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 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.

Hello, I’m Aric Fehrenbacher. You may remember me from such blog posts as Aric’s Last Shift (I came back) and Why You Should Be Watching Professional Starcraft (WHY AREN’T YOU!) or you maybe more familiar with my work was “that guy who is always behind the bar who wears stripped button-ups gesticulating wildly at the beer cooler”.

I’m here today to share with you some exciting news about my personal favorite subject booze. We here at The Raygun Lounge have slowly been refining our menu to more accurately resemble an establishment that sells awesome, interesting beers, ciders, and now, meads. As much as I love Deschutes and Newcastle they are pretty basic as far as beer choices go and we live in the PNW home to hundreds of small independent breweries making amazing brew!

With the help of Orcas Distributing we now carry some of the most unique and tasty brews available to a small gaming establishment without access to draft beer. But enough jibber jabber allow me show you some of my new favorites which a few of our bar regulars have “agreed” to model for us.

Uncommon Brewing Bacon Brown

So we picked this assuming it would be a kitschy novelty beer and probably be terrible in reality. I mean Bacon+Beer? Turns out it’s just an amazingly solid bodied brown ale with a subtle hit of delicious gristle at the end. Also, yes it is actually brewed with a pound of uncured bacon.

Celt Thirsty Warrior

I cannot say enough good things about this cider, and I think drinking cider is a sin against Raugupatis (look it up). If you think you like Angry Orchard (you don’t) one sip of this will make you realize that you’ve been wasting your time and money all this time sending you into an existential crisis the likes of which only protagonists in Lovecraft stories have ever experienced. I may have gotten carried away there but trust me, it’s really good (Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn).

Lost Continent Double IPA

You think you know what a Northwest IPA should taste like? Not until you’ve laid your lips upon one of these mega-hoppy bad boys you presumptuous fool. A miracle of modern brewing that somehow treads the line between tasting like you’re chewing straight hops and being immensely drinkable. Schrodinger’s beer?

Moonlight Meads

Some people (losers) say that mead is for neckbeardy weirdos who can’t handle real alcohol. Well those people hate and , hence losers. Regardless of your feelings towards nordic subjects this mead is bomb as #$*&.  Every flavor is different and interesting capturing the sweet honey core that any good mead should have while experimenting with berries, ginger, vanilla, and currants in ways that morph the flavor into something truly unique.

Are you thirsty yet? Well then come on down to the Raygun for this weekend’s Magic Origins Prerelease or come in next week for our other amazing events which I guarantee will make you want to drink. That’s a little bartender humor for you. Stay classy Seattle.

Come on up and see us!

We’re just a short walk away from the Convention Center through Seattle’s premiere Capitol Hill neighborhood. Not only do we have food, drinks (including a beer and cider bar), a tabletop game library and a retro arcade for you

but we’ve got great events for you all weekend long!

Starting with on Friday Night! Across the Board Games, , Skulldug and Sindicate Lager team up to bring you a fun, friendly, welcoming night of party gaming. This is a GREAT way to get to know people and start your con right.

Then, Saturday, at noon and 4pm. We give you your first chance anywhere to draft Magic’s exciting new Dragons of Tarkir set. Drafts will be 2 Dragons 1 Fate, cost $15 per person, run in three round swiss style pods of 8 and have generous prize support. This is a GREAT way to give the new set a spin and come out with some high value cards.

Then, on Saturday Night, come and join the creators of and their special guests from throughout the comics industry for our 2nd Annual , a meet and greet benefit for Gay City.

And finally, to help you recover from the Rat Queens Social Club and the Pink Party, our BFFs from Queer Geek are hosting a special Comicon edition of their monthly Boardgame Meetup for you to meet people, play games and have a GREAT Emerald City Comicon experience!

So come on up and see us! We promise that we’ll have something fun and engaging for you to do see and experience every day that you are here from noon until at least 10pm every night (later on Saturday 😉 ).

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

Oh man! I haven’t had this much to report about a single weekend since that time I left Aric & Benjamin in charge and they tried to rob a cold storage facility only to discover that Kumar couldn’t crack the safe and that Mr. Henry had robbed Bob’s house instead.*

Yes, we will still have our regular Magic drafting on Saturday at noon and 4pm. PLUS we’ll also be co-hosting the Hurley 3000 M15 Release Weekend Sealed Event with Mobius Cycle. Spaces for this 12:30 Sealed Event are still open, buy in is $30 and prize support will be generous. Yes, you heard that right, “generous,” now quit carping, you sharks. Sign in is at noon and caps at 8 people so arrive early and be ready to bring it!

What we WON’T have this Saturday is our 8pm draft. Because at 7pm on Saturday, immediately following our 4pm draft, the lounge closes for a private event to celebrate the upcoming wedding of our very own Dominic and Jenna.

That’s right, somebody’s getting married.

My son just loves those muppets.

And because I’ll personally be very involved with said wedding all weekend, we’re pulling an AL TV

and turning the shop into

Chrithew Ray Games

Just imagine what I could have done with time and some photoshop skills right there.

That’s right, we’re bringing in the philosophical genius of comedy duo and Matthew Martell to the shop and just letting them do whatever they want.

I mean, that’s a good idea, right?

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

In addition to all the magic, the weddings, the Christhewsphere, there’s also The World Cup (of DoTa). Right here in the Emerald City. This weekend! And to celebrate, we’re hosting an official at the Lounge with Saint Isaac because Skylar’s off in New Jersey conquering Dystopia.

It’s gonna be the greatest weekend EVER!

So get your butt on down to the shop or the lounge, get involved, get crazy, hell, get married! And above all, be you, be happy and keep playing.

I know I will,

-Eric

*Totally happened.

Have you ever played Dark Souls?

Dark Souls is one of the most incredible video games I’ve ever beheld. It’s gruesome and stark and hopeless and so ego-crushingly difficult it’s almost a wonder it was popular enough to warrant a sequel.

Run-of-the-mill enemies can kill you in two or three hits. With bosses, a stray nick from their weapon is often just lethal. Levels are designed with the express purpose of crushing you under boulders, hurling you into bottomless pits, smashing you against spiked ceilings.

Everything about Dark Souls is brutal. The architecture of every facet of the game has a singular, monomaniacal purpose: to completely and totally fuck your shit up.

The tagline for the game is, simply, “Prepare to Die.”

Full Disclosure: I have yet to play Dark Souls myself. My love of the game comes merely from watching it be played many, many times.

—

I would tell you that I don’t want to sound obtuse with what I’m about to say, but if you read my previous post, then you know damn well that I am absolutely, undeniably obtuse.

So here’s the obtuse statement of the day: Competitive Magic: the Gathering is a lot like Dark Souls. It’s exhausting; it punishes the smallest mistakes; grinding is a bleak, miserable process, and every loss is crushing.

But the mark of a talented Magic player — perhaps even more so than technically tight play or a penchant for correctly deciphering constructed metagames or the ability to read opponents — is an unwillingness to quit. To play Magic not despite your innumerable losses, but perhaps in fact because of them; that is a skill only the most talented of players have.

This isn’t just poetic bullshittery I’m spewing at you right now; the best players in the world all average to about a 60 percent win record. The best players in the game still lose just shy of HALF of their matches. And this is very likely the thing that makes them better than the rest; they’re willing to lose almost half the time in order to find success and enjoy meaningful wins.

In other words, the best players in Magic history have always been the ones who are the most prepared to die.

(more…)

We’ve wrapped up the holidays

and are diving back into organizing our regular gaming events. Here’s a list of everything that we have available for you in the near future.

If you’re interested in Magic: The Gathering, you’re inevitably aware that Gatecrash prereleases in two weeks. We’ll be having 5 separate prerelease events for Gatecrash, Friday the 25th at Midnight, and Saturday and Sunday at noon and 5pm daily. These will all be sealed events using the special prerelease faction packs. Our prerelease tournaments are Swiss Style and our prize support is generous. Preregistration is now open at both the lounge and the shop and all of these events are filling fast.

If you’re interested in Warmachine, our new Press Ganger, Anna, is organizing our first this Thursday.

If you’re into roleplaying, we have a number of options for you, including Dungeons & Dragons Living Forgotten Realms and Fantasy Flight’s new Star Wars: Edge of Empire every Wednesday and Story Games Seattle every Thursday. If you’re even more into roleplaying than that, we have a special monthly Story Games Playtesting event available for you as well.

And if you’re just into board and card games overall (the hottest trend in either right now is Android: Netrunner) we have regular Tuesday night and Sunday afternoon boardgaming events cohosted by the Seattle Alternative Boardgamers and Seattle as well as monthly s with Ashley Cook and Slog Nerdy Happy Hours with your friends over at the Stranger Testing Department.

If you’d like more info about the events we’re hosting on any given week, head over to our recently updated events page and if you have any questions or would like to reserve a table for your own personal gaming event, just send us an email at and we’ll get back to you just as soon as we can.

Thanks. And have a great new year.

Great question! This weekend is, as everyone everywhere knows, the biggest Magic the Gathering prerelease in the history of mankind. No, seriously. It is. And to celebrate we’re hosting 5 separate prerelease events for you:

Friday at Midnight (only 1 seat left!)

Saturday at 5pm (SOLD OUT!)

Sunday at 12pm, 4pm & 8pm

All of our prerelease events will be held at The Raygun Lounge except for Saturday’s sold out event. Saturday will be a retro event held at The Capitol Club so you can relive the glory of one month ago – because in addition to the craziness of prerelease weekend, our new Lounge is also hosting THE WORLD’S FIRST RAVNICA PRERELEASE WEDDING on Saturday. Yes. It’s true. We will.

Although the ceremony won’t be performed in cosplay with an ordained Avacynian priest

the wedding will feature a private prerelease at their reception and should be pretty darn great.

To up the challenge level for us and add excitement for you, I’ve also scheduled our annual Gamma Ray Games corporate retreat this weekend. That’s right, Amy and I will be leaving for the entire weekend so that we can review the year, get the rest of 2012 in order (booze and rewards fulfillment for the people!) and lay out our shenanigans list for 2013… aaand maybe catch a showcase or two.

As the result this weekend will be the first time that the new Gamma Ray and Raygun teams will be fully on their own since Dominic left for San Diego. I, for one, am super excited to see how they perform on their own in the field.

I trust they will impress you as much as they’ve been impressing me. And if they don’t, well, you know how to contact me.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend of work, weddings and magic.

-Eric