Collecting MEAS - # of boxes needed?

Chris CD · Post by **Chris CD** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:01 pm

Hi all,

I'm trying to get my head around the probabilities involved in collecting MEAS.  I don't have any MEAS cards yet, and am thinking of buying a booster box to build a good sized playing set.  

How many boxes do you think it would take to get close to a full set?

This is as far as I've gotten, care to check my math?

36 packs with 2 rares each = 72 rares

With 56 R2 and 9 R1 in the set, I should expect 2/3 or more of the rares to be R2, which means I'd end up with around 48 R2 and 24 R1?

I thought that MEAS was a lot harder to collect than this, but the above calculations makes it seems like I should get a pretty generous batch with only one box.  

But when you think of it this way:

36 packs with 12 cards per pack = 432 cards total

Assuming NO rarity distribution, for sake of argument:  432 cards purchased / 170 cards in the set means I would expect to get only ~ 2.5 copies of each card.  Once you add rarity into the mix on top of that, it seems like I'd be missing a whole lot of cards with only one box.

What do you think?  How short would 1 box be of the various rarities, on average?

Post by **Gwaihir** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 4:06 pm

Alas, you're a good way off the mark.

R2 = twice on a rare sheet of 121 cards (56x2 = 112 spots)
R1 = once on a rare sheet of 121 cards (the remaining 9 spots)

So, assuming a perfect spread, your 72 rares in a box will be 72 out of the 121 spots on the sheet. That's on average 66.6 R2 cards and 5.4 R1 cards.

This means you effectively need 2 boxes and some trading to get a complete set of MEAS. That's how darn rare these R1's are. On the upside, if you do collect MEAS like that, you are automatically pretty close to a full player's set too (each non-unique card x3 (+ some extra Black Horses if you like)).

Success,

Wim

Chris CD · Post by **Chris CD** » Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:36 am

Wow, thank you so much for the explanation!

tbadiuk · Post by **tbadiuk** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:47 am

Are you particular on language that the set is in?  The German language version of MEAS is significantly cheaper than the English version for example.  Also, buying the set outright on Ebay might be easier (but not much, if any, cheaper), unless you play  (or trade) as well as collect.

Ted

Post by **Gwaihir** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 1:34 pm

tbadiuk wrote:The German language version of MEAS is significantly cheaper than the English version for example.

Indeed, the above is for English and Spanish. German MEAS is a fixed format.

Nariam · Post by **Nariam** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 9:11 pm

Gwaihir wrote: So, assuming a perfect spread, your 72 rares in a box will be 72 out of the 121 spots on the sheet. That's on average 66.6 R2 cards and 5.4 R1 cards.

Wow, I never did that calculation.  8O So I was very lucky when I bought about half a box of packs and got 5 R1's already!
I'm missing Farmer Maggot, though. Anyone got one to sell or knows where I could get one?

thanks!