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All Star Smash Up! Tournament

Smash Up! Tournament (August 25th)

Join us Friday, August 25th for a Smash Up! tournament. This will be a two-round single elimination tournament. There is an event fee ($5) to participate. The first (x) players to sign up will each receive an All Star Faction deck. The winner of the tournament can choose between our two grand prizes: a huge play mat or a set of wood victory point tokens. Should we have at least 8 players, we will award the remaining prize to the second place finisher.

Diamant Rumble (August 24th)

Rumbles are returning to Merlin’s Beard on Thursdays starting August 24th. Rumbles are single elimination two round tournaments. Final rounds are composed of the highest scoring players from the first round and filled out with the next highest scores from all games. The winner of a rumble gets their choice of promos and things from our loot box. Our first rumble will be Diamant on the 24th and the Ethnos on the 31st.

Gen Con Loot

The best four days in gaming wrapped up on Sunday and I’d like to thank you for your patience, those of you who found us closed on Friday afternoon and on Sunday. I had a great time working for Plan B and Pretzel Games, meeting a number of personalities from Andrea Ahlers (Foreign Affairs, Plan B) and Martin Bouchard (lead designer, Plan B) to Isaac Vega (Dead of Winter) and Emerson Matsuuchi (Century: Spice Road). We brought home three notable games: Flick’em Up! Dead of Winter, Century: Golem Edition, and Wasteland Express, the later being my guilty pleasure purchase.

Extra Life Charity Event for Riley Children’s Hospital

Support Extra Life during our monthly game marathon this Saturday at Merlin’s Beard! Hosted by Aaron and Kristen Smith, this event raises money for Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.

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Calling all Smiths, Barbarians, and Poets

New games!

We’ve added Dice Forge from Libellud and Conan from Monolith to our shelves this week!

Dice Forge is an intriguing dice building game for the smiths in our crowd.  It is a resource acquisition and management game in which you use dice that can be altered as you play. I’ve heard good things about it and look forward to my first opportunity to play it.

Conan is a scenario based adventure game for the aspiring barbarian. It is a group vs. overlord game featuring one-off scenarios that resemble the original Robert Howard short stories. I haven’t played it yet myself but Andrew assures me that you get some flavor, then you do something epic that does not involve combat, followed by killing a bunch of things, followed by something epic that does not involve combat, then you get some flavor text. I’m crazy excited about this one.

Nevermore Tournament

Join us Friday, August 18th for a Nevermore tournament. This will be a two-round single elimination tournament. There is no event fee for this tournament, however the grand prize, a copy of the Nevermore expansion, will only be awarded if we have at least eight participants.

Smash Up! Tournament

Join us Friday, August 25th for a Smash Up! tournament. This will be a two-round single elimination tournament. There is an event fee ($5) to participate. The first (x) players to sign up will each receive an All Star Faction deck. The winner of the tournament can choose between our two grand prizes: a huge play mat or a set of wood victory point tokens. Should we have at least 8 players, we will award the remaining prize to the second place finisher.

Rumbles Return to Merlin’s Beard!

Rumbles are returning to Merlin’s Beard on Thursdays starting August 24th. Rumbles are single elimination two round tournaments. Final rounds are composed of the highest scoring players from the first round and filled out with the next highest scores from all games. The winner of a rumble gets their choice of promos and things from our loot box. Our first rumble will be Diamant on the 24th and the Ethnos on the 31st.

Gen Con

Merlin’s Beard will be closed on Sunday, August 20th so that the staff can attend Gen Con. In addition, I will be teaching games at the Plan B / Pretzel Games Thursday, Friday, and Sunday mornings, so swing by and say hi!

Coming in September

Rozy’s King of Tokyo Rumble

Pirate Week featuring Sea of Clouds

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Happy Birthday, Merlin’s Beard!

We did it! We’ve made it a whole year thanks to our really incredible patrons! Alicia and I are so grateful to all of you and especially to those of you who we see week after week.

Membership Changes and Promotion

We’d like to announce some changes to our membership program. First, we are moving to 6- and 12- month offerings. Second, we are adding a 10% discount for members on board games and event passes and a 15% discount on pre-orders for members. Third, members now receive complementary soft drinks*. Finally, player fares are included with your membership purchase.

6-month Membership is available for $130.

12-month Membership is available for $230.

Add a +1 to either membership option for $100.

Add a +family to either membership option for $200.

* Limited 1 soft drink per visit per membership, m+1, or m+family.

While Supplies last:

Anyone buying a 1-year membership in the month of August will also receive a free used game from our collection. We are currently compiling the list but it includes some gems:

King of Tokyo, Big Book of Madness, Takenoko, Munchkin, TIcket to Ride, Shiny Dice, Doom Town, VS System.

Big Book of Madness, Extended

We have decided to extend our Big Book of Madness event by one week. Teams have until Sunday, August 6th to enter an official score. Additionally, teams are allowed one replay before the 6th.

New Games to Play!

We have a number of new and new-to-us games to introduce to you including:

  • Caverna: Cave vs. Cave
  • The Fox in the Forest
  • Tiny Epic Quest
  • Galaxy Trucker
  • Sea of Clouds
  • Conan
  • Dice Forge

New and Notable Games to Buy!

  • Century the Spice Road
  • Dice Forge
  • Fields of Green
  • Element
  • Legendary X-Men
  • Frog Riders
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Merlin’s Madness!

Big Book of Madness Store Championship

Mad Merlin here, reporting live from Merlin’s Beard where we’ve just learned that there will be a tournament to see which team of wizards is best at opening and then closing the dreaded Big Book of Madness!

The Window of Opportunity opens for teams of 3 to 5 players starting this Wednesday, July 26th and closes on Sunday, July 30th. All participants will receive two monster promo cards to add to their own Books of Madness. The new cards feature a Mime and a Santa monster! Members of the highest scoring team will each receive a Golem monster promo card and the team MVP will receive the Broken Token lectern!

Points are scored for pages turned, round progress, spells bought, curses destroyed, and madness remaining. Will you make the grade? Find out this week at Merlin’s Beard!

Spiel Winners at Merlin’s Beard!

Kingdomino (spiel des jahres) and Exit (kennerspiel des jahres) are both available to play and purchase at Merlin’s Beard!

Kingdomino is another great game from Blue Orange (Battle Sheep) that teaches in minutes and plays in 15 to 20 or so. Players select domino tiles to add to their kingdom and score points by connecting similar landscape features.

Exit is an escape room turned into a series of puzzle games. Merlin’s has one available for you to try out and a few copies left for purchase. If you like Exit, try out Unlock (also an escape room series) or TIME Stories, which is an excellent series of mystery games.

Takenoko League Continues!

It’s not too late to join us for Takenoko! We have some excellent prizes for top scoring players including alternate art miniatures and bamboo bags.

Coming soon to Merlin’s Beard:

Rozy Pony King of Tokyo Tournament (Early August)

Smash Up! Tournament (Late August)

 

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Legendary Super Munchkin Pandas!

Hey, gamers! We’ve got some exciting games and events coming this week and I’d like to share the news with you!

(Wednesday) Takenoko Week 2

How hungry is your panda? Get in to Merlin’s this Wednesday to grow some bamboo and munch away on those sweet, sweet shoots! Sign up for $5 and receive a set of translucent blue irrigation channels to add to your copy of Takenoko (or to give to a friend that owns a copy).

The event starts at 7pm and costs $5 to join up with three weeks left in the league! Additional prizes include four sets of three nice draw string bags to store the bamboo shoots, and a set of alternate arty miniatures.

(Friday) Legendary

This Friday is going to be Legen-….. wait for it….. -dary! Legendary!

We’ve got a sweet kit from Upperdeck that includes an alternate playmat for the high scoring player, a premium plexi Loki mastermind card, five premium foil Thor cards, and a premium foil “Unleash the Power of the Cosmic Cube” scheme for all participants!

Participants will play two games of Legendary against the vile Loki as he attempts to unleash the Cosmic Cube on the unsuspecting planet! Cast your vote for which team will be taking on Loki on our Facebook page! The initial games will be set with identical villains, henchmen, and heroes, but shuffled randomly because who has time to set the villain and hero decks identically? I mean, really?

Anyway, the winners of each successful opening match will proceed to the Legendary round with the next highest scorers from all opening games filling in the remaining. All participants in the Legendary round will receive the Thor promos. The highest scorer will take their pick between the playmat and plexi Loki card while the second highest scorer will receive the remaining prize.

Space is limited to the first 15 players to show up on Friday.

(Saturday) Super Munchkin & Extra Life

If you haven’t had enough superheroes by Saturday then stop on by to give Super Munchkin Guest Artist edition a go! We have a number of Munchkin promo cards available on a first-come, first-served basis.

While you are here, visit with AndyRoo’s Gaming Gang as they blast through their third 12 hour gaming marathon at Merlin’s Beard! Donations support Riley Children’s Hospital.

 

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Star Wars Destiny Store Championship

Fulfill your Destiny! Compete in the Star Wars Destiny Store Championship on July 8th at Merlin’s Beard!

Join us for an afternoon of Star Wars gaming goodness with prize support from Fantasy Flight Games!

Pre-registration: $10 (includes Merlin’s player fare)
Registration: $15 (11:30 to 12:00)
Games start at 12:15.

Prizes:
Top 29: Alternate art “The Best Defense…” cards
Top 13: Alternate art “Death Trooper”, “Command Shuttles” and “Overkill” cards.
Top 8: Star Wars Destiny deck box
Top 4: Star Wars Destiny Playmat
Top 2: Premium “Captain Phasma” card
Champion: Phasma Plaque, “Mon Mothma” card, bragging rights

Find additional information at:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/op/store-championships/star-wars-destiny/

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Unrivaled Store Championship Updates

It’s time to gear up for the Merlin’s Beard Unrivaled Store Championships. Each championship is a single elimination tournament with some pretty awesome prize support from our partners at Unrivaled (oomba.com).

WINNER: Invitation to play at the Las Vegas Grand Championship* with airfare and hotel provided by Oomba. Details to be worked out later in July.

1st RUNNER UP: Invitation to play at the Regional Championships. Locations to be announced.

Saturday, 6/10 – King of Tokyo
Thursday, 6/15 – Munchkin
Friday, 6/16 – Ascension
Sunday, 6/18 – Nevermore
Thursday, 6/22 – Epic Spell Wars II
Friday, 6/23 – Villagers & Villains

Registration begins at 6:30 pm for all games except King of Tokyo. Registration for King of Tokyo begins at 11am.

* Grand Championship Prize Support:
1st – $10,000 + Geek Chic table
2nd – $5,000
3rd – $2,500
4th – $1000

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New hours! Jobs!

After some data mining and soul searching, Merlin’s Beard will be making the following changes to our schedule effective May 17th.

Monday: CLOSED

Tuesday: CLOSED

Wednesday: 6-10

Thursday: 6-10

Friday: 12-11

Saturday: 12-12

Sunday: 2-10

I do regret closing on Tuesdays, but statistically we are as likely to make $50 as we are to make $200 on that day. Merlin’s needs about $250 in sales for a day to be “successful” in terms of carrying its weight across all of our expenses.

We are also moving our opening and closing times on Wednesday and Thursday. We generally do not see customers prior to 6pm. Additionally, we don’t make many sales after 10pm. While people tend to stick around till 11, they do not generally buy anything, especially on a weeknight.

We are going to compensate on Saturdays by staying open an extra hour since we often see people arriving at 9 or 10. I’m hoping this will draw a third cohort into the store or perhaps encourage people to stick around and have their second drink at Merlin’s rather than elsewhere.

Finally, there will be potential job openings in the near future. If you are interested in working at Merlin’s Beard, send your resume to contact@merlinsbeard.net. Applicants should be 19 and older (preferably, 21) and willing to take alcohol server training which costs about $50. Ideal cabdicates are personable, love games and “nerd culture”, and self-starting.

We will continue to watch as trends unfold and you may see additional adjustments in the future.