One of the big aspects of Magic: the Gathering is the gathering. When the pandemic started, in store play had all but halted, and only recently have some restrictions on in store play been lifted. In addition, with the abolishing of the Magic Pro League and Rivals League, and no news or idea of how Organized Play would be moving forward, players have been wondering what’s coming up for competitive Magic. Well today during the Magic Showcase 2021 announcement stream, we now have the first steps to bringing back Organized Play.
Philosophy
During the WeeklyMTG segment of the stream today, there were many questions asked about the Pro Tour and other higher level events. Ben Rasmussen told us that it’s quite difficult to talk about having large scale Pro level events while we’re still in the pandemic. Between various travel restrictions, gathering size restrictions, and various laws across different states, it is a very difficult thing to organize. The philosophy for the Play team for the moment is to start small, and build wide from that, meaning starting at the ground floor, with Local Events and build upon that as time goes on.
Enter Store Championships
The first step to building the new foundation of Organized Play starts with the “Store Championships”. These events are the first “Wizards of the Coast” official event. Wizards is leaving the format choice up to the store to decide, whichever fits their community the best, they can do that format. The date of these championships are December 4th and 5th 2021. We don’t have any other event specific information at this time, but Wizards will be providing more of that as we get closer.
Promos
One of the cooler things that we do know about the event is the promos for participation! Everyone who participates in an event gets a Arbor Elf. If you get top 8, you get a Collected Company, and if you win, you get a Wurmcoil Engine. Each WPN store is going to be able to run these Store Championship events, but if your store is WPN Premium, then the top 8 and winners promos will have the store name printed in the top of the card.
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This is a really awesome first event it seems. I wish that there was more information about the future of the organized play system, but at least this is a start. As we find our info from Wizards, we’ll be sure to bring that to you that information!
