Rolling for Initiative – Suggested Changes for ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Releases

Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University.  This week, Thorne looks at the upcoming Double Masters 2022 set and suggests a few changes.

As the release date for Double Masters 2022 approaches (see “’Magic’ Release Calendar 2022/2023“), there are a few changes I would like to see implemented:

1. Buy-It-By-the-Box cards. Customers have come to expect this with every Magic set. A high-priced set like Double Masters 2022 should have a BIBTB card to go along with it. Customers have come to expect it and customers do not like change; not having something leaves it up to the store to offer it. WotC did send us promotional cards to give away for Launch events, but allowing stores to use them as BIBTB promotional cards would let them do double duty.
2. More prerelease events. As with the BIBTB card, customers have come to expect prereleases with every set. I understand offering benefits to WPM Premium stores as a bonus for achieving that status, but when a new set releases, if there is going to be a prerelease, customers expect to find those events available at all WPN stores, not just Premium ones. We had several customers asking if we were running prerelease events for Double Masters 2022 this weekend and had to tell them no.
3. Keep booster box sizes consistent. For Double Masters 2022, Collector Boosters come packed four to a box. That’s four packs in one box of boosters that are selling online for around $300. Who in their right mind expects booster packs to price out at $75+ per pack, especially since, up until now, Collector Boosters have always shipped 12 to a box?  I know of at least one retailer that did not read the fine print, ordered Double Masters 2022 Collector Boosters as if they were regularly packed Collector Boosters, and pre-sold them that way to customers who is now having to cancel orders because the store will not have enough Collector Boosters coming in to meet preorders, let alone after-release sales. Incidentally, as long as I’m asking for consistency, the store had lots of customers asking about Double Masters 2022 Set Boosters. WotC has trained customers to expect Draft, Set, and Collector boosters with each release and not giving them what they expect confuses them.
4. Box design. As long as I am wishing for changes to the boxes, WotC could PROMINENTLY put the quantity of booster packs on the front of the box in 12-point or 24-point font. Currently, if anyone wants to figure out how many boosters come in a box, the quantity is in an extremely small font at the bottom of the back of the booster box. The front of the box says Draft Boosters or Set Boosters or Collector Boosters (I expect to see some other configuration of booster packs within a couple of years). How hard would it be to put “36 Draft Boosters” or “24 Set Boosters” or “12 Collector Boosters” on the box? Draft Booster boxes are consistently 36 packs, unless the customer wants a box of Commander Legends:  Battle for Baldur’s Gate draft boosters, in which case the box contains 24 packs. Giving stores and customers as much information as possible with a small change to package design would help.

Any thoughts on other changes you would like to see? Email them to castleperilousgames@gmail.com.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.

Source: ICv2