This November, Magic: The Gathering Foundations brings a new way to introduce Magic players to the Gathering. Whether they're just getting their first taste of the game or looking to dive deeper into Standard, Commander, and more, this set is the place to start.

This set was made for past, present, and future Magic players, featuring products for players fresh or famous and filled with cards legal in Standard, at least until 2029! Your community's favorite legends and Planeswalkers are here with quintessential magic from across the Multiverse, and we can hardly wait to dive into the details.

Magic: The Gathering Foundations Key Dates

Distributor Selection and Prerelease Allocation Increase Request Deadline: August 30

Scheduling Opens: August 6

WPN Marketing Portal Update/New Materials Available (WPN Premium stores in U.S., Canada, and Guam only): September 12

Promotional Kit Delivery: Beginning November 1

Prerelease: November 8 – 14

Release: November 15

Magic Academy: Learn to Play: November 15, 2024 – January 30, 2025

Standard Showdown: November 15, 2024 – January 30, 2025

Magic Academy: Deck Building: November 15, 2024 – January 30, 2025

Friday Night Magic: November 15, 2024 – January 24, 2025

New Product Details: Beginner Box and Starter Collection

What's the Magic: The Gathering Foundations Beginner Box?

The Beginner Box contains the essentials for your players' first games of Magic, including two different hands-on guided deck experiences, reference booklets, playmats, and Jumpstart packs for an easy way for friends to jump into the fray.

The guided deck experience is pre-shuffled, meant to be played right out of the box using the included guides to walk players step-by-step through their first game.

There are ten themes among the Jumpstart packs, and the reference guides teach players to combine themes together to create classic combinations to play with friends.

What's the Magic: The Gathering Foundations Starter Collection?

The Starter Collection holds everything players need to build their own decks—an astounding 350+ fixed set of cards, storage box, and clickwheel life counter sets the stage for players to craft decks for their favorite formats, from Standard to Commander and beyond.

Similar to the Beginner Box, the Starter Collection also includes instructional material, like a booklet for deckbuilding techniques and reference cards that guide players through gameplay.

An Upgrade to Open House: Magic Academy Events

Think of this as an upgrade to the Open House events we’ve offered in the past, now with more resources and a two-part series you can invite new players to join in. You can schedule and run Magic Academy events as many times as you like. We strongly encourage you have interested players register for either event using a Wizards Account.

Both events will be supported with video content that you'll play for participants beforehand, as well as learn-to-play brochures, sticker sheets, and Magic Teacher pins by our partners at Pinfinity AR. The number of pins you'll receive is limited, so use them wisely!

We encourage you to give Magic Teacher pins to experienced players acting as mentors or your own friendly staff members, as new players should be able to seek guidance from anyone wearing this pin at your store.

Full details for Magic Academy: Learn to Play and Magic Academy: Deck Building are available on their respective event pages—we suggest you bookmark them to reference easily as you prepare to run each!

What is Magic Academy: Learn to Play?

Magic Academy: Learn to Play is the first of a two-part series that takes Welcome Decks and additional material support to create an awesome new player experience. Brand new players will learn how to play with a video demo, handy brochure, and pocket reference cards they can continue to use during games. Then, players will be paired up to play friendly games.

At the end of this event, players who purchase a Foundations Beginner Box will receive a gift-with-purchase promo card while supplies last. Encourage new players to practice using the Beginner Box or through casual games with friends to keep learning and invite them back to the next Magic Academy event to continue their journey!

Experienced players can use Magic Academy: Learn to Play as their opportunity to teach family and friends and help welcome the next generation of Magic players into the Gathering. We encourage you to schedule in advance in Wizards EventLink or created as needed to support reporting walk-in customers who request a demo.

You may schedule as many Magic Academy: Learn to Play events as you'd like during the event period of November 15 – January 30, but we recommend scheduling one during the kickoff weekend of November 15 – 17; we will drive players to stores for that weekend to celebrate the launch of Foundations, and we want your store to be the top of your community's list for a place to play!

Please note, Welcome Decks are only available in English. If your community prefers to learn in another language, we encourage you to use the guided deck experience from the Magic: The Gathering Foundations Beginner Box instead.

What is Magic Academy: Deck Building?

Magic Academy: Deck Building is the second of this two-part series that guides players through deck building and their first foray into Limited format play. We recommend that you require players to purchase six Magic: The Gathering Foundations Play Boosters (or leftover Foundations Prerelease Packs if you have any available) to build their deck from so it prepares them for Prerelease.

Players will sort out their cards into piles, identify the cards they want to build around, then build their first 40-card deck. Before event organizers split players into pairs for casual one-on-one matches, include a deck review phase where new players show their deck to experienced staff or players who can provide advice to those building a deck for the first time.

This event could also be run with Magic: The Gathering Foundations Starter Collection, an example Sealed pool, leftover Prerelease Packs from previous set releases, or even the player’s own collection.

Gift-with-Purchase Promo

Additionally, during either event, players who purchase any of the following qualify to receive a gift-with-purchase promo:

• Magic: The Gathering Foundations Beginner Box
• Magic: The Gathering Foundations Starter Collection
• 6 Magic: The Gathering Foundations Play Boosters at the Deck Building event

Retailer Run & Report Reward Details

WPN retailers that run and report at least one of each Magic Academy event with a minimum of two players—Learn to Play and Deck Building—will receive a sales incentive item to be used during a future play season after Foundations.

Make sure you're using the proper event templates in Wizards EventLink to ensure you receive credit for running one of each event in the series!

The reward will be delivered with the promo materials kit for the next play season after Foundations.

Prerelease Early Sales Returns to WPN Stores in Japan

Starting with Magic: The Gathering Foundations, Prerelease Early Sales is returning to WPN stores in Japan! This means WPN stores worldwide can continue to get every product right into players' hands starting at Prerelease in any quantity, from singles to full display boxes.

Your Prerelease allocations will still include Prerelease Packs and free Prize Support Set Boosters—outside of your allocation, Wizards of the Coast does not set order limits for individual products. So, you may order as much as you need to support product and singles sales during Prerelease and beyond.

Buy-a-Box promos will continue to be available to customers who buy a full display of Jumpstart, Play or Collector boosters in-store. Unless otherwise stated, you are free to use surplus promos as you would Promo Packs once the next Standard set has been released. Please note that surplus Promos cannot be used for Premier Play events.

In addition, you may continue scheduling and running Booster Draft events during the week of Prerelease, alongside or in addition to any Prerelease events you may host. Free of charge Prerelease prize support may be used to support Booster Draft events of the new set during this period; however, only official Sealed format Prerelease events will count towards future Prerelease allocations.

Schedule New Player Events in Wizards EventLink

The way to welcome the next generation of Magic fans into the Gathering is to schedule your events in advance; scheduling early gives you the most time to advertise your events and find players interested in trying Magic beyond your usual crowd.

Put your new player experiences on the calendar today so new players exploring the Store & Event Locator can find your events right away!