Pauper Jumpstart recieved leaked metrics from an unnamed source showing a massive spike in engagement with the brand after the recent announcement of the 2022 Magic: The Gathering release schedule. The unveiling of 2022’s standard sets were generally praised while the announcement of Universes Beyond collaberations and Secret Lair treatments caused an uproar.
If our sources data is to be believed the announcement of Secret Lair: Fortnite was the most talked about product ever announced. Mentions and engagement reached record levels.
“When people like something,” Brad Hollen, a marketing and media specialist told us, “they might share it with one person. They might say ‘cool’ and move on with their lives. When a product like Fornite, something people widely hated, was announced it created what we call the Kanye effect – doing something so absurd that you create something that’s widely shared. Everyone heard about it. Everyone.
“We got the idea from Social Media,” a WotC representative told us. “Sure they were obviously joking at the time, but there’s always a little truth in humor. The fact that everyone laughed and thought the idea was absurd was exactly why we did it. Our pitch to the executives was easy. We just wrote, “it’s going to trigger everyone” on a piece of paper and handed it to them. The project was approved immediately.”
From there the team took to social media, mainly r/magicthecirclejerking for new ideas. “One of the things we saw was how much people made fun of how much new commander product there was. Sure we already saturated the market with new cards in the form of a new set and a metric ton of preconstructed decks which lead people to make fun of us for putting commander product everywhere. Another great idea, so you’ll be seeing commander-only cards appearing in Set Boosters moving forward. Everyone totally hated this annoucement too, but guess what – everyone knows about set boosters by now and all those commander players groaning are going to buy massive piles.”
We asked the expected revenue increase from this new tactic. “We’re just going to start filling trash cans because our bank can’t fit anymore.”