War of the Spark Collation

War of the Spark is a large set with 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares, and three 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 : 67 cards. The set was printed in English in the USA and Belgium.

War of the Spark 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. Every pack contains exactly one non-foil planeswalker. (An additional foil planeswalker can appear as well.) This complicates uncommon and rare collation somewhat compared to other sets. This works in essentially the same way as Dominaria's legendary creatures.

Packs are back-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 rare, displacing a common. Unlike Dominaria, the special planeswalker collation is mostly invisible to casual observation.

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. The common foil sheet includes the 15 basic land variations (probably) each once in addition to each common. The rares and mythic rares are also printed on the same sheet with each rare appearing twice.

Common foils appear only in C2 packs and displace an A common. Uncommon foils can appear both in C1 and C2 packs (at equal rates) and displace B commons. Rare and mythic rare foils appear only in C2 packs and displace a C2 common. Nothing in War of the Spark displaces C1 commons. Common foils appear 1 in every 8 packs. The uncommon and rare rates are not known exactly.

There are 20 uncommon planeswalkers. The remaining 60 uncommons are divided into a 27 card A run and a 33 card B run. Each of these runs contains each of its cards twice, so they are probably printed on the same sheet with a filler. In 3/4 of packs, there will be an uncommon planeswalker. In this case, there will be an A card followed by a B card followed by the planeswalker, or two B cards followed by the planeswalker. Otherwise, there will be two A followed by one B, or one A followed by two B.

The rare card will be a planeswalker 1/4 of the time (exactly when there is no uncommon planeswalker). This means that rare and mythic rare planeswalkers are slightly more common than other cards of the same rarity. (I don't know the exact sheet arrangement for rares, but presumably the planeswalkers are printed on their own sheet.)

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 Iron Bully, 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 Iron Bully, 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 27 different cards each appearing twice. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

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

Token Run

All of the marketing cards in War of the Spark have a token or emblem on the front face. They are printed on an 11 × 11 sheet with different items appearing different numbers of times.

Token Rarity
Nissa, Who Shakes the World Emblem × 1	Dragon × 2	Voja, Friend to Elves × 2
Zombie Warrior × 2	Angel × 3	Citizen × 3
Zombie × 3	Soldier × 4	Spirit × 4
Goblin × 5	Devil × 6	Wall × 6
Assassin × 7	Wizard × 7	Wolf × 7
Servo × 8	Zombie Army × 17	Zombie Army × 17
Zombie Army × 17

Foil Uncommon Sheet

There is a picture of the foil uncommon sheet available. [1] There is probably a second complementary so that each card appears three times between the two sheets. The sequence is expected to mostly repeat.

Foil Rare Sheet

There is a picture of the foil rare sheet available. [1] Each rare card appears twice, and each mythic rare card appears once.

Belgian Pack Anatomy

The Belgian printing uses sequential collation with simple two-run 101 common collation. As with the US printing, every pack contains exactly one non-foil planeswalker.

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 Demolish, the short-printed common (which is different than the US short print). There are cards of all colors plus colorless cards. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B common run consists of 60 different cards each appearing twice plus Demolish, the short-printed common. The cards are almost all mono-colored following a repeating color pattern. I've placed the irregularity on the sheet boundary.

Japanese Pack Anatomy

This section is based on Japanese language packs. This 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. As with the English printings, every pack contains exactly one non-foil planeswalker. Each planeswalker has two art variations. One is the normal internationally avaiable art, and the other is unique to the Japanese printing.

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 probably three uncommon runs. There is an A run, a B run, and a planeswalker run. Packs contain either an A uncommon or an uncommon planeswalker followed by two B uncommons. The B uncommon run has 53 distinct cards each appearing twice. This means the cards from this run are slightly overrepressented (53 is slightly less than two thirds of 80).

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 white. 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 red and blue, mostly alternating. 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 green and black. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Uncommon Runs

The B uncommon run consists of 53 different cards each appearing twice. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

[1] A picture of the US foil uncommon and rare sheets was posted on Twitter by Victoria Caña.