Konami Cross Media, at Brand Licensing Europe, the major licensing convention in Europe, announced new merchandising deals via Jennifer Coleman, their vice president of licensing and marketing.
It is noted the new merchandise line is intended to target the Gen Z portion of the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, and should be available for the 2023 holiday season.
Their newest licensing partners are:
Fashion UK, a clothing firm that sells clothes based on popular brands and IPs.
Kovert, a US based manufacturer of Gym goods and clothing based on anime IPs.
Mister SFC, a company that sells jewlery and Funko Pops. They’ve stated their jewelry is intended to line up with the 25th anniversary of the card game.
One Piece CG: Kingdoms of Intrigue Booster Boxcommandeered the top spot on the September 2023 TCGplayer Top 25 Sealed Products chart, which ranks the most active products on the platform by dollar volume, showing the beginning and ending prices of each product. The new chart also offered some new insights into the developing trends in the TCG market.
It took awhile, but it looks like Wizards of the Coast’s constant reprinting of desirable Magic: The Gathering cards, in an effort to make them more available as game pieces, as well as their price increases on premium sets may have finally started to catch up with them. The September 2023 chart (see “September 2023“) was not kind to Magic: The Gathering, as their products only grabbed three slots total with the highest slot being #10. Magic had more or less been leading the way throughout 2023, routinely hauling in 8 to 13 slots on about every chart this year.
So, what happened here?
Well, Magic’s recent slide can probably be attributed to a few factors (as hinted at above). WotC has basically been reprinting any non-serialized, non-reserved list card that is over $50 in value that they can shove into Secret Lairs, premium sets, The List, and special sheets in Standard sets to create value. At the same time, they’ve been increasing prices. Their most recent Commander Masters set was clearly priced beyond what consumers were willing to pay, and it showed as this set was notably absent from the September 2023 chart after only arriving in August 2023. Also, the woes of the Standard format on the tabletop aren’t helping matters much in the way of sales for new sets (see “‘Magic: The Gathering’s’ Standard Format“).
However, Magic’s biggest problem, at least right now, isn’t any of the aforementioned. The utter explosion in popularity of One Piece CG and Disney Lorcana is putting a dent in their bottom line by capturing market share. As noted back in June 2023 (see “Is Q3 About to Get Scary for TCGs? “), Q3 had a loaded release schedule and TCG enthusiasts do not have an unlimited pool of money to spend on Magic. TCG fans went an entirely different direction in September, and bought in deep on One Piece CG, no doubt partially aided by the buzz behind the release of the live action series (see ” ‘One Piece’ Renewed“), and Disney Lorcana, which did the most damage by taking up eight slots on the chart despite being short product versus the demand for the game. Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG and Pokemon TCG took their usual market share for Q3, with Yu-Gi-Oh! having a particularly strong month, and Magic was forced to take a backseat to their heavyweight IPs.
The road forward may get better for Magic: The Gathering, depending how well the reprint of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Special Edition does over the holidays (see “‘LotR’ Holiday Release Product Deets Revealed“). Preorders for Doctor Who set, which was also absent from the September 2023 chart, are not looking promising at this point, and it is too early to tell on Lost Caverns of Ixalan. The end of 2023 could be a rough one for WotC if One Piece and Disney Lorcana’s momentum
Longtime Magic: The Gathering retailing powerhouse Troll and Toad will back off from Magic: The Gathering singles and sealed products as of January 1, 2024, after an almost 30-year run selling the line.
This is the end of an era. Troll and Toad, which has been in operation since 1994, was one of the first large-scale buyers and sellers of Magic: The Gathering cards. In October 2023, the decision was made to stop purchasing Magic singles. Today, owner Ben Burns told ICv2 that they will only take delivery on the next two rounds of Magic: The Gathering sealed product. They are also looking at running a sale in the near future to unload Magic singles and sealed product from their warehouse. This, for the moment, puts their almost 30-year relationship with Wizards of the Coast’s flagship product on ice.
The decision to stop buying Magic: The Gathering singles and sealed product was based on a number of factors, Burns explained. The primary one was that selling Magic was simply not as profitable as it once was for the company, and other TCG products, such as Pokemon TCG, Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, and One Piece CG, were doing better. Another major reason cited by Burns was that the constant reprinting of valuable cards and the number of variants of these cards made buylist pricing difficult and sometimes resulted in buying cards at a loss as new reprints were announced. Troll and Toad management was also spooked by the reprinting of non-tournament-legal reserved-list cards in Magic: The Gathering – 30th Anniversary Edition, and decided to no longer take the risk that WotC may do it again one day by not carrying the reserved list singles (see “‘Magic: The Gathering – 30th Anniversary Edition’“).
“Magic is not profitable enough for our company to continue carrying right now,” said Burns to ICv2. “Sometimes it felt like I was only stocking Magic product because I loved the game so much.”
Troll and Toad will continue to buy (and sell) Pokemon TCG, Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, One Piece CG, Digimon CG, and various WizKids miniatures as they have in the past.
Sorcery: Contested Realm has arrived, and players worldwide have begun gathering to meet for in-person gameplay. One of the first Sorcery launch events in the world took place on July 16th at Plenty of Games in Melbourne, Australia.
The 16-player event, led by Jesse Meulman-Marshall from the team at Plenty of Games (and The Winning Agenda), along with Scott and Joel, was a tremendous success. Although their official launch event was initially planned for August 6th, the excitement within the group couldn’t be contained when the product arrived at the store in late June.
As a result, an additional event was quickly scheduled. Jesse explained, “We couldn’t wait that long to start in-store play, so we organized this event with just a couple of weeks’ notice to players. The turnout exceeded our expectations, and we sold out of tickets, which was fantastic!”
For the event, Plenty of Games opted for a sealed format with the following guidelines:
Each player received 6 packs.
Spellbook required a minimum of 25 cards, while Atlas required a minimum of 12 cards.
Basic sites and Sorcerer avatars were provided to all participants from Jesse’s personal collection, and everyone kindly returned them at the end.
There were no restrictions on the number of cards in a deck, so players could include duplicates if they obtained multiple copies of the same unique card.
Matches were best of 1, with 50-minute rounds and 1 additional turn per player after time was called.
Wins earned 3 match points, ties earned 1 match point, and losses earned 0 match points.
Jesse shared his excitement about witnessing players enjoy the game in the right spirit, saying, “There were lots of laughs along the way (Giant Shark with a Crossbow?). People really embraced the joy and fun depicted in the cards and in the game.”
Alongside newcomers, familiar faces from local TCG communities, like Toby Firth, eagerly embraced Sorcery: Contested Realm. Toby, drawing upon his experience as a TCG player, skillfully navigated the event, adapting to Sorcery’s unique tactical mechanics.
Jesse recalled an exhilarating sequence when Toby momentarily forgot about Death’s Door in a match, believing he had already won. Realizing he still needed to deliver the final blow, Toby laughed, while his opponent made a last-ditch effort to escape their fate, hoping a Sea Serpent wielding a Flaming Sword could protect their avatar. Later, with an Incinerate in hand, Toby successfully contested the Realm!
You can catch gameplay from the event from Jesse on his Youtube Channel.
Plenty of Games will continue to host its Alpha Launch Celebration of Sorcery: Contested Realm with an event on August 6th. Those interested can find more details here.
Are you hosting an event for Sorcery: Contested Realm? Be sure to share your event in the Sorcery: Contested Realm Official Facebook group!
Obtain two new card technologies with the 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection!
Coming this November, you can finally get your hands on two new card technologies that have only been available overseas – until now!
The 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection is a spectacular all-foil set with 79 of the game’s most popular cards, each available in 7 different rarities, including 2 brand-new rarities:
Watch as your cards sparkle, shine, and gleam in rarities so luxurious that you will be the envy of every Duelist!
Go into your next tournament well prepared with competitive mainstays that can go in any Deck, like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Nibiru, The Primal Being, Effect Veiler, and Infinite Impermanence.
Unlock the full potential of your Extra Deck with game-defining cards like Baronne de Fleur and Borreload Savage Dragon. And fans of the anime will finally get another chance at obtaining the Egyptian God Slime!
And you can add some of the best Spell Cards in the game to your collection and your Deck! Cards you won’t want to miss out on like Pot of Prosperity, Triple Tactics Talent, and Forbidden Droplet.
And in a special twist, the structure of these packs is like nothing you’ve seen before, as each pack has a chance to have 1, 2 (sometimes!), or even 3 (whoa! jackpot!) of the new “luxury rare” technologies. Each pack will contain:
And with every card available in every rarity, you can collect matching copies, or mix and match the rarities of your favorite cards!
You can now wear the strongest Egyptian God on your feet. These don’t seem to include a unique card though.
The third collaboration between adidas and Yu-Gi-Oh! became available yesterday (29th of June, 2023) and this time features The Winged Dragon of Ra and Yami Marik. While not currently available on the US adidas site, they are currently available at the Foot Locker for $90.00 USD.
The toe of the sneaker features an engraved Millennium Puzzle, while the tongue of the right shoe has a black and white illustration of Yami Marik. The back of the right shoe features the Millennium Rod.
Reportedly these are also made of approximately 50% recycled materials.
Upper Deck will release Vs. System TPCG: AEW: All Elite Wrestling, introducing a new universe for Vs. System players, on August 2. Cards will feature the images of AEW stars, including Sting, Jon Moxley, Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., and MJF, from the show.
Each player in this two-player game will take on the role of one main wrestler and build a deck of 60 cards to use in the match. Gameplay follows the AEW script: the first player to KO their opponent’s Main Character wins.
The 200 cards in the set include 12 new Main Characters and 28 new Supporting Characters across two new team factions.
From the image, the following cards can be confirmed as one of the variant Quarter Century Rares included with each tin: Dark Magician Exodia the Forbidden One Red-Eyes Black Dragon Rainbow Dragon Cyber Dragon Elemental HERO Neos Salamangreat Blaze Dragon Firewall Dragon.
Ravensburger has released a Quick Start rules set for Disney Lorcana, the new Disney-themed TCG, to the public. This release of the Quick Start rules set occurred after a partial rules set was leaked to the public via a cover story in early-arriving copies of Game Trade Magazine #279. The new TCG carries some mechanical elements of other popular TCGs all wrapped up in Disney-themed skin. In Disney Lorcana, the goal of the game is to be the first player to earn 20 or more Lore. Decks contain a minimum of 60 cards with only four copies of each card per deck, and decks can only consist of one to two types of Inks. Cards have a symbol and colored band on them indicating their Ink type, similar to color types in Magic: The Gathering.
There are three types of cards in this game: Characters, Items, and Actions. Characters cards, the bread and butter of the game, have a Cost, Strength (similar to Magic “power”), Willpower (similar to Magic “toughness”), Abilities and Effects, Classifications, Ink, and Lore Value. Characters go off on Quests to earn their Lore Value in Lore points and can enter Challenges (fighting each other as in Pokemon TCG). Items are permanents that grant special abilities, and Actions are one-time use cards that create an effect then get discarded. There are five rarities for Disney Lorcana cards: common, uncommon, rare, super rare, and legendary. The game starts with players shuffling up decks, setting their Lore counters to 0, and drawing seven cards. After drawing, players get to alter their hands by putting any number of cards from their hand on the bottom of their deck and drawing back to seven cards (shuffling their deck afterward). First player is determined by random method (coin flip, die roll, etc.).
The game proceeds into a Beginning Phase, where players Ready exerted cards (similar to “untap/tap” in Magic), check for effects, and draw a card (except on the first player’s first turn). Players then enter their Main Phase where they can play a card face down in their Inkwell to create Ink. The Ink card stays in the Inkwell for the remainder of the game and produces one Ink, acting similar to the colorless version of land in Magic. Players can then exert their Ink to pay for cards’ costs to put them into play.
Players gain lore by exerting characters to gain their Lore value. They can also exert characters to engage other exerted characters in Challenges, where the characters duel each other. Characters that are reduced to zero Willpower are banished from the board. Like Pokemon TCG, damage remains on characters throughout the game. After the Main Phase ends, the game progresses to the next player’s turn and proceeds on from there until someone ends up with 20 Lore and wins.
In general, Disney Lorcana offers a lot of appealing elements for TCG players both new and experienced. The game seems easy to pick up and play, but also features some level of advanced strategy as players will need to make choices as to when to exert for Lore versus attempting to slow down their opponent’s progress.
Ravensburger announced that they will be launching an organized play program for their new Disney Lorcana TCG once the game releases into retail in August 2023. The OP program will offer FLGS resources to support Disney Lorcana game nights in their stores. The support will come in the form of OP kits. These kits include promo cards, pins, and prize support. Stores can utilize the kits to host tournaments or to encourage league play, and players will be able to collect points to earn prizes by bringing a friend to game night or teaching someone else the rules. These kits will support up to 12 weeks worth of league play.
Brother Of Runes 