Shadowmoor Collation

Shadowmoor is a large set with 121 commons, 80 uncommons, 80 rares, and four 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 : 56 cards (or 1 : 51 cards for tournament packs). The set was printed in English in the USA. The existence of Belgian Shadowmoor is unknown.

Shadowmoor 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 11 × 11 sheets.

Packs are back-facing and have 11 commons followed by 3 uncommons, a rare, and an ad card. If there is a foil card, it will appear after the ad card, displacing a common.

There are four common runs. Two, A and B, have 33 cards (each twice) and two, C and D, have 27 cards (again, each twice) plus one copy each of Pili-Pala. Each booster pack contains 6 commons from A or 6 commons from B followed by 5 commons from C or 5 commons from D. All four combination of A and B with C and D are equally likely.

Common and basic land foils (which are printed on separate sheets) can displace either A or B cards; probably common foils only appear in AC or BD packs and basic land foils only appear in AD or BC packs. Uncommon and rare foils can displace either C or D cards; probably these only appear in AD or BC packs.

Uncommons are divided into two runs, A and B each with 40 distinct cards. Probably each has three copies of each card.

Tournament packs have 3 rares, 10 uncommons, 32 commons, and 30 basic lands in addition to a rules insert, and a pro tour player card. Observed packs are back-facing with commons, uncommons, and rares followed by the pro player card and the basic lands. The rules insert is between the rares and the pro player cards. If there is a foil, it will appear the basic lands, displacing a common. (According to the foil rate, some packs should have more than one foil. I haven't confirmed this, but I did see one pack with 30 commons where the second-to-last card was unrevealed.) Packs have both an inner and outer seal.

Tournament packs have commons from all four runs. I have seen packs in A, B, C, D order and packs in B, A, D, C order. Observed packs with one foil have 17 cards from A and B and 14 from B and C. The the pack with 30 commons, the observed split is 17+13. Split among A and B or among C and D is observed to be as even as possible. Observed packs have 5 A uncommons followed by 5 B uncommons. Lands have two sequences of 15.

Note that there is apparent symmetry between A and B commons and between C and D commons, so the labels here are a little bit arbitrary.

Common Runs

The A common run consists of 33 different cards each appearing twice. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

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

The C common run consists of 27 different cards each appearing twice plus one copy of Pili-Pala. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

The D common run consists of 27 different cards each appearing twice plus one copy of Pili-Pala. The choice of first card is mostly arbitrary.

Uncommon Lists

I haven't completed the uncommon runs, but I know which cards are in each run.