Hey everyone, quick update: the site for registration for GP Minneapolis is currently offline. it’s an external page we link to (constantcontact.com) and apparently they are having trouble right now.  I expect it wont take long and we’ll be back up and running. thanks for your patience while they sort out the issue.

Update: as of 9:30pm CST constant contact is still down and no indication of when it’ll get back online. We will keep you apprised and apologize for any inconvenience.

Update10:22pm CST: we’re back online!

Steve

GP Minneapolis is drawing closer.  You know who else is drawing closer?  Marco Nelor, one of our featured artists.  (The other two are RK Post and Tom Baxa.)

I had the privilege of interviewing Marco Nelor for this GP, which happens to be the first GP he is attending as an artist.  Check it out:

Rob: You’ve done a lot of Magic art.  (For the readers, you can see all that art here.)  What piece do you think is under appreciated?

Marco: Burst of Strength, of course! No one showed any love for my pumped up chicken! 

Rob: What is your favorite Magic art to sign or alter?

Marco: I love doing signs on the Frilled Oculus! the lil guy always gets a googly eye over his regular eye, or some cool shoes , haha. 

Rob: Do you have any great stories about Magic events you have attended?

Marco: Sadly, I haven’t done any other events yet! 

Rob: Is there anything you really want to sign or alter at GP Minneapolis that you have not had the chance to yet?

Marco: I’m fairly new to magic, so really, anything would be cool. I’m just looking forward to meeting new people 🙂 

Rob: Are there any non-Magic things you are bringing to the GP that you want to tell people about?  (Or not bringing to the GP and want to plug?)

Marco: Currently, this year, there’s a lot in development. Maybe at the next GP, ill be able to show some stuff! But for now, ill just be bringing a few prints and original sketches 🙂 

Rob: How did you get into doing Magic art?

Marco: I first got into magic cards by bugging and bugging and bugging the directors, constantly showing them my new stuff until they felt I was “ready” for my first card.  It was a lot of fun, but a lot of hard work!

Rob: Do you do traditional paints, or digital, or a mix of the two?  If you have done both, which do you prefer and why?

You know what GP Minneapolis has?

Some great artists.  You may have heard of them – they are RK Post, Marco Nelor, and Tom Baxa

I’ve been chatting with these artists for the last week, and I am going to be posting some short bio and interview information about them over the coming days.

Let’s start with RK Post.

Rob: You’ve done a lot of Magic art. (For the readers, you can see all that art here.) What piece do you think is under appreciated?

RK: (I will have a visual card list at the event, with all the promos and stuffs too.)
That is a tough question. There are pieces that I like, but the play value really isn’t there. At the end of the day, most players will value a card if it has playability. So, just for giggles…Avatar of Hope. Not the best of Avatars, but I liked the art best of the five.

Rob: What is your favorite Magic art to sign or alter?

RK: For giggles, I number all of the Burning Earths I get. I am up to almost 1800. Ichorids are always fun to alter.

Rob: Do you have any great stories about Magic events you have attended?

RK: Hahahah! I have done so many events over the years, that what some people call crazy isn’t so crazy any more. Ok…quick one. I signed a guy’s butt at two separate occasions in Mexico. It was hairy.

Rob: Is there anything you really want to sign or alter at GP Minneapolis that you have not had the chance to yet?

RK: I have a similar answer to the question above. I am amazed that people will always come up with things I haven’t thought of or encountered yet. 😉

Rob: Are there any non-Magic things you are bringing to the GP that you want to tell people about? (Or not bringing to the GP and want to plug?)

RK: I bring it all…two sizes of prints, dice bags, playmats, lovely Legion sleeves and boxes, some pencil art, me, stuff I do….

Rob: How did you get into doing Magic art?

RK: I was a staff illustrator with TSR…WotC bought TSR…I came along for the ride!

Rob: Do you do traditional paints, or digital, or a mix of the two? If you have done both, which do you prefer and why?

RK: I’ve done all three. I didn’t have a place to paint for years. I am correcting that now.

Thanks tons, RK.

You can see more art by RK, and order prints from him directly at http://www.rkpost.net – that is, unless you want to catch him at the GP.  You can preregister for GP Minneapolis here.

Greetings all,

Preregistration for GP Minneapolis is now live.  You can preregister for GP Minneapolis here.

If you have any questions or comments on preregistration, please check out the Preregistration and VIP Info page – see if that answers them, and if it does not, email me at rob@legionevents.com and I should be able to help you.

GP Minneapolis Preregistration is live!
Preregister for GP Minneapolis here.

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

We have an approved playmat for Grand Prix Minneapolis 2014!

The first 700 players to show on site (and register, or check in for their preregistration) will receive this custom, brand spanking new art playmat done by Magic Staple artist Tom Baxa.  Tom went to the north woods and found himself some timber wolves… and a bit more!

Tom will be joining us in Minneapolis along with the RK Post and hopefully 1-2 more artists to be added! (click the image for a larger version!)

The travel and hotel page has been updated with a link to reserve your rooms.  We’ve chosen the Westin Minneapolis as our hotel partner for this event. The Westin is located a few blocks from the facility, but is right on the light rail line coming in from the airport and there is a free shuttle (for those of you who don’t want to walk the 7 blocks in what is sure to be a beautiful Minnesota spring!) that runs the length of the Nicollet park Pedestrian street, with a drop off right at the front doors of the convention center.

Look for more travel information (and a local hangout guide) plus side event and vendor information coming soon!

Steve

Event packages are LIVE for MC6!  Thank you all for your patience!  Shirts and Playmats are available through this link.  The deadline for ordering these items is December 30th (I need time to get them printed and delivered so we can have them on the cruise!)

Event registration is mandatory for anyone who wants to play in the events.  If you do not register through this site for the events, you will not have product brought for you.  I will reopen registration for events only after the t-shirt/playmat window closes as we can take event only registrations right up until a few days before the ship leaves.

As it can be a little confusing the process in detail:

Go tot he Legionevents/mc page, get information for booking your cruise, call carnival, book your cruise using the group code listed there. Once confirmed with carnival, go to the event link above and purchase any tournament packages and add ons you need seperately from teh cruise package!

The event package includes 2 sealed, 1 2HG sealed, 1 Standard constructed, and EDH night and 2 draft sets plus a deckboxes and sleeves from legion supplies for your use.  We will provide all land and tournament operations as well as prizes for all events!

Tshirt and playmat samples below:  Cruise champion will have a custom “champion” playmat on this theme.

I have processed all cancellations I had marked for refunds. They should be in your paypal accounts already if you paid with available blanace, and if credited back to credit cards that may take a couple days to show on your card balances.

Please email me if you feel you should have gotten a refund and have not and I will make sure it was processed. Thank you all for your patience, it has been a long week.

Steve

well after consolidating the check in sheets from the weekend (6 different sheets, transferred all check ins to 1 sheet) I have started processing refunds (at last!) it’s taking me approximately 3-4 minutes per refund at this point. get the cancel request, check to make sure that player did not check in on Friday to get the playmat/promo or play in the event on Saturday (beyond a round 1 no show drop, some are going to be IN the beginning of the event but never actually played). then go through a series of 6 pages on paypal after I’ve searched for the transaction id on gmail.

Why am I telling this to all of you?  So you can see it’s going to take a LONG time to get through these. event longer than I thought.  I think I have about 200 total to do. at 3 minutes each that’s 10 hours of work. It will take me well into tomorrow to get this done, assuming nothing else interrupts.

I really appreciate the patience (most of) you have shown so far. thanks! and just a little longer and I’ll get you the $$!!!

thanks!

Steve