The End of Foil Redemption Sets
Posted on Jun 27, 2024
Dear Magic Online Community,
We have some important updates regarding Magic Online set redemption—the process for converting digital sets on MTGO into physical sets shipped to your door.
Redemption for Foil Sets Is Ending
Starting in September with the upcoming Bloomburrow set, the production of foil redemption sets will cease. This will end Magic Online’s ability to offer the redemption of digital foil sets for physical foil sets. And while regular sets will still be made, the manufacturing cost of those sets will rise. Here’s how we are adapting to this new redemption-set availability:
- Digital foil sets will be redeemable for regular physical sets. Starting with Bloomburrow, you will be able to redeem both regular digital sets and foil digital sets for regular physical sets. This will maintain demand for foil cards as redemption objects in a world without foil redemption sets.
- Price Increase: Starting with Bloomburrow , the cost of redemption will increase to $45 USD per set, reflecting increased production costs. This necessary $10 adjustment ensures that we can continue to offer the redemption program. The ability to convert digital collectibles into physical collectibles is a unique feature in modern digital gaming and one we would like to preserve. However, while it has never been a significant source of revenue for Magic Online, we can’t justify taking an ongoing loss to maintain it.
- International Shipping Discount for Orders of 3+ Sets: Starting with Bloomburrow’s redemption on-sale date of September 4, customers outside the United States who order 3 or more sets at once will receive a 25-percent discount on all shipping charges in that transaction.
- For example, if a customer in Canada orders 3 sets at once, the total cost is $135 USD for the Tokens and $78.75 USD for shipping (discounted from normal $105) for a pre-tax total of $213.75 USD.
- Note: There are no changes to domestic shipping charges – still $10 USD per set.
Redemption Process Details
Here’s how the process will work:
- You can still redeem regular digital sets for regular physical sets. But as of Bloomburrow, digital foil sets will only be redeemable for regular physical sets. (Any older sets with foil availability remaining will not change this way)
- Each redemption must use all regular or all foil cards. Mixing regular and foil versions to create a redeemable set is still not allowed.
- If redeeming a digital foil set for a regular physical set, the redemption token to purchase will read: Redemption Token (Foil for Regular). We will have new confirmation steps for those tokens to message the change to buyers.
- The ratio of sets redeemable using regular tokens versus foil tokens will remain roughly 7:1, with availability remaining while supplies last.
These changes aim to adjust our redemption process to meet the challenges of factors outside our control in the least painful way possible for our players. While we understand many players will be disappointed with this news, we wanted to offer as much redemption power to foils as we could rather than move to a world where foil cards were not redeemable and regular cards were.
In fact, we considered simply removing foils from digital sets altogether. After all, the demand for foil versions of cards on Magic Online is usually lower than the demand for regular versions once the set it’s in rotates out of the redemption window. So why not just cut them entirely?
The Future of Premium
Because rather than give up on digital foils completely, we want to continue our work to improve them! We have already made great strides in the appearance of MTGO foils, but we’re not done. There are projects underway and plans in the works both to improve how foils look when the animations are turned on, and perhaps more importantly, to improve how they look when foil animations are off!
Imagine Magic Online had a feature that allowed players to view all foils and/or alternate-art promo cards as non-foil, base-frame versions when in a game. If a foil card can be redeemed like a regular version and experienced in a game like the regular version, then the foil version becomes strictly better than the regular version, as it can effectively be either.
Besides improving the baseline foil effect, we are also breaking new ground on what “premium” means on Magic Online in general, where “foil” is just one possible premium treatment. Check out these amazing premium digital cards we’ve released recently!
And we are just getting started on this front. As we announced earlier today, we are debuting Premium Boosters this summer. This is our newest experiment into getting blingy cards into players’ hands!
We're incredibly excited about the advances in our premium treatments, and for the upcoming improvements to the baseline foil treatment and the options for players to experience it. We are filled with hope and excitement for the future of “premium” on Magic Online, even as the ability to redeem foil digital sets for foil physical sets is coming to an end.
Looking Ahead
We are committed to providing the best experience for our Magic Online community, and we appreciate your understanding as we adapt to changing circumstances. For example, starting with Bloomburrow, top event finishers who would normally get a foil set will get both a foil set and a regular set 18 Play Boosters (updated 7/23/2024) as part of their prize.
Your feedback is invaluable, and we look forward to hearing from you as we prepare for Bloomburrow and beyond! Thank you for your continued support of Magic Online.
Sincerely,
The Magic Online Team