The time to order Adventures in the Forgotten Realms has come! If you're new to the Wizards Play Network or are wondering how you can more accurately pinpoint the amount of Magic product you should order for the set, these tips from WPN members will point you in the right direction.

We asked WPN retailers on the Wizards Play Network (WPN) - North America Facebook group what they consider when deciding how much Magic product to order when availability isn't an issue.

Turns out, there are two main factors that almost every retailer mentioned:

• Historical data


• Intuition

Historical Data—The Backbone of Magic Orders

Most of the retailers in the group mentioned using historical data when choosing how much Magic product to order from distributors.

Which bits of that historical data retailers look at vary—there's no right answer to how you use it!—but almost everyone uses data as a starting point, and it should play the most important role in your decision making.

Standard Sets

When it comes to a Standard set release like Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, some retailers look at the previous two sets—Kaldheim and Strixhaven: School of Mages, in this case.

Others compare sets with similar themes (the factions in Guilds of Ravnica to the schools of Strixhaven: School of Mages, for example).

Still others compare to sets that came out at the same time in previous years—Core Set 2021 in this case.

Whichever chunk of historical data you use, it makes a great starting point to prepare for your store's expected growth.

For example, Rob Placer of Family Fun Hobbies starts with the sales and presales of Draft Booster Displays from Prerelease through Launch Weekend and picks the higher of the two sets. "Then we add 10 percent to that total,” he says. “That allows for reasonable growth. If the new set is not as hot, no worries… This just means we do not have to order additional for a while."

Non-Standard Releases

Non-Standard releases like Modern Horizons 2 can be harder to judge against historical data, but there are still touchpoints you can reference.

Jeremiah Henson of +1 Gaming compares to other releases that seem the most similar. "Commander Legends was based on Battlebond and Modern Horizons, for instance: experimental draft-oriented sets with strong Commander overlap," he says.

Per Carlsson of Prisfyndet relies heavily on historical data, but also recognizes that it's harder to compare in non-Standard releases. "Here it is more about the fingerspitzengefühl and less about data," he says.

The German word for "fingertips feeling," fingerspitzengefühl, is also known as intuition—another important aspect of deciding how much of a Magic set to buy.

Intuition and Insight—Fine-Tune Your Magic Order

A lot of factors that affect the "right" amount of Magic to buy are completely unique to your store, like:

• Store location


• Room to store extra product


• Budget


• Number of regular customers


• Customers' preferred formats


• Any store specializations


• Many, many more

Some of these factors are more concrete—you can easily measure your storage space and determine how many Set Booster Displays will fit in that space.

But others are a little more subjective, like which products most interest your customers. You likely have an instinct about how well a given set will perform in your community already, but it never hurts to apply a little extra insight to those gut feelings.

Most retailers agree that getting a sense of the community hype is a vital part of the ordering process, even if information on the newest set is limited.

A good place to start is to gauge the overall Magic community's excitement for the upcoming set. Chris Rogers of Misty Mountain Games - Madison says, "We look at set mechanics, check Reddit threads, talk to players, and try to gauge demand from that."

From there, you can talk to your customers to see what interests them most—your community may be more interested in grabbing a ton of new cards to add to their deck (point them to a Theme Booster!) than collecting all the unique foils and alternate-art cards in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.

The only way to know is to ask!

Personalizing your historical data with the insights gathered from your unique market will guide you to the best possible decisions when ordering the right amount of product for your customers and your store.

Now is the time to order Adventures in the Forgotten Realms—check your historical data, poll your communities, and contact your distributor today.