Magic is all about the local.

It’s how I learned, and it’s probably how you learned, too. My boys Brent Oja, Keith Faber, and Jay Hinnenkamp got me hooked in the boy scouts. They didn’t learn from tournament coverage, the Pro Tour, or any of the high-level Magic options. Those are nice, sure, but really, the game is about the local nearby option. For some, that is across the table with rubber bands. For others, it’s just fielding a deck for Friday Night Magic. Adding Duels of the Planeswalkers is that touch point for when an older brother isn’t available to teach a new person—it’s just gravy that Hasbro shareholders love to eat up. Keeping Magic close to a personal touch is enormously important. It’s why when a local game store has a really poor experience like rip-off trading or unwelcoming behavior to women—among a variety of incidents—that people can and should yell foul to Helene, and you’re damn right she pays attention to them. You can’t cut off a branded experience at the knees. In order to keep your local game shop fast, fun, and friendly, it always needs new marketing ideas. Coupons and advertising are nice, but promotion need not always cost a store to invest into a new idea.

As we’re in a Greek-themed block, let’s talk about how to incorporate some flavor into your local game store experience. It’s Greek to you? Not anymore. It’s not that hard to add some of these things, and the amount of free advertising from social media is enormous!

Here are six things to do and one group of things not to do:

Greek Potluck

Have your regulars form a group on Facebook listing their potluck items. You know they talk about decks, spoilers, and mini trades. Why not give them a cool thing to work together on? Give them a little incentive to do so too!

Image from dodekanissaweb.gr

• Pita chips
• Greek Caprese salad
• Holy Land (or other local tasty branded) hummus
• Pasta and lamb casserole (Pastitsio is the name; it’s like Greek lasagna)
• Feta with toothpicks
• Stuffed peppers

Checking Pinterest for Greek appetizers will be your friend here.

If you’re really smart, I’d have a grill set up—George Foreman or otherwise—and make some Greek food for crazy cheap prices—like $1 to $3.

If you’re wicked-smart, you’ll have a tasty dish equal out to the leftover cash people have from paying for the prerelease. For example, do you have a $24 to $28 prerelease? Have a $2 to $6 option. If it’s $30, have a $10 meal option with a drink for someone withdrawing two twenty-dollar bills from an ATM.

Were it up to me, I’d talk to a nearby Greek restaurant and ask if they could set up a table to sell their food. Bonus points if it’s a Greek grocery store.

Get Your Cameo on, Cosplay

Every party I threw in college had a theme—everything from Greek togas and “hit the beach” to “bring-a-knife party.” (The latter was a meat-tasting party first and then dance party after—get it? It got pretty wild.) While college students don’t need a reason to party and celebrate, Magic players are already expecting a spectacle in prerelease and release weekends—why not give it to them, way over the top? A theme will bring in a larger number of people, lowering the awkwardness of any event. New players to tournaments are a fragile consumer; being nice to them is easy, and giving them something to talk about without feeling awkward is a bit more difficult. If you have olive branches and a toga on, conversation starts itself before a match without really any effort. If you want to go all satyr, knock yourself out!

I highly suggest you get your LGS to have an ancient-Greek-themed prerelease with a backdrop wall. This allows for Facebook/Instagram pictures while giving a convenient way to show a Top 8. Will it earn upvotes on Reddit? You bet. Will that picture be on Facebook walls, allowing for oodles of free LGS impressions of your business? Absolutely. It’s cheap at Kinkos to have a color version made up with Wizards of the Coast, your LGS logo, and the Theros logo. It can be alligator-clipped to a wall or in front of Warhammer products during a prerelease or release weekend.

Image from signazon.com

Sponsor a Local Team

I wish sponsoring of teams were more common. Think if a New Yorker were in a fall softball league with Titan-sponsored jerseys from Hasbro or Wizards. You going to be the Sun Titan team? Get like my boy Robby, and make a jersey!

Want to know how to get two to three months of cheap, cheap advertising?

Have your local game store sponsor your team, making a cool, themed jersey each year (or tee shirt), tying into the fall set. Usually, a bar will sponsor a team, giving them discounts on pitchers of booze or pizza and some sort of end-of-the-year party. If your local store did this, maybe the team could receive a free draft at the end of the season, $1 off tournaments during the season, and slightly cheaper preorders. Make it cool and worthwhile, and people will beg you to sponsor more events. A storeowner might not even need to pay for his or her branded tee shirts if the benefit is very much tied to the game. I would see if a graphically-inclined player is able to help out, and then you’re off to the races.

While this cost may seem high, it builds a deeper brand connection to the local game store and aids the enfranchised players—you know, the ones who actually spend money at the store. Even better, some of the people on the team might not be Magic players, but we all know that everyone is a Settlers of Catan player.

Bring in the Philosophers

I’m ever an advocate of reaching out to local colleges about local activities.

Some majors just don’t receive inquires all that often. Talk to your local college, and see who teaches Greek. At the University of Minnesota, it’s the Classical and Near Eastern Studies major. You know the last time they were asked to do anything highly relevant? Building Neo-Classical churches in the 1800s? Talk to them. Rarely do these groups have student groups with more than ten people. Let’s be serious here.

See what their department normally does on a monthly basis. Is it just conferences? Do they have cool talks available to the public, saying things like, “P.S. This is relevant”? Maybe there’s a wizard in their ranks who would love to compare “real” Greek culture to Theros. I would bet you three Drachmas there’s a link there.

Sending a group like this the Planeswalker’s Guide to Theros and seeing members comment would be an awesome moment. Maybe a local game store could host a Power Point before a prerelease and get all sorts of education before a tournament. Would it be optional? Sure, but if you have some Vorthoses in the group, the cost is free, and the impact is interesting at worst!

Plato in The School of Athens by Raphael

A Theros Happy Hour

Speaking of a local Greek experience, I would absolutely look into your local pub or bar and see if it serves Ouzo. (Side note: If you don’t like licorice, you won’t like Ouzo.) Ouzo is a really strong liquor that is traditionally served before a meal. It’s a sipping drink, as MJ Scott informs me. She is a certified mixologist on four different planes.

Most cafés in Greece serve Ouzo with appetizers—normally seafood with some salads and vegetables. An example would be sipping Ouzo with calamari, clams, fried zucchini, and sardines. You know the $8–$14 appetizers you never order that look “complicated”? That stuff goes with Ouzo, and it goes well.

Why not set up a late-night happy hour, say, from 9:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. at a local establishment near your local game store after a large tournament? It could be officially sponsored by the store or player-led, with bad-beats stories and time to yell about how overpowered a card is in Limited play. A few calls from a store to a bar asking for some Greek specials is about all you really need to do. Add a promotional postcard, and you’re done. It’s that easy. Cheap promotions are good promotions. Have you seen how much bars spend on advertising? Biscuits.

If you’re a store, absolutely consider setting up a happy hour between Sealed and Draft events on Saturday. It gets people food and keeps them flavorfully fulfilled—all Theros-style.

Things to Not Cover in Your LGS about Greek Culture

Be ever wary that going all-in with Greek things could produce some . . . interesting issues. Greece is long way from America, and their issues are really only covered as story numbers two and three on the Daily Show. Their interaction with the European Union, especially their impact on the Euro currency, is a contentious issue at best. Any German will give you a pretty detailed opinion of Greece if you ask them.

Do a little research. Just take some time before printing a poster to post in your store. Reddit is a thing, and photos last a long, long time online. A pair of things that a LGS should know about Greece are below:

• Unemployment: It’s north of 25% in some polls, and for young people, it’s even worse. Their economy is really, really struggling. Imagine our economy was declining for six full years—that’s Greece.
• Mustaches and eyebrows: I mentioned a photo wall earlier. If you have one, don’t do the fake hipster mustache kit thing. While a celebration of culture is good, a celebration of stereotypes is terribad. It’s the same reason Geishas and Banditos aren’t good Halloween costumes. You can do whatever you want, sure, but I would recommend against it.

Tidbit of the Week

In case you missed it, Illuxcon was this past week, and what artist emerges? Jeff Laubenstein. He’s the guy who made these two artworks, among others; you might have heard of them:

They’re probably both go up on eBay soon due a lot of interested buyers and my boys at OriginalMagicArt.com giving him some advice to let the public decide its value in an open auction. I’d keep your eyes out for them. God knows I’ll tweet about them when they’re posted.

A Theros art review is next week. Spoiler alert: It’ll include 140% more images than normal. Opa!

- Mike