MTG Arena Star Trek Bundles: Pack, Pass or Play?

Three bundles, one price, and almost no overlap in what they hold. Wizards' MTG Arena Announcements post of November 2 lists a Pack Bundle, a Pass Bundle and a Play Bundle for Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek, each at $49.99 USD. The set reaches Arena on Tuesday, November 10, so this is the weekend to decide.

This is the buying-decision companion to our Star Trek set guide, which covers the mechanics, tabletop products and dates but not the Arena bundles. For how packs turn into wildcards, see the Arena wildcards guide.

Sources: the Arena announcement above and Wizards' Star Trek Arena event schedule. Card text comes from Scryfall.

What is in each bundle

Everything in the "at release" rows arrives on November 10. The sleeves and the companion are available at purchase. The announcement does not give a date when the bundles stop being sold, and it does not define "mythic pack," so treat that line as the one unknown in the Pack Bundle.

All three headline cards are mythic rares in the main set. Captain James T. Kirk is a {2}{R} 2/2 that, on entering or attacking, discards-and-draws, makes a 1/1 Officer, or pumps your team, and picks several modes if your hand is empty. Captain Jean-Luc Picard is a {2}{W} anthem that makes Officers when you cast creatures or Spacecraft. Captain Kathryn Janeway is a {3}{G} 2/3 that grants an extra land drop and explores your creatures as they enter. You get one copy of one of them with each bundle, so the card is a small part of the value rather than the reason to buy.

Pack Bundle: the per-pack arithmetic

Fifty packs (45 Star Trek plus 5 mythic) for $49.99 is about a dollar a pack, before the 5 Golden packs and the Kirk card. For scale, Wizards' Alchemy page lists boosters at 1,000 gold each or fifteen for 3,000 gems (200 gems a pack) and says those prices match Standard set boosters. Fifty packs at gold prices is 50,000 gold. The 750-gold daily win cap in our wildcards guide means a free player would take over two months of capped daily wins to earn that much gold.

The announcement does not say what a Golden pack contains, so we have not valued the 5 Golden packs here.

Pass Bundle: the pass itself is mostly other sets

The bundle holds 20 Star Trek packs, 2 Golden packs, the Pass, 10 bonus levels and a Sealed token. Do not confuse those 20 with the pass's own rewards. The detail that changes the maths is on the event schedule page: the premium track pays another 20 packs over time, and they are 4 each from Star Trek, Reality Fracture, Secrets of Strixhaven, Lorwyn Eclipsed and Edge of Eternities. The pass also gives 10 mythic rare Star Trek individual cards, 4,000 gold, 1,200 gems, a Player Draft token, 31 Mastery Orbs, three Tribble companions and two sleeves. At the 200 gems (or 1,000 gold) per pack rate, the gold and gems alone work out to roughly ten packs of purchasing power (4,000 gold is four packs, 1,200 gems is six).

The pass price is not stated in either Wizards page, so we cannot tell you what the bundle saves over buying the pass alone. Check the in-game store before deciding. If you were already going to buy the pass, the bundle adds 20 packs, 2 Golden packs, the Sealed token and a card on top; if you were not, you are paying for the pass track as much as the packs.

Play Bundle: tokens with no packs

The Play Bundle lists 4 Draft tokens, 2 Sealed tokens and 20 Play-In Points, plus the Janeway card, and no packs. It is worth considering only if you intend to run events. The November Arena Championship Qualifier format is Star Trek Sealed, with a Best-of-One Play-In on November 14, a Best-of-Three Play-In on November 20 and the Qualifier Weekend on November 21 and 22. Star Trek Premier, Pick-Two and Traditional Draft all run from November 10 to February 2, Star Trek Sealed to December 8 and Traditional Sealed to November 24. The announcement does not say what the Play-In Points are used for or how many you need, so read the qualifier rules before counting on them.

The free track is the baseline

Any bundle should be judged against what Set Mastery gives for nothing. The free track runs to Level 72 and pays 36 Star Trek packs and 5 Mastery Orbs, and the schedule also lists achievements that pay packs, such as Starfleet Academy at Levels 1 and 5 and the Conqueror Challenges at Levels 1, 3 and 5. A player who is not spending money starts with those 36 packs, and the Pack Bundle adds 50 on top.

Which one fits which player

• You want the biggest collection for $49.99: the Pack Bundle has the most packs by a wide margin, at 50 against the Pass Bundle's 20.
• You play daily and were already going to buy the pass: the Pass Bundle, if the pass price is lower than $49.99 minus what you value the packs at. Check that number first.
• You plan to enter the November Sealed qualifier or fire many drafts: the Play Bundle, and only that.
• You play a few games a week: consider none. The free track gives 36 packs without spending anything, and the draft queues run until February 2, so there is no deadline on the events.

Quick Action Checklist

• Decide before November 10. That is when the packs, tokens and pass arrive. Wizards does not give an end date for the sale.
• Look up the pass price in the in-game store before you pick the Pass Bundle.
• Check the qualifier rules before buying the Play Bundle for the Play-In Points.
• Remember that tabletop is later. Star Trek releases on paper November 13. See the commander picks if you are buying a precon too.