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Making Magic Happen in Ho Chi Minh City

by

Trung V


Hey y’all — Trung here. I’m excited to finally share a project I’ve been working on for a while. I call it MTG: OFFLINE.

The goal of this project is to vitalize Magic: the Gathering in areas with plenty of players but little to no organized play. And if you’re thinking that sounds like Ho Chi Minh City — you’re right! (I also think so and I’m always right).

So what better place to start than the city we all live and play in, HCMC. After playing here for a year, I’ve learned two big things:

1. Players want better prizes
2. Magic is expensive

So to achieve my goal and make Magic happen here, I must tackle both.

Prizes

This one’s obvious. If I can get booster packs below retail price, we can easily run events where every player leaves with more value than their entry fee.

The challenge? All official Magic products are first imported into Thailand before they are resold to stores in Vietnam. This means even local stores are already paying close to MSRP. I’ve managed to get us into official distribution channels, but I’ll need to pay for some packs myself to “grease the wheels” — problem half-solved.

But packs aren’t the only prize up for grabs! There shall be GLORY.

Starting with the release Spiderman: the Gathering™ on September 26, we will launch a Seasonal Leaderboard. Points will be awarded for attendance and match wins. At Season’s end, we will give out prizes, hold a Season Championship, and a new season of Magic begins.

Prices

This one was harder. Constructed formats like Standard or Modern can be brutal — even the cheapest Tier 1 deck can run you a few hundred bucks. And if you order off of MTGMintCard (like most players here have to), that price can easily double.

So here’s the band-aid:

  • Trade Program — MTG:OFFLINE will buy any Standard-legal card at a percentage of its market value. That means players can cash in unused cards or trade them for pieces they need.
  • Phantom Drafts — For the Limited lovers who want to play Booster Drafts but find the cost to play too limiting ;), we will begin hosting weekly Phantom Drafts. You play the game, MTG:OFFLINE keeps the cards, you get the prizes. It’s a win-win-win.
  • Cheaper Singles — Then, as we buy up enough of everyone’s trash unused cards, MTG:OFFLINE can offer cards to players at a cheaper rate than the international sites. But this will take time to accomplish.

None of this is guaranteed to work or even help at all. But nothing else to do but to try.

That’s all from me for now. Check out Upcoming Events to join some games. Got ideas? I’d love to hear them. Let’s kick off this inaugural Season 1 the right way!

PEACE :))
Trung, Lizard Fan

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