PETA vs. the Space Marines

In case you missed this, PETA has contacted Games Workshop asking them to no longer dress their plastic figures in plastic fur and plastic leather. As a hobby, we think this is silly but what it does accomplish is classic public relations, getting people to talk about you. As the saying goes "Any publicity is good publicity".

A Look at the Numbers

This week's ICV2 column looks at some of the numbers from the 2016 holiday shopping season.

Yu Gi Oh Maximum Crisis

Maximum Crisis booster set for Yu Gi Oh arriving May 5th:

Konami Digital Entertainment Inc., is proud to bring you the next core booster release Maximum Crisis.  The walls between dimensions are collapsing and the supreme king of destruction will rise in Maximum Crisis, May’s all-new 100-card 1^st Edition booster set!  Maximum Crisis is the climax of the 2016-2017 Dueling season, introducing three new themes as well as bold new cards for a wide variety of popular Decks.

Pendulum Summoning will undergo its final evolution in Maximum Crisis with a pair of Pendulum Monsters with Scales of 0 and 13, opening up the ability to Pendulum Summon monsters of any Level in any Deck!  But that’s not the only type of Summoning that’s evolving.  Following up on February’s Fusion Enforcers set, Maximum Crisis introduces a new Fusion Summoning Spell Card that lets you keep your Fusion Monster while giving back the monsters you just fused together!

Here’s a brief overview of what else you can expect in Maximum Crisis:

·         The dawn of the “True Draco” monsters! These monsters can be Tribute Summoned using Continuous Spell/Trap Cards instead of monsters, and their Continuous Spell/Trap Cards have multiple effects depending on whether you just activate them or Tribute them.

·         A brand new way to win a Duel! Even if you can’t damage your opponent with this new theme’s ace monster, if you can power it up enough, destroying 3 of your opponent’s monsters with it will automatically end the Duel!

·         New Winged Beasts that fly over enemy monsters for fast direct attacks and effects that inflict damage.

·         Individually powerful cards to cover a variety of common situations in everyday Dueling.

·         The mastermind behind the global plot has been revealed, and SPYRAL embarks on its final mission to take him down!

·         All is not yet lost! The final battle against the Subterror Behemoths begins… and the Subterror Nemeses receive help from an unlikely source!

·         Cards that boost Decks and themes from Fusion Enforcers, Raging Tempest, the Pendulum Domination Structure Deck, Invasion: Vengeance, The Dark Illusion, Shining Victories, Wing Raiders, the Master of Pendulum Structure Deck, High-Speed Riders, and more!

The Maximum Crisis booster set contains 100 cards: 48 Commons, 20 Rares, 14 Super Rares, 10 Ultra Rares, 8 Secret Rares.

A Look at the Proposed Future of WOTC

This week's ICV2 column looks at a recent letter from WOTC President Chris Cocks on the direction he sees the company going.

If You Have Damaged Magic Cards

If you open a pack of Magic and it contains missing or damaged cards, Wizards will replace them, if you follow the procedures, except for a Masterpiece Scalding Tarn. Those are all gone.

The most important thing you need to do immediately is to take a picture of the pack and the cards immediately after you open them and Wizards would like photos of both.

Note that if you buy single cards on the aftermarket and get one that is damaged, you are out of luck. You would need to contact the seller of the cards to deal with replacements.

Store Video

In case you missed it when it was posted a couple of  months ago, as part of their Carbondale Spotlight series, the City of Carbondale, produced a short video about the store and its history. While you are there, take a look at the videos on Hair Brains, Fat Pattles, Thai Taste and Mary Lou's

Adventurer's League and the Herald's Guild

This week's ICV2 column looks at WOTC's co-ordinator program, the Adventurer's League and the Herald's Guild

Adventurer's League and the Regional Co-ordinator

According to Foulis, WOTC started recruiting Regional Co-ordinators for the Adventurer’s League program during the Summer of 2014. The Regional co-ordinators were tasked by WOTC with helping “DM’s, players, and store/convention organizers participate in the D&D Adventures League on a local level. RCs help promote D&D Adventurers League play by facilitating the organization of public events and by representing the D&D Adventurers league with an enthusiastic, positive presence in a respectful and approachable manner. These individuals will help out the community manager by maintaining event groups on Facebook and Google+ that participants can interact with for information and discussion on events within certain defined regions.” The Regional Co-ordinators were expected to spend at least 2 (later increased to 10) hours a week promoting Adventurer’s League play and events through social media (primarily Facebook and Google+), help stores and convention organizers obtain and sanction Adventurer’s League events, provide a point of contact for and feedback to Adventurer’s League Administrators (who were employees of WOTC), and assist in organizing playtest groups for Adventurer’s League content. The Adventurer’s League program was designed, in general, to promote the D&D Encounters program in stores and convention D&D play.

The Co-ordinators, both Regional and Local, were all volunteers. In return for their service, the Regional Co-ordiantors would receive the opportunity to help determine the future of the Adventurer’s League, (possibly) receive D&D product when attending a convention with a Wizards’ presence and receive Adventurer’s League “swag”

In the Fall of 2015, after the release of Out of the Abyss and Season 3 of the D&D Encounters program, WOTC  “pulled the plug” so to speak, on the Encounters’ program, pulling the name from the DCI Reporter and opening Adventurer’s League play to in-home as well as convention and store play. WOTC notified the co-ordiantors that it would take their duties in-house, assigning them to customer service reps and WPN staff.

Convention Map

Casual Game Revolution magazine has put together this handy map showing game conventions, of which they know, throughout the world. See if one is located near you.  St.Louis has at least 4 in the area.

New Banned List

WOTC dropped the the new banned list yesterday. It goes into effect on January 20th for physical cards. So far Gitaxian Probe has dropped from about $6 per card to $2 and the value of Golgari Grave-Troll has dropped by $5.  Remember, these are all still usable in casual play, just not in sanctioned tournaments. Here is the list of cards:

Standard

Emrakul, the Promised End is banned.

Smuggler's Copter is banned.

Reflector Mage is banned.

Modern:

Gitaxian Probe is banned.

Golgari Grave-Troll is banned.

Three Predictions for 2017

This week's ICV2 Column looks at three predictions for 2017. Remember they are predictions, not facts.

Liz Danforth

If you don't know who Liz Danforth is, take a look here. She  worked as an artist in the gaming industry steadily from the 1970s through the 1990s, primarily for Flying Buffalo, ICE and early Magic, ( There are a few of her original works hanging on the store walls) when life interfered. In the past few years, she has re-entered the industry, doing much of the art for the relauch of the Tunnels and Trolls RPG.

You can find more details here but for the first time in many years Liz decided to submit work to the GenCon art show. Briefly, the jury for the art show turned down her submissions, which triggered an avalanche of support for her and encouraged her to decide to more actively "art". She has launched a Patreon page here so if you would like to support one of the artists from the early days of the industry, who is getting her second wind, here's your chance.

Star Wars Destiny Update

For you Star Wars Destiny players, we just received an update on the next shipment. We expect to see more SW Destiny arrive around January 19th. No idea if this includes starters and boosters, just starters or just boosters. Also I imagine that it the date that the restock should arrive at distribution, meaning we will have it a few days after that.

3 Thoughts on 2016

This week's ICV2 column has wishes for a Happy New Year and a few more thoughts on the past year.