Statistics on a booster pack (to make my own re-packs)

Question

I have a lot of magic cards. For constructed play they are mostly worthless. I would like to pack these up into re-packs that are like booster packs.

But I am not sure what cards go into a booster pack.

NOTE: I am not asking about Rareity distribution. I know that each pack has:

• Token/Advertisement
• Foil/Land
• Rare/Mythic
• 3 (ish) Uncommons
• Rest are Commons

I am asking how random the other types on the cards are. Meaning is it possible to open a booster that is all Red? or all Creatures? Or all Sorcery?

Or is there a guarantee that there will be a certain number of each color, creatures, instants, sorceries, etc.?

Answer 1

There is no hard guarantee that a booster will contain X creatures, or X sorceries, or X red cards.

However, the contents of a booster aren't completely random either. Instead, the commons in a booster are heavily influenced by the set's common print runs.

Print runs are easiest to explain by example, so let's look at the print runs for Born of the Gods, a small set. The commons in the set are divided into two lists, with each common showing up in only one list (but appearing twice in that list).

A normal Born of the Gods booster contains 10 commons, made up of 4–6 commons from list A and 4–6 commons from list B. This means that certain combinations of commons are likely to occur together, and other combinations of commons can never occur together.

Now, all of this is probably too much of a hassle to be worth simulating when building your own repacks. I would probably just add 10 random commons from your pool. But print runs are the basis of how real boosters work, both in paper and online.

Answer 2

Generally it seems as though exact statistics are unavailable, though there are lots of booster/draft simulators available online to help you get a feel for distribution.

The best resource I found for booster pack setup has been over at MTG salvation and via Wizard's own Booster Draft Simulator.

In general, from playing around with it, it seems as though there will always be at least 2 of each color and half creatures, half other spells.

Unless there is a resource I missed, more details statistics would have to be gathered using some booster simulating system, to which I wish you good luck.