So WotC has been giving out information at PAX East tonight. I know not everyone can make it out there, so I thought I'd take a minute and compile some of the tweets that they have posted about this newish format. If you did not know, Commander is a twist on EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander) which is a casual format that is played with a 99 card deck and 1 legendary creature that is your commander; making a 100 card deck.
Got the answers for the questions here that we asked and that we gathered from Twitter. This will release soon, and we will have some events for it in the store.
Q: Will the commander cards be over sized?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you use other Legendary Creatures as commanders or only the over sized cards?
A: Yes you can. The over sized cards are just a neat extra.
Q: What happens when an over sized card gets condemned?
A: There will be standard sized commander cards so that if they get shuffled into the deck you will be able to use them in EDH.
Q: How many Commander Decks can we expect?
A: 5 Decks. Each deck will be 100 cards, have around 18 rares, and 51 unique cards.
Q: When will the decks be available?
A: They will be in stores in June.
Many people have asked us about the players here at the Dragon's Den for Magic. We have had many players who have come in and played some games of Magic at the store. We wanted to give future players an idea of what you can expect and who you might play against.
1. We have players from all walks of life, elementary school kids, teachers, lawyers, computer techs, high school students, college students, restaurant works, retail works, warehouse workers, and so much more.
2. We have had many female players as well. I've had several new players comment that we have had events with as many as 8 ladies playing. So although we have many male players at any given event, we also almost always have at least one female player!
3. The level of play ranges from very new to pro!
4. DCI Numbers can tell you how long a player has been playing the game. We have many players who have DCI #s that are 10 digits long, which is the current length, but we have had many small numbers as well. The shortest number is only 4 digits long!
Very happy to see more Peanuts material hit the market.
Boom! has only been producing comics for a handful of years, but between AMORY WARS, INCORRUPTIBLE, IRREDEEMABLE, FARSCAPE, the Stan Lee books, the MUPPET SHOW, and all their other titles, they've made a name for themselves as publishers of quality comics. There's a lot of enthusiasm and experience behind-the-scenes there. Stan Lee doesn't work with just anybody, y'know?
When Boom! first teased the possibility of doing a Peanuts book, I was caught off-guard. Fantagraphics has been doing the hardcover reprints of Peanuts for several years, and they're clearly not giving up that license.
And then.. boom, we find out what Boom! has in-mind for their re-branded kids line, Kaboom!:
This March, join Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy and all your favorite PEANUTS characters as Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown, the very first PEANUTS graphic novel ever published, is released by newly-launched all-ages imprint kaboom! Based on the work by PEANUTS creator Charles M. Schulz himself, this graphic novel is sure to delight a whole new generation of PEANUTS fans!
This is a pretty cool idea. There's been a number of new animated Peanuts specials over the years (Although the Christmas one is far-and-away the best), and by adapting Happiness is Warm Blanket, they're adding more great content to all the good all-ages material currently available.
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Annihilators #1 arrived last week. I mentioned this a couple weeks back, and it was worth the wait.The first half of the book detailed the new team that Quasar put together, dealing with the Spaceknights and their enemies, The Dire Wraiths.The 2nd half was a story about Rocket Raccoon and his new job at an interstellar corporation. His job? He delivers the mail.
No. Really. Ton of fun, as he deals with the guilt of losing the Guardians and his friends.
Speaking of Abnett and Lanning, they've been knocking it out of the park with their work on Heroes for Hire. They've also made me like long-time C-lister, Paladin. That last sentence was a group of words I never thought I'd put together in that particular order.
This is why I love DnA so much; they do a great job of taking characters that often come off as boring and or plain, and spice them up. Which is why I was stoked to see that..
More at the link, but the first story arc has them tracking down one of the most enigmatic mutants, ever.
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I've written recently about my love for the 100 Bullets story, and it's creative team of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. I should also point out the covers, done by Dave Johnson, are extraordinary.
I've also mentioned that I'm not quite certain what to think of DC's newest event, FLASHPOINT.
Funny how things turn out.
Looks like someone at DC likes me:
The 100 Bullets/Spaceman creative team are writing a Batman tie-in for Flashpoint. Crazy.
Half the Flashpoint books/tie-in's have been announced.
- Google changed their font on Sunday to recognize the late, great Will Eisner. Mark Evanier (he of Groo and Garfield fame) has a great blog post talking about Eisner's achievements. Evanier's blog is a must-read in my book. He talks film, animation, Hollywood, a smattering of politics, and lots of comics. Great stuff.
If you're reading this, then we got through a pretty important step in our comic inventory process last week. I'll spare you the details, only to say that it's something I've been working towards since Day One last April and is a biiiiiiiig check-off on the 'ol to-do-list. Glad that one's done, and thanks to all the employees who helped last Sunday.
I'm in the middle of planning at least 3 different comic- and pop-culture-related events for the 2nd quarter of 2011. I know David and Sean are working on some fun stuff, too, it's really a great time to be working and/or shopping at the store. It's all things we've wanted to do for awhile, but haven't really had the resources to properly dedicate to seeing them done. My hope is that all three of these events are completely locked-in by mid-March, at which point I can finally get the other Big Monster on my To-Do list checked off: the back issues. If those are done by April 1st... Scott will be a happy man. No, really, I know how to be happy. (Quiet, Alex.)
And in the midst of all this, comes one of my favorite times of year: Spring Training. All the baseball players are reporting to camp, which means it's time for me to start drafting my fantasy baseball leagues. Crazy time right now, but I love it, I really do.
Also, we just moved the store around. Heh.
Moving on.
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New Thor Trailer out last week, and this movie is looking better and better each time I see a new trailer. Which reminds me, we're out of Thor hammers.
I am a huge, huge 100 Bullets fan, and if you've never read this modern noir/conspiracy classic, then you're really missing out. The writing is tight, and the art is luscious. There's something about the Vertigo brand that brings out One Great Work, from every writer who's written for the imprint. Warren Ellis had Transmetropolitan, Garth Ennis had Preacher, Grant Morrisson had.. jeez, Invisible, Doom Patrol, We3, Alan Moore had Swamp Thing. And that doesn't even include the current generation of writers: Jason Aaron is knocking it out of the park on Scalped, Brian Wood has DMZ and Northlanders, Bill Willingham is at issue #102 of Fables... the list goes on and on.
But seeing that Azzarello and Eduard Risso are teaming up for what looks to be a sci-fi series called SPACEMAN? Yeah, my inner sci-fi nerd just went ballistic.
So, Nathan Fillion comes out and says that if he won the lottery, he'd buy back the rights to Firefly and create new episodes on the Internet. If you're a fan of Firefly, you can only imagine how absolutely crazy people went. Facebook pages, pledge drives, twitter feeds, the whole nine yards. And we're not done yet. Browncoats know the truth:
I love these Marvel teasers. Colossus is one of my all-time favorite characters, so any face-time for that character makes me a happy man. Anyone recognize what he's holding above his head? Here's a hint: "Nothing can stop..."
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I recently sat down and read the entirety of Red Robin. If you can get past the weak title and the costume, this is a really, really good book.
Tim has always been one of the stronger members of the Bat-family. His introductory story - the classic Lonely Place of Dying - introduced the idea that Batman needed (a) Robin to keep Batman from going "too far", or getting "too dark". It was a simple concept, and 20+ years later, it still holds true.
The premise of Red Robin is that Tim Drake doesn't believe that Bruce is truly dead, and begins a worldwide search to find proof. See, noone else (Dick, Alfred, Babs) believes him, so he strikes out on his own. With the financial resources of Bruce Wayne's fortune at his disposal, his quest takes him to Europe, where he immediately runs into one of Batman's oldest and deadliest villains.
If there's one flaw in the first twelve issues, it's the overuse of flashbacks. Reading this comic month-to-month can't compare to reading it in one chunk. Fortunately, the new creative team at issue #13 minimizes the flashbacks, and continues the solid work done by JT Krul & co.
One of the strengths of the book is the great supporting cast. Fabian Nicieza builds on the work done by the original writers, and continues the great character work on favorites both old and new. Some of my favorite scenes came between Tim and Damien. Their mutual loathing and disgust is a lot of fun, and it was nice to see two heroes who honestly dislike each other.
If you've ever liked Tim Drake, Red Robin's the book for you. It's fun, it's dense, it ties in to the Bat mythology very well, and it's a solid read. Recommended.
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Okay, I wasn't going to show this, but remember when I said I'm working on a couple popculture-related projects? Here's a hint about one of them:
Deck Building games are one of the newer genres for gaming. The concept of a deck building game is not that you have to go out and purchase additional product to build and play, but you buy the game and during the game you acquire more cards to build a deck. Now, almost every one of the games has an expansion or two, but you do not have to purchase them unless you really want to.
Several different companies have now made their own Deck Building game, and each one has a slightly different twist and allows players to enjoy different options. Here is a brief list if you are interested in checking out a new game:
Dominion: Rio Grande Games
Intrigue
Alchemy
Seaside
Prosperity
Thunderstone: AEG
Wrath of the Elements
Doomgate Legion
Dragonspire
Ascension: Gary Games
Goblin Supremacy (GOSU): Moonster Games
Resident Evil: Ban Dai
New Expansion Coming Soon
Nightfall: AEG (Releasing Soon)
We are hoping that one day we will get some advanced copies of release so we can test them out and post some more information, but for now we will post what we can and hopefully get some more players excited to try a new game!
