(Oracle of the Alpha | Art by Nino Vecia)

Surprise Sequel

Friendly greetings and welcome! The Cardsphere team is pleased to announce Mystery Booster 2 (MB2) cards are available to trade*. This set made a surprise debut at GenCon before becoming available through MagicCon and Festival in a Box. According to Wizards of the Coast, the set includes 1800 cards, mostly regular reprints marked with a Planeswalker symbol in the bottom left corner. Featuring the MB2 set symbol and collector numbers, 385 cards received special treatments, some of them in paper for the first time. Let's take a look at what's new before we start trading.

White-Bordered Reprints

Starting off the set with collector numbers 001 through 121, MB2 presents cards in a modern frame with a white border. Although the community (predictably) gave the design choice mixed reviews, plenty of fans are lining up to buy these singles. The very first card in the new white-border lineup is is Mardu Outrider, originally of the Arena Beginner Set. While MB2 features several digital-to-paper cards, Mardu Outrider is one of three that are legal in eternal formats. The rest of the white border cards are a mixed bag of fan favorites and draft support.

Future Sight Frame

Ever a fan favorite, Magic's Future Sight frame makes a grand return. Personally, I love the left-edge arrangement of mana costs, perfectly displaying mana symbols in a fanned hand of cards. Collector numbers for these cards run from 122 through 257. Rather than diamonds in the rough, good luck finding any rough among these gems. The Future Sight frame cards include exclusive foils, special art, and two more digital-to-paper cards: Goblin Gang Leader and Velukan Dragon.

Alchemy Acorn Cards

Bringing the count of digital-to-paper cards to ten, collector numbers 258 through 264 grant many players' wishes to enjoy the conjure mechanic in cardboard. These seven cards are not legal in eternal formats, as indicated by the acorn symbol centered on the bottom edge. Format legality aside, these cards are destined for Cubes, kitchen table, and Rule Zero decks.

Playtest Cards

Like a stand-up comic's closer, Mystery Booster 2 drops the mic with 121 new playtest cards. These are truly just for fun, and I am here for it. Somehow I need to muster the willpower to leave these out of my Wants until I finish the other projects I'm currently brewing.

Nothing Mysterious Here

Without doubt, the worst aspect of Mystery Booster 2 is product availability; I wish this was available at my local game store. But fortunately for all of us, we have Cardsphere. I look forward to (eventually) partaking in this set, so here's a pre-emptive shoutout to the Cardsphere users who will make these cards more accessible: you rock! Whether you're here for the borders, the frames, or the comic relief, tell us your favorite picks from MB2 in the comments below. Until next time, happy trading!

Mystery Booster 2

*This set is massive and the initial release wave is small, so pricing data has been slow and sparse. We've added everything that we have available to us at this time but the rest should be trickling in over the next several weeks. We'll do our best to add it as soon as we can! Additionally, the image quality for most of the cards in the set is less than ideal. We'll be working to improve this in the coming weeks as well. Here's the list of what we know is currently missing:

• ~104 planeswalker symbol stamped reprints
• ~10 future sight frame foils
• 121 playtest cards
• 1 acorn-stamped card (Sigardian Evangel)