Battlebond Collation

Battlebond is a large set with 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares, and one variation 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 Japan.

Battlebond was sold in 15 card booster packs (which contain an additional ad card). Booster boxes have 36 packs.

Pack Anatomy

Battlebond uses sequential collation with (probably) 112 card sheets (which seems to be the usual for Japan). The dimensions of the sheets are not known. The runs are configured differently than what may be familiar from sets printed in the USA or Belgium.

Packs are front-facing starting with the ad card, then the basic land, then the rare, 3 uncommons, and 10 commons. If there is a foil card, it will appear between the land and the rare, displacing a common. Certain pairs of cards are partners (as explained by the rules text). Partner pairs always appear together in the same pack. If there is a rare or mythic partner in the pack, then both partners will appear, and there will be only two uncommons. If a foil partner appears in a pack, there will be two foil cards, and two commons will be displaced. (Note that I have not observed foil partners yet.)

There are 4 common runs: A, B, C, and D. A contains 37 distinct cards, B and C each contain 22 distinct cards, and D contains 20 distinct cards. Each pack gets 3 to 4 cards from A followed by 2 to 3 cards from each of B and C, and 1-2 cards from D. Observed packs are either 4-2-2-2, 3-3-2-2, 3-2-3-2, 4-3-2-1, or 4-2-3-1. Foil packs with nine commons have been observed as 3-2-2-2 and 4-2-2-1 (but other pack types may be unobserved due to the smaller sample size). Ignoring foils, A has 4 cards about 66% of the time, B and C each have 2 cards about 82% of the time, and D has 2 cards about 98% of the time.

There are five uncommon partner pairs, 5 rare pairs, and one mythic pair. The uncommon pairs are in a separate run than the other uncommons. Probably this is true for the higher rarity pairs as well. Assuming partner cards are equally as rare as other cards of the same rarity, the chance of getting partner cards can be calculated. This calculation also depends on the rate of mythics which is also unknown, but probably either 1/8 or 7/55 (based on rares appearing at twice the rate of mythics — this is distorted because the partner pairs change the effective number of rares and mythics in the set). For this calculation, I'll take 7/55, but this is not actually known. (Luckily, the numbers are close.) In this case, the chance of getting a rare or mythic partner pair is 1/10. Then, accounting for the fact that rare and mythic partners displace an uncommon, the chance of getting an uncommon partner pair is 29/139 (about 1/5). This roughly matches my empircal observations.

Probably it is not possible to get a rare (or mythic) partner pair and an uncommon partner pair in the same pack. If these chances were independent, it would not be so unlikely, but I have not observed it. The chance of my not having observed it is quite low. (I've looked at at least 9 boxes.)

When partners appear in a pack, they always appear in the same order.

Besides the partners, there are 70 uncommons. They all appear (probably) twice in a single long run. (I'm not sure how this works with 112 card sheets.) If an uncommon partner pair appears in a pack, it will take up the first two uncommon slots.

Will Kenrith and Rowan Kenrith have alternate art in their foil versions.

Common Runs

The A 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 black. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The B common run consists of 22 different cards each appearing five times (which would leave 2 fillers on a 112 card sheet). The cards are mostly red and green. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The C common run consists of 22 different cards each appearing five times (which would leave 2 fillers on a 112 card sheet). The cards are alternating blue and green. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The D common run consists of 20 different cards each appearing five times (which would leave 12 fillers on a 112 card sheet). Most of the artifacts appear in this run, but there are also cards of every color. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Token Run

All of the marketing cards in Ultimate Masters have a token or emblem on the front face. There is a 56 card sequence (perhaps repeated twice to fill a 112 card sheet) with different items appearing different numbers of times.

Token Rarity
Rowan Kenrith Emblem × 1	Will Kenrith Emblem × 1	Beast × 4
Zombie Giant × 4	Myr × 6	Spirit × 8
Zombie × 10	Warrior × 22