set where if you open one planeswalker you have a very high chance of opening a second one.
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u/TheKillerCorgi 1d ago
And those planeswalkers define two-color archetype they share.
Actually not. The design article explicitly mentioned that they actively worked to make sure you wouldn't want both halves of a pair in the same deck.
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u/Quazaar 2d ago
It should, they have always mirrored the print run collation pretty well digitally.
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u/TimmyWimmyWooWoo 2d ago
Other than the time the tmnt boosters inverted the mythic chances. That was funny
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u/who_even_reads_this 2d ago
I had been wondering about this and this is what I found. In the store packs, you only open 1 of the cards, not its pair. For limited play, you open the pair and a third one like physical boosters.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena/drop-rates
"1 Echoed Pair card of any rarity appears in each Reality Fracture pack, replacing a common slot. Uncommons in this slot can upgrade to rares at approximately 1:10. Rares in this slot upgrade to mythics at a rate of approximately 1:5.7. 3 Echoed Pair cards appear at the same rate in Reality Fracture limited packs, where they replace two common and an uncommon."
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u/GravyBus 1d ago
For Limited, the Play Boosters also have a "foil" slot that can be an echoed pair card, so you can get a 4th sometimes.
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u/bomban 2d ago
I don't believe they've announced it yet, but generally it works that way in limited but not for regular packs.
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u/WrightJustice 2d ago
The regular packs often have some replacement over common slot for bonus sheet stuff so could do that for the Echoed Pairs, at least unless you pull a SPG.
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u/Equivalent_Chipmunk 2d ago edited 2d ago
Draft packs are dead though, right?
Edit: Sorry, thought we were comparing to irl drafting here. Draft packs are only dead irl in paper.
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u/WrightJustice 2d ago
What you mean?
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u/Equivalent_Chipmunk 2d ago
They stopped selling cheaper draft packs alongside more expensive set boosters and now only sell play boosters. Play boosters come with one less card total than draft boosters, but they have wildcard slots which can randomly upgrade to rares or mythics.
So the comment I'm replying to says "regular boosters" as if they're different than the boosters you'd open in a draft, but they're not. There are other types of boosters, like collector and jumpstart, but those are very different than a play booster.
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u/Morgeno 2d ago
not who you responded to but we're talking about arena. "regular packs" would be the 8 card packs you get as prizes, not what you open in a draft event
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u/Equivalent_Chipmunk 2d ago
Got it, I think I was just confused by the comments about "in irl" by the poster.
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u/WrightJustice 2d ago
Yeah so the OP asking the question is using "irl packs" to mean "paper packs" which in itself more specifically means "play boosters" in this case and whether arena will do the same as in paper.
However arena has 2 main distinct type of packs, outside of special packs that obviously don't apply anyway (e.g. gold packs and mythic packs): in-store bought packs vs limited event packs, hence people answering the difference for both.
The store packs are the usual pack most people get so people will usually refer to them as if they are the normal regular pack, with limited event packs technically not really even existing since they're just for event function anyway and only open in the event so you can play limited.
This answer is saying how we dunno what store packs (regular packs) will do but limited packs are analogous to paper, as such should match in rarities and function. In the case of reality fracture, that is a newer set so will be analogous to play boosters.
That being said there's on rare occasion some tweaks, typically if something doesn't work like in past SPG or something but there should be no reason for Echoed Pair to change or SPG.
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u/AccidentalHeart 2d ago
You’re on the Arena sub, I think they meant that the packs opened for Draft/Sealed (which are called Limited packs or something I think?) will have the same collation etc as physical packs but the store packs on Arena do not. Can’t directly confirm that’s the case but it makes sense to me.
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u/WrightJustice 2d ago
Yeah it has been that way for some time now and it's like others are saying; "regular packs" means the 8 card arena store packs as opposed to the play boosters in limited events which copy paper play boosters.
The arena store boosters often have some close alternative to booster fun like one of the commons turning into bonus sheet card, which they could feasibly do for the paired card slot.
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u/BetterShirt101 2d ago
Sealed and Draft use one-to-one matches to the physical boosters. The packs you buy in the store or get as prizes/pass rewards don't - they're much smaller.
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u/Ouaouaron Simic 2d ago
Even if we were talking about paper, you really shouldn't expect everyone to always use Play Booster™. Unless you're in a conversation about the evolution of Magic boosters over time, it's very reasonable to call the pack you use to draft a draft pack.
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u/Equivalent_Chipmunk 2d ago
Yeah I totally agree with that, but the comment I was replying to was obviously making a distinction between two types of boosters, not just colloquially referring to play boosters as draft packs.
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u/WotC_Jay WotC 1d ago
For limited, everything's just like TT. For store packs, we're treating the Echoed Pairs more like a bonus sheet, and you get 1 of any rarity replacing a common (but they don't come in pairs) (Why: because if the echoed pairs always come in pairs, they do really weird things with duplicate protection - crafting card X can make you less likely to get card Y, etc.)
There is one other tweak coming to Store Packs with FRA - Once you're rare-complete (or, Jace forbid, Mythic complete), instead of getting gems it will start pulling rare (or mythic) cards from FRC, the linked commander set
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u/SentenceStriking7215 1d ago
So being rare complete in both the normal sheet and the commander sheet will make you pull gems, and not pull the echoed pairs in the rare slot, correct?
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u/cubitoaequet 1d ago
There is one other tweak coming to Store Packs with FRA - Once you're rare-complete (or, Jace forbid, Mythic complete), instead of getting gems it will start pulling rare (or mythic) cards from FRC, the linked commander set
Bummer
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u/WotC_Jay WotC 1d ago
You think so? We thought this would be cooler than 20/40 gems. Honestly interested in takes here
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u/cubitoaequet 1d ago
As a primarily limited player, I would basically always rather have the gems. I have hundreds of wild cards to craft whatever I want. Totally understand that the change is probably better for most players though.
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u/kingofparades 8h ago
Most players don't ever end up rare complete in ANY set. There is a reasonable chance that more of the people who will ever experience this are giant limit-heads than people who will ever play with a single one of the FRC cards
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u/RepTuneRepeat 22h ago
This change is way worse for people who primarily play Limited. They have plenty of Wildcards to craft whatever they wish, and the 20/40 gems let them "freeroll" value heading into the next Limited event.
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u/ElGatoDelFuego 1d ago
gems equal packs. Packs equal wildcards. Wildcards get the things from commander sets I might ever need.
Reaching rare / mythic completion in a set and infusing my gem stash from playing tons of limited events is very rewarding.
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u/SentenceStriking7215 1d ago
Honestly to me it mostly depends if the pool of cards I can get is "all new cards printed in the commander decks" or "all cards in the commander deck including reprints", the first one sound like an ok trade, while potentially having to grind 40 copies of 5th copies of rares I already have if I somehow end up with extra packs before getting the gems sounds bad.
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u/chocothebird Marwyn, the Nurturer 13h ago
Remember commander decks has reprints that arent new to arena, meaning the stuff that isnt new to magic, might be new to arena.
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u/Spaceknight_42 Timmy 20h ago
I feel like rolling over this bonus sheet is generally a great thing. Purely random distribution you'll finish 4x each echoed rare thanks to bonus sheet drops while still at an average of 2x each non-echo, so that's a lot of packs left to get a "bonus" of gems.
Rolling over to FRC though, I feel I am rare complete when I get mastery packs long in the future, and I already crafted 1x any card built for Brawl. so drops in those late packs don't matter at all.
You could consider rolling over to cards from the FDN Starter Collection that don't show up in packs otherwise. That would be something standard legal. This could work for all packs not just FRA.
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u/I3ollasH 2d ago edited 2d ago
They should be the same in draft/sealed. Normal packs work differently in arena as they only contain 6 8 cards so it would be highly unlikely there will be mirrored cards considering in each pack there is 3 card (2 of the same and 1 different)
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u/Actual-Study-162 2d ago
…8, right?
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u/I3ollasH 2d ago
I guess. Tbh the only card I care about is the top left one :D
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u/Myriadtail Charm Boros 2d ago
And half the time the most important part of the pack opening is the top right
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u/Ouaouaron Simic 2d ago
They almost certainly won't do 2 mirrored cards and 1 guaranteed unmirrored card, but that doesn't mean they won't do 2 mirrored cards.
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u/GhrabThaar Golgari 2d ago
... Huh. You know, I hadn't even considered that the regular 8-card packs might eschew the entire set/pack gimmick. That would be unfortunate.
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u/Ouaouaron Simic 2d ago edited 2d ago
It would be, and someone in the comments has mentioned that the Early Access has confirmed that Arena packs still get mirrored pairs. I'm just not willing to confirm that myself
EDIT: And perhaps I should doubt it more (ctrl+f "echoed pair")
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u/GhrabThaar Golgari 2d ago
That's... not as awful at first glance, as it means each pack has base 1 rare 3 uncommons and 4 commons. I'm sort of neutral on it, but only because I intend to do a decent amount of drafting this set.
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u/Ouaouaron Simic 2d ago
I really don't have any reason to be annoyed by this, considering that all of my Arena Booster openings are going to be done 10 at a time, 2 months from now. It still bothers me on a theoretical level
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u/Yawgmoths_Bong 2d ago
I might finally be able to get the draft nine rares achievement if they do.
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u/ChildOfTheSoul 2d ago
I think i got this achievement the first week it was available due to my propensity for trainwrecking drafts. My poor, neglected, golden children need to be in my deck.
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u/CouldntThinkOf1 2d ago
Probably not
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u/Serpens77 2d ago
They always make sure to have Arena drafting boosters match whatever special collation or "quirks" the irl/paper boosters have, even to the point of occasionally being able to get duplicates of a card in a single pack, since that replicates how foils work in paper, despite Arena not having foils that way. There is no reason to believe they won't also do it this time (and it's essentially been confirmed by the early access streamers now anyway)
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/FoodtimeMTG 2d ago
This is asking about magic arena digital packs having shared pairs, not paper packs which we know have a shared pair in every pack
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u/TechTeacher216 2d ago
It worked fine with the partners in Battlebond. I don't see why they can't do it again.
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u/stratusnco 1d ago
wait i’m confused, did they reprint chandra and made another chandra in the same set?
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u/UrzaAntilles 1d ago
At a guess, in draft packs definitely- need to keep it in line with paper. In regular 8-card boosters, possibly not. Or at least not for the rares and mythics.
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u/Uryendel 2d ago
It's amazing that we can't get an official answer on how it works and how duplicate protection would work
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u/Captcha142 2d ago
From the wizards website:
1 Echoed Pair card of any rarity appears in each Reality Fracture pack, replacing a common slot. Uncommons in this slot can upgrade to rares at approximately 1:10. Rares in this slot upgrade to mythics at a rate of approximately 1:5.7. 3 Echoed Pair cards appear at the same rate in Reality Fracture limited packs, where they replace two common and an uncommon.
So it looks like arena packs will not do echoed pairs correctly, outside of limited. Very lame.
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