Magic: The Gathering is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and last week they announced something really cool: In a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, they found a bunch of boxes of a very old set, and they decided to randomly add cards from those boxes to packs of that upcoming set.
It seems that some people are skeptical about this “discovery”; the timing certainly is convenient. But even if Wizards of the Coast have known about these boxes for a long time and were saving them for a special opportunity–even a special marketing opportunity–so what? I love the story and the idea of finding something old in a new pack of cards.
I founded Stonemaier Games 10 years ago, and this makes me wish I had set aside something like this so we could include it as a “relic” at some point in the future. That said, I’m not sure this works for a non-collectible card game, as what would someone do with an outdated (or functionally identical) card from Viticulture or Euphoria?
I bet there are some games (or other products) for which this type of “ancient” artifact would work, though–can you think of any? Here’s the video from Magic:
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14 Comments on ““Ancient” Artifacts as a Marketing Strategy”
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You’re famous, so some of us would be honored to have an artifact from a game prototype with your autograph. Honestly, your autographed Tapestry rulebook is one of my most prized possessions. There are plenty of people who would absolutely love a prototype card or player mat from an early game (Viticulture, Euphoria or Scythe are old enough to quality, I think), especially if you autographed it.
I’m honored to hear that! We do offer signed cards on our webstore, though I see what you’re saying about signed artifacts. Unfortunately, I recycle prototypes after using them! :)
Perhaps your data backups have a copy of an old INDD file containing an early set of cards, which could be printed and autographed as prizes or gifts. For example, you could give out some to random webstore customers or newsletter subscribers, and/or you could send some to Dusty for distribution to random Mill subscribers, both to build brand enthusiasm among players as well as to thank Dusty for how he amplifies the community’s energy.
It also occurs to me that you could do something similar by running a tournament for Pendulum players and giving autographed prototype cards as prizes by that designer.
If you mouse over the cards in the list, you can see an image for some. Others, they have removed the image from the website entirely. Clearly they are excluding cards illustrated by Harold McNeill.
It might work for you Jamey since you are a recognizable designer—having old version of cards as a collectible in future games
As a skeptical person, I’m not sure I ever thought I’d say this but here it goes: I trust Wizards on this one.
To be clear, I’m pretty sure they found the cards years ago and just didn’t know what to do with them. Or they immediately knew and kept them a secret until the time was right. But it does not at all seem farfetched to me that a company found these cases somewhere random decades later. As someome that has cleaned out many MANY homes of people that have moved away or passed on and left stuff, sometimes u find valuable things, even rolls of cash, that people forgot about. I pulled up a carpet in a closet once and just found a large safe in the cement underneath.
So this seems reasonable to me.
As for non-ccg items that could do this, I can see prototype prints as something people want. Because, at least to me, the stunt us less about how playable the cards are and more about their collectibility.
I’m glad someone else believes them! :) I’m with you, Eduardo.
Leaving aside the veracity of the warehouse finding event, what is really suspicious is that there is a list of cards they haven´t found in the openings, and therefore you shouldn´t expect to find in the collectors boosters. Okay. But then, they go on saying: “Additionally, the following cards will not be included:” And the list includes, for instance, Sylvan Library, among others. Why? No explanation. It simply blows my mind. Check it out: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/lost-legends-2022-07-21
Really annoying. And cheeky, in my opinion.
My reaction when reading that list was, “I’m sure they have good decisions for not including these cards.” I would be curious to hear those reasons, but I also don’t feel entitled to know the answers.
Long time magic player here; There’s two factors for the missing cards:
1) There was a coalition error in the original print run of Legends that resulted in only half of the set ever ending up in a case. You had a 50/50 chance of which “half” of the set you would ever open.
2) After the 2020 BLM events, Wizards decided to ban and never reprint a subset of cards from the early days that depicted or represented, ahem, problematic ideas. As for Sylvan Library, the card has since been reprinted many times with new art. If you do some digging and google the original artist, you will see why they chose not to include this card in this promotion.
For myself, I have no problem with them doing a marketing opportunity with the product, Personally however if it isn’t true that they just found them, I just don’t like being lied to. I, and I’m sure many others, would have still gladly enjoyed the opportunity to maybe open relics if wizard just said “to celebrate our 30th anniversary we are going big and putting then in packs” (they have done something similar in Zendikar). However since they, as you pointed out, may have just lied to create hype/ market and said “we just happened to find it in a warehouse”, it personally leaves a bad taste in my mouth if I were to find out they just lied about it.
I know it’s not really the point of your article, which I think atleast is trying to say how neat an idea relics would be, however do you not think it may be bad and hurt trust with customers if you were caught lying for a promotional stunt? Do you think it will have a long term positive, neutral, or negative effect?
Thank you for the many great things you do :)
John: Thanks for your comment. I should first say that I believe Wizards of the Coast. They’ve made so much product over the years that so many different companies have bought–it doesn’t surprise me at all that they would find cases in various warehouses. Stonemaier Games is so much smaller than WotC, and even our warehouses have randomly found entire pallets sitting in some dusty corner. If anyone is in doubt, I’d recommend visiting a warehouse to see how much random stuff is everywhere–and that’s just one warehouse out of all the different warehouses, fulfillment centers, and distributors in the world! :)
As for your question, I always believe in leading with the truth. If we did something like this at Stonemaier Games, while we might lead with the “lore” version of the story, I’d still include the truth at the end of the article. Given that Magic didn’t do that with their story, I’m inclined to believe the truth of what they said (noting that they didn’t include all details, like when the cases were found, meaning that they may have just omitted some information that didn’t work for the story but also doesn’t impact the fun of the reveal).
Thank you for your reply Jamey.
I’m sorry if my comment gave the impression I thought you didn’t believe wizards account of what happened, as that was not my intent.
Though I don’t know from first hand experience I honestly believe warehouses like this are big and things can get lost, as wizards has made many projects.
I myself am unsure about how it all went down either way, and I mentioned in my earlier comment I would have been just as excited if they found it or if they were doing a special inclusion to celebrate 30 years of magic. I think including relics in a TCG, especially one as old as mtg is a really exciting way to celebrate the past present and future.
I agree with the point you make in your OP that a relic like this is more exciting from a TCG, than from a product where you know the contents. Would you ever consider doing a giveaway of an old early stage prototype of a game as a “relic” from Stonemaier’s past?
Thank you.
Thanks for clarifying, John—sorry for the misunderstanding. I like the idea, but I typically recycle prototypes after I’ve moved on. They’re pretty bare bones! :)