Hopefully you’ve already been planning out your Promo Pack distribution plan for Throne of Eldraine, but if not: now is the time! Promo Packs land in stores this week.

While monitoring the WPN Facebook Group, I've joined countless conversations with WPN members as they exchange ideas and best practices for Promo Pack organization. Here are some of the best ideas I've taken away from those conversations.

It is up to you how to divvy up your packs between events and how to distribute them at those events, but keep in mind that our marketing will indicate to players that organizers will in some way distribute Promo Packs for Friday Night Magic, Draft Weekend, and Magic Weekend.

Let’s look at an example. The Throne of Eldraine season is sixteen weeks long. For an average store receiving eight packs per week, that comes out to 128 total packs. If you were to divvy your packs up based on our recommendation, here is how it would break down (with a little rounding of course):

Keep in mind that these guidelines are optional, but it is highly recommended that you have at least some amount of Promo Packs designated for these programs.

You have a lot of wiggle room with that last 25% of packs. That could be 1–2 packs per week for an additional weekly event, or even a large culmination event at the end of the season. Or perhaps you just want to incorporate them into your FNM prizing.

Take note of what works and what doesn’t and adjust as needed for next season.

In addition to allocating packs between your events, it’s also important to decide how you are going to distribute them with players at your events.

Here are some solid ideas I've heard from around the WPN.

1. Prizing based on ranking for competitive events. Example: the winner of each Draft Weekend pod gets a foil pack and places 2–4 get a non-foil pack.


2. Prizing that scales up with attendance. Example: one Promo Pack per eight players in an event. (This is Michael Bahr's method, which you can read about here.)


3. Prizing based on completing an achievement list of some kind. Example: complete five fun in-game achievements to qualify for a pack, such as winning the game at one life or saving an opponent’s life in a multiplayer game.


4. Loyalty or long-term event attendance rewards. Example: every event entry gets a point, six points get you a pack.


5. Player recruitment incentive. Example: offering a pack to both the recruiter and new player once a new player has completed a certain number of tasks or events.


 

Most of these ideas work best in a "first to finish" format so that there's an upper limit to the number of packs you can give out. That way you can apportion your packs without having to predict exactly how many players will meet the criteria.

However you decide to distribute, be sure to explain it in your online event information, and at the beginning of the event. The most important thing is that players know what to expect when they join one of your events.

Incorporate it into your advertising; the power of the Promo Pack is in its ability to attract players to your events. Make sure they know about them!