Of the 11 new printings of planeswalkers, 4 are in the Commander precons, 1 is normally collectible from the set, and the other 6 have the commander set symbol but aren’t in the decks.
This means that if you wanted a chance to pull them yourself from packs, you must be opening collectors boosters as they are the only ones with a slot for commander cards.
It feels so scummy of them to not use special guest slot for cards like this. It’s not the first time, and it doesn’t only affect the planeswalkers. There are some rather pricy rats (marrow gnawer and Ink eyes) also secluded from standard pull tables this way.
Anyone know when this started? I noticed it a year or so back when there was a green commander set card, but no green commander deck, but I cannot recall the card or set.
They don’t want to put these into special guest slots in Play Boosters for 2 reasons. Induce demand for collector boosters, and also help preserve the limited environment at least a little bit. I think it’s also why they went from The List to Special Guests in general.