MagicCon Las Vegas has recently concluded, and with it, the winner of the Magic World Championship 2023 has been declared. Of course, there are still plenty of additional opportunities for players to compete for prizes and glory, with some events available as close as your local game store. From September 30-October 8, local game stores have the chance to run events known as Store Championships. Store Championships occur soon after the release of each premier MTG set.
In the case of the upcoming Wilds of Eldraine Store Championships, the formats that stores can choose to run their events with align directly with the formats of the World Championship. That means that stores can choose to use their choice of a Standard or Wilds of Eldraine Limited tournament. Typically, stores have had the option to run tournaments of either a specific Constructed format or Draft or Sealed utilizing boosters of the associated set. However, it appears as though things are going to change slightly after Wilds of Eldraine.
In the hopes of generating additional support for the Standard format, Store Championships moving forward will exclusively feature Standard as the format of choice. This will begin with Store Championships running alongside the Lost Caverns of Ixalan. For more information about Wizards of the Coast’s attempts to revitalize Standard, you can take a look here. Let’s take a closer look at the upcoming Wilds of Eldraine Store Championships and how future Store Championships will be affected.
Wilds of Eldraine Store Championship Info
As mentioned, the Wilds of Eldraine Store Championships will be running from September 30-October 8, and stores will be running events using either Standard or Limited as their format of choice. While prize support may vary from store to store, one thing remains consistent at each Store Championship: the promos. There are specific promos awarded depending on how well you do at the tournament, as well as participation promos given out to everyone who competes.
A promo version of Tail Swipe is given to everyone who enters a Store Championship, which is a nice bonus just for playing. For the top eight, players will receive cool copies of Transcendent Message with unique and gorgeous artwork. The big prize, though, goes to the winners of each Store Championship. If you are fortunate enough to emerge victorious, you would walk away with a foil textless copy of Moonshaker Cavalry. Additionally, if you attend a WPN Premium store, the top eight prizes will also feature non-foil versions of the same promos, but with the store’s name custom printed on them! This adds a little extra flare to Premium store rewards.
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Promo Value
As expected, the promos get more valuable the better you do at your local Store Championship. However, what is potentially somewhat unexpected is how much value rests in the winner’s promo. If you don’t make top eight, the participation promo is likely not worth much. After all, traditional copies of Tail Swipe are simply cheap uncommons, worth under 25 cents according to TCGplayer market price.
The thing is, Transcendent Message isn’t too much better. Traditional copies of Transcendent Message currently sit at roughly 25 cents each. Obviously, the promo versions with gorgeous new artwork will likely be worth more, especially given that they are specifically given to players that make top eight of the Store Championships. Still, the card sees little to no competitive play, likely keeping the price of the promo relatively low.
While Moonshaker Cavalry doesn’t see much competitive play, the card is an absolute all-star in white-based Commander decks and is in relatively high demand as a result. Traditional copies of Moonshaker Cavalry have a somewhat hefty price tag of roughly $18, and the promo version has the potential to go for a significant amount more. Given that the promo is a textless, alternate art variant that is only given to the winners of the Store Championships, the ceiling for this card’s price is much higher than the other promos.
Compare this to the winner’s promo for the March of the Machine Store Championships, Thalia and The Gitrog Monster. Traditional versions of the card currently sit at roughly $3, while the foil textless promo version has a price tag of over $70 according to TCGplayer market price. With Moonshaker Cavalry already in high demand, the foil textless promo could be worth a huge amount. Best of luck to everyone battling for this promo!
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Store Championships Moving Forward
“Store Championship – If Standard Showdown is the weekly Standard event, then there should be something they are building up to. Store Championship used to be quite the event at a LGS with some pretty cool prizes. Bringing it back tied to the Standard format at least once a (Standard Legal) set (so basically once a quarter) would give players a big event to test their skills they have been working on at.”
Dragonfire14
Starting with the Lost Caverns of Ixalan Store Championships, which take place from December 2-December 10, Store Championships will showcase the Standard format specifically moving forward. The goal of this move is to help make Standard a more popular format in paper. As Dragonfire14 states, adding Standard Showdowns as weekly events is a step in right direction, but should be building towards something bigger. Store Championships along with the Standard Showdowns may help provide players that invested into the rotating format with plenty of opportunities to feel like they got their money’s worth out of their cards.
Jaijoles“”Yeah. The store by me just took a vote on format for the next championship event: limited won, and by a wide margin.”
The downside of forcing stores to run Store Championships that are exclusively Standard is that the events may end up having a smaller attendance than they would otherwise. Like Jaijoles mentions, some stores get bigger crowds for Limited events and could draw in less of a crowd running Standard events. The hope is that with more of a push towards Standard over time, the format will continue to grow both at the local level and at large. This shift is definitely worth monitoring, and hopefully Store Championships will indeed prosper.
