Dark Ascension
Open one box and you'll get $145.44 of cards, on average. A box costs $251 right now, so that means you're $106.02 short.
Cards inside
$145.44
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$251
TCGplayer market · from $252
Difference
-$106.02
Against you
Packs in the box
36
Each holds one rare or mythic
Box price from TCGplayer, checked September 2, 2026 · Card prices from Scryfall (TCGplayer market data) · last updated August 29, 2026
This is an average. A few very expensive cards pull it upward, so most individual boxes land below it. Opening one box is closer to a lottery ticket than an investment — the number below tells you whether the lottery is priced fairly.
$145.44 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$145.44
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$24.12
About 17% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
75%
Cards worth more by the thousand than listed
Two things separate the two figures. Fees take 10.75% commission plus 2.5% and $0.30 on every order, and postage on a single card runs about $1.10 — a bite a cheap card cannot absorb. And 75% of the box's value sits in cards below roughly $1.66, the point where a card is worth more thrown into a bulk lot at $0.04 a rare than listed, packed and posted. Selling the whole box to a buylist in one go pays less again.
Assumes one card per order, which is the cautious reading — a buyer taking several cards at once splits the fixed costs between them. Fees are TCGplayer Marketplace rates as of February 2026; bulk rates are current cash buylist.
We start from what a box costs right now. Put in the price you're actually being asked to pay and the answer updates.
-$106.02
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $251 a box you'd come up about $106.02 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$145.44
Pay less than this and you're ahead on average.
Every pack has a few fixed positions — a guaranteed rare, a wildcard, a foil. Here's what each one is worth across the whole box.
Single-faced commons
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$1.54
Whole box
$55.44
$1.08 kept
Share
38%
Single-faced rare or mythic
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$1.17
Whole box
$42.12
$15.84 kept
Share
29%
Single-faced uncommons
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$0.70
Whole box
$25.20
$0.36 kept
Share
17%
Foil (any rarity)
The guaranteed shiny card in every pack. Usually a common, occasionally something expensive.
Per pack
$0.37
Whole box
$13.32
$6.84 kept
Share
9%
Basic land
The basic land. Worth essentially nothing unless it is a full-art foil.
Per pack
$0.26
Whole box
$9.36
$0.00 kept
Share
6%
Dfc
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$0.00
Whole box
$0.00
$0.00 kept
Share
0%
The ten most valuable cards a Play Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.
#1 most valuable
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
$38.52
You'll open one about 1 every 2 boxes
#2 most valuable
Grafdigger's Cage
$18.84
You'll open one about 1 per box
#3 most valuable
Vault of the Archangel
$17.50
You'll open one about 1 per box
Drogskol Reaver
$17.44
Moonveil Dragon
$15.82
Stromkirk Captain
$14.85
Havengul Lich
$13.87
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
$12.98
Beguiler of Wills
$12.42
Curse of Bloodletting
$10.50
45 cards. “Copies per box” is how many of that exact card you'd expect from one box on average — under 1 means you usually won't see it at all.
| Mikaeus, the Unhallowed | mythic | $24.46 | 0.46 |
| Havengul Lich | mythic | $6.31 | 0.46 |
| Geralf's Messenger | rare | $3.14 | 0.93 |
| Increasing Ambition | rare | $2.83 | 0.93 |
| Drogskol Reaver | mythic | $2.31 | 0.46 |
| Beguiler of Wills | mythic | $2.27 | 0.46 |
| Grafdigger's Cage | rare | $2.26 | 0.93 |
| Gravecrawler | rare | $2.25 | 0.93 |
| Curse of Bloodletting | rare | $1.62 | 0.93 |
| Zombie Apocalypse | rare | $1.29 | 0.93 |
| Moonveil Dragon | mythic | $1.23 | 0.46 |
| Sorin, Lord of Innistrad | mythic | $1.21 | 0.46 |
| Vault of the Archangel | rare | $1.11 | 0.93 |
| Call to the Kindred | rare | $1.05 | 0.93 |
| Thalia, Guardian of Thraben | rare | $0.99 | 0.93 |
| Increasing Vengeance | rare | $0.84 | 0.93 |
| Increasing Confusion | rare | $0.81 | 0.93 |
| Predator Ooze | rare | $0.73 | 0.93 |
| Requiem Angel | rare | $0.63 | 0.93 |
| Hellrider | rare | $0.61 | 0.93 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
