Until the release of Wilds of Eldraine, Standard and Alchemy rotations occurred each September. (Standard "rotation" is when a new set is released for the Standard format at the same time as sets that were released more than one year prior leave—or rotate out of—the Standard format.) Thus far, focusing rewards on Standard (except for with The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™) worked to achieve the goals of both formats. As Standard is not rotating alongside Alchemy with this release, the formats going forward will now be more different from one another.

We want Golden Packs, as well as individual card rewards (ICRs), for Daily Wins and Midweek Magic to appeal to players focused on each format and to balance their interests. So, these ICRs will include only cards legal in both Standard and Alchemy. They won't include cards from Alchemy releases for each set, and they won't include cards from the oldest Magic year of Standard that is no longer legal in Alchemy.

The one exception to this is that Golden Packs will still contain standalone Alchemy sets (such as The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth), though to a lesser degree when they are not the most recent set.

Golden Pack

This means that with the Wilds of Eldraine release, Golden Packs will contain:

  • 2 Rares and/or mythic rares from Wilds of Eldraine
  • 1 Mythic rare from Dominaria United, The Brothers' War, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, March of the Machine, March of the Machine: The Aftermath, or Wilds of Eldraine
  • 1 Rare or mythic rare from Dominaria United, The Brothers' War, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, March of the Machine, March of the Machine: The Aftermath, or Wilds of Eldraine
  • 2 Rares and/or mythic rares from Dominaria United, The Brothers' War, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, March of the Machine, March of the Machine: The Aftermath, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, or Wilds of Eldraine

Duplicate Protection

If you open a card in a Golden Pack that you already have four copies of in your collection, duplicate protection will be handled as follows, in order:

  • It will be replaced with a card from the same set of same rarity that you don't have four copies of in your collection.
  • If there are no such cards, then it will be replaced with another card of the same rarity that you don't have four copies of in your collection from a Standard-legal set in Golden Packs.
  • If there are no such cards, then it will be replaced with another card of the same rarity that you don't have four copies of in your collection from an Alchemy standalone set in Golden Packs.
  • If there are no such cards, then it will be replaced with 20 gems if the card is rare or 40 gems if the card is mythic rare.