Lorwyn Collation

Lorwyn is a large set with 121 commons, 80 uncommons, 80 rares, and four variations of each standard basic land. This is the normal size for a large set of this era. Foil cards are included in booster packs with advertised odds of 1 : 56 cards (or 1 : 51 cards for tournament packs). The set was printed in English in the USA. The existence of Belgian Lorwyn is unknown.

Lorwyn 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 11 × 11 sheets.

Packs are back-facing and have 11 commons followed by 3 uncommons, an ad card, and a rare. If there is a foil card, it will appear after the rare card, displacing a common.

There are four common runs. Two, A and B, have 33 cards (each twice) and two, C and D, have 27 cards (again, each twice) plus one copy each of Shimmering Grotto. Each booster pack contains 6 commons from A or 6 commons from B followed by 5 commons from C or 5 commons from D. All four combination of A and B with C and D are equally likely.

Common and basic land foils (which are printed on separate sheets) can displace either A or B cards; probably common foils only appear in AC or BD packs and basic land foils only appear in AD or BC packs. Uncommon and rare foils can displace either C or D cards; probably these only appear in AD or BC packs.

Uncommons are divided into two runs, A and B each with 40 distinct cards. Probably each has three copies of each card.

Tournament packs have 3 rares, 10 uncommons, 32 commons, and 30 basic lands in addition to a rules insert, and a pro tour player card. Observed packs are back-facing with commons, uncommons, and rares followed by the pro player card and the basic lands. The rules insert is between the rares and the pro player cards. If there is a foil, it will appear the basic lands, displacing a common. (According to the foil rate, some packs should have more than one foil, but I haven't observed any such packs, though I have seen packs with no foils.) Packs have both an inner and outer seal.

Tournament packs have commons from all four runs. I have seen packs in A, B, C, D order and packs in B, A, D, C order. Observed packs with no foil have 18 cards from A and B and 14 from B and C. In packs with foils, the observed split is 17+14. Split among A and B or among C and D is observed to be as even as possible. Observed packs have 5 A uncommons followed by 5 B uncommons. Lands have two sequences of 15.

Note that there is apparent symmetry between A and B commons and between C and D commons, so the labels here are a little bit arbitrary.

Common Runs

The A common run consists of 33 different cards each appearing twice. This is the top half of a sheet that has the C commons on the bottom half. There is a picture of the Italian language version of this sheet. [1]

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

The C common run consists of 27 different cards each appearing twice plus one copy of Shimmering Grotto. This is the bottom half of a sheet that has the A commons on the top half. There is a picture of the Italian language version of this sheet. [1]

The D common run consists of 27 different cards each appearing twice plus one copy of Shimmering Grotto. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Uncommon Lists

I haven't completed the uncommon runs, but I know which cards are in each run.

[1] A picture of the Italian language AC common sheet was available in the collection of Casey Petrillo. (This collection is no longer publicly accessible.)