MtG Cabal Cast

As we continue to discuss the ripples that the OP announcement has had on the game, from top to bottom, we do a bit of self reflection. Looking inward we discuss what, if anything, we wil be changing about how we handle our specs, our booth stock, buys... everything as this announcement was huge.

With the announcement about the return to Organized Play coming mere weeks ahead of the Pre-Release for Streets of New Capenna, we decided to take a look at what is currently happening at the LGS level. How are things being planned, what kind of coordination is going into this first event back after the OP announcement. What kind of expectations are there in regards to the logistics. Hell, do we e...

With the announcement of a return to true Organized Play, there's a lot to pick apart. From the player perspective it's another system with another set of rewards and events to schedule out but for vendors it represents something completely different. We cover a number of elements about the return of "OP with a purpose" and how we feel about this from a bottom up perspective. What does this impact...

We've covered TCG-Cons; what they were like, who the target audience was, and the experience of vending one. With the return of the SCG tournament series, we discuss what that circuit is like now that it also contains premier level Flesh and Blood events alongside large Magic events. Who is attending, what are these events like compared to TCG-Cons and events prior to the shut down. What can we ex...

This week we demystify how vendors and LGS's alike determine how many packs of each set to open! The art of determining the number of packs to open to meet presale numbers isn't something that gets talked about a lot in the industry. It's not flashy, or sexy, but it truly is interesting as it can change with every set and shows immediate returns. We cover the elements of a standard set and what un...

In the past we've discussed what kind of stock we bring to various Magic Fests, Pre-Releases, and other local events where we had cases but didn't dive into the whys behind this. Combined with an increase on both number of, and access to more "variety" events in TCG-Con, more localized Sci-Fi and Fantasy shows, and now everyone has access to events that require you to branch out and cover more gam...

In week two of the deep dive into the Alta Fox proposal, we look at the purchases for products and IPs that Hasbro has made, allocation of WotC funds and resource for non-WotC IP related products and one of the more subtle but damming elements; how the board is paid out and handles their stock. We cover the following pages this week: 58-63, 64, 71, 74, 76-79, 83 https://www.altafoxcapital.com/ htt...

Last week we discussed, from the vendor perspective what we thought about the Alta Fox announcement and how it might impact Hasbro, WotC, and Magic the Gathering on the whole. Were their ideas flawed or were they grounded? In our first deep dive episode we take a deep dive into the PDF (linked below) that covers the entirety of the proposal. We discuss the data, ideas, comparisons, and quotes and...

In the last few weeks, Alta Fox has come forth as majority shareholder in Hasbro to ask for foundational changes within the organization. Looking to add their hand picked members to the Hasbro board, Alto Fox is seeking to increase their returns. Below that, however, is an astounding amount of data discussing the overall mishandling of brands, including Wizards of the Coast and calls to action to...

As we did with Kaldheim, we take a look at the full spoiler for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty for cards that we think have room to grow, are priced properly, or are currently priced well above what we expect. Utilizing our combined knowledge and experience, we make parallels to cards and effects we seen before to draw our conclusion and Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty offered up a lot of interesting cards but in...

For almost as long as we've been able to play Magic the Gathering, we've had coverage in one form or another. Be it print, video playback, or live streams, we've been able to digest information about the game almost from day one. We discuss what we feel are the "eras" in coverage that mark how we interacted with high level play and set financial "standards", the coverage outlets, and the financial...

In the "stone age" of Magic OP, foreign cards and foreign foils could command a premium over their local equivalent. The reason behind this, generally boiled down to accessibility and scarcity driving demand. As production ramps up across the globe, new supplemental products are released, box toppers, and intra-set art variations there are a lot of competing options for the coveted spot of "best v...

In November 2021, PayPal announced that changes in to the upcoming U.S. tax reporting requirements, "could impact the information PayPal shares with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about transactions made using PayPal and Venmo for the sale of goods and services." As open marketplaces like Facebook rely on PayPal as a "backbone" for payments, this has immediate impact for vendors of all sizes a...

With Alchemy taking center stage on Arena, pulling content creators and players alike, what kind of impact will this have on the Standard format on the whole? We break this conversation down into two sections after some discussion as we believe that there are a number of ways in which Alchemy and Standard could be at odds and we wanted to discuss both the play aspect as well as the financial aspec...

Taking a cue from, "The Bronx Pinstripes Show" we are going to role play what each of us would do if we were in charge of the organization. It could be anything from personnel to marketing to supply chain and beyond, but we run the show. Broken out into two parts as to force ourselves to stay focused on the task at hand and not get too far off topic, we will be discussing in turn our ideas on nece...

Taking a cue from, "The Bronx Pinstripes Show" we are going to role play what each of us would do if we were in charge of the organization. It could be anything from personnel to marketing to supply chain and beyond, but we run the show. Broken out into two parts as to force ourselves to stay focused on the task at hand and not get too far off topic, we will be discussing in turn our ideas on nece...

Returning to a known plane, in this case Kamigawa, allows for a lot of interesting financial opportunities that only present themselves on these revisits. Unlike new planes, we know what to expect; the keywords, the mechanics. There's memory attached. When this happens and the inevitable targeting of cards based on characters, keywords, mechanics, etc. begins the open market begins to churn and wr...

As with any alternative format, once you get past the inflection point where players adopt it, ensuring it's not a flash in the pan or fly by night cash grab there is financial opportunity to be had. This week we discuss the alternate format/s Middle School and Premodern, what separates them, which we believe in, and what they are currently driving in terms of finance and demand. Unlike last weeks...

As with any alternative format, once you get past the inflection point where players adopt it, ensuring it's not a flash in the pan or fly by night cash grab there is financial opportunity to be had. This week we discuss the alternate formats cEDH and Oathbreaker and the impact these have on both the player base and finances. We talk about what we like about each format, player perception, recepti...

The "holiday season" can present a number of opportunities at the LGS level regardless of the size of the store and the length of time they've been established. We decided that we would leverage our collective knowledge and discuss what actually goes into making the "holiday season" possible. Via sourced questions, we break down everything from "when do you first start discussing strategy" to "whe...

As with every year, we look to the holidays as a time where we can take a unique approach to financing our Magic habit and like each preceding year, it's time to review those aforementioned strategies. We discuss what we'll be looking at this year and why well before the full swing of the season kicks in with the hopes that others also review their plans and better inform their shopping.

Though consistent in their language, WotC cast the idea that Innistrad Double Feature would feature a list of cards chosen from both sets leading both players, vendors and LGSs alike to believe that this would be curated. That couldn't have been further from the truth. As we ran up to Innistrad: Crimson Vow's pre-release weekend it was announced that Double Feature would actually be a combined set...

As vendors and the general public began cracking their copies of the Phyrexian Praetor Secret Layer, StarCityGames found the first serialized Magic card placed in a consumer product. Number 77 in a series of 100, the "reverse list" Viscera See made huge waves. Over the Crimson Vow pre-release weekend people were eager to see not only what the first opened copy would sell for, eventually fetching $...

TCG Player recently purchased the leading company in the robotic card sorting space to add to their intake processes in an effort to smooth and speed up their intake process. While robotic card sorters aren't new news, the purchase of an entire company to fold into an existing CCG organization is; as this is the first occurrence. We discuss immediate implications for the TCG Player SYP offering as...

The SCG Invitational showed us a number of things from a player and speculator perspective; where metagames were moving and what to buy into. But it also displayed, for the first time in almost two years what vending large events were going to be like and how hungry people were to both buy and sell. This gives us a good idea of how MtG Las Vegas will unfold and what we can expect at paper events f...