The Gathering Place is heading into the end of July, and we’re closing out the month and kicking off August in a big way! To begin this week’s Dispatch, here’s a quick rundown of what’s happening in the shop in the immediate future:
Each month, The Gathering Place holds a CEDH tournament. It’s competitive, the North Carolina CEDH scene is active and thriving, but the prize here is worthy of consideration: the winner, every month, walks out of TGP with a tournament-legal Dual Land!
Girlypop Magic One Year Anniversary
Sunday, August 2
The first anniversary of Girly Pop Magic is being celebrated at The Gathering Place! It’s been an utter delight to watch Girly Pop grow over the past year, and hosting the first-Thursday Commander Night(s) has been a dream. For the anniversary, we’re going as big as possible!TGP x GPM are planning on a Learn to Play session, some classic GPM casual Commander pods, a 2HG section for folks who want to try playing MTG team-up style, a cEDH pod series for any girlies interested in getting competitive, and an opportunity to play one of Magic’s weirdest fan-favorite formats: Horde Mode!That’s just the beginning, too! Check in with the Girly Pop Magic socials for more details and updates!
Michael Conrad, author of the Dark Horse series starring Jace Beleren, is coming by TGP! Conrad will be signing comics, and also participating in that Tuesday’s Commander Meetup! Click the link above for our announcement post with all the details!
Click the link above for registration links, details, and more!
Dungeons & Dragons Learn to Play
Wednesday, August 12
Interested in learning how to play D&D? Our resident DM and Cool Guy™ Ben Creed is here to guide you through your first steps in the Forgotten Realms! Usually, we host these on the first Wednesday of each month, but this August Ben is a little busy the first week — so it’s on August 12 instead! See you there!
The Castaway League Mid-League Tournament went spectacularly, and a great deal took place on The Island. If you’re in League and didn’t make it, it’s in your best interest to give the ol’ Discord channel a read. Especially since there’s a lot of useful trade fodder in the mix, post-Tournament!
This week in Castaway League, it’s Casino Week! The Castaway Casino will be open Tuesday, 7/28 and Thursday, 7/30 from 5:30 to 7:00. Since this Saturday is the cEDH Dual Land Tournament, the “last call” for casino games and associated prizes will be on Tuesday, 8/4.
There’s a post about all the August events at TGP in the works as we speak, but for now this week’s Dispatch ends on some Big News:
We’re hiring four positions in Alpha Pie, and between two and three for our new location at Triangle Town Center as part of the permanent Charlie’s Collectibles space in the mall!
Alpha Pie Hiring Details
Open positions: front of house, dishwasher, expo, line cook / thrower
Hours: 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. Wednesday – Saturday
Starting pay: $18-20/hr, plus tips
The Gathering Place at CCS
Open positions: retail associate
Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday – Sunday
Starting pay: $18/hr
While prior relevant experience is preferred for any open position, experience is not a strict requirement for any of the open positions. We’re willing and able to provide training.
If you’re interested in joining the best crew in The Triangle, bring your resume by in -person at TGP and / or Alpha Pie or send us an email at info@thegatheringplacegames.com
Here at TGP, we’re gearing up for the end of July, a Premodern MTG tournament, and a wild start to August in the immediate future! It’s also Week 4 of Castaway League and about to embark upon the journey of a mid-League tournament.
Collector variants of the Marvel Super Heroes Commander precons have shown up and we’ve still got a couple on the shelves, for anyone interested in acquiring a box full of shiny cards. We’ve also restocked all the cases in the shop, and tossed some real fun + weird stuff in there, so come by and give it a look sometime!
This week at The Gathering Place we’ve got a Sealed RCQ, a Vintage MTG Tournament, an Unstable booster draft, and we’re gearing up for next week’s Premodern MTG tournament!
The MTGPunks tournament continues, and this month’s rotation is a Premodern tournament with the additional prizing of a foil FNM variant Mogg Fanatic. It’s pretty sweet, goblins spring eternal in this game, come play old timey Magic with your friends and have a blast!
Castaway League Mid-League Tournament
Our dogged and determined Castaways have made it to the halfway point, but the dangers of The Island are rising more each day. The mid-League tournament is a chance for players to test their decks in an honest-to-goodness tournament environment, with prizing to match! League players can expect raffles, combat, prizes, and all manner of Wubahg-associated nonsense as they test their might and mettle!
From Masters to Horizons, the big big sets of MTG meant to revisit old favorites, provide reprints, and force adjustments while providing a breath of fresh air are a big deal. Modern Horizons II is a worth follow-up to the first MH outing, and we’ll be drafting it this upcoming Sunday!
Each month, The Gathering Place holds a CEDH tournament. It’s competitive, the North Carolina CEDH scene is active and thriving, but the prize here is worthy of consideration: the winner, every month, walks out of TGP with a tournament-legal Dual Land!
Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least talk about The Hobbit’s imminent arrival on the MTG scene! The Gathering Place has all our prerelease sealed events scheduled and up for preregistration, and you can find details, times, and links all right here:
Finally, remember that event hinted at in last weeks’ Dispatch? We posted about it and did a tag on the TG Discord, but just in case you missed it, here’s an Instagram post:
I know we said it last week too, but it just keeps happening! New product in The Gathering Place straight from the Distro Dungeon, fresh inventory, fun and cool stuff. Check it out here!
It’s here, it’s happening, we’ve gone there are now it’s time to go back again!
Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is being hoarded no more, and Middle Earth returns to booster packs of MTG in the immediate future. For anyone looking to scoop up second breakfast, for those who’d like to join a merry band, if you’re looking to venture outside your Hobbit-hole and into the wider, wilder world there’s no time like the present!
Here’s links to each of the prerelease tournaments scheduled at The Gathering Place:
The Hobbit sealed product will be available for purchase during prerelease weekend at The Gathering Place, no preorders for sealed product or singles are being taken at TGP.
Michael Conrad Signing + More at The Gathering Place on Tuesday, August 4!
Conrad’s work has run the gamut, writing for works involving Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Doom Patrol, all the way up to Godzilla and back again! But some of the latest work from Michael Conrad is right in our wheelhouse as your local card shop: a comic featuring the early days and untold stories of Jace Beleren.
TGP will have copies on hand of Dark Horse’s “Magic: The Gathering Untold Stories — Jace” on hand, and Conrad will have a signing table with some fun bonus wares starting at six. Folks who show up for the signing will have an opportunity to enter a lottery to get placed in a Commander pod with Conrad (we’ve heard he’s got a special Jace-themed deck that’s on the road with him!) to sling cardboard and talk story.
This event will happen concurrently with our usual Tuesday-night MTG Commander meetup, so TGP is planning to bring up some Jace-themed prizes and raffles from the Distro Dungeon just to add a little extra flavor and fun to the event. We’re excited to host Michael Conrad for an rad evening centered on crafting stories and lore surrounding MTG’s iconic mind mage, and we’ll see you there!
TGP’s summer hot streak continues! Modern MTG players showed up and showed out this past weekend, we’re in Week 3 of Castaway League(and next weekend is the mid-League tournament!) plus there’s a restock of Marvel precon decks on the shelves for anyone still trying to track down that Doctor Doom deck.
This week at The Gathering Place we’ve got a Sealed RCQ, a Vintage MTG Tournament, an Unstable booster draft, and we’re gearing up for next week’s Premodern MTG tournament!
Un-sets are beloved among the TGP staff and a big chunk of our community, and their inherent goofiness is still charming years later as the Fortniteification of MTG continues. It’s a trip to see these cards come back around, and the draft environment really is…. it’s something, alright. If you haven’t ever had the pleasure of playing an Un-set, we’d love to introduce you.
The MTGPunks tournament continues, and this month’s rotation is a Premodern tournament with the additional prizing of a foil FNM variant Mogg Fanatic. It’s pretty sweet, goblins spring eternal in this game, come play old timey Magic with your friends and have a blast!
There’s also a new seltzer on tap, a lavender+blueberry+lemon joint I’ve heard tell is pretty bangin’ — plus, there’s another summertime surprise coming to the TGP taps soon, though I can’t announce it here just yet. You’ll know it when it gets here.
The friendly folk at The Gathering Place do not fear what lies beneath, it’s impossible for us to dig too deep, and a new set of products has emerged from the dark depths of the Distro Dungeon!
Dungeon Boosters are back, and now accompanied by a shinier, fancier option! Pokémon $5 packs have been so successful, we’ve put in work to create a more luxurious, more substantial $10 option! We’ve also put together some WotC-era Pokémon cards in a Vintage PokéPack for anyone looking to open up a heavy hit of Pocket Monsters fueled nostalgia!
The best part is, this is only the first wave! There’s more on the way, hitting TGP shelves in the near future. We’ve been working on these for a while, and we couldn’t be more stoked to finally get them to you.
The $10 Dungeon Boosters are accompanied by a $25 “Dungeon Collector Booster” variant. The original Dungeon Booster is pretty much unchanged from it’s previous configuration: it’s still 10+ cards taken from the Distro Dungeon’s Indiana Jones-esque stacks of Magic: The Gathering, cards that are incredible cool and rad and fun but don’t quite always make it to TGP inventory proper. You never know what you’re gonna get in a Dungeon Booster!
MP playables, promos, The List reprints, foreign cards, there’s all kinds of stuff in there. Cards from literally every set of MTG ever printed, you never know what you’re gonna find in the Dungeon — or in a Dungeon Booster!
The Dungeon Collector Booster variant is the same deal, the same box of metaphorical chocolates, except now it’s slightly more luxe: foils as often as possible, special art treatments, weirder printings, and a smattering of nice playables that might be a little too scuffed to sell in the case, but they still deserve to be sleeved up and hit tables in decks!
The classic $5 Pokémon Mystery Booster Pack from TGP is staying the same as it ever was, and it’s still $5. But enough people have been asking for an evolution we put together two potential options: a $10 Ultra Mystery Booster Pack and a Vintage PokéPack!
10 commons and uncommons, 5 reverse holofoils, 5 rare or promo holofoils, plus two or more Ultra Rares, the Ultra Mystery Booster pack has the same basic structure as its $5 counterpart, but a selection of bigger hits packed in along with more potential for bonus cards, treatments, and more!
When it comes to Pokémon, though, some people simply prefer the classics. The first generation. If that’s you and you’ve got a hankerin’ for WotC-era Pokémon cards, the new Pokémon Vintage Pack has fifteen classics cards from 2003 and before, with a guaranteed holo in every pack!
They’re on the bar at The Gathering Place this week, they’ll be there for as long as they last, and the Distro Dungeon will keep doing its best to get more cool stuff out of our treasure trove and into yours!
This week at The Gathering Place we’ve got a gorgeous Ocelot Pride to fight over in a Modern RCQ, the return of the NYC 2-Headed Giant event in the wake of MTG launching Marvel Super Heroes, a special Riftbound event and more!Since we’re still early in the month, here’s the full breakdown of July events at the shop from last week’s post:
The Time Spiral Remastered draft this past Sunday was a blast from the past (and the present, and the future) and our Sunday Special MTG Draft series continues this week with Foundations! Take it back to basics, open up some cool stuff, and come back next week for our first Un-set draft as TGP gets a little Unstable! Here’s the schedule for all of ’em, and a link:
MTG Sunday Special Drafts
Sunday, July 12: Foundations: no limit, $25 entry Sunday, July 19: Unstable: 24 player cap, $30 entry Sunday, July 26: Modern Horizons II: 24 cap, $40 entry
We’re in Week 2 of Castaway League and things are heating up! The Island is the place to be this summer, and we’re delighted folks are vibing with this year’s Summer League. If you’ve been on the fence about joining, don’t wait too much longer! Things will only continue to heat up from here!
Also, have you seen where we’re keeping the TGP merch, these days? Be a lot cooler if you did.
Here’s the rest of the week, broken down with all the links / info taken straight from the TGP Events page.
MTG Modern RCQ High Roller Tournament “Ocelot” (Monthly MTG Series)
Saturday, July 11, 12:00 p.m.
Modern is a tight, quick, cohesive way to play competitive Magic. Encompassing decades of MTG history and comprised of the landscape born from experiencing Magic: The Gathering’s growing pains, Modern is a slower format in terms of cards added and lack of rotation, but much faster in every other way.
Monthly cash tournaments at The Gathering Place rotate between Modern, Legacy and Vintage, and June it’s clearly all about Modern! Cash tourneys, RCQs, the works! While Legacy and Vintage are both full-proxy friendly at TGP, Modern is zero proxy. All cards are required to be the real deal.
For this tournament, entry is $30 per player, entry contributes to the prize pool, so more players means bigger payouts. TGP will also continue adding bonus prizing to the cash tourney series, since folks have been AMPED about that recently and there’s certainly plenty to choose from when deciding on Modern-relevant prizing! For this tournament, that extra prizing comes in the form of the special Store Champ full-art Ocelot Pride!
Join us for our first Magma Chamber Riftbound event, July 12 at 1:00pm!
This event will be $20 per team! The 2v2 Magma Chamber, also known as ‘Two Headed Giant’ in other spaces, is a game where you and a teammate take on another team. In this, the score limit is first to 11 between the team, and there are three battlefields to control (the first player’s battlefield is removed).
Players can play spells during their teammate’s turn, and the turn order alternates between teams. So, first player will play, then an opponent, then that first player’s teammate, then the second opponent.
Interestingly, the final point system is also different. A player must score each battlefield in the same turn to get the final point through conquer, except any that was occupied by an ally during that turn’s beginning phase. This means that you’ll essentially need to conquer any battlefield your team doesn’t control.
We’re running it back for round 2! We’re heading back to the streets! The New York City Streets, that concrete jungle where dreams are made of! If Magic: The Gathering is gonna be in NYC, we’re going to run another 2-Headed Giant Tournament! Last time it was just Spider-Man and TMNT, but now we’ve got a fresh crop of Marvel Super Heroes to add to the mix!
Entry is $35 per player, $70 per team. Each player will receive two packs of SPM, two packs of TMT and two packs of MSH (12 packs for each team). Prizing is one pack of each set in the mix, three packs total, per team, per win, with bonus prizes on the table depending on attendance. See you there, citizens!
As always, thanks for hanging out at TGP. Thanks for playing games, being cool, and making what we do possible. We hope it rains more soon, and we’ll see you around!
This week at The Gathering Place we’re saying goodbye to June, hello to July, salutations to a raft of tournaments and summertime happenings and getting the Castaway League show on the road! We’ve already posted the full “July at TGP” roundup, so go give that a look if you’re so inclined. It’s right here. Go on, click it. No time like the present. This’ll still be here when you get back. Also, as always:
Since July kicks off and we’re drafting Time Spiral this upcoming Sunday, here’s the Sunday Special drafts for the month, highlighted and spotlit for you information and convenience.
MTG Sunday Special Drafts
Sunday, July 5: Time Spiral Remastered: 24 cap, $50 entry Sunday, July 12: Foundations: no limit, $25 entry Sunday, July 19: Unstable: 24 player cap, $30 entry Sunday, July 26: Modern Horizons II: 24 cap, $40 entry
cEDH is battling it out this Saturday, July 4, for a Dual Land and overall statewide supremacy, but it’s worth noting: Alpha Pie will be closed on Saturday, July 4. Pizza service and snackage returns the following week.
You probably know this by now, but also Castaway League starts today! We’ve got a lot of folks about to be marooned on a deserted island, and we’re excited to see how everybody adapts to the particular hardships, glories, challenges and dynamics of this year’s Summer League!
To keep things efficient, here’s what’s happening the rest of this week:
D&D Learn to Play
Wednesday, July 1, 6:00 p.m.
The first Wednesday of each month, TGP’s own Ben Creed (a friendly face known for comedy, trivia, and TCG excellence in both One Piece and MTG) will be your guide as you take your first steps into the Forgotten Realms.
The Learn to Play session starts at 6:00 p.m. and players don’t have to provide anything but themselves. Well, themselves and also a general openness, a will to learn and the expectation that role playing might feel a little goofy at first — but, the knowledge that the more you lean into it the more fun you’ll have. If you’ve always been D&D curious, if you’ve seen it portrayed in popular media, if you’ve been watching actual play shows or listening to podcasts like Dimension 20 or Critical Role, this is your opportunity to start your own story!
Girlypop Magic Commander Night
Thursday, July 2, 6:00 p.m.
We are honored to be hosting local femme-forward all-stars Girlypop Magic the first Thursday of each month at The Gathering Place! Join us for a free and fun night of MTG Commander-focused events for femme, non-binary, and gender expansive folks!
GPM comes by TGP every month, so come back the first Thursday and play some fun games with some truly excellent people!
cEDH Monthly Dual Land Tournament
Saturday, July 4, 12:00 p.m.
Each month, The Gathering Place holds a CEDH tournament where the prize is based on attendance, and every entrant has a chance to battle it out for a Dual Land straight out of the TGP display case!
This month’s is on Saturday, June 6, starting at noon.
$30 buy in, Dual Land goes to first place, payout prizing to Top 4, and other / additional prizing based on attendance. Come battle it out for Duals, for glory, for love of the game!
Full proxy is permitted, all proxies must be clearly representative of the intended card and contain all information the official printing does in an easy-to-identify fashion.
MTG Modern RCQ High Roller Tournament “Ocelot” (Monthly MTG Series)
Saturday, July 11, 12:00 p.m.
Modernis a tight, quick, cohesive way to play competitive Magic. Encompassing decades of MTG history and comprised of the landscape born from experiencing Magic: The Gathering’s growing pains, Modern is a slower format in terms of cards added and lack of rotation, but much faster in every other way.
Monthly cash tournaments at The Gathering Place rotate between Modern, Legacy and Vintage, and June it’s clearly all about Modern! Cash tourneys, RCQs, the works! While Legacy and Vintage are both full-proxy friendly at TGP, Modern is zero proxy. All cards are required to be the real deal.
For this tournament, entry is $30 per player, entry contributes to the prize pool, so more players means bigger payouts. TGP will also continue adding bonus prizing to the cash tourney series, since folks have been AMPED about that recently and there’s certainly plenty to choose from when deciding on Modern-relevant prizing! For this tournament, that extra prizing comes in the form of the special Store Champ full-art Ocelot Pride!
Product Release(s) in July: Riftbound: Vendetta, Gundam TCG GD-05
MTG Sunday Special Drafts
Sunday, July 5: Time Spiral Remastered: 24 cap, $50 entry Sunday, July 12: Foundations: no limit, $25 entry Sunday, July 19: Unstable: 24 player cap, $30 entry Sunday, July 26: Modern Horizons II: 24 cap, $40 entry
The first Wednesday of each month, TGP’s own Ben Creed (a friendly face known for comedy, trivia, and TCG excellence in both One Piece and MTG) will be your guide as you take your first steps into the Forgotten Realms.
The Learn to Play session starts at 6:00 p.m. and players don’t have to provide anything but themselves. Well, themselves and also a general openness, a will to learn and the expectation that role playing might feel a little goofy at first — but, the knowledge that the more you lean into it the more fun you’ll have. If you’ve always been D&D curious, if you’ve seen it portrayed in popular media, if you’ve been watching actual play shows or listening to podcasts like Dimension 20 or Critical Role, this is your opportunity to start your own story!
Girlypop Magic Commander Night
Thursday, July 2, 6:00 p.m.
We are honored to be hosting local femme-forward all-stars Girlypop Magic the first Thursday of each month at The Gathering Place! Join us for a free and fun night of MTG Commander-focused events for femme, non-binary, and gender expansive folks!
GPM comes by TGP every month, so come back the first Thursday and play some fun games with some truly excellent people!
Each month, The Gathering Place holds a CEDH tournament where the prize is based on attendance, and every entrant has a chance to battle it out for a Dual Land straight out of the TGP display case!
This month’s is on Saturday, July 4, starting at noon.
$30 buy in, Dual Land goes to first place, payout prizing to Top 4, and other / additional prizing based on attendance. Come battle it out for Duals, for glory, for love of the game!
Full proxy is permitted, all proxies must be clearly representative of the intended card and contain all information the official printing does in an easy-to-identify fashion.
MTG Modern RCQ High Roller Tournament “Ocelot” (Monthly MTG Series)
Saturday, July 11, 12:00 p.m.
Modern is a tight, quick, cohesive way to play competitive Magic. Encompassing decades of MTG history and comprised of the landscape born from experiencing Magic: The Gathering’s growing pains, Modern is a slower format in terms of cards added and lack of rotation, but much faster in every other way.
Monthly cash tournaments at The Gathering Place rotate between Modern, Legacy and Vintage, and June it’s clearly all about Modern! Cash tourneys, RCQs, the works! While Legacy and Vintage are both full-proxy friendly at TGP, Modern is zero proxy. All cards are required to be the real deal.
For this tournament, entry is $30 per player, entry contributes to the prize pool, so more players means bigger payouts. TGP will also continue adding bonus prizing to the cash tourney series, since folks have been AMPED about that recently and there’s certainly plenty to choose from when deciding on Modern-relevant prizing! For this tournament, that extra prizing comes in the form of the special Store Champ full-art Ocelot Pride!
Join us for our first Magma Chamber Riftbound event, July 12 at 1:00pm!
This event will be $20 per team! The 2v2 Magma Chamber, also known as ‘Two Headed Giant’ in other spaces, is a game where you and a teammate take on another team. In this, the score limit is first to 11 between the team, and there are three battlefields to control (the first player’s battlefield is removed).
Players can play spells during their teammate’s turn, and the turn order alternates between teams. So, first player will play, then an opponent, then that first player’s teammate, then the second opponent.
Interestingly, the final point system is also different. A player must score each battlefield in the same turn to get the final point through conquer, except any that was occupied by an ally during that turn’s beginning phase. This means that you’ll essentially need to conquer any battlefield your team doesn’t control.
We’re running it back for round 2! We’re heading back to the streets! The New York City Streets, that concrete jungle where dreams are made of! If Magic: The Gathering is gonna be in NYC, we’re going to run another 2-Headed Giant Tournament! Last time it was just Spider-Man and TMNT, but now we’ve got a fresh crop of Marvel Super Heroes to add to the mix!
Entry is $35 per player, $70 per team. Each player will receive two packs of SPM, two packs of TMT and two packs of MSH (12 packs for each team). Prizing is one pack of each set in the mix, three packs total, per team, per win, with bonus prizes on the table depending on attendance. See you there, citizens!
$55 entry per player, MTG Marvel Super Heroes packs. Six packs per player, Top cuts to a Draft. This is a one-slot RCQ at CompREL, so come prepared to play! To sweeten the pot for this particular RCQ, The Gathering Place is contributing $50 of TGP store credit to the prize pool, with all fifty bucks going to our first-place winner!
Premodern MTGis a community-driven format consisting of the sets from Fourth Edition to Scourge. Classic, old frame cards printed between 1995 and 2003, which were standard legal at some point during this period.
See the list of all legal sets here, check out the entire Premodern card pool here.
Folks have been playing a lot of Premodern in the Triangle this year, and The Gathering Place is no exception. It’s been a great entry into our MTGPunks series, and that continues in July!
Entry is $30 per player, entry goes into the prize pool, and bonus prizes from the TGP Dungeon are certainly still in play! For this month’s Premodern tournament, the extra prize is a foil FNM printing Mogg Fanatic!
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