Magic Untapped takes a look at what is new with the MagiKids charity, which had a booth at the MagicCon Las Vegas 2025.
Over the last few years, MagiKids has grown as a charity, putting together even more Magikits for schools so that Magic can be used as a learning tool and a great club. They've become partners with Wizards of the Coast, developer and publisher of the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game, and, this year, they entered a closer relationship with Dragon Shield.
“We’re closer to Dragon Shield now,” said Natalie Rosin, MagiKids' administrative lead. “We’ve revamped our website, we have more volunteers, and we’re sending out more kits than ever. It's gone up significantly."
The Dragon Shield partnership itself culminated in a celebrity Oathbreaker Showdown event on the Sunday of MagicCon. All Power 9 cards (all graded by Beckett) were there to be used (under close watch, of course), showing just how close the two were. As both MagiKids (a charity sending out kits to help kids and the go-to way in conventions to teach others to play Magic) and Dragon Shield (one of the most well-known companies for card protection) have close relationships with WotC. The partnership made sense on many levels.
Further highlighting MagiKids' growing role in teaching people Magic was the new placement of their booth at MagicCon.
While previous years the booth had been amongst vendors, this year it was moved to the Bloomburrow-themed family area as it helps parents, children, and spouses alike learn the game. It is also in a prime spot for donations, as well as getting interest from teachers and others in getting a kit. Many family- and kid-oriented events are also nearby, as well as many small events that further fuel the high amount of traffic.
"Learn to play has really kicked off," said volunteer Daniel Crabtree. "We're getting a lot of people wanting to learn."
“Like last year, we were on the first floor with the vendors. This year we are in the Family Magic area. And we have more events in the area this year because of that. We’ve even had more traffic here because of that.” explained Matt Decker, MagiKids' brand manager.
“We get kids, but we also have gotten a lot of spouses. And convention center staff too. We’ve had lighting and security people wanting to learn Magic when they were on break," Crabtree added.
“Last year we had a security member learn to pay since they didn’t know what it was. Now they’re a huge fan. They love Bloomburrow” continued Decker. "And we're getting more people asking about Magic kits."
Donation levels have also drastically increased, helping fuel the greater number of kits being requested.
“Oh, so a few years ago I only had a few pallets of cards and other things for kits in my print shop garage in Rochester, MN.” said Decker “This year there’s 20, and they go out fast."
And the number of events MagiKids goes to has kept growing as well.
“In addition to MagicCon in Chicago and Las Vegas, we’ll be in GenCon at the end of July in Indianapolis and then the MagicCon in Atlanta later this year,” said Decker.
“Oh and GCX in Orlando," added Kelly Schrandt, MagiKids' educational lead. "We’re doing a Southern swing."
More partners, more donations, a growing name recognition and more events - Magikids is becoming THE charity for MTG.
More on Magikids can be found at https://magikids.org/
