Magic: The Gathering Prereleases are some of the most exciting events on the WPN calendar. To help you meet increasing demand and build your in-store play community, we're introducing a fallback entry option using Play Boosters and beginning a regional test to phase out At-Home Prerelease.

New Prerelease Fallback Option: Using Play Boosters

If your store runs out of Prerelease Packs, you may now seat players in a Prerelease event using six Play Boosters. These entries will count toward future Prerelease Pack allocations while ensuring no one misses out due to Prerelease Pack availability.

This option is meant as a last resort only; Prerelease Packs remain the centerpiece of the event experience. The Play Booster fallback gives you a way to deliver a Prerelease experience when demand exceeds supply.

For example: Your store received 40 Prerelease Packs, but this new set is even more popular than expected, and you sell out in advance. Two walk-in players arrive on Friday at the start of Prerelease, eager to join. In the past, they might have left disappointed. Now, you can seat them with six Play Boosters each, capture their participation, and have it count toward your future allocation. Players provided with Play Boosters can be enrolled in the same event and be paired with players using Prerelease Packs.

When using this option, be clear with participating players that their event materials will differ from others. Players entered with Play Boosters will not receive the stamped rare or mythic rare promo card, nor a factionalized seeded pack in sets where a factionalized Prerelease experience is featured.

Testing a Phase-Out of At-Home Prerelease

At-Home Prerelease was introduced during COVID restrictions when in-store play wasn't always possible. As play has largely returned to stores, we are testing a phase-out of this program in the EMEA, Australia, and New Zealand regions to gather more data.

Stores in these regions may still sell Prerelease Packs during the exclusive early sales period, but will no longer have access to the At-Home Prerelease scheduling template in Wizards EventLink, so these won't be counted toward ticket metrics and future allocations.

This test will help us evaluate concluding the At-Home Prerelease program. We'll gather additional feedback through surveys, review the results, and share any future changes to the policy in other regions when we learn more.

Looking Ahead

We'll continue to refine Prerelease with the same goal in mind: helping you deliver the best possible experience for players. These changes are a step toward making sure no interested player is left out, and that your efforts to grow your community are supported.

If you have questions, please contact Retail Support.