If you’re competing in this weekend’s big , we’ve got two tournaments this week that’ll help you get your decks ready and, hopefully, earn you some amazing prizes to take those decks to the next level along the way.

The first, at 6pm Tuesday, April 3rd, is a Legacy Tournament– 16 person max, $20 buy in, swiss with a cut to top for to determine prizes like Lions Eye Diamond and Mox Opal!

Then! At 6pm on on Wednesday, April 4th, we do it all again, this time in Standard with prizes like a playset of Misty Rainforests!

If, for any reason, you’re not competing in the Grand Prix, you’re always welcome to join us for any of our Saturday Morning Magic drafts every weekend at noon. This weekend will be our last Ixalan draft before we have one weekend of discounted Wild Style drafting on the 14th and the big Dominaria Prerelease on the 21st.

So come on up and check us out for all the best events, deals and draft beers in town. You’ll be glad you did!

With our longtime Tournament Organizer, Queen Margot, stepping down to, “Walk the earth. Like Kane. From Kung Fu,”…

…we’ll be making some changes to our magic program. Our official theme song for it, for example, will go from this…

… to this…

…as we welcome our NEW T.O., B-Boy Joe Ricci, to the stage.

Other than that, things’ll stay mostly the same. We’ll continue running our very own Saturday Morning Magic drafts every Saturday morning at noon (that’s what we call “morning” up here on The Hill) and will have special events for all the upcoming releases including a Modern Masters 25 draft on March 17 and a Dominaria Prerelease on April 21.

See you there!

Yes, that’s right. It’s time for The Emerald City‘s very own Comic Con.

And while it’s technically true that this important cultural event actually happens at the Washington State Convention Center, everybody who’s anybody knows that the real action happens up here, a short walk away from the center proper at our very own .

And to prove it, we’ve got ECCC themed events all week long just to entice you up the road, starting on Wednesday night with our release party for Emerald City Comic Con’s official beer (yes, that’s actually a real thing!), Fremont Brewing’s Dark Heron!

Then, on Thursday, join those happy mutants, the , for a viewing of the latest episode of their favorite show in the whole world, Critical Role!

And on Friday, things just get bananae up in here, with special guests from all over the pop cultural spectrum like , Espionage Cosmetics & Outsider Comics coming in for our back to back and by our friends and .

Then on Saturday, we follow very special Comicon episodes of our regular Saturday Morning Magic & Gamers of Color events with Critter Crawl 3 – now in 3D!

And the ECCC madness just does not stop! Because on Sunday (…Sunday! Sunday!) we’ve got Special Guests and Judge Zedd running the worlds first (I can’t back that up. But it sure sounds good, doesn’t it?) Dungeon Crawl Classics Tournament! I can’t imagine how that works but apparently you can actually win stuff so come on down and get your swag on.

And then, after that, we just flip the script, and do it all again. Or something like it. Seriously, it’s crazy around here these days. As always you can learn more about these and all of our upcoming events on our very own Events Page. And if you’re any where in our little Emerald City and need to come find us, just follow the yellow brick road (we call it East Pine, you call it anything you want to).

Well now’s your chance! Because Seattle’s very own Monday Night Pinball League (also on !) is starting its new Spring season on February 12th and you’ve got until Jan 22 to sign up for our team, the Raygun Magic Saves. Cool graphics and jackets pending but I’m sure we’ll get that all worked out any day now.

Seattle’s Monday Night Pinball is a welcoming, coed, 21+ featuring 22 teams playing weekly games for ten weeks. It’s a great way to have fun, meet people and get to see, and try out, all of Seattle’s many pin spots. I mean, just look at all these happy healthy people!

You know… now that I think about, I’m pretty sure those guys kicked our asses… but that’s neither here nor there because a good time was had by all along the way!

If you’ve interested in checking out the MPL before joining, you’re welcome to come out for any of our home matches, every other Monday from February through April. The league’ll announce exact dates on Jan 29th and I’ll add them to our very own Special Events Page when they do so you can come check out all of this sweet team on team pinball action for yourself!

And if you’re not interested in league but just want to give our house pins a spin, come on by any day of the week, noon to 11pm (noon to 1am on Fridays and Saturdays!). We’ve got eight unique pinball machines for you to play, including newcomer (to us), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

and house favorite, Ghostbusters!

Plus, we’ve got a rotating batch of retro arcade cabinets featuring retro classics, a full cabinet shooter and two different four players! So come on down and check us out. You’ll be glad you did!

By which, of course, I mean Magic: the Gathering. What? You didn’t think that I was going to start talking about elves and magic snowmen did you? That’d be ridiculous!

We’ve got a ton of special magic events and releases for you this holiday season and beyond, starting with our very own Iconic Masters Draft. Yes, that’s right! For the first time ever, we’re hosting not just one but two drafts to celebrate the latest masters release!

Iconic Masters Draft, Saturday, November 18, Noon & 4pm. $45 at door, $40 if you prepay by Friday, November 17. Preregistration now open!

Then! In December, we’ve got our very first (and last! These things don’t happen often! We’re not kidding when we say, “once in a lifetime,” on this one!) Unstable Draft!

Unstable Draft, Saturday, December 9, Noon & 4pm, $15 or $17.50 with drink special. No preregistration required.

With our classic Saturday Morning Magic Drafts in between. To learn more about these or any of our other numerous events and specials this holiday season, check out our Special Events Page.

And now, friends, I must bring up a tragedy that I hope that you will all join together to help us overcome; deforestation in Ixalan. Yes, that’s right, I’m afraid that the massive popularity of green mana for drafting and constructed play of the current set has radically depleted our supply of draft forests to unsustainable levels. So, in partnership with the non-profit River Heralds, we are setting up a program to Save Ixalan’s Forests.

Between now and whenever we determine that we have enough forests to sustain our drafts again, bring us 20 good quality, black bordered mtg forests and get $1 off entry into any of our magic events, up to 100 forests (for a full $5 off!) per person per event entry.

Thank you. And together, we can reforest Ixalan.

Yes! That’s right! It’s time for everyone’s favorite convention, GeekGirlCon! And, like we do for all of our favorite conventions, we’ve got special events leading right up to it for all of our participants coming into town and looking to get into the spirit early!

Starting with Geek Girl Trivia on Thursday night featuring a range of geek and girl related topics and one of your last chances to actually win GCC passes just for knowing stuff!

Then, on Friday, after you’ve set up your booth and are ready for a late lunch and/or early drinking (Hey, we’ve all been there. The Raygun is a Judgement Free Zone, okay!) our friends from Runic Games are setting up their Hob Happy Hour for you featuring four stations of play and food and drink specials for all GCC pass and ticket holders! Say, did I mention that we have pizza?!

And, on Saturday Morning, well, what we call morning and most civilized folks call “noon,” we’ll be hosting our Ixalan Draft Day featuring great women-officiated play against fun, accepting, local players from a range of genders and ethnicities that, as a thank you for briefly leaving the Convention Center proper, is $5 off for all GCC pass holders!

Plus! Beer, pizza, espresso, pinball and so much more, every day from noon to 11pm (1am on Fridays & Saturdays!), all just a short walk away from the convention in our amazing all ages space in Seattle’s historic Capitol Hill Neighborhood!

Capitol Hill, where all the streets are paved with rainbows…

First up is our Ixalan Prerelease this weekend. We have 4 events total for this one; noon & 5pm on Saturday and noon & 5pm on Sunday. All still have some room available if you’d like to preregister. Cost is $30, $25 if you prepay by this Friday night.

The weekend after that on Saturday, 09/30, (boy, this month blew by!) we have our Geek Girl Con Ixalan Release Drafts at noon & 4 for that anyone coming in from GCC (we’re just a short walk away!) gets $5 OFF of our usual $15 buy-in to join.

Then, looking a little further out, the Wizards are releasing both a new Modern Icons and a new Unstable set and we’ll be drafting both; the former in November, the latter in December.
We’re also developing a Modern Tournament to benefit Gay City which we will announce details about soon and have our regular Wednesday Night Magic Modern Tournaments every week if you want to prepare for it yourself. All of these events and more can always be found on our Events Page if you have any further questions.

For us, the New Year begins on Labor Day. Labor Day is when everything shifts for us; the weather finally cools back down, the foot traffic shifts from visiting tourists to returning students, key members of staff inevitably move on so new staff step in, and both of my children return to school, necessitating and facilitating changes to my personal work schedule which affects everything else. All as we clean up and recover from our personal weeklong New Years Celebration, PAX.

And with every new year, comes changes. The two biggest for us so far this year are taps and our schedule.

Yes, that’s right. I just said TAPS! With custom D20 tap heads no less!

Thanks to an unprecedented collaboration between ourselves, Maeloc Cider, Fremont Brewing & the Seattle Indies, we were able to get our initial tap system fully installed, tested and operational just before PAX and now it’s ready for you try out too.

We’re currently offering our ever popular Strawberry Cider, Fremont’s amazing seasonal Lush IPA and Odin’s Gift Amber on tap and will be rotating through a range of seasonals, many of which will be selected by you through our tip wars voting system.

Draughts are $6 and pitchers $15. We look forward to serving you.

Additionally, after seeing how many people were trying to get in early every day to get some of our great espresso now that Stumptown has closed, we’re going to be opening every day at noon and staying open until 11pm, 1am on Fridays and Saturdays, making us a great stop for all your lunchtime and afternoon coffee needs.

So come on by, get yourself a drink, play some pinball, and check out some of our events. You’ll be delighted that you did.

– Eric

Though PAX is indeed amazing. And massive. And filled with everything that you love and are interested in. You may still find yourself wanting a little break.

Break? Break from what? Whatever could he be talking about?

And when you do, we’re just a short walk away in Seattle’s legendary Capitol Hill neighborhood.

A mystical land where all the crosswalks are actually rainbows!

And, just like PAX,* we’ve got everything that you love and are interested in here too as well, like and gaming, special guests, pinball, draught beer, pizza, and Dennis Rodman’s favorite sandwich, the Grilled Kimcheese! No, for real. We really do have those. Bolt invented them. They’re frickin’ good too. I know. I wouldn’t have thought so either. But they are.

Say, did I mention that we’re ALL AGES?!!??!

Or that we’ve got all your other favorite stuff too, like , espresso, and cocktails?

Heck! This Saturday night, September 2nd, we somehow even got permission to do a free screening of Rise of the Planet of the Apes in our private back lot. Which, if I’m following it’s trailer correctly…

…is actually a remake of 1972’s Conquest of the Planet of the Apes…

…thus possibly making it the greatest film of all time, ever, period. I don’t know. But we’ll find out together this Saturday Night!

Can’t wait to see you there.

-Eric

*Okay. How, “just like PAX,” we are is totally up for debate. But we do have lots of games.

So you’re a gamer in town for Fleet Week and you have a little shore leave. Well, come on up and see us some time. Because, not only are we your closest game store in the entire city, but we’ve also got a fully stocked barcade featuring events, a full drink menu and an impressive range of retro pinball and full cabinet arcade games to distract your buddies with while you shop for cards. Plus! A 10% discount for all active duty military personnel with ID!

“Events?,” you ask, “what events?”

Well, I’m glad you asked!

On Wednesday night, we have our ever popular Wednesday Night Modern constructed tournament at 7pm. This friendly, competitive tournament hosted by Queen Margot has a $12.50 buy in (that your military ID gets you a discount to along with all of your drinks) and features generous prizes in a fun local atmosphere.

Thursday is a Very Special Sailor Moon Trivia Night hosted by Geek Girl Con and featuring topics about all your favorite manga and anime series! Show up in uniform and take advantage of our 10% off cosplay deal!

Friday is Open Gaming with your weekend bartenders, Amy & Ro. Come have a couple beers, play some pins and check out a few of our great party games from our tabletop library.

And Saturday is home to our legendary Saturday Morning Magic featuring Hour of Devastation drafts at noon & 4pm!

So stop by while you’re in town and check us out! You’ll be thrilled and entertained that you did.

Well, I promised the shop owner, Lando, that I’d do a prerelease primer for Magic: The Gathering’s latest set, Amonkhet, so here it is you savages.

Amonkhet is a gorgeous Egyptian-themed Magic world full of deserts, mummies and symbology devoted to Lex Luthor Nicol Bolas. But most of you probably know all of that, and you’ve likely all seen the complete spoiler at this point, and if you’re familiar with the kind of Magic-related writing I do, you likely understand that I’m not really here to talk to you about strategies or strongest colors or bomb rares to relish in your prerelease pool.

No, no friends! I’m here to announce the launch of the latest Raygun social media entity, We Rate (MTG) Gods.* It’s a hot, up-and-coming Twitter feed** devoted to ranking all the glorious gods of Amonkhet based on strict and scientifically rigorous criteria to help you determine which one of Amonkhet’s five deities would make the best pet to bring home from your local god rescue. Gods will be ranked on a scale from 1-10, with 1 being the least-good and 10 being the goodest. LIke I said, it’s very scientific. I could go into the incredibly technical details of how we developed our patented*** God Scale (TM), but I’ll save you the jargon-y lecture so we can get straight into the rating process! Let’s get started, shall we?

God #2: Oketra the True

Oketra is a pretty not-little kitty cat with 27 words in her text box! That’s some very advanced vocabulary you’ve got there, Oketra! But would such a wordy kitty make a good pet for you and your family? Let’s break it down below

PROS: Clearly box-trained (you can tell by the artwork), hypo-allergenic (again, you can tell by the artwork), probably not too much of a shedder, also v pretty
CONS: Many stories tall (so you’d need a big backyard or some HEFTY vaulted ceilings to house her), only poops out stupid warriors instead of adorable cats, probably makes some really nasty hairballs (refer once more to artwork), difficult to pet b/c large, flow-y robe

GOD RATING: 11/10 it’s hard to say no to an immortal bipedal cat

GOD #2: Kefnet the Mindful

Kefnet is a 90-foot-tall crane-thing with some v intimidating wings and a very tall staff made for bonking dunces in the math classes he’s clearly teaching as a side hustle. Kefnet has 33 words in his text box, which is 32 more words than a dumb birb really needs if you ask me (flying is the ONLY word a birb needs and I WILL FIGHT YOU). I’m gonna tell you right now that Kefnet would not make a great house pet, on account of being gigantic and also birbs are terrible, but I’ll break it down for you below just in case you don’t want to take my word for it.

PROS: NONE
CONS: Birbs have to be written into your will (inconvenient!), a Kefnet-sized birb cage would cost a large fortune, math is dumb, his robe is v plain and boring, feathers everywhere, birb poo everywhere, birbs are seriously terrible

GOD RATING: 2/10 would not recommend as a pet tbh

GOD #3: Bontu the Glorified

Bontu wants you to believe she’s a big scary crocodile but the reality of the situation is that some heartless jerk flushed her down a toilet in Queens when she was a wee-little god-croc and she’s been desperately searching for a forever home ever since. Bontu has 33 words in her text box but unlike that horrible birb monster Kefnet 33 words is a v appropriate amount of words for a giant cuddly crocodile god who is impeccably dressed and whose Instagram photos always look great with her trademark moonlit filter.

PROS: Giant crocodile, great as a home security system/pet combination, v stylish, not a picky eater, likes baths
CONS: Scaly exterior is not great for pets, robe is dry-clean only

GOD RATING: 12/10 she’s a v good crocodile I would def recommend adopting yrself a Bontu

GOD #4: Hazoret the Fervent

Hazoret is a dog-god and a doggone good one at that. She has 28 words in her text box and that is THE PERFECT AMOUNT for a PERFECT ANIMAL. FUN FACT: Hazoret is half-god half-border collie half-golden retriever and all delightful puppy love all the time and I feel like you don’t need me to explain why she’s great but I’ll do it anyway as that’s the job I’m here to do.

PROS: GIANT DOG, v good at fetch, always excited, loves neck scritches, housebroken, v floofy underneath her v stylish dress
CONS: ARF ARF ARF (that’s dog speak for NONE)

GOD RATING: 14/10 WHAT A GREAT DOG/GOD SHE IS

GOD #5: Rhonas the Indomitable

Rhonas is a big cuddly snek and if you don’t believe sneks are cuddly well you’re right but also he threatened me if I didn’t say he’s cuddly SO YES ACTUALLY RHONAS IS V CUDDLY (please don’t hurt me, large snek-god friend). Rhonas likes long slithers on the beach and is prone to flicking his snekky tongue when excited or happy (it’s kind of like purring except waaaaay creepier tbh). Rhonas has 31 words in his text box and that’s cool because 31 is a prime number and I’m kind of just vamping for time here out of fear of snek-god retribution if I don’t make his description as long as his god-piers’ descriptions.

PROS: Makes his own new coat every year via molting, omnivorous, fond of prime numbers, hypnotic glowing green eyes that can be used as a night light when you have to go pee at 2 a.m., other snek things I guess
CONS: THERE ARE MANY BUT I’M NOT ALLOWED TO SAY THEM B/C SNEK COERCION

GOD RATING: 10/10 b/c even at their worst and most threatening sneks are five times gooder than birbs (this is fact)

GOD #6: Sacred Cat

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Sacred Cat’s creature type is “cat” and not “god” as THAT’S JUST A RUSE to throw you off of the true ruler of Amonkhet (which is this cat) (Whose name is Judith Light****, in case you were wondering).

PROS: JUST LOOK AT HER
CONS: NONE

GOD RATING:
/10

So there you have it, folks – your comprehensive guide to this weekend’s Amonkhet prerelease. I’ll be judging all four flights we’re running this weekend (Saturday and Sunday at noon and 5 p.m. – make sure to sign up in advance for a sweet $5 discount on your entry fee), and esteemed Wizards of the Coast employee/spellslinger will be taking on all challengers and handing out prize packs all day Saturday. Cycling is a great limited mechanic and gods make the greatest pets of all (except Kefnet because AGAIN I SAY BIRBS ARE TERRIBLE), and I cannot wait to see you all there.

Yours deliriously,
Margot

*Not a real Twitter, and definitely not owned/created by myself or anyone else at Gamma Ray Games
**Seriously it’s not a real Twitter feed it’s a dumb gimmick I’m using as a through-line joke for this rant
***We def did not patent the God Scale, sorry for the lil’ fib U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
****Not verified as Sacred Cat’s name, but you can’t tell me it isn’t the perfect name for her

Seattle is an epic pinball location. It’s tough to find a bar without at least one machine stashed in the back corner. Raygun Lounge put out the call out to all of our dedicated pinball patrons by offering our first ever tournament. The third Friday in March, thirteen people gathered to show down and maybe win fabulous prizes. Sponsored by Not Your Father’s Root Beer from Smalltown Brewery, the swag on the table included glassware, apparel and various bottle openers.

First, second and third place winners also received store credit and all-important bragging rights. The results of this tournament did not count toward but that didn’t stop our flipper flickers from having fun and meeting new people. Over half the competitors confessed they’d never played in a pinball tournament before. The $2 entry fee and laid back atmosphere gave them the perfect opportunity to try something new. The grand prize winner, Damian Smolko, was one of those first-timers!

The next Raygun Lounge pinball tournament will be Friday, April 28 so mark your calendars. Also check out our website for other fun monthly events such as DonnaTella Against Humanity, Gaymer Night and the Indie Game Industry Mixer!