Wilds of Eldraine @ D20 Games
Wilds of Eldraine at D20 Games in Alameda. Events the weekends of 9/1/23 and 9/8/23. Tix $30 in advance and $35 day of event. Very friendly joint, welcoming for newcomers and fun for regulars.
Read The Story
Special Parent/Kid D&D
Update...now starting on June 29th!We are starting Parent/Kid D&D at D20 Games. Starting Thursdays at 5-7 (come in starting 4 for extra help with characters/questions), the idea is for up to 4 parent & kid combos to get a chance to play D&D together. This can be an old-school player sharing their misspent youth with their kids, or kids getting to share something that they love with their kids. (We are also looking to do a weekend table.) What: D&D ongoing adventure (6 weeks) When: Thursdays at 5-7 (Time will actually be 4-7, but first hour is for help with characters and other questions) Or Sunday 3-5 (we will be there from 2pm on to help with questions and game help.) The first session will be mostly about getting your characters in good shape and answering questions to make it much more fun/easier to play. (For those who pay for the whole 6 weeks, this will get added in as an extra bonus week for a total of 7 weeks of D&D) Cost: $40 per pair/ session ($220 for all 6 weeks). Limited to 5 teams per table. If we get more than 5, we will start a list for a second table which will start when we have at least 3 extra pairs and a .) Requirements: At least one of the two players should be familiar enough with D&D to play. More mature of pair is responsible for ensuring that players are not being disruptive enough to ruin game play for everyone. (Tools we have to help with that include the fact that any 'loud" talk at the table has a good chance of being heard by wandering monsters.) We strongly suggest that each combo have their own copy of the Players Handbook. (And be very liberal with the post-it notes/paper clips to get easy access to the things about your character that you need to get to during play. (spells, special abilities, etc.) Players will start with a 3rd level character generated using either Standard Array or Point buy for the stats, and classes/races from any of the official D&D 5e printed content (excluding Critical Role). (If you want to do Point Buy, here is a good tool to help.)Players should bring an extra character sheet to give the DM, and should have reference cards for their most commonly used spells and abilities. (We want to minimize people frantically flipping through books when it is their turn to act so we can spend more time playing.) Here are some useful resources to help get you started. This is a great reference page from Dicebreaker.com to finde choices for downloadable or online character sheets to fill out. Including online, printable, dyslexic/visually impaired, and kid focused. If you use the free version of D&D Beyond, you can go here, to the D&D Beyond Spell Printer and copy the id number for your character to get a list of spells and their descriptions. This is not very printer friendly, but if you copy it into Word and set it up with multiple columns, you can shrink down the font size and get a pretty good reference. One page Cheat sheet for what you can do during combat. One page summary of all the different races and their bonuses. My personal recommendation is to figure out what class you would like to play, and then pick the race that has ability bonuses that help with that class and then set up your stats to help. One thing to remember that the bonuses you get from the basic ability scores only make a difference on the even, not the odd numbers. So, for example, a strength score of 14 and 15 would be +2, and 16 or 17 would get you +3. You wanna work to get as many of your ability scores into even numbers. (Don't worry about not getting it perfect. For the first couple of sessions, we will let people go back and fix things if they realize they had a different option that works better for them. )
Lord of the Rings Tales of Middle Earth -MTG comes home
(The set releases on 6/23, but preorders are open now and can be picked up at local game stores starting 6/16 when the prereleases begin.) The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is a new expansion set for Magic: The Gathering it brings the iconic world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth to life, letting you follow the paths of favorite (or favorite villainous) characters from the Third Age. Whether you choose to reenact your favorite moments from the series or turn the tales of Middle-earth on their head is entirely up to you2. Events (Release and Prerelease) 6/16 Friday 6:30 PM Sealed 6/17 Saturday Sat 10AM Sealed Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant 6/18 Sunday Sun 10AM Sealed Sun 3PM Sealed 6/23 Friday 7PM Sealed 6/24 Saturday Sat 10AM Sealed Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant 6/25 Sunday Sun 10AM Sealed Sun 3PM Sealed For the Love of Hobbits and Rings: The set was clearly designed by people who knew and loved Tolkien's world. The flavor and mechanics of the cards are joyfully amazing. For example, more often then not, hobbits in the set create food tokens (yes, there is a Second Breakfast card), and there is a saga that not only creates Smaug as a 6/6 flying dragon token, but when it dies, it creates 12 treasure tokens! There are various versions of main characters that match their different transformations in the journey, such as 4 versions of Frodo, from peaceful hobbit to Sauron's Bane, or Gandalf as the fireworks laden Friend of the Shire, to the White Rider, swooping down in the light of the dawn sun, with the riders of Rohan at his back. I've been playing the Draftsim practice drafts/sealed simulators just to get a chance to get familiar with the cards, and the kid who fell in love with LOTR is beyond excited to get a chance to play. Masters Set that you don't need to be a Master to enjoyThis is supposed to be a Universes Away/Masters set, but it feels much more like coming home than going into a new world. Kind of makes sense since MTG was inspired by D&D, which came from (drumroll....) Tolkien. (if you don't believe me...check out the early changes to D&D based on hobbit lawyers.) Even though the set is in the higher cost Masters slot ($50/55 instead of $30/35 for sealed), don't take that to mean that the set isn't friendly for all levels of players. In fact, the thing that will make the set most fun is how much you like Lord of the Rings. This set is shaping up to be a fantastic journey through the realms of Middle-earth, filled with nostalgia, surprises, and a sprinkle of that unique MTG magic. Whether you're a fan of the fantasy epic, a dedicated MTG player, or both, this set promises to offer a thrilling new way to experience Tolkien's world. Can't wait for the set's release? Neither can we! Alternate Art Fun... There are some amazing alternate versions of the cards, including some that piece together to create full scenes on their own. There are a bunch of cool art treatments to collect. More info here. New Mechanics The Ring The biggest new mechanic has to do with The Ring, and what happens when it tempts you. I know that tempt sounds like a bad thing, but in this case it is some of the very good stuff. When the ring tempts you, you attach the ring card to one (and only one at a time) of your creatures. Every time the ring tempts again it adds another ability to that card. If your ring bearer dies, the ring falls off and you start from the beginning. Amass Orcs We've seen this mechanic before in building up hordes of zombies. Basically, you create an "army" that is a token with whatever number of counters that the Amass tells you to add. Every subsequent Amass just makes the one army token bigger. (It doesn't create lots of them.)
March of the Machines-Prerelease and Release events
Elesh Norn has been a busy girl. After the machinifcation of New Phyrexia, she decides that everyone should have their chance to take a shot (or end up in the perfection of infection). She flicks her wrist to open portals to 5 different plains with the now perfectly corrupted Atraxa, Ajani and Nahiri at her side. With the other heros trapped in stone, one of the biggest battles in MTG in recent years enters a world(s) of epic battle. Aside from pretty epic story-telling, the last couple of Magic sets see to be getting more and more fun to play, and March of the Machines looks to keep that trend going . (Been doing some practice drafts/sealeds using Draftsim, and I'm getting pretty psyched for the real thing.) Events: 4/14 Friday 6:30 PM Sealed 4/15 Saturday Sat 10AM Sealed Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant 4/16 Sunday Sun 10AM Sealed Sun 3PM Sealed 4/21 Friday 7PM Sealed 4/22 Saturday Sat 10AM Sealed Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant 4/23 Sunday Sun 10AM Sealed Sun 3PM Sealed This weekend and next, we have a plethora of sealed events using the prerelease kits from the new set. Players can get their boxes of 6 packs to open and get to build their decks starting 1 hour before each event. Prerelease kits have six 15-card packs, 1 random exclusive promo foil rare or mythic rare from the set, and a special spindown die. We provide the basic lands, so you don't need anything more to play. We pride ourselves that no one here will make you feel anything but welcome (we all started from scratch at some point). All events are sealed using the prerelease kits. Make your best decks and win a round, win a pack. If we have enough players to accommodate both, we will also have competitive prize pools for the 10AM sealed events. (Competitive prize pools mean more chance to win lots of packs if you do very well, but more rounds and the chance to win no prize packs if you don't. Better for more expert players.) The prerelease and release events are great chances for players who haven't gotten a chance to play in person to come to a friendly, fun event where everyone is starting from scratch and no one knows much more than anyone else yet. We recommend if you are new, or you have a friend who is new, to play in the Two-Headed Giant events, which are two-person team events. So long as one person in the team knows how to play, you can both have fun without any pressure to know the rules right away. New Mechanics for this set include some goodies, from Battle, cards that must be protected, fought and then transform into goodies. (Source wizards.com https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/march-of-the-machine-mechanics) [embed]https://youtu.be/16RtLoUZgIY[/embed] BATTLES Phyrexia had success invading Mirrodin, so they're trying it again. Everywhere. But, just like the Mirrans, the residents of all the planes being marched on aren't taking it lying down. There are battles to be fought, so many that we have a new card type to represent them: battles. Invasion of Fiora // Marchesa, Resolute Monarch Each battle in March of the Machine is a transforming double-faced card. The front faces (the faces you cast) are the first permanents to feature beautiful landscape art—landscapes being attacked, but as you'll see, that's thematic. But first, let's get them onto the battlefield. Battles can be cast during your main phase if the stack is empty, just like creatures, sorceries, and other non-instant spells. Each battle enters the battlefield with a number of defense counters on it equal to its defense, found in the lower right corner of the front face. This tells you how much damage it takes to defeat a battle. Much like planeswalkers, battles can be attacked and damaged. But unlike with planeswalkers, the general idea isn't to cast them, protect them, and hope they stick around. You're battling to take them out. A battle's subtype provides rules for how it can be attacked. Since every battle in this set has the subtype Siege, they all play by the same rules. (Could future battles have different subtypes and have different combat rules? It would certainly seem some bright, forward-thinking people set the system up that way.) As a Siege battle enters the battlefield, its controller chooses an opponent to be its protector. Every player except a battle's protector may attack it. Only a battle's protector may block creatures attacking it. Don't confuse protector for controller. You're going to attack battles that you control, the first time you've been able to attack your own permanents. Fun! Battles are susceptible to more than just combat damage, though. Some spells and abilities may specifically say that they cause damage to be dealt to battles. Also, any spell or ability that says "any target" can target a battle, so get ready to stoke the flames of war. Stoke the Flames Any damage dealt to a battle causes that many defense counters to be removed from it. When the last defense counter is removed from a Siege battle, the battle is defeated and a triggered ability triggers. As this ability resolves, the battle's controller exiles it then casts the back face from exile without paying its mana cost—and there won't be a mana cost, so that part's easy. The back faces are a variety of things; most of them are permanents like Marchesa, Resolute Monarch (long may she reign), but there are some sorceries in the mix. Invasion of Fiora // Marchesa, Resolute Monarch TRANSFORMING DOUBLE-FACED CARDS In addition to battles, there are other transforming double-faced cards in the set. As a quick refresher, here are some of the key things you should know. The front faces of transforming double-faced cards are marked with a triangle facing up on the top left. The back faces are marked with a triangle facing down on the top right. Elesh Norn // The Argent Etchings Planar Booster Fun Transforming double-faced cards, or TDFCs as we in the biz call them, have only the characteristics of their front faces while not on the battlefield. So, if you're searching your library for a creature card, you could find Elesh Norn, but if you're searching for an enchantment card, you couldn't find The Argent Etchings. You always cast the front face, and a TDFC always enters the battlefield with its front face up unless something explicitly says otherwise, such as Elesh Norn's last ability. One last thing in this refresher course: mana value. The back face doesn't have a mana cost, but its mana value is based on the mana cost of the front face. So, The Argent Etchings has the same mana value as Elesh Norn: 4. Thanks for heading down memory lane with me. Back up to the new stuff! BACKUP The forces defending their homeworlds aren't doing so alone. They brought plenty of backup. Backup is a new triggered ability that allows creatures to help a friend . . . or even themselves . . . in a pinch. Boon-Bringer Valkyrie Extended Art Backup always comes with a number. Whenever a creature with backup enters the battlefield, you put that many +1/+1 counters on a target creature. If you chose another creature as the target, that creature also gets every ability of the original creature that is printed below backup until end of turn. For example, when Boon-Bringer Valkyrie enters the battlefield, you can either put a +1/+1 counter on Boon-Bringer Valkyrie itself, or you can put a +1/+1 counter on another creature and have that creature gain flying, first strike, and lifelink until end of turn. Note that even if you have another creature gain those abilities until end of turn, Boon-Bringer Valkyrie will keep them. Note that backup confers only abilities that are printed below the backup ability. You can't respond to the backup ability by giving Boon-Bringer Valkyrie additional abilities and have backup give those abilities to the backup target. However, token copies of a creature with backup work just like the original. For example, if a token enters the battlefield as a copy of Boon-Bringer Valkyrie, that backup ability can have another creature gain its keywords until end of turn. On a few creatures, abilities that wouldn't make much sense to have another creature gain until end of turn, such as flash or landcycling, are printed above backup. Creatures that are the targets of backup abilities don't gain any abilities printed above backup. INCUBATE If the glory of Phyrexia is not apparent to you, perhaps baby Phyrexians would be more convincing? Incubate is a new keyword action that allows you, yes you, blessed spreader of Elesh Norn's perfection, to create Incubator tokens. This sounds wonderful, no? Traumatic Revelation An Incubator token is a new kind of predefined token, joining ones such as Food and Treasure. An Incubator token is a colorless artifact token with "{2}: Transform this artifact." Oh, did I mention it was a transforming double-faced token? That's new. It's a transforming double-faced token. The back face is a 0/0 colorless Phyrexian artifact creature. Incubator // Phyrexian token The instruction to incubate will include a number which indicates how many +1/+1 counters to put on the Incubator token. Those counters don't do much while the token has its front face up, but they do a great job of keeping the Phyrexian artifact creature alive once it transforms. CHAOS ENSUES It really does. Towashi Planechase is a major feature of the Commander decks in March of the Machine. On previous plane cards, chaos abilities had the trigger condition, "Whenever you roll [CHAOS]." Starting with March of the Machine, this condition has been replaced by "whenever chaos ensues." With respect to the planar die, nothing has changed; rolling [CHAOS] will still cause these abilities to trigger. However, now there are ways to have these abilities trigger that don't involve the planar die at all. Of course, that only makes sense if you already know what Planechase is. You can gain this knowledge now with an explainer on Planechase by Gavin Verhey. MARCH ON New keywords, new strategies, even a new card type. March of the Machine promises to bring the Phyrexian threat to a close. Learn whether the threat has been removed or taken over the Multiverse in Magic Story. You can also preorder March of the Machine products before they arrive on April 21 from retailers like Amazon and at your local game store. Stay tuned and enjoy the new cards.
Phyrexia, All Will Be One-Prerelease and Release events..
Back to Phyrexia, where Elesh Norn and her biomechanical minions are making their all out final(?) assault on the annoyingly imperfect forces of nature. A strike team of the surviving Mirran Resistance comprising of planeswalkers Elsbeth, Jac, Tyvar and Nahiri, plunge themselves straight in to the heart of the infected perfection of the conquerors, but is one member of the group already bringing the infection with them? [Store owner's note...since I already cracked/opened my packs for the event...can't really do that while helping peeps at the store, I have an idea of how good the set is. Gotta say, this is one of the more exciting ones in a while. I'm really looking forward to playing w/y'all!) Events: 2/3 Friday 6:30 PM Sealed 2/4 Saturday Sat 10AM Sealed Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant 2/5 Sunday Sun 10AM Sealed Sun 3PM Sealed 2/10 Friday 7PM Sealed 2/11 Saturday Sat 10AM Sealed Sat 3PM Two Headed Giant 2/12 Sunday Sun 10AM Sealed Sun 3PM Sealed This weekend and next, we have a plethora of sealed events using the prerelease kits from the new set. Players can get their boxes of 6 packs to open and get to build their decks starting 1 hour before each event. Prerelease kits have six 15-card packs, 1 random exclusive promo foil rare or mythic rare from the set, and a special spindown die. We provide the basic lands, so you don't need anything more to play. We pride ourselves that no one here will make you feel anything but welcome (we all started from scratch at some point). All events are sealed using the prerelease kits. Make your best decks and win a round, win a pack. If we have enough players to accommodate both, we will also have competitive prize pools for the 10AM sealed events. (Competitive prize pools mean more chance to win lots of packs if you do very well, but more rounds and the chance to win no prize packs if you don't. Better for more expert players.) The prerelease and release events are great chances for players who haven't gotten a chance to play in person to come to a friendly, fun event where everyone is starting from scratch and no one knows much more than anyone else yet. We recommend if you are new, or you have a friend who is new, to play in the Two-Headed Giant events, which are two-person team events. So long as one person in the team knows how to play, you can both have fun without any pressure to know the rules right away. New Mechanics include Toxic (mini infect), Corrupted (power ups if your opponent has gotten themselves at least 3 poison counters), For Phyrexia, equipment that makes its own dudes to attach itself to when it comes in play, and Oil Counters (counters that do stuff depending on the cards...that one is a bit weird, but has some useful effects. Mechanic coming back for a encore is Proliferate (basically add an extra counter to anything you pick on either player's side that already has a counter on it.) TOXIC Can't you see Phyrexia's calling? Creatures like these should wear a warning. They're dangerous, and falling victim to them might have you succumbing to a poisonous fate, no matter what your life total is. Toxic is a new keyword ability found on several Phyrexian creatures in this set, including the terrifying Paladin of Predation. Any time a creature with toxic deals combat damage to a player, that player gets a number of poison counters equal to the toxic value of that creature. That's the number after the toxic keyword. These poison counters are handed out in addition to the damage being dealt, so bad news for that player on multiple axes. A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game, but in the next section, we'll learn that advantages for poisoning your opponents kick in much sooner. A creature's toxic value and its power aren't necessarily connected. If a creature with toxic 6 deals 1 combat damage to an opponent, they're getting six poison counters. 15 combat damage? Still six poison counters. Toxic doesn't help if the creature deals combat damage to another creature or a planeswalker. CORRUPTED Poison counters have been a long-time favorite for alternate-win conditions, but outside of a few individual cards, it's mostly been all or nothing. If you couldn't deliver the tenth poison counter, the first nine didn't matter much. Corrupted is a new ability word that highlights abilities that make cards stronger if an opponent has three or more poison counters. Some corrupted abilities, like The Seedcore's last ability, are activated. If you have a corrupted opponent, you can activate the ability, and if you don't, you can't. Other corrupted abilities, such as the last ability of Skrelv's Hive, are static, and their effects are active as long as an opponent has three or more poison counters. In multiplayer games, you need only one opponent to have three or more poison counters, not all of them. You'll also find instants and sorceries with corrupted abilities. Some of these abilities provide additional effects if you have a corrupted opponent as the spell resolves. Others affect what a spell costs or what it can target. Corrupted abilities are flexible, and each card will tell you what specific reward—other than ridiculous fun—handing out those poisoning counters can have. FOR MIRRODIN! The Mirrans aren't quite conceding this fight just yet. For Mirrodin! is a new triggered ability found on some Equipment cards that come complete (not the other spelling) with their own wielder. The Equipment enters the battlefield unattached like other Equipment. If for some reason it leaves the battlefield before the triggered ability resolves, you'll still create the Rebel creature token, although they'll be sadly empty-handed. Equipment with For Mirrodin! behaves just like other Equipment. You can use the equip ability to attach such an Equipment onto another creature you control. OIL COUNTERS Although oil counters aren't a keyword ability, and they have no inherent rules meaning, they play a key role in Phyrexia's operation. Some cards, such as Urabrask's Forge, put oil counters on themselves and then use those counters for various effects. Urabrask's Forge Other cards care about how many permanents you control with oil counters on them. Still others move oil counters around. Things get slippery very, very quickly. PROLIFERATE Proliferate is a featured returning keyword action in this set, and it's no surprise: there are oil counters, poison counters, and wouldn't it be great if there were more of them? Any time you're instructed to proliferate, you choose any number of players or permanents that already have counters on them. For each one, and for each kind of counter it has, add another one. For example, if you control a creature with a +1/+1 counter and an oil counter on it, and you chose it while proliferating, it would end up with two +1/+1 counters and two oil counters. If you and your opponent each controlled a planeswalker, you could choose yours to get another loyalty counter while not choosing theirs to do the same. If you controlled a creature with a +1/+1 counter and a stun counter (a counter you might not want to add another of), you have a choice: add one of each kind of counter it has or add nothing.
Special Holiday hours (kid free late and early times..)
Here are our hours for holiday shopping for the next two weeks (So you can sneak out when the kids aren't around): (The following are the minimum hours we will be open...but we'll probably be open more hour, just cause) Monday 12th-19th, 11-4 (yep, open on Mondays for the next couple of weeks) Tues-Thurs., 8th-22nd, 11-9 (bonus on Fri the 16th --8:15-10 for after school drop off) Fridays 9th & 23rd, 11-10 Saturdays 10th & 17 th, 10-7 Sundays 11th & 18th, 10-8 X-mas Eve the 24th, 9-4 Xmas Day, the 25th, Closed We have some serious sales that are going on still (till the 19th).