Last updated on December 18, 2025
Shahrazad | Illustration by Kaja Foglio
Well, it finally happened.
In September of 2025, popular content creator and MTG aficionado, Ben Bateman, debuted his new Chaos Draft show, Pack it Up. The concept is simple: One of every single pack in MTG's history sits on a wall, and drafters spin “The Wheel of Chaos” to determine which packs will be opened for their Draft.
There have been over 220 sets printed, and many of them had multiple pack types… you could hit a Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Collector Booster, you could hit Core Set 2021, the list goes on.
On today's episode of the show, they finally cracked a mega-pricey pack.
Goblin Grounds Spins a Hit
Clip from Pack it Up: (L to R) Zoë Marlett, Ben Bateman, goblin_grounds, Irene the Alien
Today's episode featured a stunning panel of guests. Actor Zoë Marlett, RuPaul's Drag Race competitor Irene the Alien, Grant Powers (aka @goblin.grounds on socials) feature on the episode.
Grant walked up to The Wheel of Chaos just like countless players before him had… but, for whatever reason, this guy's luck was dialed up to another level.
The Wheel gave him Arabian freakin' Nights.
Photo by Scotty Baker
Arabian Nights, originally released in December of 1993, is technically the first MTG expansion after Alpha and Beta. Each box of the set contained a whopping 60 packs each, but each pack only had 8 cards.
Despite this, these packs are difficult to find.
How Difficult?
source: TCGplayer
Incredibly. According to TCGplayer, only 3 unopened packs of Arabian Nights have sold in the past year. There are 2 currently for sale on the marketplace.
Tons of cards in the set, even uncommons, go for $1000+. Many of its cards are quite weak when compared with the power crept monstrosities of today, but some remain totally busted, like Bazaar of Baghdad and Library of Alexandria.
photo by Scotty Baker: Irene the Alien and goblin_grounds
We caught up with Grant to get a few words on how it all unfolded:
“Never opened anything close to that valuable! I've cracked some CBBs and stuff but never anything crazy expensive like that.”
Collector Booster Boxes are no laughing matter price-wise, but most pale in comparison to a single pack of Arabian Nights.
“Best part was that I got to keep an original Dandân that I pulled from the pack!”
source: TCGplayer
Dandân is just one of countless iconic cards from the set. Sure, its power level isn't crazy, but it did inspire its very own format!
Wrap Up
Photo by Scotty Baker: (L to R) Zoe Marlett, Ben Bateman, goblin_grounds, Irene the Alien
Few MTG players can say they've had the chance to open a pack of Arabian Nights. It's an incredibly rare opportunity, and it shows why Pack it Up is so rad.
It's awesome to see packs from every era of the game being opened and played instead of sitting on a shelf. The stakes always feel high. Ben Bateman and his team are preserving the history of the game in a most excellent way: By actually playing it!
Although I have to assume if they ever open a Black Lotus that it'd go straight into a slab… right? Right?!!?
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