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.

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

No matter what your scene is this October…

…whether you’re a Magic player (Modern Tournaments every Wednesday night, drafting on Saturday at noon and four, EDH on Sunday afternoons), an artist (Stranger Things art opening on Thursday, Oct 12th, biweekly Cosplay Drink&Draws every other Monday), a roleplayer (D&D Encounters every Wednesday & Sunday, Grrrls D&D every other Thursday), a cosplayer (Rocky Horror Picture Show live screening with special guest, Morgue Anne, Thursday, October 20th), a woman (Grrrls Game Nights Out every other Thursday), gay (Gaym Nights every other Monday, Playing with Bears on Saturday, Oct 15th) or some amazing combination of those things and more (Donatella vs Humanity, Oct 21st), we have got you covered!

All while playing weird stuff like our freaky new Halloween mix on both of our TVs!

Featuring special guest star… Doctor Who!

Yes! That one.

So whatever you’re into, however you’re into it, and whoever you’re into it with, come check out our constantly updated Special Events Page, find the event that’s right for you and come meet your people.

Or, to put it another way, come up to the lab and see what’s on the slab.

You’ll be so glad you did.

See you soon.

-Eric

Whether you’re visiting from out of town or a local with or without PAX passes this year, we are always your Capitol Hill home away from home for all things nerd, geek and pop culture. We are an easy walk from the Convention Center, have great food and drinks in an all ages environment, and are hosting five days of special events just for you so come on up and see us while you’re in town.

Thursday, Sept 1

7:00 PM
Geek Out Trivia

The hosts of Nerdhole and A Podcast for All Intents and Purposes come together for one night a year to challenge you and yours to a trivia night like no other. Free entry, the geekiest questions the world has ever known and prizes galore await you!

Friday, Sept 2

8:00 PM
Game Jolt Indie Arcade

For one night only, those indie madmen, Game Jolt transform our space into a free arcade to demo, play and discuss this year’s newest, hottest, and indiest computer and console releases.

Saturday, Sept 3

Noon & 4:00 PM
Conspiracy Drafting

Come experience Magic’s latest sensation for yourself. $15 buy in. Pods of 8. Smart, competitive, friendly players

1:00 PM
Hearthstone ‘One Night in Karazhan’ Official Release Party!

Orcas Distributing presents and hosts Blizzard Entertainment’s Karazhan Release Party and PAX PRIME Tournament. Registration begins at 1:00PM, tournament proper at 2:00. Come see what all the excitement is about!

6:00 PM
Pink Party Prime Preparty

Though PAX’s gayest, queerest, afterparty, Pink Party Prime kicks off at Neumos at 9:00, we are the Pink Party’s only for you to prefunk, test your costume, win prizes (including tickets to to the event itself) and have a generally grand time in between events.

7:00 PM
PAX CRITTERCONCRAWL

Those fervent Critical Role fans, the critters, are in town for PAX and they’ve chosen us to be their official crawlspace. The last time they did this, a bunch of surprise special guests showed up. This time? Who knows. But it is PAX…

Sunday, September 4

Noon & 4pm
Conspiracy Drafting

Come experience Magic’s latest sensation for yourself. $15 buy in. Pods of 8. Smart, competitive, friendly players

6:00 PM
Mark Dago & the Red Bennies
High Score Tour

Nerdcore Superstars DJ Shanty, Lord British & Jade Knight join Mark Dago for the last leg of his legendary High Score Tour and you’ll be there to personally witness the mayhem!

Monday, September 5

6:00 PM
The Book of Starry Wisdom Release Party

Strix publisher and collection editor Simon Berman and illustrator Valerie Herron invite you to join them for the release of their latest kickstarted work, .

You can always learn more about these and all of our events on our Special Events Page. We look forward to seeing you while you’re here, whether it’s for a day or for a lifetime.

Then we’re the place for you! Conveniently located at the corner of gender and sexuality at the gateway to Seattle’s legendary Capitol Hill neighborhood,

we’re right next to the action and just off the beaten path.

With our full barcade of classic titles like Street Fighter II & Turtles in Time,

we’re the perfect pop cultural respite for you should you need a little nerdy or geeky time in the Emerald City.

We’ve even got 3 special events for you while you’re here! Starting on Thursday night with our of our weekly . Come out, meet some people, and test your geeky mettle as local fave challenges Iron Quizomancer Andrew in our unique Iron Trivia format that at least one person has taken to calling, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show of Trivia Nights.”

Then on Saturday, we’ve got Magic Drafting at Noon and our weekly Standard Tournament at 4pm, both of which are welcoming to guests and boast a healthy GLBT population.

And finally, on Sunday, you are invited to join us for our Queer Geek boardgame meet up. It’ll be a great afternoon to relax and play some games with friends new and old as you wind down from your crazy weekend and try to remember what exactly did happen last night.

You can learn more about these and all of our other events on our Special Events Page. If you have any additional questions about Seattle, the neighborhood, the scene, or anything else while you’re in town, don’t hesitate to call or come by and we’ll get you sorted.

See you soon,

-Eric

Whew!

You know it’s busy around here when the last event update was a season ago and the monthly update comes out two weeks into the month! Be that as it may, we’ve got a lot coming up for you so let’s dive right in!

First up, we’re thrilled to be hosting our first poetry reading since the , and Western Snowmelt Tour!

After that, it’s all about the Dragons of Tarkir.

We’ll have Prerelease Events on Mar 21st & 22nd ($30 buy in, events at noon and 6pm, preregistration is now open in-person or over the phone) and Release Drafts on March 28th (Noon & 4pm, $15 buy in, registration opens on day of event).

But the big news around here in March is always Emerald City Comicon. Which means that we’ll have very special episodes of both our monthly Party Games Night and our Queer Geek Boardgame Meetups for you. We’ll also be running our booth at the entrance of the North Galleria for Games on Demand. And we’ll be hosting our Second Annual Rat Queens After Party as a fundraiser for Gay City.

So come on out and see what we’ve got going for you! We’ve got open gaming tables, a well stocked game library and a calendar full of great events for you when you do.

See you soon,

-Eric

While we to allow the to become all ages so we can move into it we’re still going strong at both locations.

Which means it’s another great weekend filled with great special events!

It all starts off on Friday with our monthly Indie Dev Meetup, a night to see and show the city’s hottest in-development games when host Alex Schearer invites the brightest and best designers to, “Put down your keyboard […] grab your laptop […] and get feedback from other game makers.”

On Saturday, our indie game design weekend shifts from computer to tabletop when we host Seattle’s very first Unpub Event featuring completely brand new games from some of our region’s top designers. Our legendary weekly Magic drafting will still be in effect (M15, $15 buy in, prizes for top 3) but will be limited to 1 pod of 8 at noon and 4pm to make sure that we have room for this important event.

On Sunday, we shift back into our classic schedule with all of our regular weekly and bi-weekly events like Star Wars X-Wing with Rebel Leader Dylan Holmes and Elder Dragon Highlander with Legendary Commander Arcades Sabboth.

So again, come on down to the lounge for a beer, some pizza, and the best tabletop gaming experience in Capitol Hill.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

-Eric

May is upon us. And with it comes 4 new great special events for you and your friends to participate in.

FRI MAY 09 Learn to play Magic with Queer Geek Seattle

That’s right. Seattle Met‘s favorite Queer Ladies Night has invited Ben Hayes and a few of his co-workers from Wizards of the Coast to come in and teach you how to play magic in an inclusive environment for LGBT-friendly female-identified individuals and their friends of all genders.

Entrance is free, supplies are provided, and the crowd is awesome so come on out and try something new!

FRI MAY 16 Save Clara! Doctor Who Costume Party and Fundraiser

Our resident Dalek, , has taken some wear and tear during her year of convention appearances and lounge guest photo ops and, with her creator living on an income so fixed it’d make your head spin, it’s up to us to save her! So we’re holding a night of special Clara themed viewing and gaming, hosting a Whovian costume contest (Come in as a Doctor, companion or villain and have a drink on us! Best costume per category wins prizes!) raffling off an array of door prizes and donating $1 from the sale of every item sold to funding much needed repairs, improvements and upgrades for our beloved cybernetic organism.

Costumes are optional, a love of having fun supporting local creative pop culture is required.

FRI MAY 23 Old School New School Console Gaming Tournament

Our pals over at Video Game Break are hosting a video game tournament featuring Balloon Fight and Bombsquad.

Preregistration is available through their website, spectators are welcome, and we are assured that it’s going to be one hell of a show.

FRI MAY 30 Rice Sniffing Gangster Party with Amanda Chan

Raygun Netrunner Team Captain Amanda’s mother got her a new rice cooker and to celebrate we’re throwing down a double feature of the finest rice-fetishizing-Japanese-gangster movies the world has ever known; Branded to Kill and it’s gender-swapped remake by the same director, Seijun Suzuki, Pistol Opera. Amanda will be on hand to serve sticky rice balls from the cooker that kicked it all off and maybe hand out some of the custom t-shirts and underwear we’re talking about commissioning for the event.

Mmmmmm… rice.

All of these events and more can be found on our lounge event page and that great new calendar that just put up behind the bar.

So come on down for some great gaming and some great company this week. We’ll see you soon.

-Eric

The Journey into Nyx Prerelease is right around the corner. And, as always, we’ve got a range of events available to meet all of your hectic Magic scheduling needs! Including our classic Midnight Draft, as well as Noon and 4pm on both Saturday and Sunday with all-ages overflow events upstairs at the shop.

ALL AGES!

Preregistration is available in person at either the shop or the lounge and is highly recommended as our preregistration events do sell out.

In other Magic news, all of our Mondays over at the shop are now Magic Mondays!

That’s right! Every Monday at Gamma Ray Games, all MtG singles are 20% off.
ALL. DAY. LONG.
(Longer if you drink some orange juice.)

And every Wednesday Night at the Raygun Lounge is the New Modern,

our long standing ongoing weekly Modern tournament. Entry is only $5 or TOTALLY FREE with a receipt from Gamma Ray Games from the same day for $10 or more.

So come on down to Gamma Ray Games and the Raygun Lounge for all of your Journey to Nyx, Modern Magic and Single Finding needs.

Want to play some of that “Magic game” that your friends have all been getting back into lately? Great! Because we just streamlined our Magic schedule for the first time in… well, ever… to make it even easier for you to do so.

We now have 4 weekly events for you.

Wednesday Night Modern

Our Wednesday night event is an unsanctioned modern format tournament that evolved out of several of our players’ private testing league into a friendly weekly event. Tournament begins at 6pm, has a $5 buy in, prizes for top three, is overseen by our resident judge, Jen, and features players such as our very own Drunken Planeswalker and Nick of Vashon,

pictured here building the place only a year ago.

Friday Night Magic

Our take on the Wizards of the Coast’s perennial favorite occurs in our shop’s upstairs game loft so we can include the all ages players required for official sanctioning and prize support. This sanctioned standard format tournament begins at 6pm, costs $5 to enter, is capped at 8 people to ensure room, is overseen by T.O. Aric and includes all of the standard prize support that one would expect from such an event.

Shiny!

Saturday Drafting

Our legendary unsanctioned booster drafts occur every Saturday at noon and 4pm. Each requires a $15 buy-in which gets you the cards that you’ll need to play plus an opportunity to win more. Each of our drafts has room for up to 24 people in ability-tiered pods that are overseen by T.O. Jen and feature the kinds of great, sexy, available 21+ players that earned our shop the Seattle Weekly’s coveted ‘Best Place to Meet Single Men’ award for 2013.

Oh yes they did.


Sunday EDH

And for our more low key, slower playing magic enthusiasts, there’s always Sunday’s 5pm Elder Dragon Highlander game. We always draw just the right crowd to keep it intimate while still letting the goofy fun of a crowded table unfold.

It usually looks something like this at the end.

In addition to these events, we have general casual play, occasional special events like Gordie’s drafts and are in the process of putting together a women-only Magic event soon so find an event that works best for you and come check it out. We’d love to see you some time.

Actual staff in their native environment.

Friends, Romans, countrywalkers, lend me your eyes! Because you probably can’t hear a blog post. And if you can, that means you’re either a.) synesthetic, b.) using some sort of text-to-speech program or c.) on a ton of drugs, and I’ve got some serious issues with all of those.

I’m here to talk today about some of the standout cards from Magic 2014 Core Set — Blue Gets the Shaft Like You Can’t Even Imagine OKAY FINE THAT’S NOT THE ACTUAL EMDASH-SEPARATED DESCRIPTION OF THE SET BUT IT’S VERY CLEARLY THE SUBTEXT HERE.

Ahem. Anyway, because I like easy symmetries and weak themes, I’m going to spend this blog post talking about 14 cards from M14 that I think are worth drafting, trading for, investing in, etc. Please do bear in mind that a lot of this is purely speculative, and I will not be held responsible for you forking out several hundred pocket clams for Archangels of Thune if they eventually end up in the dollar bin (though let’s be honest, they’re a silver bullet in modern Birthing Pod lists so they’ll probably retain decent value).

Since there’s a pretty significant disproportion between colors, I’m just going to run down the list alphabetically (you can tell I’m not being biased with this particular organizational schema because a white card tops the list and there’s no blue cards in the top three).

Oh, and for those who don’t know/don’t care (SHAME ON YOU), Evolution — the biggest fighting game tournament of the year — is this weekend. And in honor of that TOTALLY HYPE occasion, I’ll be revising my FGC tier card rating system from my last set review for this article. Tiers are as follows:

SAGAT TIER – Completely bonkers and OP.
Akuma Tier – Pretty damn insane, but not quite as godlike as SAGAT TIER.
Bison Tier – Solid normals, lots of bad matchups. A thoroughly decent card all around. Also, PSYCHO CRUSHER.
Chun-Li Tier – This isn’t Third Strike, so Chun Li stands for C-GRADE. Passable, but often just barely.
Dan Tier – The SHIT TIER of this review. Poor lil’ Dan…

(more…)

It’s commonly understand in the gaming industry that Magic: The Gathering is one of the biggest games around. Magic: The Gathering booster packs, singles, and other products remain a staple of any friendly local game store. Nearly every day of the week, there’s an official Magic tournament somewhere or another. Beyond that, there are any number of “unofficial” variants and ways to play. Let’s face it: Magic is a big deal.

But I’m not here today to talk about Magic. We’ve already got a guy for that. Besides, the last thing anybody wants is for ME to start talking about Magic cards. That would be a disaster. I’m here to talk about that OTHER trading card game that has been making its way into the Gamma Ray community:

No. Not that one. The reason we have any Yu-Gi-Oh in the store at all is a story for another time.

World of Warcraft TCG? “You’re out of your mind,” you say. And although that may indeed be true, it’s not what I’m here to tell you.  I’m here to tell you that the World of Warcraft TCG is actually a fun game to play.

The WoW TCG has been around for nearly seven years. Designed by Magic: The Gathering Superstar Brian Kibler, the game has some of the feel of Magic but also has some notable differences. A big one being that every deck is built around a specific hero (represented by a card). So you don’t just play some nameless, ambiguous planeswalker, you play Thrall the Orc Shaman, Arthas the Human Death Knight, or Rawrbrgle the Murloc Warrior. Further, like EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander, for you non-Magic folks out there), your choice of Hero limits the kinds of cards you can put into your deck due to both your Hero’s class and faction.

In addition, as it’s based on an already existing intellectual property, the people at Cryptozoic focus less on silly story and more on the game. Sorry, but you’ll see no “Jace Beleren and the Implicit Maze of Guildpacts” nonsense here. But, if you’ve ever played a game with “Warcraft” in the title, you’ll probably see things you recognize: Uther the Lightbringer, Sylvanas Windrunner, Deathwing the Destroyer, and even Human Peasant.

At it’s core, the WoW TCG is a one versus one game where you assemble a party of allies (creatures, if you will), ready your equipment (artifacts), and use your class abilities (instants and sorcery spells) to defeat your opponent. One thing that makes it a bit different is that alternate play formats were part of the design from day one. In the game’s first year, they introduced the Onyxia’s Lair Raid Deck, a “one player versus many” deck. Since then, each year has brought a new deck that challenges players in a way that is very different from classic one-on-one play. Iconic dungeons like Molten Core, the Black Temple, the Caverns of Time, and Shadowfang Keep are part of the WoW TCG cooperative experience.

Many venues that run WoW TCG events (including our very own Raygun Lounge!) routinely run these team and cooperative style events. These alternate formats promote very different deck construction than your typical one-on-one slugfest. Maybe you’re not the best at crushing your foes. That’s okay; you can be the party healer. Or the tank. These are all possibilities in the WoW TCG.

There are other notable differences from Magic but I’m not here to rattle off technical differences between one game and another. I’m here to let you know that the WoW TCG is fun to play and invite you over to the Lounge to give it a try. We play every Sunday at 1pm and we even have free stuff(tm) to give out for new players.

And if you’re really lucky, you may even get to hear somebody play a Leeroy Jenkins card sometime.