Greetings all,

My name is Rob McKenzie, and I am the new Event Manager for Legion Events – I’ve just gotten through the side events for GP Minneapolis, and they are up on our GP Minneapolis Side Events page (you can also use the dropdown above to get to it).

I want to call out some of the awesome things we are doing this Grand Prix to make the side events experience great:

On Friday:

VIP Dinner “Standard” Sealed
Format: Sealed Deck – One pack each of Theros, Born of the Gods, Journey into Nyx, M14, Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, and Dragon’s Maze
Entry Fee: $25
Start Time: 4pm
Event Structure: Swiss rounds based on entry with cut to top 4
Prizes:
3 packs per player in the prize pool, breakdown announced during round 1.
The winner gets two VIP packages – one for you and one for a friend, for GP Minneapolis. In addition, the two of you get to go to dinner with Brian Kibler, the GP artists, and head judge Toby Elliot after the end of day 1 of the GP. Dinner will be at Manny’s Steakhouse.  Manny’s is one of the top 10 steakhouses in the country – no, seriously.  Go look at their website: http://www.mannyssteakhouse.com

Mini Masters
Format: Mini Masters
Entry Fee: Free with entry into the Grand Prix
Start Time: 2pm-4pm, fires every time 32 players are signed up
Event Structure: Single Elimination Matches (one game), 5 rounds
Prizes:
1st place – 6 boosters, free Grand Prix Entry, free Sleep-in Special
2nd place – 3 boosters
Notes:
The last Mini Masters will fire approximately 15 minutes after we close registration for Grand Prix Minneapolis.
Build a sealed deck with 1 booster – every round you win you will get another booster to add to the deck and rebuild.

On Saturday:

Rebound Modern
Format: Modern
Entry Fee: $15 – $5 off if you played in the main event!
Start Time: 4pm
Event Structure: Swiss rounds based on entry with cut to top 4
Prizes:
3 packs per player in the prize pool, breakdown announced during round 1. In addition, there are the following prizes:
1st place: Foil Factory Set of Journey into Nyx
2nd place: Nonfoil Factory Set of Journey into Nyx
Notes:
Not doing as well as you want in the main event? Come play for factory sets of Journey into Nyx! This event is $5 cheaper if you played in the main event for Grand Prix Minneapolis.
In addition to the prizes, an uncut sheet of Journey into Nyx commons will be given to a random player during round 1.

On Sunday:

Legacy for SDCC Planeswalkers
Format: Legacy
Entry Fee: $15
Start Time: 12pm (Noon)
Event Structure: Swiss rounds based on entry with cut to top 8
Prizes:
3 packs per player in the prize pool, breakdown announced during round 1.
1st place: Set of SDCC “black” Planeswalkers
2nd place: Old From the Vault set from our remaining From the Vaults

We clearly have a ton of other great events – my “I wish I could play in this” event for the weekend is the Team Trios “Guildmasters” event.  Come join us, and feel free to email me with questions about sides – I am rob@legionevents.com

I recently played with Magic the Gathering Hall of Famer Bob Maher and notable deck builder/avid board gamer, Brian Kowal, who both enjoyed their game. Bob won, of course, and Bob had this to say: “There’s nothing else like it on the market, it fills a currently empty niche”.

Legion Supplies launched our first kick starter to publish Foretold, our first board game, 1 week ago today.  We hit 20% funding very quickly and have moved up to 50% funding in just 1 week.  We think it’s a lot of fun and the expansion possibilities are great. It’s very exciting and we’re all super proud of the game. It was developed by Magic Cruise Alum, Jay Semerad. Jay has a background in the video game industry but this is his first board game. He’s come out of the box hard with a great concept that wraps you up and takes you on a fun ride.

The game has a deck-building element at its core, but you don’t ever actually build a deck! You’re drafting cards to play and you get to choose which ones you play in what formation.  It adds a tower defense mechanism to the game as you attempt to conquer tiles in your opponents’ temples to reach their temple’s heart and smite the power that lives there! The cards you purchase are grouped into a raiding party or temple defenders. Finally there are Fate cards and relics which are spells and items you can use through out the game at various times to change combat outcomes, aid a political ally, or save yourself from certain doom!

When it’s all put together the game plays a lot like EDH, and allows for dozens of different strategies and some pretty crazy combos. I’ve been having a riot playing it, and I think a testament to the fun of the game is how much time we spend after the game reliving the game we just played!  We’re hosting a live play demo on Sunday night on Legion Games Twitch TV broadcast channel. We threw one together last Sunday and it was a lot of fun! We were in a busy store with limited microphones available so you only got to hear me. The feed will be much improved this week as we come to you from a quite store after hours and will have full mic on all players. If you’d like to watch our original demo video, it can be found here.

I’ve had the opportunity to publish games in the past. but I hadn’t seen one that sparked my interest enough to do it.  I’ve heard lots of nice things from backers already (Cryptozoic, Stoneblade), and Magic Artist John Matson just posted a bit on his Facebook that made me so proud:

“I have never backed anything before on Kickstarter, but I just did tonight. For me, just his name alone being attached is enough to convince me it’s worthwhile “.

I can’t properly express how much all of this support has meant to me; these are affirmations that people appreciate the things I’ve done and have been involved in over the years.  Thank you all for your support so far, and I look forward to bringing you this excellent game.  It will make me the happiest man on the planet to know that people are loving this game and that it brings them the same joy and fun it has brought us!

Steve