Introduction

Magic: Origins has been one of the most successful pre-release events for the Magic Core sets.

Usually for other pre-releases, we will have left over kits which will be broken apart and given out as prizes.

However at the end of last Sunday evening. we had neither pre-release kits nor booster packs left to give as prizes.

That was a very stark difference between another pre-release event we had a couple of years ago. 

Coincidentally, that was also a Core Set pre-release.

Humble Beginnings

It was three years ago, also during the month of July. We had our store's first pre-release event for Core Set 2013.

Running a pre-release event for a first time, it was a relatively exciting experience for me initially as it was also the first time Wizards of the Coast has given out rights to hold pre-releases at local store levels. Back in the past, pre-release events were organized at the regional level, which meant that all the players that were interested in the pre-release would to go a centralized location to play, with Avacyn Restored being the last regional pre-release event being held.

We had our first flight in the morning, i recalled we had a turnout of about 25 players, which is a relatively good turnout in my opinion.

However the turnout following flights after the first were dismayal. During the last flight we only had 8 players left for our pre-release.

To be honest, I was both sad and disappointed with the turnout. We had the lowest turnout amogst the newly opened stores.

Origins Pre-Release

Fast forward to three years later, We have a sold out crowd this pre-release this time around. What was the difference between then and now?

1. Foil Pre-Release Planeswalkers   
2. ​                                                                                                                                                                       Being the last Core Set, Wizards finally decided to make Foil Promotional Planeswalkers available for players to acquire when they get their pre-release kits, this meant that players are able to immediately formulate a game plan around their new found planeswalkers!
3.  
4. 6 Booster Packs instead of the usual 5 + seeded Pack                                                                               
5. The addition of one booster pack into the pre-release kit made it more worthwhile for players to join the pre-release party. In Singapore, pre-release events are usually priced at 30 to 35 dollars per flight with booster retail prices at $4.50 to $5 dollars now, it makes it worthwhile to play pre-release events.
6.  
7. Support from the local players                                                                                                                  
8. Last but definitely not the least, the reason that we can have a sold out crowd this time is due to the support of all the players that have came and played our pre-release. To those that have came and played the pre-release at our store, thank you for participating in our events and hope that you have enjoyed yourselves as much as my team and I have enjoyed hosting the pre-release. To those that did not join in our pre-release this time round, we will make our events better in order to have more people joining our events.

Hope to see you all at our next large scale event which will be the World Magic Cup Qualifiers on the 6th of September 2015!

Till next time!

Kwok Yang

Dueller's Point

Please drop me an email if there any aspiring writers who wish to write for us, topics can be anything from Games to Events.

Thanks!