Original Post — Direct link

At first glance, the IKO pass (both free and paid) has a huge reduction in rewards when compared to the ELD and THB passes. I decided to do a direct comparison of the actual rewards when taking the duration of the pass into account. I'm only looking at the things that are different.


Pass Duration:

  • ELD to THB = 112 days

  • THB to IKO = 91 days = 81.25% of ELD

  • IKO to M21 = 70 days = 62.50% OF ELD or‭ 76.92% of THB

Free Pass Rewards:

  • ELD Packs = 46

  • THB Packs = 39

  • IKO Packs = 25 (changed to 30)

  • Expected IKO packs (based on THB) = 30 (rounded up) = 17% reduction

  • Expected IKO packs (based on ELD) = 29 (rounded up) = 13% reduction

Paid Pass Rewards:

  • ELD Gems = 2000

  • THB Gems = 1800

  • IKO Gems = 800

  • Expected IKO gems based on THB = ‭1,385 (rounded up) = 42% reduction

  • Expected IKO gems based on ELD = ‭1250 (rounded up) = ‭36% reduction

Other Rewards:

  • ELD had 10000 gold but no draft token

  • THB had 4000 gold and a draft token

  • IKO has 4000 gold and a draft token

  • A traditional draft token has a value of 1500 gems

  • 1000 gold = 200 gems (based on pack price)


Conclusions:

  • IKO pass is a much worse value when compared to the THB pass, and is still a significantly worse value when compared to ELD.

  • Specifically, even when taking pass duration into account and converting rewards into gems, IKO is still a 12% reduction in gem rewards and a 13% reduction in free pass rewards.

  • Keep in mind that the mastery pass still costs 3400 gems. This reduction in rewards would be much more palatable if the pass was also reduced in price based on the duration of the pass (2125 gems)

Edit: /u/localghost pointed out that ELD pass actually gave 46 free packs according to the pass images, and not 42 packs.

Edit #2: /u/AintEverLucky pointed out some errors regarding the pass duration, which I've fixed. Conclusion is still accurate.

Edit #3: WotC has changed the number of free packs in the IKO pass from 25 to 30.

External link →
over 4 years ago - /u/WOTC_CommunityTeam - Direct link

Hey all! A couple things to discuss here. First off, the decrease in packs. This was a typo on our part and has been fixed in the article, whoops! You will receive 30 Ikoria packs, not 25. Second, the gem decrease. This is intentional, due to the set duration being a lot shorter. Theros was unintentionally more generous (we meant to give players a Ranked Draft token, instead they received a Traditional Draft, and we rolled with it). Regardless, we intend to keep the average rewards per day in Mastery Pass comparable to Eldraine and Core Set.