Gavin Verhey’s Friday announcement of Mystery Booster 2 — the follow-up to one of 2019’s most sought-after products in the world of Magic: The Gathering (MTG) — came as a welcome surprise.

But what are Mystery Boosters, why are they so popular and are they coming to Magic Online or MTG Arena?

What are MTG Mystery Boosters

The original Mystery Booster was released in 2019 as a way of playing purely random Magic. Each pack contains 15 cards from a pool of 1694 cards of equal rarity.

That means you had equal chance to open a Mana Crypt or Rhystic Study as you did an Earth Elemental or Dead Reveller. Two of those cards are incredibly powerful (and expensive). Two of them are not.

But if you’re opening Mystery Booster, you’re not doing it for the monetary value — you’re either doing it to play purely random Magic or you’re doing it get your hands on one of those all new, sweet-looking Playtest Cards.

What are MTG Playtest Cards?

The brains behind Magic the Gathering test cards as they design them. Sometimes things get powered up or powered down. Sometimes they never see the light of day — they could be too powerful, too difficult to make work within the game’s rules or simply they’re just too silly.

The Mystery Booster Playtest Cards take this idea and brings it to the public to enjoy.

Stack of Paperwork, for example, changes the rules of the game to ‘put damage on the stack’ — a rule that was removed in 2010 to simplify the game and make certain decisions a lot more meaningful. Obviously, while this card will make the old guard laugh and look back with nostalgia, reintroducing that rule now would makes things a lot more difficult. As such, each Playtest Card comes with the following disclaimer at the bottom: “Test card — not for constructed play”.

But not all Playtest cards add wonky rules. One with Death simply kills you and Slivdrazi Monstrosity is so powerful it would simply get immediately banned. Personal Decoy would just be annoying to play against.

This theme continues in Mystery Booster 2, which bring a whole bunch of meme-y Playtest Cards for fans to enjoy. One new card even changes the rules on the spot so that you’re no longer playing best of three, but best of one.

Here's a card I think @bbrode might marvel at the potential of:#wotcstaff #mtgmystery pic.twitter.com/LhtkAu2Vaf

— Gavin Verhey (@GavinVerhey) August 3, 2024

It also brings white-border cards back and occasionally uses the Future Sight frame — treatments that different parts of the community will love.

Will Mystery Booster be on MTGO or MTG Arena?

The short answer is no.

The long answer is that there are a couple of issues holding Mystery Boosters back. First and foremost are the Playtest Cards. While they are great fun, their rule-bending nature means that while they’re perfectly intuitive to play in real life, the amount of coding required to get them to work properly on MTGO or Arena is probably just not worth the effort, as far as Wizards of the Coast (WotC) is concerned.

This is why we’ve never had the jokey ‘Un’ sets on either client. They’re great fun, but they fundamentally break the rules in ways that the game engine cannot cope with.

Since Playtest Cards are a big part of Mystery Boosters, putting everything expect those online would probably have people kicking off. But that’s not the only issue.

The second — and possibly bigger — issue is that WotC simply doesn’t want to put Mystery Boosters online.

WotC could conceivably add the boosters to MTGO without the Playtest Cards — since the set is all reprints, these cards are already all on the client. The issue is that these boosters were designed as convention-edition packs, to play in real life. They’re not even going to be available to buy in your local game store.

MB2 is meant to be a special experience for players at conventions. These will be at cons of all types (MagicCon and more!) long term, like MB1. There will be lots of it!

As an extension of the con experience, they'll also be in Festival in a Box, available online. #wotcstaff

— Gavin Verhey (@GavinVerhey) August 3, 2024

So while WotC could easily bring the cut-down booster to MTGO, it seems they just don’t want to.

As for Arena — a client with a much smaller, more controlled card pool — the idea of getting any sort of Mystery Booster is sadly a bridge too far.

Somehow, a combination of League of Legends and Vampire Survivors has produced something strangely relaxing. The infamously intense MOBA is getting a new mode this summer - just temporarily, at least for now - called Swarm, taking characters from League and design elements of the recently formed "bullet heaven" wave survival genre. But the big twist is that for all the on-screen carnage - and there is a lot of on-screen carnage - the result is something strangely chilled out.

Like all things League of Legends these days, Swarm has been fleshed out with reams of worldbuilding backstory. The mode is set within the alternate universe world of Anima Squad - for those understandably not in the know, Riot Games themes its many of its paid-for character skins in League of Legends around alternate realities or short fictional stories, like the cyberpunk-themed PROJEKT skin line, or the K/DA skins that tied champions to Riot's virtual pop group of the same name.

The vibe with Anima Squad is a kind of peppy, futuristic anime-sci-fi, where a group of heroes - with animal-enhanced abilities - defend the remnants of earth from an alien invasion. For the new mode, Riot has built out that universe further, with a range of enemy types introduced from the invading Primordians - purple, shark-like grunts and their bosses of various sizes, who believe themselves to be the "white blood cells" wiping out the virus of humanity - and the mode's various maps set in different parts of a post-apocalyptic Runeterra.

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Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series has been a staple of role-playing video games. In terms of mainline entries, we're five releases in, with a sixth one out there somewhere being worked on. But we're not here to talk about the future. We're going to be discussing just how successful each game in the franchise has been.

Make no mistake—as the years have gone by, The Elder Scrolls has only become more popular. But the series had to start somewhere, and I think it's interesting to compare the sales figures of each one side-by-side to really hammer home this success story.

6. The Elder Scrolls: Arena - 3,000 copies

At the time of release, Arena sold around 3,000 copies, according to former lead designer Ted Peterson. While these numbers have probably gone up since then, there doesn't seem to be any indication of how many the first TES game has sold overall. The fact that you can get it free these days makes it a moot point.

Cast your minds back three decades if you can. A small studio from Maryland, which had been developing sports games and a couple of Terminator adaptations, unleashed the first Elder Scrolls entry into the world. Called Arena, the crew had no idea just how big their fantasy universe was going to become.

Arena may represent the seeds of The Elder Scrolls as a franchise, but gaming wasn't the corporate-driven beast we know it as today, which is probably why the sales figures don't look that impressive.

Still, Arena made an impression, setting into motion new ways of creating interactive stories with detailed role-playing elements. The fact that it had a procedurally generated world was also hugely impressive for the time.

5. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall - 700,000+ copies

Selling 120,000 copies upon launch, Daggerfall easily surpassed Arena. By mid-2000, former Vice President of Bethesda Softworks Pete Hines said the game had sold over 700,000 copies, and that number would have gone up since.

Encompassing a world the size of Great Britain, The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall improved on Arena in just about every way possible. While it's perhaps not as big as its predecessor, it beefed up the role-playing aspects and made a huge splash in the genre.

That it won more awards than Arena shows that Bethesda was onto something. It had enormous scope and a world so huge that its in-game map had a search function! Daggerfall was the first Elder Scrolls game I played; its vastness was mind-blowing to me, and I still go back to it sometimes.

If you want to experience Daggerfall today, you're best off playing the Unity version from GOG. It's a complete revamp of the game, keeping the visuals and classic style of the original but giving it a few quality-of-life tweaks and allowing for mods. It's also free.

4. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - 4 million copies

Now we're getting into the big figures. Morrowind was a hit when it was first released, and people are still buying it more than 20 years later. By the end of its launch year, the game had shifted around 200,000 copies. By mid-2005, that number had gone up to more than 4 million in sales.

The leap in visual quality between Daggerfall and Morrowind is utterly staggering. The Elder Scrolls 3 – released at the start of the new millennium – was a triumph in terms of immersion and advanced graphics. Sure, it's aged horribly now, but back then, just seeing the teaser screenshots prior to release was all the evidence I needed to know that the new TES game was going to be something special.

Morrowind is one of the smallest entries in terms of map size, but that didn't matter. It had a detailed world filled with a host of NPCs encased in a uniquely built world that took things beyond the usual knights and gray castles we're used to seeing in fantasy.

Morrowind was also the first entry to get a console port. It was released on the original Xbox and PC and went down as one of the best-selling games on the system at the time, almost surpassing Halo. Look at most people's lists of favorite Elder Scrolls entries, and chances are high that Morrowind will be at the top.

3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - 9.5 million copies

According to a 2015 report from Polygon, Oblivion sold around 9.5 million copies throughout its lifetime, turning the small, Ultima-inspired RPG series into a globally renowned video game franchise.

Oblivion was a phenomenal hit when it launched in 2006. Despite arriving just four years after Morrowind, it was yet another leap in just how advanced gaming visuals were becoming.

By now, The Elder Scrolls had a huge following, making Bethesda one of the biggest developers in the world. True, that Oblivion was when the series began to lean more towards action rather than deep role-playing aspects, but the sales numbers speak for themselves.

Oblivion has a Metacritic score of 94 on Xbox 360 and has gone down as one of the top 100 video game releases of all time. I mentioned how blown away I was by Morrowind, but Oblivion absolutely knocked it out of the park for me when I first saw it.

2. The Elder Scrolls Online - Over 15 million copies

The Elder Scrolls Online was one of the top-selling games in the UK when it was released in 2014, and it has sold millions since. According to Pete Hines, ESO sold more than 15 million units as of 2020.

There's an argument to be made that Elder Scrolls Online isn't part of the mainline series. However, I decided to include it because the numbers are still impressive.

The fact that this is an MMO is what sets it apart from the other Elder Scrolls games. The series is noteworthy for its focus on a single-player narrative. ESO instills players with a sense of power and destiny fulfillment, though that does sort of fall by the wayside when thousands of people are playing as the story's hero.

While I did play the beta – which was buggy – I never gave much attention to Elder Scrolls ONline. It's definitely brought in a lot more players over the years, thanks to it ditching the subscription model required to play it. But it must be doing something right, as it's generated around $2 billion in revenue as of 2024.

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - 60 million copies

There was never any doubt this was at the top, was there? The most recent figures show that Skyrim has sold over 60 million copies since 2011. That might not be enough to beat out the likes of Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto 5, or even Tetris, but what other game can boast being one of the most successful releases ever?

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is considered by many to be not only the greatest RPG of all time but one of the best video games in history. At the time of writing, Skyrim is registering over 11,000 concurrent players, according to SteamDB. That's nearly four times the amount that bought the original Arena, let alone played it.

We can make a lot of arguments about how Oblivion is buggy as hell and has taken up too much real estate in the gaming sphere, but that doesn't change the facts. The game was a surefire hit before it was even released almost 13 years ago.

Today, it continues to attract a steady stream of players and modders and boasts a total of 229 awards, according to IMDb. Yeah, gamers may be sick of seeing and talking about Skyrim, but it's definitely going down as one of gaming's biggest achievements--at least, until The Elder Scrolls 6 dethrones it.

The post Every The Elder Scrolls mainline release ranked by sales appeared first on Destructoid.

Added a new code!

In AFK Arena, players can build their team from the pool of over 100 heroes to fight the enemies. The goal is to fight the ancient evil Hypogeans and stop them from destroying the realm of Esperia. While progressing in the game, you might need a ton of Diamonds, Gold, Soulstones, and other items. These items can be bought in-game by spending real money, which is not possible for everyone. In that case, you can redeem the AFK Arena codes listed below to get some free in-game goodies.

How to redeem codes in AFK Arena

• Open AFK Arena on your device and copy the UID from your profile.
• Go to AFK Arena Code Redemption Website.
• Enter your UID that you copied from the game, and a verification code will automatically be sent to your in-game mail.
• Paste your verification code on the redemption website and click on the Login button.
• Now, enter your code and hit the Redeem button.
• Your reward will be sent to your in-game mail.

AFK Arena working codes

• ecne2zthiz – Diamonds, Hero’s Essence, and Rare Hero Soulstones (New)
• DONLETTER – Diamonds, Hero’s Essence, and Rare Hero Soulstones
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• bj6xb8kehv – x10 Time Emblems
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• Don2024 – Awakened Eugene Chest and 20 Common Hero Scrolls
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• mystery2023 – Earn Mirror Image
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• 4nwf3w25hq – Earn rewards
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• rynfzjk85y – Earn 10 Hero Scrolls, and 3k Diamonds
• pepmjfpuhs – Earn five hero’s essence chests L, five large crates of gold, five large crates of hero’s EXP, 3k diamonds
• HAPPY333 – Earn 2000 diamonds, 10 stargazer scrolls, 10 common hero scrolls, and 10 faction scrolls
• meeyzuxw87 – Earn 3000 diamonds and 10 hero scrolls
• Brutus2022 – Earn 300 diamonds and 300k gold coins
• afk888 – Earn 300 Diamonds, 20,000 Gold, and 100 Hero’s Essence
• misevj66yi – Earn 60 Rare Hero Soulstones, 500 Diamonds, and five Common Hero Scrolls
• NISHUNEN – free rewards
• kayd7grgvi – free rewards
• talene2022 – Earn 300 Diamonds and 300k Gold
• uf4shqjngq – Earn 30 Common Hero Scrolls
• iybkiwausg – 500 diamonds

Related: Roblox Mall Tycoon codes

AFK Arena expired codes

• ntbd2j4yj – 5 large crates of hero XP, 10 common hero scrolls, 5 large crates of gold, five hero’s essence chests
• j5mjxtdpia – 60 elite hero stone and 300 hero dust
• ithg8qup87 – ten time emblems
• i43a5pk3jw – 600 Diamonds, 100 Hero’s Essence, 20k Gold
• i4hhzxxvj7 – 120 Rare Hero Soulstones, 60 Elite Hero Soulstones, three large crates of Hero’s Essence, three crates of Hero EXP
• i4musq8dr6 – 1000 Diamonds, 10 Summon Scrolls
• jinsuo666 – 500 Diamonds, five large crates of gold, five crates of Hero EXP, and five crates of Hero’s Essence
• LORDDREAF – 3000 Diamonds, ten common Hero Scrolls, ten Time Emblems, ten Stargazer Scrolls
• zq6apizmr6 – 300 Diamonds, 30 Elite Hero Stones
• AFKDLWNSUS -300 Diamonds, 30 Elite Hero Stones
• y9ijrcnfsw – Earn 10 Common Hero Scrolls, 90 Elite Hero Soulstones, a Large Crate of Gold, a Large Grate of Hero’s Essence, a Large Crate of Hero XP
• y9khdntp3v – Earn 60 Rare Hero Soulstones, 1000k Gold
• y9ntv77jvf – Earn 1000 Hero’s Essence, 12 Rare Hero Soulstones, 30 Elite Hero Soulstones
• yazyax56rz – Earn 300 Diamonds and 20 Elite Hero Soulstones
• g594b6vpjk – Earn 6000 Hero Coins, 6000 Labyrinth Tokens, 6000 Guild Coins, and 10 Common Scrolls
• dqy4aq3pyw – Earn 888 Hero Coins, 888 Diamonds, 888 Labyrinth Tokens, and 30 Common Hero scrolls
• 101nc107h – Earn 100 Diamonds and 100,000 Gold
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• xiaban886 – Earn five Large Crate of Hero EXP, 500 Diamonds, five Large Crate of Gold, and five Large Crate of Hero Essence
• xmasl00t – Earn 100,000 Gold and 100 Diamonds
• dqy4aq3pyw – Earn 888 Hero Coins, 888 Diamonds, 888 Labyrinth Tokens, and 30 Common Hero Scrolls
• dwn8ekefbd – Earn 888 Hero Coins, 888 Diamonds, 888 Labyrinth Tokens, and 30 Common Hero Scrolls
• ck4kjutz6k – 300 Diamonds and 20 Soulstone
• 1fanfengshun – 188 Diamonds & Gold
• 2019mothersday – 60 Elite Hero Shards
• 228j636fs9 – 1,000 Diamonds
• 25pg5gnpcf – 1,000 Diamonds
• 26dnuiw8s4 – 1,000 Diamonds & 10 Faction Scrolls
• 2gq55jii87 – 20 Elite Hero Soulstones & 300 Diamonds
• 2longtengfei – 188 Diamonds & Hero Experience
• 2n7gek6rtc – 300 Diamonds & 20 Elite Hero Soulstones
• 2nzzy8y67v – 1,000 Diamonds
• 3aghu4egje – 300 Diamonds & 20 Elite Hero Soulstones
• 3baee6v3v7 – 3,000 Diamonds
• 3gpasha3ch – 300 Diamonds & 20 Elite Hero Soulstones
• 3yangkaitai – 2020 Diamonds & Hero Essence
• 4jipingan – 188 Diamonds & Gold
• 4rytg4u2q6 – 300 Diamonds & 20 Elite Shards
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• 57kh69fhzr – 1,500 Diamonds and 60 Elite Hero Soulstones
• 5fulinmen – 188 Diamonds & Hero Experience
• 65tdenbmtw – 300 Diamonds and 20 Elite Hero Soulstones
• 66dashun – 188 Diamonds & Hero Essence
• 6u226crhtp – 300 Diamonds and 20 Elite Hero Soulstones
• 6wgh9ung66 – 1,000 Diamonds
• 7xinggaozhao – 188 Diamonds & 10 Faction Scrolls
• 85de5ar9ts – 10 Common Hero Scrolls, 10 Stargazing Cards, 10 Faction Scrolls, 8888 Hero Coins,  888 Diamonds,  and 8888 Labyrinth Tokens
• 8e27shfk6b – 10 Common Hero Scrolls, 10 Stargazing Cards, 10 Faction Scrolls, 8888 Hero Coins,  888 Diamonds,  and 8888 Labyrinth Tokens
• 8vws9uf6f5 – 30 Faction Scrolls and 3000 Diamonds
• 9qgzux8k82 – 20 Elite Hero Soulstone and 300 Diamonds
• aaz27uvgfi—Earn 40 Hero Scrolls and 3,000 Diamonds
• AFKelijah – 100,000 Gold, 500 Hero’s Essence, 500 Diamonds
• afklaunch – 60 Elite Hero Shards
• Afkmarkiplier – 300 Diamonds and 30 Elite Hero Shards
• afknewyear2020 – Elite Hero Shards & Diamonds
• ayqcttC36x – 200 Diamonds and 200,000 Gold Coins
• BestRPG4BusyU – 500k Gold and 500 Diamonds
• dadisafk2019 – 60 Elite Hero Shards
• Don00001 – 3,000 Diamonds
• happy2021 – 30 Faction Scrolls
• happybday0409 – 500 Diamonds, 10 Common Hero Scrolls, & five Chest of Wishes
• HaruruAFK – Five Common Hero Scrolls, 1,000 Diamonds, 1,500 Gold
• jenrmb3n3a – 60 Rare Hero Shards
• liuyan118 – 50,000 Gold & three Faction Scrolls
• liuyan233 – 50,000 Gold & three Common Hero Scrolls
• liuyan888 – 100,000 Gold & 888 Diamonds
• mrpumpkin2 – 300 Diamonds & five Common Hero Scrolls
• overlord666 – 500 Hero’s Essence, 500 Diamonds, and 500k Gold
• persona5 – 500 Hero’s Essence, 500 Diamonds, and 500k Gold
• pqgeimc6da – 30 Elite Hero Shards & Gold
• rvgv3b8g4i – 60 Rare Hero Shards
• s4vyzvanha – 10 Elite Hero Shards & 100 Diamonds
• s7yps9phsj – 20 Elite Hero Shards & 200 Diamonds
• te9gig7y58 – 1,000 Diamonds
• thanksgiving2019 – 1 Epic Hero
• tt9wazfsbp – 1,000 Diamonds
• tvb5zkyt47 – 1,000 Diamonds
• u3gpi6heu6 – 1,000 Diamonds
• u9rfs27rd9 – 1,000 Diamonds
• uffqqmgtxd – 1,000 Diamonds
• ufxsqraif5 – 1,000 Diamonds
• vdgf3ak6fc – 1,000 Diamonds
• vm894xsucf – 1,000 Diamonds
• vxvtzgtz6f – 1,000 Diamonds
• yuanxiao – 60 Elite Hero Shards & 300 Diamonds
• YuJaeseok – Five Common Hero Scrolls, 1,000 Diamonds, 1,500 Gold
• x7vxbnice7 – Earn 20 Elite Soulstones and 300 Diamonds
• uf4shqjngq – Earn 30 Common Hero Scrolls

The already controversial decision to add the anti-cheat tool used in shooter Valorant to League of Legends has seemingly caused developers Riot Games even more of a headache. The studio have issued a lengthy assurance that - at least as far as they know - the new anti-cheat software isn’t causing players’ hardware to end up bricked, despite various reports of major issues after its introduction.

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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has finally arrived. The second installment of Square Enix’s attempt to remake one of the most celebrated video games of all time is here for PlayStation 5. The massive RPG offers damn near close to (if not more) than 100 hours of gameplay. Now you might be asking yourself: Do I race to the…

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