I've taken it upon myself to map out booster boxes from the Rise of the Eldrazi expansion.  This has been done in the past, but has not yet been done for ROE.  The purpose is simple.  I want to keep the MTG community educated as best as I can.  I have no idea how many other people do this, but since it seems like an interesting and slightly "gray" way to make money, I feel the need to share.

I should make this disclaimer; I don't condone "cherry-picking" packs as a store owner/dealer.  I will always shuffle my packs before I give them out for a draft or sealed deck tournament and I'll work from sealed boxes.  I want to be sure no one gets the idea that I plan to do this as more than a cheap parlor trick.  That being said, it will be good to know if your local dealer does this, and hopefully you can take steps to avoid being burnt.

Box mapping is, at its simplest form, writing down the contents and position of a booster box's rare distribution and attempting to derive a pattern.  These patterns come from the fact that the printing of these sets is not entirely random, and with sufficient data, rules can be devised.  It is not known whether or not ROE is mappable entirely, but I have found significant patterns.

I've even successfully, and with witnesses, predicted cards.  Yesterday, I correctly called a Sarkhan the Mad and made a 50/50 guess between two rares.  The odds of those being right on coincidence are sufficiently low, so I believe I am making some real headway.  But I need your help!  And I need your data!

Here's how you can contribute:  Open a sealed box of ROE (shrink wrap still on).  Remove the three stacks of packs and open each pack in order, preserving the order of the rares.  If you're looking at a box of Rise, pack 1 is on your left, on top of the stack.  Pack 12 is on the bottom.  Pack 13 is the top pack of the middle column and pack 36 is the bottom pack on the right.  Open your packs, write down the rares (foil ones too, just indicate which pack they were in), and email them to me.  My contact info is in the Contact tab above.  I currently have almost 2 cases recorded, and have already found massive correlations.  Your data will help me further refine my rules.

I have no guarantees that I will fully map this set, nor do I plan to do anything with the data other than impress my customers by putting on a little show with a sealed box.  If I do manage to derive the map, I'll give it away for free with no warranties expressed or implied.  If you want access to my recordings to help search for patterns, just ask.

Again, I want to stress that this project is for educational purposes and for a good show, not as a way to cheat people out of good Mythics.  Always insist upon a freshly opened box if you want to be sure the wool isn't being pulled over your eyes.

Just as a teaser, here is the center column from two different boxes I've recorded.  Coincidence?  I'd be hard-pressed to believe so.  Oh, and just as a point of interest?  You know what was directly to the right of Baneful Omen in both boxes?  A little something I like to call "Vengevine"...


Box A
baneful omen
consuming vapors
training grounds
surrakar spellblade
sphinx-bone wand
spawnsire of ulamog
lord of shatterskull pass
lighthouse chronologist
gelatinous genesis
magmaw
kor spiritdancer
deathless angel
hedron field purists


Box B
baneful omen
consuming vapors
training grounds
surrakar spellblade
sphinx-bone wand
spawnsire of ulamog
lord of shatterskull pass
lighthouse chronologist
gelatinous genesis
magmaw
kor spiritdancer
deathless angel