Shards of Alara Collation

Shards of Alara is a large set with 101 commons, 60 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares, and four variations of each standard basic land. This is the first set of this size and the first set to have mythic rares. Foil cards are included in booster packs with advertised odds of 1 : 56 cards. The set was printed in English in the USA. The existence of Belgian Shards of Alara is unknown.

Shards of Alara was sold in 15 card booster packs (which contain an additional ad card). Booster boxes have 36 packs.

US Pack Anatomy

The US printing uses sequential collation with C1/C2 common collation.

Packs are back-facing and have 10 commons followed by 3 uncommons, a rare, a basic land, and an ad card. If there is a foil card, it will appear after the ad card, displacing a common.

10 Commons	3 Uncommons	1 Rare	1 Ad Card	1 Land
9 Commons	3 Uncommons	1 Rare	1 Ad Card	1 Land	1 Foil

Packs are evenly split between C1 commons and C2 commons. C1 packs have 3 A cards, 1-2 B, and 5-6 C. C2 packs have 3-4 A cards, 2-4 B, and 2-5 C.

A	A	A	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2

When a foil appears in a pack, it will displace a common card. Uncommon foils displace A commons. Rare foils displace C1 commons. Common foils can't be fully understood as displacing a common from a particular run. The majority of common foils appear in C2 packs. In 3 A C2 packs, the number of B cards is reduced to 2 cards, or if the pack would have had only two B cards to begin with, it will have one B card. In 4 A packs, the number of B cards is reduced to 1 card. In C1 packs, a common foil will simply displace a B card (which can result in a pack with no B card).

Uncommons are printed on one sheet with each card appearing twice (and one filler). This is divided into a 66-card A run (with 33 distinct cards) and a 54-card B run (with 27 distinct cards). Packs can have either 2 A cards followed by 1 B card, or 1 A card followed by 2 B cards. Since the runs are unbalanced, 2 A cards happens 13/20 of the time.

Rares are printed on one sheet with each rare card appearing twice and each mythic rare card appearing once. This is divided into a 66-card A run (with 33 distinct rares) and a 55-card B run (with 20 distinct rares and all 15 mythics).

Tournament packs have 3 rares, 9 uncommons, 32 commons, and 30 basic lands in addition to a rules insert, plus a foil. (According the rare rate, there should be packs with two foils, but I haven't observed any.) Observed packs are back-facing with commons, uncommons, and rares followed by basic lands and finally the foil. The rules insert is between the rares and the basic lands. Packs have both an inner and outer seal.

32 Commons

9 Uncommons

3 Rares

Rules Insert

30 Lands

1 Foil

Tournament packs have commons from all four runs in order of A, C1, B, C2. Observed packs have 19 cards from A and C1 and 13 cards from B and C2. (This over-represents the second sheet, so it's possible there are other kinds of packs to balance things out.) From these, observed packs have 10-11 A with 8-9 C1 and 7 B with 6 C2 (which probably is also an incomplete description). Observed packs have 4-5 A uncommons followed by 4-5 B uncommons. The rares will be 0-2 B rares followed by 1-3 A rares. The basic lands are split into two 15 card runs.

Common Runs

The A common run consists of 33 different cards each appearing twice. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B common run consists of 22 different cards each appearing three times. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The C1 common run consists of 27 different cards each appearing twice plus Relic of Progenitus, the short-printed common. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The C2 common run consists of 18 different cards each appearing three times plus Relic of Progenitus, the short-printed common. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Uncommon Runs

The A uncommon run consists of 33 different cards each appearing twice. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B uncommon run also consists of 27 different cards each appearing twice. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Rare Runs[1]

The A rare run consists of 33 rares each appearing twice. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B rare run consists of 20 rares each appearing twice and 15 mythic rares. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Foil Common Sheet

There is a picture of the foil common sheet available. [2] Each common card and each basic land variation appears once.

Foil Uncommon Sheet

There is a picture of the foil uncommon sheet available. [3] Each uncommon card appears twice. The extra copy of Savage Lands is presumed to be a filler.

Foil Rare Sheet

There is a picture of the foil rare sheet available. [4] Each rare card appears twice, and each mythic rare card appears once.

[1] The rare runs for US Shards of Alara were published by Ross Edwards in The Card Wizard's Black Book: Second Edition. (I don't have enough independent data to reconstruct these runs.)

[2] The foil common sheet is featured in this video from Tolarian Community College.

[3] A picture of the foil uncommon sheet is available from this eBay listing. (The sheet is probably German, but it matches the limited data I have.)

[4] A picture of the foil rare sheet was posted in the Uncut Sheet facebook group by Yoann Sevaux. (The sheet is French, but it matches the very limited data I have.)

A	A	A	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2

A	A	A	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2

A	A	A	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C1	C1	C1	C1	C1
A	A	A	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	C2	C2	C2
A	A	A	A	B	B	B	B	C2	C2