Big changes are coming to booster packs, starting with Breakers of Shadow in January 2016.

We’ve made adjustments to boosters every few years. The last change was in 2010 when we increased your odds of getting a Secret Rare from a pack. But the changes coming next year are bigger than all the other changes we’ve ever made, put together!

Starting with Breakers of Shadow, we are upping the amount of foils you’ll get in our standard, 9-card booster packs:

1. There will be a foil card in every pack (either a Super, Ultra, or Secret Rare).

2. We’re DOUBLING the insert rate of Ultra Rares. Instead of 1-in-12 packs, Ultra Rares will now come in roughly 1-in-6 packs.

3. We’re (almost) DOUBLING the insert rate of Secret Rares. Instead of 1-in-23 packs, Secret Rares will now come in roughly 1-in-12 packs.

(Keep in mind that the 1-in-6 and 1-in-12 ratios are over the average print run of millions of packs. The small selection of packs you see at the store will now be twice as likely to have Ultras & Secrets in them, but no one specific pack is guaranteed. The more packs you open, the more the odds will even out and work in your favor.)

Each pack will also contain a normal Rare. So every 9-card booster will have 1 foil card, 1 Rare card, and 7 Common cards.

That’s a lot of extra foil we’ll be manufacturing, so something’s gotta give to make room (otherwise we’d have to raise the price of packs). But we figured that we can increase the foil rates, while keeping booster prices steady, by removing some of the hard-to-get foil variants from regular boosters. Ultimate Rares will now come exclusively from the Astral Packs you can get from Official Tournament Store events. (And yes, Astral Packs will give way to a new kind of tournament pack now that Zexal is winding down, but the pack configuration will stay the same.) We’re also removing Ghost Rares from the regular booster sets. We’re not sure if we’ll include Ghost Rares in other products in the future; it’s possible. (Ghost Rares are really expensive to make, and we think everyone will be happier with getting a foil card in every pack, rather than a 1-in-288 chance at a Ghost Rare.)

You can get a preview of the new booster configuration with High-Speed Riders, a 60-card mini-set coming out October 2. It will use the upcoming formula, so every 9-card High-Speed Riders pack will have 1 foil card, 1 Rare card, and 7 Commons. And the Ultra/Secret insert ratios for High-Speed Riders will use the upcoming, increased levels.

Here’s how the timeline will work on boosters:

October 2, 2015: High-Speed Riders blazes in from the future, with the upcoming foil-in-every-pack system. A preview of what’s to come!

November 6, 2015: Dimension of Chaos releases. This will be the last of the old-school sets, and your last chance to get Ultimate Rares & Ghost Rares from regular booster packs.

January 15, 2016: Breakers of Shadow releases, switching our booster packs fully to the new system.

To summarize the new system:

*9 cards per pack: 1 foil + 1 Rare + 7 Commons

*Foil in every pack – either Super, Ultra, or Secret Rare

*If you get an Ultra or Secret Rare, it will replace the Super Rare

*Each 24-pack box will have, on average, 2 Secret Rares, 4 Ultra Rares, and 18 Super Rares

*Ultra & Secret Rare ratios doubled to 1-in-6 and 1-in-12 packs, respectively

*Ultimate Rares are moving exclusively to tournament packs

*Ghost Rares are being removed… for now

*Each set will still have 8 Secret Rares, 10 Ultra Rares, 14 Super Rares, 20 Rares

*MSRP is unchanged