What is the expected value of a Hour of Devastation Draft Booster Box?

Opening a Hour of Devastation Draft Booster Box gets you about $181.08 of cards at market price, against a market price of $295.31 for the box — a ratio of 0.61x. Selling those cards would return about $74.16 after fees, because 46% of that value sits in cards worth more as bulk than as a listing.

Is the Hour of Devastation Draft Booster Box worth opening?

No: at $295.31 a box the cards inside are worth about $114.23 less than the box costs, and buying the individual cards you want will be cheaper. The box only breaks even at $181.08 or less, and less again — about $74.16 — if the plan is to resell.

How much would you get back selling a Hour of Devastation Draft Booster Box?

About $74.16, against $181.08 of cards at market price. Market price is what a buyer pays, not what a seller receives: TCGplayer takes 10.75% commission plus a 2.5% and $0.30 transaction fee, and posting a single card costs around $1.10. Below roughly $1.66 a card is worth more in a bulk lot, at about $0.04 a rare, than listed and posted — and 46% of this box's value sits under that line.

Hour of Devastation

Cards inside $181.08$114 short

Hour of Devastation

Hour of Devastation Draft Booster Box

Open one box and you'll get $181.08 of cards, on average. A box costs $295 right now, so that means you're $114.23 short.

Cards inside

$181.08

Everything in the box, at today's prices

Box costs now

$295

TCGplayer market · from $309

Difference

-$114.23

Against you

Packs in the box

Each holds at least one rare or mythic

Box price from TCGplayer, checked October 12, 2026 · Card prices from Scryfall (TCGplayer market data) · last updated October 16, 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.

And if you sold the cards?

$181.08 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.

Worth to a buyer

$181.08

Every card at market price

What you'd keep

$74.16

About 41% of it, sold card by card

Stuck as bulk

46%

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 46% 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.

What does a box cost you?

We start from what a box costs right now. Put in the price you're actually being asked to pay and the answer updates.

Box price

$20$750

I'd be selling the cards. Values every card at what you'd be paid for it rather than what it sells for — fees and postage on the ones worth listing, bulk rates on the ones that aren't. Comes to about 41% of $181.

-$114.23

per box, against you

You would do better buying the singles

At $295 a box you'd come up about $114.23 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.

Break-even price

$181.08

Pay less than this and you're ahead on average.

Where the value comes from

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.

Rare or mythic

The one guaranteed rare or mythic in every pack. This is where most of a box’s value sits.

Per pack

$2.11

Whole box

$75.96

$48.96 kept

42%

Commons

The bulk of the pack. Individually worth very little.

Per pack

$1.28

Whole box

$46.08

$1.44 kept

25%

Foil or masterpiece 1 in 129

A foil version of this slot.

Per pack

$0.84

Whole box

$30.24

$21.60 kept

17%

Uncommons

Three per pack. Occasionally one is worth real money.

Per pack

$0.61

Whole box

$21.96

$2.16 kept

12%

Basic land

The basic land. Worth essentially nothing unless it is a full-art foil.

Per pack

$0.20

Whole box

$7.20

$0.00 kept

The cards you're hoping to hit

The ten most valuable cards a Draft Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.

#1 most valuable

The Scarab God

$272.78

You'll open one about 1 every 100 boxes

#2 most valuable

The Locust God

$156.57

You'll open one about 1 every 100 boxes

#3 most valuable

Omniscience

$155.12

You'll open one about 1 every 100 boxes