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Wilds of Eldraine @ D20 Games

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Magic, Main Page

Welcome back to Eldraine, the land of storybooks come to life. When we last left our story, (in Throne of Eldraine),the twins Rowan and Will Kenrith, (the children of High King Algenus Kenrith,)set out on a quest to save their father from the planeswalker Oko.. Along the way, they meet a variety of characters, including knights, wizards, and other classic fantasy creatures. They also learn about the different courtly factions of Eldraine, and the conflict between the knights and the magical creatures of the Wilds.

In Wilds of Eldraine, the twins continue their quest to save their father. They travel to the Wilds, where they face off against Oko and his forces. They also encounter a variety of new creatures and characters, including the witch Eriette, her sisters, and Talion. In the end, the twins are able to defeat Oko and save their father. They also learn that the witch Eriette was responsible for the curse that was plaguing Eldraine. With the curse lifted, peace is restored to the land.

Events (Release and Prerelease)

Events:

9/1 Friday 6:30 PM Sealed
9/2 Saturday
- Sat 10AM Sealed
- Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant
9/3 Sunday
- Sun 10AM Sealed
- Sun 3PM Sealed
9/8 Friday 6:30 PM Sealed
9/9 Saturday
- Sat 10AM Sealed
- Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant
4/23 Sunday
- Sun 10AM Sealed
- Sun 3PM Sealed

Mechanics

The new mechanics in Wilds of Eldraine are:

Roles

Players attach these aura tokens to their creatures to give them a specific benefit. Players can generate these tokens through spells and abilities.
- Cursed — Enchanted creature has base power and toughness 1/1.
- Monster — Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has trample.
- Royal — Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has ward {1}.
- Sorcerer — Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has “Whenever this creature attacks, scry 1.”
- Wicked — Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and “When this Aura is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, each opponent loses 1 life.”
- Young Hero — Enchanted creature has “Whenever this creature attacks, if its toughness is 3 or less, put a +1/+1 counter on it.”
- (Commander) Virtuous — Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each enchantment you control.
Celebrations

Players receive a bonus if two or more nonland permanents enter the battlefield under their control this turn. These bonuses include +1+1 counters and other bonuses.
Bargain

Sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token, and get an extra effect when the card comes into play.
Adventure permanents

Some of these permanents have off-color spells. For example, the Sorcery portion of the Adventure has a Blue casting cost, while the creature nightmare has a Black casting cost.

Lord of the Rings Tales of Middle Earth -MTG comes home

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Events, Magic, Main Page, News

(The set releases on 6/23, but preorders are open now and can be picked up at local game stores starting 6/16 when the prereleases begin.)

Lotr Basic land The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is a new expansion set for Magic: The Gathering it brings the iconic world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth to life, letting you follow the paths of favorite (or favorite villainous) characters from the Third Age. Whether you choose to reenact your favorite moments from the series or turn the tales of Middle-earth on their head is entirely up to you^2.

Events (Release and Prerelease)

6/16 Friday 6:30 PM Sealed
6/17 Saturday
- Sat 10AM Sealed
- Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant
6/18 Sunday
- Sun 10AM Sealed
- Sun 3PM Sealed
6/23 Friday 7PM Sealed
6/24 Saturday
- Sat 10AM Sealed
- Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant
6/25 Sunday
- Sun 10AM Sealed
- Sun 3PM Sealed

For the Love of Hobbits and Rings: There and Back Again Saga
The set was clearly designed by people who knew and loved Tolkien’s world. The flavor and mechanics of the cards are joyfully amazing. For example, more often then not, hobbits in the set create food tokens (yes, there is a Second Breakfast card), and there is a saga that not only creates Smaug as a 6/6 flying dragon token, but when it dies, it creates 12 treasure tokens! There are various versions of main characters that match their different transformations in the journey, such as 4 versions of Frodo, from peaceful hobbit to Sauron’s Bane, or Gandalf as the fireworks laden Friend of the Shire, to the White Rider, swooping down in the light of the dawn sun, with the riders of Rohan at his back. I’ve been playing the Draftsim practice drafts/sealed simulators just to get a chance to get familiar with the cards, and the kid who fell in love with LOTR is beyond excited to get a chance to play.

Masters Set that you don’t need to be a Master to enjoy
This is supposed to be a Universes Away/Masters set, but it feels much more like coming home than going into a new world. Kind of makes sense since MTG was inspired by D&D, which came from (drumroll….) Tolkien. (if you don’t believe me…check out the early changes to D&D based on hobbit lawyers.) Even though the set is in the higher cost Masters slot ($50/55 instead of $30/35 for sealed), don’t take that to mean that the set isn’t friendly for all levels of players. In fact, the thing that will make the set most fun is how much you like Lord of the Rings. The Balrog

This set is shaping up to be a fantastic journey through the realms of Middle-earth, filled with nostalgia, surprises, and a sprinkle of that unique MTG magic. Whether you’re a fan of the fantasy epic, a dedicated MTG player, or both, this set promises to offer a thrilling new way to experience Tolkien’s world. Can’t wait for the set’s release? Neither can we!

Alternate Art Fun…

There are some amazing alternate versions of the cards, including some that piece together to create full scenes on their own. There are a bunch of cool art treatments to collect. More info here.

New Mechanics

The Ring

The Ring (front)

The biggest new mechanic has to do with The Ring, and what happens when it tempts you. I know that tempt sounds like a bad thing, but in this case it is some of the very good stuff. When the ring tempts you, you attach the ring card to one (and only one at a time) of your creatures. Every time the ring tempts again it adds another ability to that card. If your ring bearer dies, the ring falls off and you start from the beginning.

Amass Orcs

We’ve seen this mechanic before in building up hordes of zombies. Basically, you create an “army” that is a token with whatever number of counters that the Amass tells you to add. Every subsequent Amass just makes the one army token bigger. (It doesn’t create lots of them.)

The Brother’s War @ D20 Games

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Events, Magic, Main Page

Brother's War

Boys and their toys. In this case, the all time artifact brothers of Magic, Urza and Mishra, are back and ready to tinker to the death (or crying Uncle) When they find the two stones, ancient and powerful artifacts that set their fates on crossed paths. (Click here for the full stories)

Magic old timers will recognize the names as being attached to some of the most powerful and interesting Artifacts in magic, and for this 30th anniversary year set, it is all about those tinkered toys. In addition to a whole batch of new artifacts, there are 63 artifacts from all through Magic’s past in retro frames loaded through the packs.

Prerelease/Release

11/11 Friday 6:30PM Sealed
11/12 Saturday
- Sat 10AM Sealed
- Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant
11/13 Sunday
- Sun 10AM Sealed
- Sun 4PM Tw0 Headed Giant
11/18 Friday 6:30PM Sealed
11/19 Saturday
- Sat 10AM Sealed
- Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant
11/20 Sunday
- Sun 10AM Sealed
- Sun 3PM Two Headed Giant

This weekend and next, we have a plethora of sealed events using the prerelease kits from the new set. Players can get their boxes of 6 packs to open and get to build their decks starting 1 hour before each event. Prerelease kits have six 15-card packs, 1 random exclusive promo foil rare or mythic rare from the set, and a special spindown die. We provide the basic lands, so you don’t need anything more to play. We pride ourselves that no one here will make you feel anything but welcome (we all started from scratch at some point).

All events are sealed using the prerelease kits. Make your best decks and win a round, win a pack. If we have enough players to accommodate both, we will also have competitive prize pools for the 10AM sealed events. (Competitive prize pools mean more chance to win lots of packs if you do very well, but more rounds and the chance to win no prize packs if you don’t. Better for more expert players.)

The prerelease and release events are great chances for players who haven’t gotten a chance to play in person to come to a friendly, fun event where everyone is starting from scratch and no one knows much more than anyone else yet. We recommend if you are new, or you have a friend who is new, to play in the Two-Headed Giant events, which are two-person team events. So long as one person in the team knows how to play, you can both have fun without any pressure to know the rules right away.

Masks and vaccination cards are required.

Set Mechanics

– Prototype: Each prototype card includes two sets of characteristics: First, a larger default mana cost, power, and toughness. They’re where you’d expect them to be on the card. A second set of characteristics exists as part of the prototype ability. There, you’ll find an alternate mana cost and an alternate power and toughness.

– Power Stones: A Powerstone is a colorless artifact that can be tapped for one colorless mana. The mana produced by a Powerstone can’t be spent to cast a nonartifact spell, but it can be spent on anything else. This includes artifact spells, activated abilities—even ones of nonartifacts—costs imposed by triggered abilities, any costs to attack or block you may have to pay, and so only

– Unearth and Meld Return: Unearth can be activated only while the card that has it is in the graveyard, and only as a sorcery. The unearthed permanent gains haste. In a lot of cases, you’ll be unearthing creatures to get in one more attack. At the beginning of the next end step, exile the unearthed permanent. If it would leave the battlefield before then, it’s exiled instead.

One card in each meld pair—in this case, Urza, Lord Protector—will tell you exactly how to meld the two. You can meld cards only if you both own and control them, and only if they’re the actual named cards. So, token copies won’t work, nor will any other copies for that matter. Basically, the backs of the cards make up a puzzle, and if you can’t complete the image of the puzzle, the meld won’t work. Activating Urza’s ability will cause the two cards in this meld pair to exile and then meld, meaning they’ll return to the battlefield as a single permanent. A single, impressive permanent.

Big Change…prerelease=Release

This time around every product is available for us to sell from the moment of the prerelease starting. A bit scary since we need to put out oh, so much money at one time instead of the blessed prerelease weekend to reload.

For full information on the availability of other variants, see the Product Overview.

https://media.wizards.com/2022/images/daily/en_CYMsHf9xh7.png

Unfinity-Latest Magic Un-Fun (no…wait…acutal fun)

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Events, Magic, Main Page

Experience the most illustrious galactotainment in the Multiverse at Myra the Magnificent’s Intergalactic Astrotorium of Function.

(Nope, I didn’t write it, but no way I’m gonna try and top it.) Unfinity is the latest of the Magic the Gathering Un sets…basically the sets that they create when they’ve been drinking way too much coffee and their eyes start to cross.) The cards are usually just for fun and the only things that can be used in regular play are the extremely pretty lands. In this case, there is a bunch of weird and wonderful stuff for commander, as well as some exceptional/unique versions of a bunch of the shock lands!

We will be drafting the set for the next weeks until Brothers War, and doing two headed Giant on Saturdays starting at 4 (3 to get packs and build).

The new mechanics include Attractions, Wordplay, Dice,

Stickers (yep, real stickers) and,

of course, Hats!?!

Stickers

Legends Return: Dominaria United @ D20 Games

By Jake Caibach / Leave a Comment / Events, Magic, Main Page

It’s good to be back, and with Dominaria United, we finally are.

This September, Magic: The Gathering returns to its roots: the home plane of Dominaria.

Whether you’re a returning player seeking new spins on familiar faces or someone experiencing MTG’s flagship plane for the first time, Dominaria United has something for everyone. This new Standard-legal set is a return to Magic‘s roots, returning to the Multiverse’s oldest plane in its new hour of need. Join some of Magic‘s most beloved heroes in its fight against their greatest enemy: the fan favorite Phyrexians.

This set comes with a host of new cards for normal and Commander play alike, from new spins on old favorites to just the old favorites themselves, and has a product for everyone. Live your legend with its two Commander decks, play in its premier Limited environment, or if you’re so inclined, crack boxes – each one contains one of twenty exclusive box topper legendary creatures found only as box toppers or in Collector boosters.

Upcoming Events:

9/2 Friday 7PM Sealed
9/3 Saturday
- Sat 10AM Sealed
- Sat 4PM Two Headed Giant
9/4 Sunday
- Sun 10AM Sealed
- Sun 4PM Tw0 Headed Giant
9/9 Friday 7PM Sealed
9/10 Saturday
- Sat 10AM Sealed
- Sat 4PM Two Headed Giant
9/11 Sunday
- Sun 10AM Sealed
- Sun 4PM Two Headed Giant

Masks and vaccination cards are required.

Set Mechanics

Dominaria United offers a host of new and returning mechanics which present a flavorful and fun twist on well-loved gameplay. Enlist conscripts, read ahead with your Sagas, master your Domain, and more!

– Enlist: Band together with your other creatures with Enlist! When you attack with a creature that has Enlist, you may tap another creature you control (that isn’t attacking or summoning sick) to add its power to the first. Enlist this spiritual successor to banding to overwhelm your opponents with massive creatures!

– Read Ahead: One of Magic‘s most beloved subtypes – Sagas – returns to the game, but with a new twist! Sagas enter with a lore counter and gain one more after each draw step, triggering each of their chapter effects in order. Sagas with “read ahead” let you skip the wait and start on whatever chapter you want to!

– Domain: This returning mechanic, last seen in Modern Horizons, improves the more different basic land types you have among different lands you control. Gather a Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest – or a Plains Island Swamp and a Mountain Forest – to maximize the magnitude of your Domain effects!

– Kicker: Fan favorite returning mechanic Kicker comes back with a twist! Spells with a kicker cost let you pay the extra kicker cost to gain an additional effect, and new to this set, every spell with kicker in Dominaria United has a kicker of a different color than itself. Here’s the kicker – it doesn’t stop here! One of the oldest traditions of kicker returns, with cards that have multiple kicker costs to adapt to any situation!

– Stun Counters: Finally, Dominaria United brings to the game an entirely new type of counter! When a permanent with stun counters on it would untap, you remove one from it instead. Now you can finally tap down creatures for more than two turns!

Collecting Dominaria United

Dominaria United comes with a host of beautiful variants for your collection, including six borderless rare lands, borderless planeswalkers, stained glass and textured foil stained glass legendary creatures and lands, and foil and foil etched versions of the Legends Reborn box toppers. For full information on where to find which variants, see here.

Exclusive to Dominaria United, one out of every thirty-three collector boosters will have a card from the original Legends set – not a reprint or special variant, an actual card from the original print runs of Legends, now over twenty-five years old. This includes reserved list cards, such as the Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. Note that this is not a new printing, so supplies are very limited!

Also exclusive to Dominaria United collector boosters are non-foil and foil etched versions of the Legends Reborn box toppers and foil stained glass full art basic lands.

New to Dominaria United and continuing going forward, Magic offers a new introductory product: Jumpstart boosters. Jumpstart boosters are designed for two to be shuffled together and played against one another, for easy out-of-the-box fun that still offers something new every time. Dominaria United offers ten themes, two in each of the five colors, in twenty-card packs, which each include two rare cards, two traditional foil basic lands, and one non-foil stained glass full art basic land.

For full information on the availability of other variants, see the Product Overview.

Set booster boxes are $159.99. They contain 24 set boosters. We will take $10 off for preorders ($149.99,includes box topper promo). Preorders end on Friday 9/2. Only events and set booster boxes are available until Friday 9/9, when all Dominaria United products will be available.

Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate @ D20 Games

By Jake Caibach / Leave a Comment / Events, Magic, Main Page

Well met, adventurer!

Whether you’re a returning Magic player seeking new Commander Legends for your Commander playgroup, or a Dungeons and Dragons fan looking for a new social multiplayer experience, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate has it all, and the Gate too!

Maybe you’re looking for grand heroes and insidious villains to helm your Commander decks, or the customizable Partner experience of the original Commander Legends, now with a new flavorful twist. Maybe you’re looking for loot – powerful artifacts, stunning and classic etched foils, and the popular Dungeons and Dragons special card frame, now on some of Magic’s most classic and iconic cards. Maybe you just want to have a great night with your friends playing some good old fashioned Commander.

Whatever the case, Baldur’s Gate has something for you—and so do we.

Commander Limited

Combine the laid-back atmosphere of Commander with the never-the-same-twice fun of Limited. Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate is made to be played in Limited, especially in Draft, and we have a number of events for you to do so. From Commander Draft, where you take two cards at a time per 20-card pack, a format made for 4-person as well as 8-person draft (perfect for drafting and then playing with your playgroup), to Two-Headed Giant, letting you team up with your friends to take down another two-person team, Commander Legends @ D20 Games has whatever you could be looking for.

Upcoming Events:

6/3 Friday 7PM Commander Draft
6/4 Saturday
- Sat 10-4 Continuous (Drop In Drop Out) Draft
- Sat 5PM Two Headed Giant
6/5 Sunday
- Sun 10-4 Drop In Drop Out Draft
- Sun 5PM Tw0 Headed Giant
6/10 Friday 7PM Commander Draft
6/11 Saturday
- Sat 10-4 Drop In Drop Out Draft
- Sat 5PM Two Headed Giant
6/12 Sunday
- Sun 10-4 Drop In Drop Out Draft
- Sun 5PM Two Headed Giant

This weekend and next, we have a plethora of limited events using the prerelease kits from the new set. Prerelease kits for Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate have three 20-card draft packs each and one special promo foil. Commander Legends packs have two rares and 20 cards each, instead of one rare and 15 cards. We provide the basic lands, so you don’t need anything more to play. We pride ourselves that no one here will make you feel anything but welcome (we all started from scratch at some point).

Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate is designed as a product to help get new players into the game, especially players who are familiar with Dungeons and Dragons. Wizards of the Coast has provided several resources for new players with this new set.

Masks and vaccination cards are required. Players must be 12 or older.

Set Mechanics

Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate offers a host of new and returning mechanics which present a flavorful and fun twist on well-loved gameplay. Venture into dungeons, go on adventures, power up your Commander with a flavorful Background and more!

–Choose a Background: Bring the customizable fun of Dungeons and Dragons to your Commander experience with Choose a Background! This powerful modular mechanic allows you to have one commander with ‘Choose a Background’, and one ‘Background’, both as commanders. Backgrounds are powerful legendary enchantments which grant commanders you own useful effects and abilities.

–Adventures: Adventures return from Eldraine! Creatures with Adventures let you cast them as their adventure – which is a powerful spell – and then later cast the same creature from exile for some added value and fun, versatile flavor!

–Taking the Initiative: This innovative mechanic combines the politics of the monarch from Conspiracy and the versatility of venturing into the dungeon from the original Dungeons & Dragons set. When you take the initiative, you take the initiative, meaning you – and no one else – has it. Whenever you take the initiative, or at the beginning of your end step, if you have the initiative, you venture into the Undercity, a unique dungeon to this mechanic you can’t venture into otherwise. This lets you choose one of the dungeon’s starting rooms, and activate its effect, or if you’re already in a dungeon, it lets you venture further into that dungeon.

–Gates: It wouldn’t be Baldur’s Gate without a Gate! The fan favorite land subtype returns in a new form and with a new powerful legendary land to take advantage of these time-tested classics, and in a way that helps ensure good mana in a Limited format.

Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate comes with a host of classic variants for your collection, including the etc hed foil legendary frame introduced in the original Commander Legends, borderless planeswalkers, dragons, and mythics, and the rulebook frame first printed in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. The full list of variant cards is available here. The full list of all cards is available here. The set also comes with four associated preconstructed Commander decks, each with a two-color face commander and alternate commander with Background. A full product overview of the set is available here.

Set booster boxes are $139.99. They contain 18 set boosters. We will take $10 off for preorders ($129.99, plus a bonus preorder promo). Preorders end on Friday 6/4. Only events and booster boxes are available until Friday 6/10, when all Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate products will be available.

Collector booster boxes are $360 each and have 12 packs + bonus promos.

Streets of New Capenna: Where Family Means Business

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Events, Magic, Main Page

Wealth. Power. Prestige. Offers you can’t refuse. You can find it all on the streets of New Capenna – as long as you watch your back. The latest Magic set, Streets of New Capenna, is filled with 3-color goodness (or badness in this case) in the form of five feuding crime families:

THE OBSCURA (WHITE-BLUE-BLACK) “Information is Power”

THE MAESTROS (BLUE-BLACK-RED) “Crime is an Art Form”

THE RIVETEERS (BLACK-RED-GREEN) “Always Finish the Job”

THE CABARETTI (RED-GREEN-WHITE) “Fun isn’t Free”

THE BROKERS (GREEN-WHITE-BLUE) “Read the Fine Print”

Each of these five families is headed by a powerful demon lord, offering you power in exchange for your loyalty. But beware: there is always a price to pay in the Gilded Age-inspired city of New Capenna. Each family offers its own unique and powerful mechanic. The question is – whose side will you choose?

Upcoming Events:

4/22 Friday 6:30 Sealed
4/23 Saturday
- Sat 10AM Sealed
- Sat 4PM Two Headed Giant
4/24 Sunday
- Sun 10AM Sealed
- Sun 4PM Sealed
4/29 Friday FNM (7:00)
4/30 Saturday
- Sat 10AM Sealed
- Sat 4PM Two Headed Giant
5/1 Sunday
- Sun 10AM Sealed
- Sun 4PM Sealed

This weekend and next, we have a plethora of sealed events using the prerelease kits from the new set. Players can get their boxes of 6 packs to open and get to build their decks starting 1 hour before each event. New Capenna is a faction set, so you will get one of the five faction kits. Faction kits have 5 normal 15-card packs, 1 random exclusive promo foil rare or mythic rare from the set, and a special 15-card faction pack which you can only get in the prerelease kits. We provide the basic lands, so you don’t need anything more to play. We pride ourselves that no one here will make you feel anything but welcome (we all started from scratch at some point).

All events are sealed using the prerelease kits. Make your best decks and win a pack, win a round. If we have enough players to accommodate both, we will also have competitive prize pools for the 10AM sealed events. (Competitive prize pools mean more chance to win lots of packs if you do very well, but more rounds and the chance to win no prize packs if you don’t. Better for more expert players.)

Masks and vaccination cards are required. Players must be 12 or older.

Conniving Ledger Shredder

Streets of New Capenna’s five crime families each come with their own unique mechanic, which reflects their theme and fantasy:

The creatures of the devious Obscura can connive, which allows you to draw, then discard cards and grow their creatures to put yourself in a more advantageous position (plus putting on a + counter).
Discerning Maestros spells can have an optional casualty cost, which allows you to sacrifice your underlings – sorry, your loyal creatures to copy the spell a second time.
In with a blaze and out with a crash with the Blitz

Rough-and-tumble Riveteers creatures get the job done quick and dirty with their blitz costs, which gives them haste and lets you draw a card when they die, but requires you to sacrifice them at the end of the turn.
The sociable Cabaretti trigger their alliance effects whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control.
Finally, the disciplined Brokers offer your permanence shield counters – counters which prevent one instance of damage or destruction, and are then removed.
The shield always takes the first hit

Streets of New Capenna comes with a host of new and decadent variants to bring a gilded feel to your collection. The full list of variant cards is available here. The full list of all cards is available here. The set also comes with a number of special, exclusive new legendary creatures available only in set and collector boosters, themed in the popular Innistrad plane. A full product overview of the set is available here.

Set booster boxes are $139.99. They contain 30 set boosters and one exclusive premium full-art box topper. We will take $20 off for preorders ($119.99). Only events and preorders are available until Friday 4/29, when all Streets of New Capenna products will be available.

Finally, for you Commander players out there, there are five new Commander preconstructed decks that have been released alongside the set. each representing one of the five crime families. Their full decklists can be found here.

We hope to see you soon for the release of Streets of New Capenna. If you have what it takes, I’m sure me and the boys can make it worth your while.

Return of Drafting @ D20

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / D&D, Events, Magic, Main Page, News

Hey folks….

A few event updates of significance..

Return of drafts for FNM
Two Headed Giant on Sat moves from 3pm to 4pm start time.
D&D is coming back…

Return of Drafting for FNM:Starting 10/22 we will experimenting with doing drafts again for Friday Night Magic. We’ll be pulling out the plastic tablecloths (the ones we used for birthdays) so we can sanitize them in between rounds, and we will have everyone sanitize hands before they start drafting (and have a no drinks or anything that will get hands next to a mouth during the drafting process). If I think this is going well, this is what we will do from now on.

We have also raised the price of the drafts to $20. (The packs have gotten more expensive and we have a much more limited number of players we can have for the events so we really need every dollar we can to start to clime out of the joy and fun of last year). But I’m going to do this. For all of our old players, if you also were pushed to the limit from last year or just can’t afford the price increase, tell us at the counter and we’ll let you keep doing the old $15 for at least the next few months.

Two Headed Giants moving from 3-4 on Saturdays:

We’re shifting the time for the two headed giants back to the old time of 4pm, so it returns it to being more of a date night, evening fun activity. This really is one of our favorite events and we will be doing it consistantly to get it back up and running. (Still have to have the 12+ age limit, but as soon as the vaccination for the younger folks comes in, we’ll happily open the doors to let them back).

D&D in person is starting back up:

This Sunday (10/24) is going to be Dan’s return to DMing events in the store. The time will be 2-7 and will be limited to 7 players. This event will be a 4 session run and should be good fun. This is for players with some experience playing, not a first time event. $20 pers session (and if you want to come to all 4, probably best to get tix in advance)

“We will be doing a Dungeon Crawl into an Abandoned Dwarven Keep . Players Should Create a Level 5 Character using Standard array or the pound buy system in the players hand book. Players will have standard starting equipment as well as any 1 Uncommon Magic item of their choice. Any Player resources and books printed by Wizards of the Cost will be allowed including unearthed arcana.”

Starting in about a week we will start doing Weds D&D and after that, late night Saturday

Pokémon:

Pokémon continues to be in extremely short supply. We are continuing to let 12 and younger kids buy 1 pack a day at the old 3.99 price so they don’t get totally overrun by the adults who are snapping everything up. I’m sorry for not having preorders for all the higher end stuff, but we don’t know until the last minute what will come in. If you want Pokémon gifts for the holidays, I really reeaally recommend getting them now. The supply chain is truly messed up and hits this stuff hard.

Hope to see you this week and as always…seriously thanks for shopping local.

Ben

P.S. We will be spreading out sales/offerings over November so we don’t have to get people to waste part of their vacation running around shopping.

Need to put 12 and under (unvaccinated) events on hold. (GRRRR)

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Events, Magic, Main Page

A sucky decision to make:

I’ve been struggling with this for the last week, but a call with my competitor (friend) over at Games of Berkeley finally settled it. It really bugs the hell out of me, but we have to put doing in person kid events (12 and younger), on hold for a while. (I mean it really bugs me..it isn’t fair at all. We are still doing the 13+ vax events. )

The big problem is that the kind of events we do are designed to get people face to face for a while. It is why we are having an extremely strict policy of proof of vaccination to attend the events, and even than, making the events smaller so there is more space between folks. The numbers are that the breakthrough cases that end up in hospitalization or worse for the vaccinated is less than .004% . The number of cases for the 12 and younger is way higher, but still small. The problem is that the Delta variant is both insanely more infectious and delivers way more bad stuff per punch. (Like those scientific terms?)

Not inviting Covid to play.

And then there is the Antibiotic factor. So remember how your doc says it is super important to take all of your Antibiotics when you have an ear infection or whatever of a thousand things that is good for? The reason that they say that ain’t for you…at least not today. It’s because they need to make sure that none of the bad guys are still sticking around, because they reproduce at an enormous rate, and in among those that survive are some that learned to thumb their nose at that antibiotic. So next time they show up in someone, the meds don’t work anymore. You don’t wanna give them time and body to reproduce enough to learn.

In this case, the body is the whole country/world. The more people who let covid have a place to grow and transmit, the more chance for mutation occurs, and suddenly something shows up that can get past the vaccination protections. That is why getting vaccinated if possible isn’t just about the person, but not helping the virus a breeding ground for more, scarier versions. The delta variant is, unfortunately, a perfect example of that.

Blowed up plan:

I thought that by separating the kids from the adults, and making sure the kids wore masks, that we’d be able to make sure that D20 didn’t do anything to provide a way for the virus to get more hosts to party down and grow in. But the Delta variant changed all that. It all but guarantees that if we have a set of unvaccinated kids sitting close enough to play, that it will show up and it will spread. So we are thrown back, at least for the unvaccinated kids. It is totally unfair and sucks, and is unfair. I’m gonna cancel and refund all the kid friendly events for now. But I will do this as what I can do to make up for it. Any 12 year old or younger who wanted to play in any of the “prerelease” events can buy a kit to take home to play with their buds, and I will add an extra prize pack to the order, as well as a random promo card that they might have won if they were here.

You guys know how I feel about you, and this is making me equally sad and angry to have to do this. I’ll get you guys back in as soon as we can do so safely…. (grr)

Kaldheim: the New Magic Set that Thor Would Play

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Magic, Main Page

Prerelease: 1/29/21(prerelease kits/boxes)
Release: 2/05/21 (everything else)

Hammer or Ax? Set in norse mythology, this is clearly the set that would finally get Thor to join in on the weekly Magic draft. (Ok, Cap clearly leans to white, Tony goes for a combo of red for blast damage and blue for control, Widow goes for the life stealing of black, and Hulk…well, lets just say Giant growth is right up his ally)

Been playing with the set for a couple of weeks using DraftSim and the set looks like the most fun of the last year.

D20 Webstore (to Buy the stuff)

Here is the good stuff:
Mechanics
Cards

The big chase card is this bad boy (6 mana, trample haste and doubling the number of counters put on any permanent.)

Since we are still in covid land, the best way I can recommend to play to get the most fun/pack is to do an at home sealed league. (Basically, take the 6 packs from a prerelease kit, make a sealed, and then add another pack per person every few days. You end up keeping things varied since you can build a number of decks before too long, and each pack you open is not just interesting for the rares, but for every card that might help build something else fun.)