The future of Friday Night Magic

So if you have missed the news, I have unfortunately closed the shop, have a read of .... http://kidsdreamstoys.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/is-it-end-of-dream.html

What does this mean for FNM, well put quite simply the FNM you are used to is no more! Wizards of the Coast will not allow me to sanction events until such time (if ever) that I trade from another bricks and mortar retail store!

What does this mean?

You as a player will not get planeswalker points for playing at any future Gambit Games or Kids Dreams Events.

We will not be able to pre-release events.(although I am trying to find solutions to this problem)

We will no longer receive promotional material from Wizards of the Coast.

What is the Future for FNM?

So if that's what we have lost, what if anything will there be for the MTG community in Shoreham?

I am planning a regular MTG event which will happen on Friday's between 6pm and 10pm at the Royal George in Shoreham.

I am not sure if I am allowed to call the Event 'FNM', but if not then I am sure I will think of a new name! I could not get anything sorted out in time for tonight's event but hopefully everything should be in place for next week!

I will create an event on Facebook for each week in advance to let you know what formats are on offer.

As we are no longer tied to Wizards system we can run events in what ever format we like and may even look in team and multi player events!

As I have already said players will no longer get planeswalker points so instead there will be a new point system introduced much the same as the existing Gambit points that you may already be familiar with but with some slight modifications and new calculation method as we had previously relied on information provided by Wizards WER system. More details on this will follow soon.

We normal finalize the Gambit points at the end of November to send out invites to the end of year tournament, so I plan to do this based on the current scores as of last week! I will post sending out more information on this event soon!

Obviously I still have some old promotional cards, but these will run out. I will try and make the prizes for playing interesting and varied.

As for the venue itself it is very nice the facilities are excellent (proper comfortable chairs for everyone - no more stalls!) It is separate from the pub with its own entrance and should provide us with a great gaming and social environment.

I have booked the room for this coming Tuesday and will be creating an event for this later today! This will be a casual MTG evening much like the old 'Skirmish Tuesday' at the shop and will give me an opportunity to show you the new venue and review how much interest there will be for the new Friday events. I also hope to discuss with everyone that attends what will be on offer from Kids Dreams and Gambit in relation to the weekly events.

Please come alone and join me next week and help to formulate our future events!

Gary of Team Gambit and Kids Dreams

Tonight's FNM

Tonight will will have a STANDARD event which willcost £2 as normal and starts at 6:15pm. In addition there will be a draft available for those that are interested which will be ...

A Ravnica Block draft, in other words one booster from each of the Return to Ravnica sets. This will cost £12 and will probably start at about 6:30pm. As normal I will need 8 players for this event to take place. 

Please let me know if you are attending and which event you will be playing.

This Weeks FNM

Tonight's FNM is Legacy which will cost £2 to play and will start at 6:15pm. We will also run a Standard event if there is enough interest. I will need 8 players for each event. (If there are only enough players for one event that event will be legacy!)

This week there is again a lack of Theros boosters so we are selling M14 and Return to Ravnica.

The Hydra deck is released today and is on sale for £9.99, there are only a few of these left in stock (those who pre-ordered this product - yours are ready for collection!)

There will be a Hydra challenge this weekend at Gambit Sunday - details to be posed later!

Next week the commander decks are being released, we have a limited allocation of these and they are likely to sell out fast (several have already gone to pre-order) - if you want one and do not want to be disappointed - please order and pay for one soon!

The 15th sees the release of this years holiday gift box - last year these went very fast and will again be on a limited release. They will be the same price as last year - so again if you want one please order it soon!

Hopefully see you all tonight!

Gary of Team Gambit Games

Tonight's FNM

Tonight the FNM event will be MODERN which will cost £2 and will start at 6:15pm. As we never got FNM cards for October we will be issuing the November ones from tonight for the first and second place players.

I will also run a STANDARD event if there is enough interest in both formats. As normal we need 8 players for each event.

There will be a STANDARD event this weekend to celebrate the release of the new Theros Event decks which are released today. See ... http://kidsdreamstoys.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/game-day-announcement.html for more details.

Tonight's FNM

Tonight there will be two FNM events. There will be 'Standard' which will cost £2 and also a Theros draft if there is enough interest. I would need at least 8 players for this to happen, so please bring along a standard deck to avoid disappointment. The draft would cost £12 per player and includes prizes for the top two!

As per last week, unfortunately we have not received our promo cards for this month so for this week the winner and second place will get a choice from one of these previous promo cards along with the prize boosters!

Tonight's FNM

Tonight's FNM event will be 'Standard' which will cost £2 as normal but unfortunately we have not received our promo cards for this month so for this week the winner and second place will get a choice from one of these previous promo cards ....

There will also be a draft if there is enough interest. I would need at least 6 players for this to happen, so please bring along a standard deck to avoid disappointment. The draft would cost £12 per player and includes prizes for the top two!

Launch Party Weekend

This weekend's events will start with the release of Theros. The FNM will be the first chance for players to use their Theros cards in standard decks.

We will be running both a standard event which will cost £2 as normal and a Theros draft which will cost £12. Both events will start at 6:15pm and the top two players will both get a promo 'Experiment One'.

On Saturday from 11am, we will be running a second draft, same as before.
On Sunday at 'Gambit Sunday' from midday, we will be running a sealed deck event (6 normal Theros boosters) for £20.

As it is the launch weekend everyone that takes part in any of these events will receive a foil, promotional, alternate art Bident of Thassa.

There will be a poster at the back of the shop which is a visual puzzle, that any who solve will receive a gift from the gods.

Launch Party

Tonight it is the FNM Launch Party for M13! The format is standard and will cost £2 as normal!

This is the first event that M13 cards will be standard legal, so will give you all a chance to play with the cards you got last weekend!

All players will receive a foil promo 'Staff of Nin', and the winners will receive a FNM promo as well!

We have stock of M13 boosters on sale from today as well as a small amount of singles, so if you arrive early there is time to maybe amend your deck for tonight! There are certain to be players with trades from the new set!

Hopefully see you at 6pm!

Gary of Team Gambit

FNM and Avacyn Restored Launch Party

Wizards have changed the idea of Launch Party! The event itself has been phased out and instead players will get the opportunity to get the promo card at the Friday Night Magic Events!

This has also meant that the official launch day is Friday and cards are on sale from today! It also means that as tonight's FNM is a STANDARD event, you can play with you new cards straight away as the set is legal as of today!

We are in Hove tonight, from 6:30pm onwards and it will cost £2 to attend as normal! Remember the top two will still receive the FNM promo card which is

If you want to know more about standard deck construction visit the wizards website!

Hopefully see you all tonight!

Gary of Team Gambit

Launch Parties

We have now held both of our launch parties! We had a total of 22 players over the two days which was a good turn out! Pleased to Steve and the guys from Crawley again, even if I had failed to tell them it was standard!!! Expect to see them bringing some powerful decks to the game day later in the year!

Well done to Robert for winning the first event on the Saturday, gaining some valuable points, which may see him back on top for this year! A very strong performance beating everyone over 5 rounds including his sister!

Tuesday night was a bigger event with a variety of decks being used, the top standings were very close throughout the evening, changing constantly. With the promo card being Mondronen Shaman, it was great to see a werewolf deck win the night - a great result for Nick winning a play set to add to his deck!

Ranking points will be updated on Saturday after this weeks FNM, which is in Hove and is STANDARD!

Also if anyone is interested we will be running a league event in Shoreham on Thursdays (4pm until 7pm) over the next few weeks, the format is tribal, block constructed. This means only cards from Innistrad and Dark Ascension can be used and all creatures must be the same type! It will be a casual type format, no time restrictions, however there will be promo cards and winning games will add to your ranking scores!

Gary of Team Gambit

Tales from the Dark II: Food for Thought

Welcome, today we have a special three course menu. Don't worry if the content looks a bit black and blue its supposed to, honest.  

First on the menu is a Blue Instant that can ruin an opponent's musings.

Thought Scour can be used in a variety of ways. For starters (see what I did there) any deck that uses self-milling can take advantage of this card to fuel their graveyard based strategy; whether it be Solar Flare or Blue/Green decks that use Splinterfright.
But the main use of Thought Scour is to ruin Ponder. Imagine your opponent looking at the top three cards of their deck and spending time arranging them into an order of their choosing; maybe its that third land they're missing or an instant or sorcery to transform Delver of Secrets, then wham! A nasty looking needle gets whacked into their brain and turns that order into chaos. You also draw a card in the process which is pretty nice.

Now that the entrée is out of the way, we'll move onto the main course. An undead wizard that can feast off creatures in graveyards.

Havengul Lich is an incredibly powerful card. For one colourless mana you can cast a creature card from any graveyard, provided you have the correct mana. Here's a quick story about the Lich's implications.

Yesterday, I played a game against David who had thrown together a standard deck and wanted to test it. I managed to win the first round by setting off Sorin, Lord of Innistrad's ultimate; stealing a Stromkirk Captain and a Stromkirk Patrol in the process. The Captain then pumped my 1/1 lifelinking tokens and gave them first strike for the win.  
The final game saw both of us resolve a Havengul Lich which I followed with a Grave Titan. Dave simply used the Lich's ability to cast a Phantasmal Image copying my Titan and getting two 2/2 Zombie tokens in the process. Things got even worse when he cast another Image again copying my Titan.
I then attacked with my giant zombie factory only for it to be chump blocked by Dave's tokens. I then cast Unburial Rites in my second main phase targeting Grave Titan and then used my Havengul Lich to bring back my own Phantasmal Image copying (yes you guessed it) Grave Titan. 
Dave then returned another Image with his Lich and so on and so forth.

Dave eventually won by having more zombies on his friends list than I did. That, and my inability to find a Snapcaster Mage to flashback a Day of Judgment.
Which brings me (finally) to the point. Havengul Lich and Snapcaster Mage are insane together. The activated ability of the Lich means that you can flash in a Snapcaster on your opponent's turn potentially chump blocking an attacker and allowing you to flashback a removal or counter spell all in one fell swoop.
To add insult to injury, you can always cast an opponent's Snapcaster Mage for added value. 

After that hefty and somewhat gruelling plat principal, time for a card that can make you stressed. (Or desserts backwards)
 

Tragic Slip offers Neapolitan potential. Firstly, it kills of anything with one toughness which is a pretty blatant comment to make I know. But when that 1/1 has the potential to transform into a 3/2 flier or a 3/3 that gives other creatures +1 +1 and generates wolves this card suddenly becomes very important.
Secondly, it kills indestructible creatures. Enough said.
Thirdly, it makes chump blocking pay off. Block a titan with a 1/1 then reduce its toughness by thirteen for gross morbidity.

We hope you enjoyed your dining experience today. Don't forget, there are launch parties being held on Saturday 4th and Tuesday 7th at Kid's Dreams where more grey matter will available for testing. (Well, hopefully) 

John, Thought Scourer. 

Launch the Ascension

On Saturday 4th February at 10am and Tuesday 7th February at 7pm Gambit Games UK will be hosting a Dark Ascension Launch Party at Kid's Dreams Hove. (with a possible change of venue on Tuesday to the Whistlestop Inn dependant on numbers)

The format for the event will be Standard so for those who aren't sure, cards from the following sets are standard legal.:

Scars of Mirrodin
Mirrodin Besieged
New Phyrexia 
Innistrad
Dark Ascension
Magic 2012 Core Set

All players will receive a foil alternate art Mondronen Shaman/Tovolar's Magehunter

Team Gambit