Communicating your event details is crucial for encouraging players to sign up for your events, and that includes your event's prizes. You're allocated promo packs to use for prize support throughout each Magic season, Set Boosters for Prerelease prizing, and product-specific promos for play programs such as Store Championship or the Double Masters 2022 Launch Party. Additionally, many retailers choose to add product purchased through distribution to augment their prize offerings, most commonly Set Boosters.

There are a lot of ways to prize your events—and we have some recommendations to guide you in applying the appropriate prize structure no matter what you run.

Use Flat Prizing for New Player & At-Home Events

A flat prize structure is exactly as it sounds: every player participating in the event is rewarded with the same prize, regardless of wins or losses. We recommend using this prize structure for any events geared toward new players or events where your focus is community building and engagement.

For At-Home events, communicate up front how prizes are delivered to your players: for example, if you run an At-Home Prerelease for Dominaria United, you may ship the prizes to each participating player alongside their Prerelease kits. That way, your players can still feel great about participating in your event without feeling like they're missing out on prizes by being unable to make it in person.

Make Prizes Top-Heavy for Competitive Tournaments

Top-heavy prizing rewards players for doing well in the event and appeals to a more competitive crowd. There are two common methods for this:

• Points-based prizing: players receive prizes based on their overall wins or match points. For example, players get 1 pack per match win.


• Standings-based prizing: players receive prizes based on the final standings. For example, in a 4-3-2-2 standings-based prize structure, 1st place would receive four packs, 2^nd place would receive 3 packs, and 3^rd and 4^th would each receive 2. An even more top-heavy structure would be an 8-4, where 1^st place receives 8 packs, 2^nd receives 4 packs, and no other players receive any.

For competitive program events like Store Championship and Game Day, we provide you with Participation, Top 8, and First Place promos to hand out to players and you are welcome to add more prizing as you see fit. Be sure to highlight your prize structure when promoting your event.

Give Players Prizing Power for Commander Nights

You can be the most creative when prizing for Commander. Using the Commander Nights achievements template, you can reward players for the number of achievements they complete across a full season. Alternatively, you can put the prizing power in the player's hands: give every player a promo pack and allow them the chance to award it to the player they had the most fun with that evening.

You can also replace promo packs with "points," where each player has points to award to others for things such as sportsmanship, creative strategies, or big plays. The player with the most of these points at the end of the event or season receives a prize.

Players rewarding each other adds a level of interactivity that helps make your events memorable, encouraging them to return for repeat play throughout the season.

Reward Points & Prizes for Repeat Play

Driving retention is key for community building, so be sure to reward your most loyal and engaged players. Consider creating a stamp or punch card with your store's branding on it. After a player earns enough stamps, they may earn a prize at your discretion.

Running an in-store league rewards players for returning and playing in-store on multiple days by giving them points. Players with the most points at the end of the season can earn prizes such as leftover event promos or in-store credit.

You know your players best and creating a system that works best for your community encourages growth—and it all starts with putting your events on the calendar. Be sure to head to the Events Page and fill out your summer schedule.