This morning, Wizards of the Coast announced Ultimate Masters, “the last Masters set…for a while,” which will release on December 7, 2018.
Ultimate Master Details
Sealed boxes of Ultimate Masters will cost $335.76 for 24 packs per box, including an Ultimate Box Topper. (See below.) Boxes of Ultimate Masters will only be available through local games stores, while larger box stores like Walmart and Target will have three-pack blisterpacks for $34.99.
Ultimate Masters will be released on December 7, 2018, both in stores and on Magic Online. As for MTGO, packs of Ultimate Masters will cost $6.99, the set won’t be redeemable, and all of the Ultimate Box Topper promos will be available through Treasure Chests.
Ultimate Masters will contain 254 cards and will be available in both English and Japanese. Wizards says that “supplies will be limited,” implying that the print run for Ultimate Masters will likely be small.
Ultimate Box Topper Promos
The Ultimate Box Toppers are premium, extended-art promos of 38 rare and mythic cards, plus two uncommons, that have normal versions in the set. These promos will include cards like Tarmogoyf and Liliana of the Veil. (You can find the full list of Ultimate Box Topper promos here.)
The fact that the Ultimate Box Toppers will only be available in sealed booster boxes that are, in turn, only available at local game stores seems like a decision made to make up for the PR nightmare that was Guilds of Ravnica Mythic Edition. Mythic Edition, the last product to contain extended-art promos, was only sold on the Hasbro Toy Shop for $250, skipping LGSes entirely. At least by giving LGSes exclusivity over Ultimate Masters boxes we can all avoid the total disaster that was trying to buy Mythic Edition from the Hasbro Toy Shop.
An Ultimate Masters Prerelease (of Sorts) and Two Grand Prix (Vancouver and Prague)
Your first chance to play with Ultimate Masters will be at PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia from November 30 through December 2. Pastimes will be hosting $40 drafts, $80 sealed tournaments, and $120 Two-Headed Giant events.
For those of you not in the northeast, ChannelFireball has confirmed that two upcoming GPs will feature Ultimate Masters limited. GP Vancouver (December 28-30, 2018) and GP Prague (January 11-13, 2019) with both be Ultimate Masters GPs and will cost $115 to enter.
The Last Masters Set “For a While”
When neither a Masters set nor a different special release materialized for the second half of 2018, people speculated that Guilds of Ravnica Mythic Edition was intended to fill that role. Well, it turns out that that wasn’t the case and that Wizards had just done a really good job on keeping Ultimate Masters under wraps.
Wizards is pulling out all of the stops for Ultimate Masters by including tons of the chase rares as well as promo Box Toppers. The set promises to be the most powerful (and expensive) Masters set ever, which is fitting seeing as Wizards says that this will be the last Masters set “for a while.” On the reveal stream this morning, Steve Sunu said that they were putting Masters sets “back on the shelf” for now and will be shifting toward other special products for the foreseeable future.
Update: Added confirmation of GPs Vancouver and Prague being Ultimate Masters limited.