Theros Beyond Death Collation

Theros Beyond Death is a large set with 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares, and one 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 : 45 cards. The set was printed in English in the USA, Belgium, and Japan.

Theros Beyond Death 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 have back-facing cards with common-uncommon-rare ordering followed by a basic land and ad card. If there is a foil, it will displace a common and appear after the rare.

Packs are evenly split between C1 commons and C2 commons. C1 packs will contain 2×A + 2×B + 6×C or 3×A + 2×B + 5×C. C2 packs will contains 4×A + 2×B + 4×C or 4×A + 3×B + 3×C or 4×A + 4×B + 2×C.

When a foil appears in a pack, it will displace a common card. Common foils (including basic lands) displace A commons. Uncommon foils can appear in both C1 and C2 packs (probably at equal rates) and displace B commons. Rare foils displace C2 commons. Foil showcase cards displace C1 commons. (This is at least true for uncommon foil showcase cards. I don't have data for other rarities yet.)

The data is consistent with a common foil rate of 1/6 and an uncommon foil rate of 1/12.

There are two uncommon runs, A and B, each with 40 different cards appearing three times each. Half of packs have two A cards followed by a B, and half have one A card followed by two B cards. For cards that have showcase variants, one of the copies on the sheet is the showcase variant.

Common Runs

The A common run consists of 33 different cards each appearing twice. These cards are white, blue, and red (appearing in that order). The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

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

The C1 common run consists of 27 different cards each appearing twice plus Bronze Sword, the short-printed common. It includes cards of all colors and colorless cards. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The C2 common run consists of 18 different cards each appearing three times plus Bronze Sword, the short-printed common. It includes cards of all colors and colorless cards. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Uncommon Runs

The A uncommon run consists of 40 different cards each appearing three times. For cards that have showcase variants, one of the copies on the sheet is the showcase variant. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B uncommon run also consists of 40 different cards each appearing three times. For cards that have showcase variants, one of the copies on the sheet is the showcase variant. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Token Run

Most of the marketing cards in Theros Beyond Death have a token on the front face. In addition, there is a card that has an advertisement for MTG Arena on the front face. (The front has an ESRB rating and the back has PEGI, so I'm not aware of any region differences.) They are printed on an 11 × 11 sheet with different items appearing different numbers of times.

Token Rarity
Elemental × 2	Kraken × 2	Nightmare × 2
Gold × 3	Pegasus × 3	Spider × 3
Tentacle × 3	Zombie × 3	Reflection × 5
Wall × 5	Wolf × 6	Goat × 10
Satyr × 19	Arena Ad Card × 20	Human Soldier × 35

Belgian Pack Anatomy

The Belgian printing uses sequential collation with simple two-run 101 common collation.

Packs are front-facing and have common-uncommon-rare ordering followed by a basic land and an ad card. There are 10 commons, 3 uncommons, and 1 rare. If there is a foil card, it will appear after the land, displacing a common.

Each pack contains four cards from the A common run followed by six cards from the B run. Foils can displace a card from either run.

Common Runs

The A common run consists of 40 different cards each appearing three times plus Bronze Sword, the short-printed common. It includes cards of all colors and colorless cards. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B common run consists of 60 different cards each appearing twice plus Bronze Sword, the short-printed common. Other than Bronze Sword, the cards appear in a repeating pattern of blue, red, green, white, black. I've chosen to put Bronze Sword at the end to emphasize the pattern.

Japanese Pack Anatomy

The Japanese printing uses sequential collation with (probably) 112 card sheets (which seems to be the usual for Japan). The dimensions of the sheets are not known.

Packs are front-facing starting with the ad card and a basic land, then the rare, 3 uncommons, and 10 commons. If there is a foil, it will appear between the land and the rare, displacing a common.

There are 3 common runs: A, B, and C. A contains 27 distinct cards, and B and C each contain 37 distinct cards. Each pack gets 2 to 3 cards from A followed by 3 to 4 cards from B and 3 to 4 cards from C. This means packs are either 2-4-4, 3-3-4, or 3-4-3. The exact ratios may depend on the way foil collation works.

Foils displace a common. As far as I've seen, there will still be at least 2 A commons, 3 B commons, and 3 C commons, and I have seen all three possibilities for common distribution given a foil.

There are three uncommon runs, A, B, and C. The A run contains 6 distinct cards (probably repeated a large number of times). The B and C run each contain 37 distinct cards each repeated three times. The cards with showcase versions appear only in runs B and C where the showcase version takes up one of the card's three slots in the run. Packs contain either one each of A followed by B followed by C (which should be mathematically appear 9/40 of the time), two B followed by a C, or one B followed by two C.

Common Runs

The A common run consists of 27 different cards each appearing four times (which would leave 4 fillers on a 112 card sheet). The cards are mostly red. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B common run consists of 37 different cards each appearing three times (which would leave 1 filler on a 112 card sheet). The cards are mostly white and blue. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The C common run consists of 37 different cards each appearing three times (which would leave 1 filler on a 112 card sheet). The cards are mostly black and green. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.