Magic The Gathering Lawsuit Over Overprinting Cards Voluntarily Dismissed

Two Hasbro shareholders who brought a lawsuit against company executives for alleged overprinting of Magic: The Gathering cards have voluntarily dismissed their case in Rhode Island federal court less than a month after the initial filing.

The lawsuit, a 76-page shareholder derivative complaint filed in Rhode Island earlier this year, accused Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast (WotC) of a systematic “overprinting” strategy. The plaintiffs alleged that executives used MTG as a financial “crutch” to mask underperformance in other areas of the company.

Key allegations included:

• The “Parachute Strategy”: The claim that Hasbro “parachuted” extra MTG sets and Secret Lairs into the release schedule whenever other divisions missed their revenue targets.

• Devaluation of Assets: Shareholders argued that by flooding the market, Hasbro destroyed the long-term scarcity and value of the brand, essentially “killing the golden goose.”

• The 30th Anniversary Scandal: The suit alleged that WotC faked “out of stock” messages for the controversial $999 30th Anniversary Edition to create artificial FOMO, while unsold stock was allegedly dumped in landfills.

• Stock Buyback Issues: The plaintiffs claimed Hasbro repurchased 1.4 million shares of its own stock at “artificially inflated prices” between 2022 and 2023, leading to an overpayment of roughly $55.9 million.

The suit named Cocks and 13 other executives as defendants. It alleged that under Cocks’ leadership, Wizards and Hasbro printed too many Magic sets, weakening confidence in the brand while also buying back its own stock at a temporarily inflated price — ultimately leading to a $55.9 million loss in 2022.

This supposed breach of fiduciary duty, the lawsuit originally alleged, cut across several areas.

“Hasbro’s strategy with regard to printing Magic cards was not as carefully thought out as portrayed,” the suit read. “[The] Company was in fact printing a volume of Magic sets which exceeded consumer demand…the Company was overloading the market with Magic sets to generate revenue and to offset shortfalls within the Company.”

One of the suit’s more shocking illustrations of alleged problems with Magic production was a 30th anniversary sold only online for $999. Made primarily for collecting rather than official tournament play, the 30th Anniversary Set reprinted one of the earliest sets, Beta, and Wizards claimed publicly that the set had sold out less than an hour after its release — a feat disputed in the suit, which cited former employees who said they were shown images of the anniversary product in a Texas landfill, suggesting the company had artificially inflated its positive reception and sales.

According to the complaint, the plaintiffs chose the shareholder derivative route for legal action because they did not believe the company’s board would adequately address their concerns, and that any pre-suit demands made of the board would be futile. Seven board members were named defendants in the complaint.

The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled again.