MTG Big Box

~
Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Winter has finally arrived at our little corner of the county.  Just yesterday we raked a bunch of leaves and retired the day with still green lawns.  Today however, we woke up to an accumulation of nearly six inches of that white frozen cr@p.  We are hoping to get to our local gaming shop, OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario latter this evening for Friday Night Magic but if it does not stop snowing, it may be too dicey on the roads.

Anywhoos - for today's post we wanted to yatter a bit about those big box stores and our favourite game, Magic: the Gathering.  We are fiercely loyal to our local card shop for all our sealed product and when we are looking for a single we can't seem to catch at the store or through trades, we rely upon MTG Mint Card who have always come through in our hour of need.  Supporting your LGS / WPN is critical because without them, there is simply no game in town (except your own kitchen table group).  Having said that, we personally know quite a few people in the States and Canada who simply do not have access to a LGS and have to rely upon those big box stores.  Today, we did an brief 'moment in time' survey on the two large giants Target and WalMart in our City.  The prices and observations may not be at all accurate but represent our own opinions formed at the stores.  Our biggest grief was that sometimes you just could not determine the product price without having to walk it over to a scanner.

Wall-Mart
Poor selection, disorganised but reasonable pricing.
Fat Pack $49.92
Commander Decks $34.92
Clash Pack ?
Intro Packs $19.92
2-Pack Boosters $10.92

Target
Good selection, a little disorganised and comparable pricing to that of the 'other store'.
Fat Packs $49.99
Commander Decks ?
Clash Packs $34.99
Duel DEcks $24.99
Tool Kit $24.99
Event DecK ?
Holiday Gift Box ?
Intro packs $18.99

Booster Packs $4.99

At the time of our visit, we were mildly surprised that both stores still had 'older' product.  Unfortunately neither store had the new Commander 2014 product available even though it had been out for approximately two weeks.  In the past, we were happy with Walmart in that they carried 'non-game' MTG related items like officially sanctioned t-shirts and those stickers.  If you were looking for supplies, both options had rather slim pickings. 
~

Gatecrash Retailer Kits

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We have here a quick run down of all the wonderful kits that Wizards of the Coast has available to support local gaming stores with the release of Gatecrash.   Retailers should connect with the Wizards Play Network home HERE to help grow their Magic: the Gathering player-base.

Anywhoos - a WPN video posted by Bill Stark got our attention.  The Gatecrash Game Day play mat to be awarded as a prize to the first place champion looks very much like Orzhov will get a Culling Sun (Guildpact Rare) Reprint.  At the very least, we're thinking some board-wiper for Orzhov.

~

Gatecrash Marketing kit
• 25 Gatecrash guild deck boxes
• 5 Gatecrash guild banners
• Gatecrash wall clock with 5 swappable guild faces (AA battery included)
• 12 double-sided table numbers
• Instruction sheet
~
 
Gatecrash League kit Contents
• 32 league progress cards and lanyard sets
• 20 prize-supplement token cards
• 4 sheets of guild symbol stickers
• 1 double-sided tracking poster
• Score pad
• Window cling
• 5 DCI™ membership cards
• Instruction sheet
~

Gatecrash PreRelease kit
Sorry - can someone shoot us over a list ?
• Prerelease poster
• Counter standee
 ~
Every Gatecrash Guild Prerelease Pack includes:
• Five "Gatecrash" booster packs
• One guild booster with the corresponding guild prerelease card
• A guild Spindown life counter
• A guild sticker
• A letter from your guild leader
• A guild-themed achievement card



~
Here's the Gatecrash Retailer Video . . .

 
~

MTG Locator Beta

~

WoTC launched a new Retail Locator on January 26, 2009 which uses slick Google Map tech. Stores may be identified on the map by store types (such as Hobby, Premier or Mass market) and contact details are provided for each.


Users will be able to search by City, State/Province or Postal code, but now the new locator can accommodate International searches as well. One may refine the search to identify stores carrying the following product lines;

Magic: The Gathering Dungeons & Dragons Star Wars Miniatures & Roleplaying Games Axis & Allies Miniatures & Board Games

As important to users, the Locator will also provide searchable locations for the nearest Wizards Play Network locations offering:

Magic: The Gathering Events (such as Pre-Releases and Launch Parties, Friday Night Magic, Other Magic events ) as well as

Dungeons & Dragons Events (such as Delve Night, Worldwide D&D Game Day, and tther D&D events).

All this new tech is great but this site just painfully reminds me that I have to drive almost a full hour from Forks to Port Angeles (Washington) just to buy MTG cards at the Wal-Mart store OR drive / take the ferry to Seattle (a 3 hour trip) just to take in a Friday Night Magic event . . . wah.

Alara Reborn - Solid Gold

~

We now have the 'Key Selling Points' Document for Alara Rborn. This document circulates to all WoTC retailers and is mainly intended to provide basic information of the set / size offerings as well as marketing support for organised release events.

KEY SELLING POINTS

Let's just read that again . . . Alara Reborn is solid gold! Multicolored or ‘gold’ cards are among the most popular set themes, and every single card in Alara Reborn is gold. It will be the first set in the history of Magic: The Gathering to be 100% multicolored.

Since the release of Ardent Plea as well as the Alara Reborn Intro Packs, evidence has been stacking up in favour of a full multi-colour set so it is with little surprise that this is now confirmed.


The remainder of the document is little different from such previous documents with the exception of this . . .

'Different rare foil promo cards will be given out with participation at Prerelease and Launch Parties.'

This has occurred before and now seems to be 'di riguer' in order to encourage capable players to attend both the pre-release and the release event.

Rather humourous to me is the last page where Wizards provides information on stock product order numbers as well as suggested retail price . . . As I live so far north, the prices I pay for booster packs, fat packs and the like are typically 20 to 23 % difference higher than south of the border in the states (this also considers the excange rate).