This repository contains machine readable Sealed data generated from:
Cards are identified by set code, card number, and foil status.
For overwmelming majority of cards, mtg.wtf, Gatherer, mtgjson, and scryfall have identical set codes and card numbers.
In case of disagreements, sets codes and card numbers follow mtg.wtf system, but such disagreements are very rare.
Set codes are all lowercase.
Numbers as printed on the physical card are sometimes not unique (like Unstable variants), and tend to get appropriate suffix to ensure their uniqueness.
For cards with multiple parts (split, DFCs etc.) whichever one is designated as "primary" is used to represent the whole card.
There are two files, sealed_basic_data.json and sealed_extended_data.json.
Each file contains list of all known boosters.
Every element of that list represents one booster pack you can get - and has some metadata field, boosters field explaining all combinations of how many cards from each sheet you can get, and sheets field explaining contents of each possible sheet.
There are following metadata fields:
name- name of the boostercode- code of the boosterset_code- set code of set booster is forset_name- set name of set booster is for
For regular boosters, name and set_name are the same; and so are code and set_code.
The format supports booster variants, where there were multiple booster types for same set. For example for Alara Premium Foil Booster metadata looks like this:
"name": "Alara Premium Foil Booster""code": "ala-premium""set_code": "ala""set_name": "Shards of Alara"
boosters is an unordered list of possible booster contents.
Each possibility has a weight, and a map of how many cards from each sheet should be taken.
For example for M10, there are two possibilities:
"boosters": [
{
"sheets": {
"m10_basic": 1,
"m10_common": 10,
"m10_uncommon": 3,
"m10_rare_mythic": 1
},
"weight": 3
},
{
"sheets": {
"m10_basic": 1,
"m10_common": 9,
"m10_uncommon": 3,
"m10_rare_mythic": 1,
"m10_foil": 1
},
"weight": 1
}
]
- 3/4 of boosters are 1 basic, 10 commons, 3 uncommons, and 1 rare/mythic
- 1/4 of boosters are 1 basic, 9 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare/mythic, and 1 foil
It is implied that if multiple cards from same sheet are requested, the algorithm will never pick the same card multiple times, regardless of their relative weights.
sheets field is unordered list of sheets from which cards are taken. Roughly one per rarity.
A sheet has code as key (as referenced by boosters field), cards field listing every possible card that could go into it with their relative probabilities, and total_weight adding those weights up for easier processing.
For a very simple sheet like Unhinged basics it looks like this:
"unh_basic": {
"total_weight": 5,
"cards": {
"unh:136": 1,
"unh:137": 1,
"unh:138": 1,
"unh:139": 1,
"unh:140": 1
}
}
It means, when a booster is specified to take a card from unh_basic sheet, any of unh:136, unh:137, unh:138, unh:139, or unh:140 are equally possible.
Order of cards on this list doesn't matter.
Every card is indicated by <set_code>:<card_number> (like thb:100) or <set_code>:<card_number>:foil (like thb:100:foil).
Weights are typically very low, but for some sheets they can be very high. This is especially true for foil sheets (which aren't reals physical sheets, just our estimated ratios of different kinds of foil cards) and software should be able to handle total_weight in millions.
Sheet can also have optional "balance_colors": true, which recommends using color-balancing algorithm to pick cards.
I intend to phase out balance_colors and replace it with some extra sheets that end up having same overall effect.
The information is the same, but format indicating each card is extended to include mtgjson uuid.
For a simple sheet like Unhinged basics again:
"unh_basic": {
"total_weight": 5,
"cards": [
{
"set": "unh",
"number": "136",
"weight": 1,
"foil": false,
"uuid": "63171a1b-4dfa-50ec-847b-aa5f664deadc"
},
{
"set": "unh",
"number": "137",
"weight": 1,
"foil": false,
"uuid": "d09f95e6-9de6-53be-83e9-6465173f244e"
},
{
"set": "unh",
"number": "138",
"weight": 1,
"foil": false,
"uuid": "d260e03d-b5a3-5439-a005-bbaf2bab3e69"
},
{
"set": "unh",
"number": "139",
"weight": 1,
"foil": false,
"uuid": "98bbffb8-73d5-5234-8c3e-43cca73f2b64"
},
{
"set": "unh",
"number": "140",
"weight": 1,
"foil": false,
"uuid": "1ffcb8fa-afc7-599f-b5aa-c4c92d032bf0"
}
]
}
cards instead of being a map from specially formatted card identifier to weight, is not an unordered list of cards, each with set, number, weight, foil, and uuid fields.
If you use mtgjson, matching by uuid and by set/number should match the same card, but uuid is likely to cause fewer surprises.
For picking booster version, just pick proportional to its weight.
For picking a single card from a sheet, just pick proportional to its weight.
For picking multiple cards from a sheet, you can just pick one at a time, but there's an extra step. If you already have a card with the same name from this sheet, reroll it. This includes identical card printings, and different card printings with same name (like showcase and non-showcase). Print sheets are intentionally arranged so that multiple copies of the same cards shouldn't appear in the same booster, so it should be simulated.
This deduplication should only be done per-sheet, not per-booster. It's possible to open multiple copies of the same card if they come from different sheets. This most frequently happens with foil and nonfoil of the same card, but for some older sets the same card was sometimes on multiple sheets - for example Alpha had Island on common, uncommon, and rare sheets, so you could open 3 Islands in one booster.
If the sheet specifies color balancing, it is recommended to pick one card of each color, and then pick the rest at random, again rerolling card in case of a duplicate.
However, for this to work, weight of cards need to be significantly adjusted so expected values match. If you do it naively, colorless cards will be picked at much lower.
This adjustment is currently outside scope of this project, but at some point it might get incorporated.
Actual boosters don't use fully random process, and instead use carefully created manual collation for improved draft balance. As details are generally unknown (except to extent they are reverse engineered), this isn't simulated.
Many ratios such as foil rarities are only approximately known.
Non-playable cards like tokens, ad cards, and checklist cards are not included.
The data is in many case close approximation, and currently ignores issues like 101th common.
Report any bugs or suggestions as github issues.
For most extensive reference, check The Collation Project.