Dragon's Den Players of the Year for Magic Update

We have been running a Player of the Year for Magic in the store since the beginning of the year.  We have broken the this award into four different categories: Free Standard, Competitive Standard, Legacy, and Limited.  As we have been running this almost 2 months, I thought I'd post a quick little standing of the top 8 players so far for each category.  So with 10 more months left to be a part of the Player of the Year here at the Dragon's Den, you should come in and play!

Free Standard: Top 8 of 136

Rank	Name	Points	Matches
1	Elijah Vanaver	118	50
2	Niko Peone	96	40
3	Mike Cox	72	37
4	Scott Fish	72	43
5	Evan Odden	72	53
6	Dave Oppenheimer	66	34
7	Alex Sherman	58	28
8	John Franczak	57	31

Competitive Standard: Top 8 of 37

Rank	Name	Points	Matches
1	Steve Carpenter	39	19
2	Kevin Jones	36	15
3	Doug Kimball	29	11
4	Alex Sherman	25	16
5	Scott Fish	21	16
6	Carl Naumann	19	12
7	Will Cuttler	18	8
8	Daniel Stockton	18	11

Legacy: Top 8 of 32

Rank	Name	Points	Matches
1	Paul Lake	45	19
2	James Rynkiewicz	38	15
3	Frank Kick	30	14
4	Casey Madrick	30	15
5	Janene Andersen	24	14
6	Darryl Moss	21	12
7	Rich Cali	21	14
8	Nicholas Albonese	15	8

Limited: Top 8 of 129

Rank	Name	Points	Matches
1	Paul Lake	27	10
2	Alex Sherman	26	10
3	David Haass	24	8
4	Marcos Martinez	22	14
5	Kevin Jones	21	7
6	Mike Cox	21	10
7	Brooke Schieffer	19	9
8	Doug Kimball	18	7

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

NYC Toy Fair 2012

Well, we attended Toy Fair 2012 in New York City at the Jacob Javits Center.  It was an incredible event with more to see then I could imagine.  There were incredible deals, new games, old games, and so much more.  While the event is still fresh in our heads, we are going to try and put some of the info into a blog AND add pictures... Just to let you know, many things we could not photograph so we will do what we can.

Activision: Activision had a gigantic booth set up for Skylander!  More to the point, the new Skylander Giants expansion coming out this fall!  We got a chance to check out a quick demo of the game and got a really cool limited piece to the game, a metallic purple Cynder!  We have started to get Skylanders in the store, and the individual figures have been flying off the shelf.

Spinmaster: So many great products, so little space to write about them all. Tech Decks and Flick Trix bikes are very cool!  These toys allow you to do tricks with skate boards and bike using your fingers.  Appfinity and Appmates are two new products that they are releasing currently for the iPhone and soon on the Droid.  These items will allow you to play a driving game with a special steering wheel, play a shooting game with a gun attachment, or remote control a helicopter.  They also carry Redakai, a 3D trading card game.  Very different design, and fun to play.

Calliope: Tsuro is a hot game!  It is a game of paths, and if you have not seen this game, then it is time to take a look.  They are also in the process of creating a new version of the game and hopefully we will see it soon!  Got 'Em is another new game from Calliope.  This game involves boxing in your opponent and moving your pawn to safety.  We will have both of these games in stock very soon... hopefully once Toy Fair is completed.

GIANT Microbes: If you need something intelligent and fun, then check out GIANTMicrobes.  They have key chains, vinyl figures, and plush figures of your "favorite" viruses and bacteria magnified 1,000,000 times.  Some of the favorites they have created are common cold, kissing disease, MRSA, brain cell, chickenpox, and mad cow.  This company has even created special collections just for the holidays, namely Valentines Day, Halloween, and Christmas.

Funko: Funko makes really cool vinyl figures and plush figures all based around popular pop culture!  They make these for DC, Marvel, The Hobbit, Disney, and so much more.  We currently carry some of their products, but we are excited to see all the new product that is not in the store yet. 

Neca: Heroclix is one of the Wizkids products now made by Neca.  Heroclix is coming on strong and with some many great licences like Lord of the Rings, Street Fighter, Marvel, DC, and Halo, it is no wonder.  Thier newest line is a Star Trek ship to ship miniatures combat game.  Another new game from Wizkids by Neca is Quarriors, a dice building game with a new expansion on the way.  Licenced merchandise like Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Fall-out, Halo, and more.  They make action figures, wall scrolls, bags, and so much more.

Monogram: Monogram creates many different products that use different licencing.  They carry far more then we carry, but here are some of the ones we do carry; Marvel, Nightmare Before Christmas.  They use the licence to make glasses, banks, travel mugs, key chains, and so much more.

Kotobukiya: This company makes some fantastic vinyl figures.  Most of them are done as beautiful women and they cover lines such as Mass Effect 3, Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Tekken, and more!  This figures are fantastic with gorgeous detail.  They also have a fantastic line of silicone ice cube trays and chopsticks.  In this line they have Star Wars, DC Comics,  and are introducing Alien.  We have carried some of these products, but are now going to be getting NEW ones in March.

Mayfair: We stopped at Mayfair, and had a fantastic conversation about some new and forward thinking ideas.  They gave us a ton of information about the Settlers of Catan National tournaments. We now understand what we can and cannot do, so we are ready to start running qualifiers for this great game! We also learned about a store-specific commercial.  They have some fun characters on their website who will be a part of the commercial and we are excited to get copies of these.

Fantasy Flight: This company creates many differnet board games, card games, and role playing games.  One of the newest games to come out soon is Star Wars X-Wing.  This is a miniatures tactical space combat game.  Star Wars Living Card Game is also coming out sometime this year.  They did not have much information on this as it needed to be redone slightly.

Cryptozoioc: Stopping at Cryptozoic was mixed.  They had some fact sheets, but not much else to see.  Here are some of the big high-lights that we saw.  They are planning several releases for Deck Building Games including Clash of Champions for World of Warcraft, DC Comics (part of the Cerberus game engine), also a Hobbit/LotR deck building game.  They are also working on a Hobbit/LotR board game, hopefully coming out next year.

Nassau Candy: Jelly Belly, Branded/Licensed Candy, and bulk candy is what we saw at Nassau Candy.  They things we really thought were great would be the Angry Birds, Mario, and Decade in a Box candies.  So many great candies, and we even got a sample of their salt water taffy... which was fantastic!

Ata Boy: Magnets, Buttons, Stickers based on Princess Bride, Happy Bunny, DC, Marvel and Retro images.  What more can I say, other then I want them in the store!  So many great pop culture references and images.  We are looking forward to carrying more of this line. 

Royal & Langnickel: This company creates and sells paint brushes, palettes, and paints.  We are very excited to find a company that sells high quality paint  brushes at a very reasonable price!  We will be carrying their line of brushes.

Asmodee: Dixit is one of those games that is an instant favorite.  The art is fantastic and the game is about giving clues and bluffing/misleading your opponents.  Timeline is a new game from Asmodee.  It is a fast game with some great history lessons to share with the players.  7 Wonders, with its several expansions, gives you a fast paced game where you get to influnce one of the great civilizations of the world.  This company makes some fun and fast games.  Not a lot of time, check out Asmodee.

Hexbugs: They have a brand new item, Moshi Monster Bobble Bots!  This is based on an online game that is HUGE in Great Britain, especially among girls.  They have created this item using the Nano technology.  They can be purchased in single packs, with houses, and with buildings.  Hexbugs has also introduced several great holiday lines.  Each one has a removable piece for the holiday; rabbit ears for Easter, antlers for Christmas, and a glow in the dark skeleton frame for Halloween!  They also packaged them differently; Easter eggs, ornaments, and a coffin!

Konami: Yu-Gi-Oh!... What else can I say?  Well I guess I can comment on all the different product coming out.  We will see Ra Yellow Mega-Pack, Premium Collection tins, a new Starter, Galactic Overlord, and Hidden Arsenal 6.  We will also get a very cool product, Battle Pack: Epic Dawn!  This new pack will give players the chance to play Yu-Gi-Oh! in a sealed format! 

Tenzi: This was a fun, super fast dice rolling game.  The game was very simple to learn, and for a only $15 you get 40 D6 pipped dice! They come in 8 different colors, 4 to a pack. We had a blast playing this game, and managed to get all the dice on one side in 26 seconds.

Wood Expressions: We already carry many of their items, but are going to expand the depth of the product. They sell very common games like chess, checkers, solitaire, backgammon, cribbage and Chinese checkers. However, if you're looking for something like Shoot-the-Moon, Mah-Jong, Cathedral, Labyrinth and Mancala, they've got that too! We carry Wood Expressions for every customer type, from those who spend $15 on a beginner's checkers set to $150 for the collectors who want a carved marble chess board and pieces.

Set Game: Are you looking for a quick an interesting game?  Are you looking for a game that will really push you to think?  Then check out these games from Set: Xactika,Quiddler, Five Crowns, and Set!  We demoed and played all 4 games in about 20 minutes.  Now we did not finish the games, but we played several hands of each.

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

GIZA The Great Pyramid

In this new 2-4 player game by Mayfair, you play as the leader of an Egyptian city. Pharaoh is concerned that his Great Pyramid will not be finished in time for his journey to the Underworld, and needs the help of his best cities in supplying additional labor. To win the Pharaoh's favor, you must send more laborers to complete the Great Pyramid than the other players!

When you first open the box, you will see the rulebook and the game board. The rulebook is 12 pages long, and is extremely detailed, perfect for those who have never played a board game. It includes information on Game Setup, Components, How To Play, Executing Turns, Scoring and Game End. It even has a very helpful scoring table for use during the game.

The board itself is a work of art. Not only is it beautifully done in neo-Egyptian artwork, but it is a  hard 1 piece fold-out.  In my experience, this eliminates people losing the separate board pieces or bumping into 1 half of it.

Underneath those are the Player Aid Screens (left side) and the tiles and tokens (right side). Each player gets 1 color-coded reversible screen, 3 Art Tokens for decorating the Pyramid (red), 8 Food Tokens to prevent Worker starvation(green) and either 8 or 10 Worker blocks, depending on whether your game is 2 or 4 player. There are also Sled Tiles (large yellow) and 50pt. Victory Markers (yellow/green/brown). Each of these are very important during game play, so I recommend getting a Ziploc to keep them in.

Lastly, there are the worker pieces and the plastic pyramid itself.  The small wooden blocks represent your Workers, and are color coded for up to 4 players, and coincide with the reversible Player Aid screens. There are 16 of each color, for a total of 64 Workers. However, there is also what is possibly the coolest part of this game: The Great Pyramid! Once your Workers have slid all the Pyramid pieces of 1 Tier into place, you use your Art Tokens to decorate that Tier. While everyone who bids Art Tokens toward the Pyramid win Victory Points, the player who bids the most will get more VPs. Once the Great Pyramid is completed, players will add up all VPs, and of course, the player with the most wins the game!

And there you have it, another awesome resource game from Mayfair. While this game is a bit more complicated than either Settlers of Catan or Steam, I like the fact that they are creating more challenges for their loyal players. Sean, Dave and I will be at Toyfair 2012 in NYC this Sunday and Monday, and I can hardly wait to see what new boardgames Mayfair has cooked up. Be sure to look for our Toyfair update on Tuesday when we return!

Stasi "Dengirl" King

Unpacking the Dragon's Den

So many people who do not live local have asked us what the store looks like and what type of product we carry. So not wanting to keep everyone in the dark, here is an unpacking of the Dragon's Den!

As you walk down the hall of the Poughkeepsie Plaza, we are located at the end of the hallway at the North end of the plaza. 

When you look into the store, you will find many great items located on our island.  You are also presented with a choice, left or right...

If you walk straight in and look in the front two cases you will find some interesting items, including bumper stickers and ...

and CANDY! Notice that most of the candy is branded!

So I decided to turn to the right and make my way along the comic book wall.  We have a nice lite display for the comic books, all sorted alphabetically from left to right with tabs behind all the new books.At the end of the rows of comic books, there is a lite display with all the comic glasses, banks, and pop fun figures.  We carry Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, and more.  If you are looking for comic books, then you might want to browse our wall.

Opposite the comic wall, and inside the island you find all the collectible card games (CCG) and sports cards.  This is where all the boosters, starters, and singles for the different CCGs.  This is also where you will find the card sleeves, deck boxes, and play mats.  With games like Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, and World of Warcraft we have plenty of CCGs for the players to enjoy.

Rounding the corner by the BCW spinning rack which houses top loaders, penny sleeves, and binders, you see the gaming area. We can set the area up in multiple configurations for card games, miniature games, or role playing games.  Across the back wall of the gaming area is a wall of board games and card games as well as Yoda above one of our demo video game systems.

Right in the corner of the gaming area is our role playing games (RPG) section, which usually has a table set up for RPG games. We keep our boosters of miniatures, RPG books (New and Used), and maps.  We carry many different RPG titles like D&D, Pathfinder, Legend of the Five Rings, Eclipse Phase, and so much more!

At the back of the island, facing into the gaming area you find our miniature paints, dice, CCG binders, some play mats, and darts.  Oh, yes DARTS!  So many people play in leagues in the area, but there are so few places to find flights, shafts, tips, and other dart accessories.

The wall opposite the comics and around the other side of the island you find miniatures and video games.  Starting at the back of the store, you run into the miniature section of the wall.  We carry game companies such as Games Workshop (Warhammer and Warhammer 40K), Privateer Press (Warmachine and Hordes), Spartan Miniatures (Uncharted Seas, Dystopian Wars, and Firestorm Armada), and some other titles like Battletech, Malifaux, and Infinity.

As you move down the wall, you will see all the video games, and video game systems.  We carry new games as well as retro.  Looking for Nintendo (Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Gamecube, and Wii), X-box, X-Box 360, PlayStation (1, 2, and 3), Sega (Master System, Genesis, CD, Saturn, and Dreamcast), or even Atari... we've got it!  We also have a tech in the store who can fix most problems with current and older systems.  In the island across from the wall we keep the hand held games.  These range from the original Nintendo Gameboy to the 3DS.  We also have PSPs, Sega Game Gears, and even a Nomad!

Right next to the register we have some more snacks.  Here we keep some of the really cool imports from Japan and Ireland!  Drinks, candies, chips, and cookies! We also have energy drinks in this case, as well as in the mini fridge right behind the counter if you want one cold.

So now you have had the grand tour.  I did not have space to put in all the pictures of the store or all the cases, but I wanted to leave some mystery or intrigue so that you are enticed into stopping by and checking us out.  And if you are curious, we run events on those tables every night of the week, and you should check out our calendar for more information.

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

Battletech Introductory Box Set

Did you ever play Battletech when you were growing up?  Do you remember FASA? Have you ever desired piloting a giant 'Mech into combat for the glory of your House or Clan? Then you need to check out the Battletech Introductory Box Set!  This new introductory box set is now being produced by Catalyst Game Lab, who also makes some other great games! We at the Dragon's Den felt that it was time to break this open and play a round or two.

We got the box set out for the store, now that it is available at one of our distributors.  As several of us remembered the game from our youth, we were excited to give the new intro box a try.  We went very basic with a light mech each... well, they had 50 tonnage mechs and I had a 40.  We went with the very basic/core rules and did not worry about heat or ammo.  Steve, Tom and I had a blast and after immobilizing me they turned on each other, with Tom winning the event!

The pieces are all made out of plastic, and are single cast... except for the 2 premium pieces Thor and Loki.  The board is more like a board game board, but is printed on both sides to give you 2 double sided maps for more play options.

While we were playing, Stan got into painting the pieces and gave each one a quick prime coat of either Red, Grey, or Silver.  The pieces we were using ended up blue as did the Thor.  The Loki got a separate color and we went with green.  We may have gone with some Marvel Comic colors with that...Thor blue and Loki green!

So as we have several copies in the store, with the pieces all base coated, then you should come in and give this great game a try.  We now have several copies of the game as of when this blog was posted.

 



Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

Nintendo LaserScope

Have you ever wanted to play Duck Hunt on the NES and not have to use the gun?  How about firing at those ducks by saying "Bang," "Shoot," "Die Duck, Die," or "Kablow!"?  Then you need to give this a try!

The Nintendo LaserScope by Konami is a voice activate firing system.  It was designed to work with the different shooting games that Nintendo produced to work with the Zapper.  It made it's debut in 1990, so it is now 22 years old, and looks great still. If you noticed, the headset also has speakers built in, and YES it is in stereo. 

Now there were some down sides to really cool device.  The mic would sometimes pick up background noise and fire with what ever it heard.  It also has a limited range as you need to plug the headset into the Nintendo in the controller port, and on the side for the sound.

Oh, and in case you are wondering... YES we have one in the store as of when we posted this blog entry!

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

MtG Dark Ascension Pre-release Weekend

This weekend was the Pre-release of the latest set of Magic the Gathering from Wizards of the Coast called Dark Ascension.  We had so many players for the last Pre-release that we set ourselves up for the players and even got the empty store next to us for our Saturday events.  We had 4 events on Saturday starting at Midnight.  We always get a good crowd for the Midnight events and having an empty location to use made it feel open and spacious for the players.  Here is a list of our times on Saturday and Sunday with how many players we had for each.

As is our normal Midnight fun, we got pizzas and sodas for all the players to enjoy before the event began.  We ended up about 16 pizzas and not a single slice was left when it was game time! The drinks normally last a little longer, but even they were gone before the end of the event. 

 

Saturday
1. Midnight: 88 players
2. 11:00am: 32 players
3. 3:00pm: 15 players
4. 5:00pm: 16 players
Saturday total: 151 Players

Sunday
1. 11:00am: 8 players
2. 3:00pm: 15 players
Sunday Total: 26

Total players for the weekend: 177

This was a great weekend with lots of players having a great time and playing tons of Magic.  We did a few extra things this pre-release that we have not done in the past.  We had our resident Magic card painter, Marc, altering cards for players as they played.  He also did a few for us to use as random door prizes for each round of the Midnight.  He also did a full art of Sorin for a player... and it might have been the first to be altered.  We also rented several table and chairs so we would have extra and everyone would have more room to play.

Next pre-release I'm hoping to see if one of the local Magic artists would be willing to come in during one of the time slots and do some signings or custom alters for players.  I know that there is one guy very local and several closer to the city, so it would be great for the players to meet some these great artists.

Don't forget about the Launch Party for Dark Ascension this Friday night at 6:00pm.  It will be a Draft for $15 and the first players on the list will be guaranteed a promo card.  What to check out the rest of our calendar of events?  Check out our calendar! We run many Friday Night Magic events, Monday Night Magic, and now Star City IQs!

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

Welcome Dark Ascension to the Dragon's Den

Today is the day before the Dark Ascension Prerelease for Magic, and people are already quite excited…none more so than certain coworkers of mine, who get to see and hold the new product ahead of everyone else!  For those of you not working in a hobby store, here’s a peek at the newest products from Wizards of the Coast.

Here you can see every Magic item we received today; Booster Packs, Intro Decks, and even our store’s new and improved Land Station. Fat Packs are only available for the Release, so that update will have to be next week.

Hopefully, since this new Land Station has an open top and can hold about 200 of each color Mana/Land, this will make it far easier for players to grab what they need. Previously, we used 500 ct. cardboard boxes.

The Booster Boxes are fairly standard, with there being 36 packs per box, and 15 cards per pack. The only difference seems to be that they have only chosen 3 illustrations for the boosters, whereas usually they have 4-5 separate cover illustrations.

There are, however, still 5 different Intro Decks. Each contains a 2-color 60 card deck, a foil card, a Dark Ascension booster, a learn-to-play guide, and a strategy insert that shows the deck-lists of all the Intro Decks. Below I have put the name of the Intro Deck, which 2 colors it has, and what the foil card is.

Dark Sacrifice has a foil "Fiend of the Shadows", and is a Black/White deck.

Monstrous Surprise is a Red/Green deck, and has a foil "Flayer of the Hatebound".

Grave Power contains a foil "Ghoultree" and is a Green/Blue deck.

The Relentless Dead deck is Blue/Black and it's foil is a "Havengul Runebinder".

Swift Justice is a White/Red deck, and has "Requiem Angel" as it's foil card.  

Now, I know what you're wondering; what about all the other great Dark Ascension themed products that I can actually buy this weekend? Don't worry, they're here too!

Once again, Ultrapro has created numerous items for those Magic players who love the illustrations from the new sets. Not only do we have an 80 pack of sleeves and vertical deck box for "Sorin, Lord of Innistrad"...

...but we also have the beauty from "Deadly Allure" gracing her own 80 ct. sleeves and horizontal deck box. Each of the deck boxes are $3.99 and the sleeves are $9.99.

As for playmats, we have 2 wonderfully illustrated ones available. Sorin graces one with his picture from the Prerelease cardboard standup...

...and here we see the mysterious woman from the "Fires of Undeath" card. Both are wrapped in a nice plastic hanger, and are $21.99.

That's pretty much it for now. Be sure to check back for our other posts on Saturday, when we tell you about how our Midnight Dark Ascension Prerelease event went. We're offering free soda and pizza, have lots of prizes to give away, and expecting over 140 players, so check our Twitter and Facebook accounts for hourly updates!

Stasi "Dengirl" King

Redakai: Conquer the Kairu

Want to get in on a new, fast-paced and 3D card game that's easy to learn, but challenging to master? Then look no further than Redakai!

It's a new card game (created by the same guys who gave us Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer) that involves harnessing the energy of Kairu to make amazing attacks with tremendously powerful monster transformations. Much like Yugioh and Pokemon before it, Redakai can also be watched on your local Cartoon Network channel in an animated series. 

As we've gotten many questions about the cards and how to read them, I thought it would be helpful to give a run-down of how to decipher the various card types.

In Redakai, there are 3 main card types; Character, Monster and Attacks, shown below in order.

Character Cards: Has the name and version of the character in the bronze section at the top. The 3 gold bars are your character's Damage Zones. Think of these as your "Health" bars. There are also 3 different zones on the left side of the card, which will be red, green, blue or blank. These Defense Zones determines the type of damage your character can take. Along the bottom of each card is your character's Special Ability. The ability can only be used if not covered by another card's ability.

Each player starts the game as a Character, with the same amount of energy (Kairu).

Monster Cards: These have most of the same information as Character Cards, including Name, Version, Defense, Special Ability and Health bars. The one core difference is that the amount of Kairu required to summon the monster is shown in the upper left corner. Also, some Monsters, like the one on the right, have the power to give Health bars back. These will go over your Character Card when summoned, and give you a different Special Ability. Don't worry about the other 3 symbols in the Special Ability bar, they aren't needed for gameplay.

Attack Cards: While they do contain some of the same information found on Monsters and Characters, the Attack Cards have very important differences in gameplay. The upper left corner still has the amount of Kairu needed for play, but the name has the attack's Color rather than Version. The attack may have a Special Ability like Characters or Monsters, but it will also have the Attack Power. When using this, simply compare the Attack Power of the Attack Card with the corresponding Defense Zone of the Character Card. If the Damage Zone number is blank or lower, it automatically hits. Also, if the artwork of the Attack Card covers up the Defense Zone or Special Ability, like in the middle Attack Card shown, that section is now considered blank.

And there you have it; your comprehensive guide to the 3 cards of Redakai!

Stasi "Dengirl" King 

Grand Prix Trial Baltimore 1/21/12

Today we ran our Grand Prix Trial (GPT) for Baltimore.  We ended up with a pretty good turnout even with the snow falling all morning and keeping many players at home.  So we got 10 players, which ends up being 4 rounds with a cut to 4.  Here is the standings going into the Top 4:

1. Paul Lake
2. Casey Madrick
3. Doug Kimball
4. Jonah Acosta
5. David Haass
6. Carl Naumann
7. Alex Sherman
8. Nick Langella
9. Dave Oppenheimer
10. Evan Odden

In an effort to help more players with deck construction and play, I've decided to publish the top 4 deck lists here on our Blog.  I've listed them:

Doug Kimball
5x Swamp
7x Forest
1x Mountain
2x Kesig Wolf Run
4x Inkmoth Nexus
1x Dragonskull Summit
1x Rootbound Crag
1x Glissa the Traitor
1x Olivia Voldaren
4x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Acidic Slime
4x Primeval Titan
4x Grave Titan
2x Geth's Verdict
3x Doom Blade
2x Green Sun's Zenith
2x Black Sun's Zenith
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Ratchet Bomb
4x Sphere of the Suns
4x Rampant Growth
Sideboard:
1x Go For The Throat
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Ratchet Bomb
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
3x Curse of Death's Hold
2x Batterskull
3x Nihil Speelbomb
1x Black Sun's Zenith

Casey Madrick
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Snapcaster Mage
3x Giest of Saint Traft
3x Invisible Stalker
2x Merfolk Looter
2x Runechanters Pike
1x Sword of War and Peace
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
4x Ponder
4x Mana Leak
3x Vapor Snag
3x Gitaxian Probe
2x Gut Shot
2x Midnight Haunting
1x Plains
9x Island
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Seachrome Coast
3x Moorland Haunt
Sideboard
3x Dissipate
2x Oblivion Ring
2x Flashfreeze
1x Vapor Snag
2x Mental Misstep
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
2x Celestial Purge
1x Negate
1x Dismember

Jonah Acosta
UW Delver
4x Glacial Fortress
9x Island
3x Moorland Haunt
1x Plains
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Giest of Saint Traft
3x Invisible Stalker
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Gitaxian Probe
3x Gut Shot
4x Mana Leak
1x Oblivion Ring
4x Ponder
2x Runechanters Pike
2x Sword of War and Peace
4x Vapor Snag
Sideboard
2x Dismember
3x Dissipate
2x Divine Offering
1x Mental Misstep
1x Oblivion Ring
2x Phantasmal Image
3x Timely Reinforcements

Paul Lake
U/W Delver
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Snapcaster Mage
3x Giest of Saint Traft
3x Invisible Stalker
2x Merfolk Looter
2x Runechanters Pike
2x Sword of War and Peace
4x Ponder
4x Mana Leak
3x Vapor Snag
3x Gitaxian Probe
3x Gut Shot
2x Midnight Haunting
9x Island
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Moorland Haunt
Sideboard
2x Divine Offering
2x Dissipate
1x Negate
1x Phantasmal Image
2x Oblivion Ring
1x Vapor Snag
1x Mental Misstep
2x Timely Reinforcements
1x Ratchet Bomb
1x Celestial Purge
1x Marrow Shards

Heading into the first Round of Top 4, we saw Paul Lake vs Jonah Acosta and Casey Madrick vs Doug Kimball.  They all played well, and with no time limit still finished in about 50 minutes.  Paul Lake and Casey Madrick moved on to final 2 players after winning the first round.  Paul Lake and Casey Madrick then sat down to play the final round of the GPT Baltimore, the winning of this event would then recieve a 3 round bye at the Grand Prix in Baltimore.

In the last round, Paul Lake emerged victorious and won the 3 round bye for Baltimore!  We are excited to see Paul head down to Baltimore and we are hoping he does well! 

There is another GPT for Baltimore tomorrow at our sister store in Fair Lawn NJ, The Gamer's Gambit.

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

Making Sense of Marvel

I grew up as a "Marvel Zombie". I always thought their characters and stories were superior to The Boy Scout (Superman) and his friends. The Avengers were cool, I thought. The X-men by Claremont were the best-sellers for -decades-, and everything else was big and fun and flashy and all that. Marvel rocked. DC = zzzzz.

But the last couple years have not been kind to Stan Lee's wunderkinds. Event fatigue, the $4 price point, Marvel editorial's reluctance to care much about continuity (the hallmark of great Marvel comics) and the feeling that not every comic matter... all these factors led to people walking away from Marvel comics.

To be blunt, I question whether the last couple years worth of Marvel comics have held up, quality-wise. It feels to me that Marvel's last great story was Civil War. I think most of you will agree that CW was a great mini-series, but the follow-ups have not been nearly as strong. Secret Invasion was too long (and felt like a series of boring fights in The Savage Land), Dark Reign was, well, Dark and Siege was.. honestly, I don't even remember what happened in it. The Spider-Man One Last Day story is still loathed by many readers (not all good press is bad press, Marvel) and then there's Fear Itself which just wrapped up.

I promoted Fear Itself pretty heavily in the months leading up to it's launch. I did a 1-on-1 phone interview with Matt Fraction about the series, put up signs, mentioned it to customers, and when the book shipped I was... underwhelemed. It was good, mind you, but it wasn't GREAT.

And maybe my expectations are high (tell me if they are), but if you or I are spending $4 on a comic, it better be GREAT. Money doesn't go as far as it used to, and every dollar counts. It's a different world, and comics are not a necessity. Gas, food and rent are. So, if I'm going to recommend a comic to someone, and it's $4, it'd better be worth every cent. I'm not certain that Fear Itself was worth the money. I hate saying that 'cause I love a lot of Fraction's (Hello, Casanova!) other works, but FI just didn't do it for me.

Now don't get me wrong, there's been other good stories since Civil War. The Annihilation stories were top-notch, World War Hulk and Planet Hulk were superb, and the long-form Death of Captain America story that Brubaker wrote in the Captain America book was fantastic.

But most of Marvel's recent output comes off as "ehh-" worthy. The only exception would be Uncanny X-force. While the recent Hulk and X-men relaunches have done very well, The Dark Angel Saga is, in my mind, the best story Marvel's published in years. The Avengers titles feel like a re-tread. Norman Osborn, again? Really? Seriously, let's give that guy a break already.

Before the holidays, Marvel cancelled a number of new mini-series, and also announced that they'd be double-shipping a lot of their best books in the spring. This is clearly a cash grab, leading to increased revenue, but it also has the potential to push people away from their comics. I have a number of customers who only come in once or twice a month to grab books off the wall. Imagine coming in, having $8-10 to spend on your favorite 3 titles, only to find that there's been 2-3 issues of each published while you were gone. $10? Try $20, easily. That's not fair to the consumer, but Marvel doesn't seem to care. That may sound harsh, but it's true.

So, where does Marvel go from here? Well, you're going to see a lot of your favorite books being double- and triple-published over the next year. Another Avengers book is on the way, in addition to the next Marvel event, Avengers v. X-Men. I think you're going to less mini-series being published, and that's something that's way over-due. Not because the books are bad, but because Marvel has been flooding the market.

In a way, I think Marvel owes DC. If it wasn't for the influx of new customers that The New 52 has created, I think Marvel's numbers would be even lower.

As always, you the customer, will vote with your dollar. Right now, your dollars are going to DC, not Marvel and your feedback to me supports that. In the end, Marvel's going to have to make some changes or face the new reality that DC is the #1 publisher in the Direct Market. Maybe that will make Marvel change.

'Nuff said.

S.