05/27/2026
🚨 HAVE YOU SEEN ME?🚨
Our Strixhaven Codex Bundles are still MIA. That’s now three key items from this release with significant delays while Amazon and mass retail somehow seem to have endless quantity. Once again, WOTC has prioritized mass retail over the LGS.
Magic: The Gathering constantly tells stores that the LGS is the heart of the Magic community and that “big things are coming” for stores. But since 2021, their actions have not been consistent with their words.
We’ve been doing our part since 1995. We’ve spent decades teaching people how to play this game, hosting events, building communities, giving people somewhere to belong on Friday nights, and keeping Magic alive long before it became the corporate juggernaut it is today.
But the easiest way to grow a community is pretty simple: make sure the stores building that community actually have the products people want.
When customers come in excited for a new release and we don’t have the product because of supply chain issues or product availability, we’re the ones who look incompetent. We’re the ones standing there having to explain why Amazon can get it to their door tomorrow while their local game store can’t even get enough to support their regular customers. After enough of that, people stop relying on stores for their purchases and start looking elsewhere first.
And this isn’t some one-off issue. It’s been building for years.
From 2021-2023, WOTC was selling products on Amazon below a stores distribution cost. Since 2024, they’ve repeatedly shorted hobby distribution on product reprints while Amazon appears fully stocked because they can make more money selling direct than through distribution. These are Standard legal sets, mind you. Stores can’t support the format if they can’t get the product.
At the same time, they keep stripping away the little things that made Magic feel special for stores and players alike. Buy-a-Box promos gone. Collector Booster sample packs removed from Commander decks. Pre-release promos no longer stamped. Less promo material for stores. More and more products shifted to direct-to-consumer drops like Secret Lairs and Chaos Vaults, feeding speculators and reseller. All this while LGS owners get left explaining to frustrated customers why they don’t have the product customers want.
The part that’s frustrating is that stores aren’t asking for charity. We’re asking not to be undermined by the company whose game we’ve spent decades helping build.
If you love your LGS — whether it’s us or another store — understand that this stuff matters. Every time stores lose access, lose exclusivity, or lose customer trust, the local community around the game gets weaker too.
The Magic community gets pretty damn loud when it wants to.
If you’re frustrated with product availability at your LGS, say something. If you’re tired of how releases and product drops are handled, say something. If you care about having local stores to play at five or ten years from now, say something.
They may not always listen to stores, but they usually listen when players get loud enough.
