The weather forecast for the week is looking gorgeous, the pizza patio in front of Alpha Pie is looking like a fantastic spot for a casual hang, and the 30 taps upstairs at The Gathering Place will be flowing with some choice selections from both close to home and faraway lands of South Carolina and Wisconsin as we host One Piece prereleases, a MTG Vintage tournament, and the usual slate of weekly events and good times.
The One Piece Prerelease is for OP-10: ROYAL BLOOD, and the new support for the DonQuixote Family and older archetypes is looking strong and there’s plenty of fun and PUNK HAZARDS to be had. Prerelease events at TGP are Saturday and Sunday, both at noon, and entry is $30 per player.
Speaking of weekend happenings, the monthly cash tournament this go ‘round is MTG Vintage: Saturday, 3/15. Vintage might just be MTG’s scariest format, and it’s certainly the largest. A card pool this expansive leads to some wild interactions and no small amount of competition-driven creativity. Entry for the cash tournament is $30, entry goes in the prize pool. This tournament is full-proxy friendly, so bring out your best!
It’s also a Sorcery draft week this Wednesday, a CHAOS DRAFT on Sunday, it’s Week 5 of Commander League, and there’s a great deal more on the horizon. A quick preview:
The weather is warming up in fits and starts, and save for the occasional drop back into the thirties overnight it’s clear Spring is on the way here in North Carolina. Things are looking ever-so-slightly greener, the sky a little more blue.
The taps at The Gathering Place are changing with the seasons, we’ve got some special offerings on the board this week if you want to take a look! The Blueberry Off-Dry mead is particularly nice. Also, there’s some stuff happening this week!
All that talk about springtime kind of feels silly when the next part is “since Old School Thursday got cancelled due to snow, this week’s edition still has that sweet Shivan Dragon signed playmat!” but that’s a true sentence. The signed playmat is still on offer as a super-special bonus prize, and MTG Old School Thursday is on for this Thursday! Kicks off at 7:30, $15 entry buys you a slice of pizza, a beer, and time to play Magic as Garfield intended. Come on by, bring your grandpa!
This Saturday, which, pertinent warning – there’s a basketball game. THE basketball game. Plan your parking situation and be mindful of where NOT to leave your car – we’re having our anti-Prom March Madness equivalent and running a little Jumpstart Jam starting at 2:00 p.m. with an affordable $10 buy-in and a lot of Foundations Jumpstart packs to crack. It’ll be a fun, easy-access, all-inclusive, low-stakes chance to sit down and just play a little Magic.
The big ticket item this week is the third in the series of cEDH Invitational Tournaments. Starting at noon, entry fee set at $55, the third step in the qualifier series to earn a spot in a Final Tournament where the winning player takes home the Grandest Prize: an Unlimited Black Lotus. That’s not to say prizing for the qualifiers is slacking, though – ask anybody who’s played in one of these before. There’s going to be Duals and other Reserve List goodies going to the cream of the crop.
The Commander League IX first tournament sure was a time this past weekend, shoutout to all our weekend warriors who showcased their grit and determination in face of big swings, big combos, and some wacky circumstances. That was just the first tournament, to boot! There’s tuning to do, adjustments to make, and two entire tournaments to come where the prizes will keep getting bigger!
Speaking of fun events, don’t forget, Jank Bank 4 is happening Sunday, 3/23! You can still sign up, if you want! There’s also more fun things to look at, all listed on the TGP events calendar! Check out that monthly section, and we’ll see you around!
Hello, good afternoon, and welcome to another week if beautiful Chapel Hill, North Carolina! Your favorite local game shop and 30-tap bar, The Gathering Place, is back in action post-snow days and ready to play some games, crack some packs, and pour some tasty beverages. As always, find the full weekly calendar right here.
We’ll talk about Commander League in a bit, since it’s a big week (Week 3, in fact) for all our League folks. But let’s cover other happenings first:
Preorders for MTG’s return to Tarkir are LIVE on the TCG online store as of right now, this moment! If you want to place preorders for Dragonstorm, head on over and do so!
Sorcery is drafting is week to make up for lost time last week, Digimon Special Booster Ver.2.5 [BT19-20] is firing off this week after some delays in shipping, FNM is still running in the ‘90s with more Aetherdrift, and FAB Armory is on for this Friday as well.
Saturday, we’re running March’s cEDH Cash Tournament. Signups at 11:30, tournament begins at noon, $30 entry with prizing to Top 4 and a proxy friendly play environment. Entry is going right back in the prize pool, so more players means a bigger pot to battle over.
Also on Saturday: come hang with Ben & Friends for the monthly comedy showcase at The Gathering Place! A no-cover (but tips appreciated!) evening of laughs, riffs, jests, japes and jabs all available for anyone who wishes to avail themselves of North Carolina’s finest comedians, comediennes and comedithems!
Now, finally, let’s talk about Commander League!
It’s Week 3, and this Sunday is the first of our three Commander League tournaments! We’ve decided to keep the multi-tournament format going forward due to resoundingly positive feedback from our short league at the end of 2024.
Entry to all three tournaments is/was included in your entry to League, so all you have to do is show up and play!
Prizing for these tournaments is entirely dependent on the amount of players signed up for League, and Season 9 has been one of TGP’s biggest leagues yet! This first tournament is a great opportunity to test your deck thus far while scoring some sweet prizes, so we’ll see you on Sunday!
It’s got potential to be a snowy week in Chapel Hill, so this week’s TGP Dispatch kicks off with a formal announcement that THE SHOP IS CLOSED TOMORROW!
REPEAT
THE GATHERING PLACE IS CLOSED TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, 2/19
BECAUSE OF SNOW, AND TGP’S DESIRE EVERYBODY BE AS SAFE AS POSSIBLE
Who knows, it’s North Carolina, could be a half an inch of powder or complete sheets of ice, we’ll see you on the other side. But just because TGP is closed tomorrow doesn’t mean we don’t have a lot of cool stuff happening this week!
We’re in the second week of Commander League play, meetups this Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. If you’ve been dragging your feet or delaying your entry into League, know there’s still time to grab a precon and hit the tables should you so desire.
When it comes to Commander, there’s more than League happening right now, though — this Saturday, 2/23 is another cEDH Invitational event!
$55 entry for all players, Top 4 prizing will be choice of 2 Dual Lands (exact lands TBD), a Lion’s Eye Diamond and one as-yet-unrevealed first-place Grand Prize! Prizing is based on attendance — prizes can, will, and have increased with more players at the event. For more details, click here for the full event link.
Also of note, this week is another Old School Thursday! Play Magic the way that Richard Garfield intended; with a nostalgic card pool from Alpha to Fallen Empires—where every deck is a time machine! Relive the aesthetics and power of iconic cards and strategic depth from ’93-’94, all while embracing the charm of old-school gameplay.
Old School Thursday at TGP is a great time and a cheap date: $15 buy-in gets you buy-in, a slice of pizza, and a beer
This week, there’s even a special prize: a SIGNED SHIVAN DRAGON PLAYMAT!
Look at that beautiful playmat. Look at that beautiful boy.
Other things to be looking forward to:
cEDH Monthly Tournament, Saturday 3/1
First Commander League Tournament, Sunday 3/2
March Madness Jumpstart Jam, Saturday 3/8
One Piece OP-10 (ROYAL BLOODLINE) prerelease weekend, 3/15 + 3/16
Thanks for reading this week’s Dispatch! Be safe out there, have fun in the snow, and we’ll see you around!
This week at The Gathering Place, it’s not only the first week of Commander League but we’ve got a lot of other fun stuff on the docket! Mini painting night, more drafts + tournaments and more! Check out the full TGP calendar here for all the weekly and monthly listings!
For a little bit of extra detail and specifics:
If you still want to sign up for Commander League, you still can! Signups are only available in-store, so swing by and snag your precon and Commander League accoutrements and get started with an all-new season of TGP’s signature event! If you would like an explainer of what exactly Commander League is, check out last week’s announcements post.
Sorcery is Constructed format this week, our monthly mini painting night is on Thursday (come on down and paint some little guys with us!), Flesh and Blood is back to Armory this week – and FAB Road to Nationals is this Saturday!
If you haven’t checked in on our Instagram today and don’t have plans this Friday night, we might be able to assist:
The Gathering Place is also hosting an MTG Legacy Cash tournament this Saturday. Kickoff at high noon, extra prizing added by TGP in the form of a borderless Double Masters Force of Will!
Speaking of competitive Magic: The Gathering, TGP has an RCQ on the schedule for this Sunday. Starting at 11:30 a.m. and playing in Sealed Aetherdrift format, your road to MTG glory and Pro Tour laurels beings with this event where Top 8 cuts to Draft and only the best players make it to the finish line!
Looking a little further into the future, there’s a cEDH Invitational on Sunday, 2/23, a March Madness Jumpstart Jam on Saturday, 3/8, a One Piece prerelease event for OPO-10: Royal Bloodline on 3/15 and 3/16, and a whole lot more listed on the TGP calendar!
The Gathering Place has a big week ahead! Commander League is getting started, Aetherdrift prerelease is this weekend, and we’ve got even more big-time events on the horizon!
Obviously, the Aetherdrift prerelease gets pole position when it comes to talking events for the week. We’re about at the limit of possible jokes/references/’member quips about various car-centric IP, but it’s safe to say things are getting a little spicy when it comes to new mechanics, vehicles, and a wacky artifact that is also a planeswalker. We’ve got prerelease events throughout the weekend – two on Friday, two on Saturday, and a two-headed giant finale tournament on Sunday.
Starting this Thursday and running the first and third Thursdays of every month, Old School Thursday is coming to TGP! Play Magic the way that Richard Garfield intended; with a nostalgic card pool from Alpha to Fallen Empires—where every deck is a time machine! Relive the aesthetics and power of iconic cards and strategic depth from ’93-’94, all while embracing the charm of old-school gameplay. For rules and whatnot, click here:
Last Saturday was the first Saturday of the month, and our speciality comedy event with Comedy n’ Dice was an absolute hoot. Thanks to everybody who came out, thanks to Comedy n’ Dice, we’re already looking forward to the next time the TGP stage is blessed in such a manner. For this Saturday, we’re back on the karaoke train with DJ Leo, so we’ll see y’all there for some jams this weekend.
With prerelease events, karaoke, and all the usual Saturday stuff, it’s worth stressing that UNC basketball has a home game this Saturday. Plan and park accordingly!
For this week’s final highlight, we’re talking Commander League – which has become TGP’s signature event. If you’re a veteran, our ninth season doesn’t contain too many surprises. But for the Commander League curious:
Season 9 of The Gathering Place’s signature event! Commander League at TGP provides a unique, semi-limited environment encouraging strategic play, fantastic pulls and ongoing discovery of how the real Lion’s Eye Diamond was the friends we made along the way.
Participation in Commander League begins with $30, a preconstructed MTG Commander deck bought in-store, and a dream.
Your entry fee buys you a set of sleeves for your new deck, a set of Chaos packs to start you off, and entry into all three Commander League tournaments to come. Each of those tournaments has a reputation for some pretty impressive prizing, and week-over-week you’ll continually playtest and refine your deck alongside other League players.
Each League player is permitted to purchase three packs a week from TGP to add to their pulls, a pile of potential that can be added to your deck or traded with other League players. Participation isn’t *required* for League, but it sure does help. Good thing there’s a thriving Commander League community over on The Gathering Place discord that can help answer questions, find you the cards you’re looking for and offer advice as your play, crack, build and tune your way to glory.
There are only three rules to Commander League, outside the rules of Magic itself:
Your deck and your League pulls remain at TGP, at all times, no exceptions
Each player may only open three packs per week of League, no outside cards are permitted, ever
Be cool and have fun
Commander League Signups begin 2/4
First week of Commander League 2/11
First Tournament: Sunday, 3/2
Second Tournament: Sunday, 3/30
Third (FINALE!) Tournament: 4/27
Commander Meetups and League Play at The Gathering Place every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday! Free promo and prize support for all pods, priority given to pairing League players with other League players.
I know that got a little long, but Commander League is worth the time spent explaining. It’s one of our favorite things to do, and it’s gotten a lot of positive traction over time. If you’ve got any questions, come by the shop and ask. We’ll see you around!
As we move out of the first month of 2025, The Gathering Place has plenty going on!
This week, Sorcery is back to Constructed play, FAB is drafting The Hunted on Friday night, Victor makes a return to the TGP Friday Night Trivia spotlight, and we’ll have our last Innistrad Remastered draft as this week’s FNM event.
Our two big spotlights this week are a special D&D comedy show on Saturday night and our Lorcana Store Championship tournament on Sunday!
Happening this Saturday at 9:00 p.m. – Comedy n’ Dice is a fantastical and altogether hilarious live show full of thrills, laughs and genuine peril! Will they succeed? Will they perish? Either way, you’ll laugh until you 20-sided die!
As for our Lorcana Store Championships, we’re sailing the Azurite Sea on Sunday, 2/2! $20 entry, prizing in the form of sealed product, gift sets featuring everybody’s favorite lovable little blue guy (Stitch!), and other goodies. Truly, a store champ worth fighting for. Find all the details on the calendar, the Facebook event listing, and call the shop directly for anything further queries.
Looking a little ahead, there’s a lot coming up in the immediate future. Commander League signups begin on Tuesday, 2/4, Aetherdrift’s prerelease event launches off the line on Friday, 2/7, continuing through the weekend. Then we’ve got an MTG Legacy cash tournament on Saturday, 2/15, and an RCQ event in Sealed format (Aetherdrift) on Sunday, 2/16!
There’s so much more happening soon, so have a great rest of your week and we’ll see you around!
The Gathering Place is finishing the first month of 2025 strong with a stacked week – tournaments, new releases, a whole lot of stuff is going on! As usual, you can find the full calendar of TGP events right here.
To get specific about it, let’s start with Thursday! The monthly mini painting party is back! We’ve got a rack of Army Painter paints you can avail yourself of for a modest fee, we’ll have discounts on our in-stock minis if you’d like to pick up and paint something new, and we’ll see you at the bar to paint at 6:00 p.m.
Friday is where the rubber really hits the road – alongside the usual cEDH pods for folks looking to test their MTG mettle, we’ve got TWO releases: Innistrad Remastered drafting as this week’s Friday Night Magic and Flesh and Blood’s prerelease for The Hunted!
Innistrad Remastered is drafting starting at 7:00, FAB gets going at 7:30, and both events are anticipated to be pretty lively, so it might be worth your time and effort to get to TGP a little early to secure your spot!
Saturday, the hits keep on coming with another draft event for Innistrad Remastered, really putting in the Gothic horror hours and getting going at 5:00 p.m. so things at TGP this weekend stay bloody, based and ghoulcaller-pilled. Then, another specialty draft on Sunday as we crack open a box of Phyrexia: All Will Be One for a Sunday afternoon draft beginning at 3:00 p.m.
Looking ahead a little bit, Lorcana Store Championships are going to be held at TGP on Sunday, 2/2, Commander League Signups begin on Tuesday, 2/4, and MTG’s new Fast and Furious set “Aetherdrift” drops the following weekend!
There’s events scheduled all the way through April right now, so give that flagship TGP event calendar a look at your leisure (here it is again), and we’ll see you around!
This week at The Gathering Place, we’ve got most of the usual suspects on the docket. Commander meetups, free play sessions, Sorcery is back on that Constructed grindset, FAB taking in one last week before The Hunted hits, a nice second full week of 2025 in our future.
Standard RCQ went off this past Sunday, a big shoutout to everybody who came to play! Don’t forget to mark that calendar for the MTG Regional Championship Qualifier (sealed, Aetherdrift), happening on Sunday, 2/16!
This week, the Modern Cash Tournament is happening at noon on Saturday. $25 entry, payout and prizing to Top 8 and dependent on attendance. Modern has changed quite a bit here in the last stretch, and this is a good opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t in a brand new landscape and a brave new world where Faithless Looting and Green Sun’s Zenith are officially back in play. The Ring is dead, long live the Mox.
Next week we’ll be gathering for our monthly Mini Painting Party, so we’ll see you at the bar to paint some little guys then, Commander League is kicking off official signups the first full week of February and MTG’s Fast and Furious Death Race 2000 Redline set “Aetherdrift” has a full prerelease weekend February 7/8/9!
Big news this week is a single-slot MTG RCQ, a great opportunity to hit the ground running in the new format and get a handle on the brave new world the MTG Standard landscape. Decklists are required for this event, cost to enter is $30, and if you’d like to know where the Companion app code is, it’s right here: YQR7V3R
Sorcery is still drafting, One Piece is still firing, the TGP board game shelf is back open for business and free for you and your folks to grab a game and find a table. We’re back for our first full week of 2025, and in celebration of UNC’s FDOC, we’re opening Alpha Pie for a little early pizza action. If you’ve got the time and the inclination to come grab a slice, we’d love to see you!
As far as planning for the future goes, here’s some important dates to go ahead and jot down:
1/24: FAB The Hunted prerelease
1/25: MTG Innistrad Remastered Release Weekend AND Draft
2/2: MTG cEDH Invitational
2/4: Commander League signups begin (first week kicks off 2/11)
Preorders for The Hunted and Innistrad Remastered are online on TGP’s store page, and the window will be fairly limited to get those advance orders in, so don’t hesitate if you’re the type who wants to go ahead and get your box reserved.
Of interest to Commander League players and potential aspirants, we’ll be holding Commander Meetups on the normal days (Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday) but we’ll have tournaments this season on Sundays. There’s a lot of tournaments and big events happening, and we want to make sure there’s space for League players to fully participate. But, to keep things abundantly real, a big reason for this is because parking in the Rosemary parking decks is free on Sunday.
We’ve also already gotten started on our monthly calendar planning through April, and we’ll keep you updated on things as they get added week-by-week! There’s a lot of rad stuff in the works, and we’re excited for another year well-spent at TGP. See you around!
Shop HoursMondayClosedTuesday4:00 PM to 10:00 PMWednesday2:00 PM to 12:00 AMThursday2:00 PM to 12:00 AMFriday2:00 PM to 2:00 AMSaturday11:00 AM to 2:00 AMSunday11:00 AM to 10:00 PM
The Gathering Place has two walls of board games -- one shelf stocked with board games you can buy and take home, and another with our own library of games that are always free to play here at TGP!
Free to all, these Wednesday sessions of D&D are for anyone who is curious and wanting to learn the basics of navigating the Forgotten Realms and beyond!
Big on style, creativity and innovative gameplay, Sorcery is the relatively new kid on the TCG block with a specific flair for the dramatic and fondness for old-school aesthetic.
D&D One-Shots are a weekly event at The Gathering Place, hosted by TGP and ran by our community of Dungeon Masters. These one-shots are a free event, all experience levels welcome!
Simultaneously a relic of the '90s and the torch carried by kids today, there's clearly something special in the stories of Pokémon trainers and all these wonderful little pocket monsters generation after generation has come to love.
The Gathering Place has two walls of board games -- one shelf stocked with board games you can buy and take home, and another with our own library of games that are always free to play here at TGP!
Free to all, these Wednesday sessions of D&D are for anyone who is curious and wanting to learn the basics of navigating the Forgotten Realms and beyond!
Big on style, creativity and innovative gameplay, Sorcery is the relatively new kid on the TCG block with a specific flair for the dramatic and fondness for old-school aesthetic.
D&D One-Shots are a weekly event at The Gathering Place, hosted by TGP and ran by our community of Dungeon Masters. These one-shots are a free event, all experience levels welcome!
Simultaneously a relic of the '90s and the torch carried by kids today, there's clearly something special in the stories of Pokémon trainers and all these wonderful little pocket monsters generation after generation has come to love.
The Gathering Place has two walls of board games -- one shelf stocked with board games you can buy and take home, and another with our own library of games that are always free to play here at TGP!
Free to all, these Wednesday sessions of D&D are for anyone who is curious and wanting to learn the basics of navigating the Forgotten Realms and beyond!
Big on style, creativity and innovative gameplay, Sorcery is the relatively new kid on the TCG block with a specific flair for the dramatic and fondness for old-school aesthetic.
D&D One-Shots are a weekly event at The Gathering Place, hosted by TGP and ran by our community of Dungeon Masters. These one-shots are a free event, all experience levels welcome!
Simultaneously a relic of the '90s and the torch carried by kids today, there's clearly something special in the stories of Pokémon trainers and all these wonderful little pocket monsters generation after generation has come to love.
The Gathering Place has two walls of board games -- one shelf stocked with board games you can buy and take home, and another with our own library of games that are always free to play here at TGP!
Free to all, these Wednesday sessions of D&D are for anyone who is curious and wanting to learn the basics of navigating the Forgotten Realms and beyond!
Big on style, creativity and innovative gameplay, Sorcery is the relatively new kid on the TCG block with a specific flair for the dramatic and fondness for old-school aesthetic.
D&D One-Shots are a weekly event at The Gathering Place, hosted by TGP and ran by our community of Dungeon Masters. These one-shots are a free event, all experience levels welcome!
Simultaneously a relic of the '90s and the torch carried by kids today, there's clearly something special in the stories of Pokémon trainers and all these wonderful little pocket monsters generation after generation has come to love.
The Gathering Place has two walls of board games -- one shelf stocked with board games you can buy and take home, and another with our own library of games that are always free to play here at TGP!
Free to all, these Wednesday sessions of D&D are for anyone who is curious and wanting to learn the basics of navigating the Forgotten Realms and beyond!
Big on style, creativity and innovative gameplay, Sorcery is the relatively new kid on the TCG block with a specific flair for the dramatic and fondness for old-school aesthetic.
D&D One-Shots are a weekly event at The Gathering Place, hosted by TGP and ran by our community of Dungeon Masters. These one-shots are a free event, all experience levels welcome!
Simultaneously a relic of the '90s and the torch carried by kids today, there's clearly something special in the stories of Pokémon trainers and all these wonderful little pocket monsters generation after generation has come to love.
The Gathering Place has two walls of board games -- one shelf stocked with board games you can buy and take home, and another with our own library of games that are always free to play here at TGP!
Free to all, these Wednesday sessions of D&D are for anyone who is curious and wanting to learn the basics of navigating the Forgotten Realms and beyond!
Big on style, creativity and innovative gameplay, Sorcery is the relatively new kid on the TCG block with a specific flair for the dramatic and fondness for old-school aesthetic.
D&D One-Shots are a weekly event at The Gathering Place, hosted by TGP and ran by our community of Dungeon Masters. These one-shots are a free event, all experience levels welcome!
Simultaneously a relic of the '90s and the torch carried by kids today, there's clearly something special in the stories of Pokémon trainers and all these wonderful little pocket monsters generation after generation has come to love.
