Magic: The Gathering Foundations releases November 15, and it's never too early to start planning your store's new player acquisition strategies. Foundations invites players of all experience levels to join the Gathering—more experienced players can help teach Magic, and new players can satisfy their curiosity and discover makes Magic an incredible social gaming experience.

From the product lineup to WPN events, Foundations provides a full suite of resources to further grow your community.

Capture new player interest with the Beginner Box.

A new player's Magic journey starts here—the Beginner Box comes with two guided deck experiences using 20-card themed packs comprised of cards from Magic: The Gathering Foundations. The guided decks are pre-shuffled, and the box has how-to booklets to explain what to do during each phase of their turn. It includes a QR code that features more information and resources for learning Magic.

The Beginner Box is perfect to open with a friend, giving both players a first taste of the game. And that's not all! Once players feel comfortable with the guided decks, they can explore any of the other eight themed packs inside the Beginner Box, each of them a different Magic: The Gathering Foundations theme.

The box even includes starter accessories—two gameboard playmats and two Spindown life counters—that commemorate the start of their journey.

Get players engaged with their first event: Magic Academy: Learn to Play.

The event where you may find it easiest to capture the most interest in the Beginner Box is at Magic Academy: Learn to Play. Available to schedule in advance or fire on demand at your store, this event is an expansion on Open House. We encourage you to report all demo experiences at your store!

Magic Academy: Learn to Play has more material support to create an unforgettable new player experience in your store. With your Magic: The Gathering Foundations promotional materials kit, you'll receive the following to support the event:

• Welcome Decks for participants (English-language only)
• Learn-to-Play Brochure and pocket reference card for participants
• Sticker Sheets for new and experienced player participants
• Gift-with-purchase promo for purchasing the following Magic: The Gathering Foundations products: Beginner Box, Starter Collection, Starter Kit, or 6 Play Boosters at the Deck Building event)
• Magic Community Tutor pins by Pinfinity AR for the most helpful, friendly players (given at your store's discretion)

As Welcome Decks are only available in English, stores supporting Magic Academy: Learn-to-Play events in non-English languages may use the guided deck experience from the Beginner Box instead. WPN stores that primarily carry non-English language products in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa will receive one free-of-charge Beginner Box from their distributors to have on-hand for demo purposes for this Magic Academy event and beyond. WPN stores in those regions that primarily carry English-language product will receive Welcome Decks.

Once players arrive to your store, you'll get them started with a video that guides them through Magic, then provide additional event materials (a Learn-to-Play brochure and pocket reference card), and they'll rate their current experience level on a scale of 1-3:

1. Brand New – "I’ve never played Magic before"
2. Intermediate Beginner – "I’ve played a game or two, but I'm still learning as I play"
3. Advanced Beginner – "I've learned the core rules of the game, and am ready to hone my skills"

To provide the best experience for those brand new to Magic at your store, we recommend you pair players up for matches by level whenever possible. Building a welcoming environment to invite more players into the Gathering helps encourage them to come back for future events.

Keep players coming back with repeat scheduled events on Wizards EventLink.

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 you may want even more events on your calendar to allow players to explore formats and events that interest them the most.

Our data shows that events scheduled more than a month in advance have 40% more event attendance than events scheduled less than one month ahead of time. Scheduling in advance also means more players who use our Store & Event Locator will find your store's events as they browse for what's happening near them.

Having go-to repeating events such as Friday Night Magic and Standard Showdown scheduled in Wizards EventLink helps, but we encourage you to take the time to fill out your calendar for the entire season ahead of time.

Help players prepare for their first Prerelease with Magic Academy: Deck Building.

After Magic Academy: Learn to Play, guide players to continue to level up along their Magic journey by registering for the Magic Academy: Deck Building event. Like Learn to Play, this second Magic Academy event is supported with video content, guiding players through the process of building a 40-card Magic deck using a Sealed pool of cards (six booster packs).

Topics in the video include:

• Which Magic formats use this style of deck
• Sorting cards by color
• Identifying key cards in the pool
• Mana curve planning 
• Color combinations

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.

We recommend you have players rate their experience on the same 1-3 scale they used for Magic Academy: Learn to Play to help guide your matchups. Even so, players will play at different speeds, or some may drop during the event: make sure your staff is available to help players find new games when needed!

You can schedule Magic Academy: Deck Building whenever you like; you may consider running one as a lead-in to Prerelease, as a follow up to Magic Academy: Learn to Play, or even in the hours leading up to your store's next Limited event.

Always be willing to try something new.

There are boundless strategies for new player acquisition—we've barely scratched the surface. If you find yourself inspired by what other store owners in the community are doing, or if you simply need to try something different, lean into that feeling! A change of pace could be just the thing you need to snag the attention of that hesitant would-be Magic player and turn them into a lifelong fan and customer at your store.

Regardless, many of the paths to new player acquisition begin with event scheduling; check out our event pages and fill out a robust schedule in Wizards EventLink today.