Local Game Stores Run Dry, Latest MTG Sets Are Too Popular

Last updated on September 16, 2025

Burakos, Party Leader – art by Caroline Gariba

Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater is fond of saying that, in MTG, success breeds repetition. If any aspect of a Magic set does particularly well, odds are good that Magic will revisit it in the future.

Right now, though, the latest sets' major success has bred record-breaking sales… and noticeable product shortages. Store owners and players report that sealed product of Edge of Eternities, Final Fantasy, and Tarkir: Dragonstorm is extremely hard to find in LGS. And Mark Rosewater himself has admitted it's due to a demand so high for Magic products that even Wizards of the Coast was surprised.

Latest MTG Sets Are Hard To Come By

The Battle of Bywater – Illustration by Tomas Duchek

“Yesterday, I went to Commander Night at my LGS, who's not a primary MtG store. Usually, we get one participation booster,” posted u/featherlace three weeks ago, in a thread where store owners and players were sharing how hard it was for them to find sealed product. “The last couple of times it was already only from a bad selling set. This time, we didn't get anything. They wrote up our names for the next time they restock, but honestly kinda sad.”

“At this point I'm no longer expecting sufficient restocks,” wrote u/Particular_Coyote_55 in the most-upvoted reply. “This would honestly be fine if I could order more to compensate, instead I'm allocated from the start and what little I see to start is what I get. I've outright given up on any kind of limited event. I simply don't have access to the product.”

Yesterday, a new thread is filled with similar replies: Players can't find EOE or FIN sealed product to draft with, and most LGSs can't get more from their distributors.

“Much like Final Fantasy, Edge of Eternities sold out in about a month and stores have been told not to expect reprints to arrive for months,” wrote Scott Thorne, a store owner and columnist on icv2, on his column last week. “In the meantime, Universes Beyond Final Fantasy, the best-selling Magic: The Gathering set ever, has been out of stock since July with no firm date as to when this Standard legal set will come back into print. “

“We Weren’t Even Close to the Actual Demand,” Mark Rosewater Says

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed – Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

“We anticipated a giant demand. We prepared for a giant demand. We were ready for something of the scope we had never seen before,” admitted Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater in his personal blog. “And it turned out, we weren’t even close to the actual demand.”

Rosewater points out that, by the start of this year, Lord of the Rings was the best-selling expansion of all time, and has been out for close to two years. Final Fantasy outsold LotR in a day.

Yet, even with these huge expectations, WotC printed too few packs. But, to make things worse, WotC made the same mistake twice. In a row. While nowhere near FIN's level in absolute terms, Edge of Eternities also broke past WotC's expectations, making inventories run dry.

“We printed a normal amount of Edge of Eternities boosters, what, in other times, would have been more than enough,” Rosewater wrote in another post (while, in a third post, making clear FIN's extra print runs had no impact on EOE's schedule). “This kind of overall player spike is a hard thing to predict because there’s no precedent for it.”

Between A Rock and Scalp Place

Rune-Sealed Wall (Foundations) – art by Rockey Chen

This product shortage for MTG sets that are more successful that what WotC could have hoped for is putting LGSes in a tough spot.

To begin with, games stores don't buy directly from WotC. They used to, nearly a decade ago, but since 2018 WotC sells to distributors, who then sell to game stores. In other words, WPN retailers order via authorized distributors; your LGS can’t just “order more from Wizards,” even if Wizards had more product.

Some LGS are turning to the secondary market to refill their stock, but that means higher prices… and not every store has understanding clients.

“If we go to the secondary market to fill our shelves,” notes u/ordirmo, “We get accused of charging scalper prices.”

Success breed repetition… but, right now, Magic seems to be suffering from excessive success.