If this new wave of board games is confusing to you, or especially if it isn’t, we invite you to participate in this week’s meeting of the Lansing Board Gamers.  The LBG has been active in Lansing for many years, and here’s what’s great about it – friendly people, new games and old games alike, and no fees are charged for the experience.  Even the parking downtown is free (on Saturdays – let’s not go overboard here).

The LBG meets on the 3rd Saturday every month – sometimes in East Lansing, and sometimes downtown at our splendid little shop, and we highly recommend setting aside a few hours for a board game this weekend, if you’ve got the time.  You know what?  You should come even if you don’t have the time.  Playing a board game with friends is the ultimate definition of stopping to smell the roses.  And LBG participants get 10% off their board games at Clem’s on Game Day.

UPDATE 5/17/2012:  Please take note!  We realized after the publication of this week’s blog / newsletter that the Lansing Board Gamers date for May was pushed back a week.   They are still meeting here at Clems, but it will be NEXT SATURDAY, May 26th, at 2pm.

On a related note, we hope you have been able to enjoy one of our recent Dominion League game dates – we’ve got 2 out of our 5 regular league dates in the books, but even if you missed them both, you’ve still got a good chance to win prizes at future meetings!  We have two scheduled league dates in June, on the 9th and the 23rd.

Tuesday, May 15th – New Video Game Releases – “I gotta find a waypoint!!”  Who among us have not uttered these words as we wasted our youthful weekends playing Diablo 2 after it came out in 2000?  It was always so frustrating to get so deep into a level on that game and still not find a freaking save point.  But Diablo was a PC pioneer in the hack-and-slash category, in the way that could custom build your weapons and play with others online, both people that you knew and people that you didn’t.  It broke new ground both for PC games and for the dungeon-crawl category.  Can it possibly get better?  Will they find new and better ways to improve?  Diablo 3 comes out on Tuesday – here’s hoping they put a few extra waypoints into the levels, just for me.

Two other interesting releases this week that many of our newsletter-reading populace may be picking up – Max Payne 3, from Rockstar Games, and the Game of Thrones game hits this week as well.

Wednesday, May 16th – New Comic Book Day! – There are some great new stories releasing this week that contribute to some fantastic ongoing storylines – Justice League #9 (with the return of the briefly-absent Jim Lee), AvX Versus #2, and Avengers Vs X-Men #4 all release this week.

But I wanted to point out another special little oddity – this week we celebrate the return of the Little Heads.  For many years, Marvel would distinguish its various X-Men and other types of team-up books by picturing the heads of the current members of those teams in the top left corner of the issue cover.  It made it much easier to keep track of the comings and goings of different characters, in and out of different books, and also gave you a quick reference if you just absolutely had to own every title that Wolverine appeared in.  This week that trend returns, giving new readers a great new tool to keep track of the revolving door on the X-teams, and giving us older readers a nostalgic trip to yesteryear, when comics were $1.25 and gas was under a buck a gallon.

So even if you’re not a big X-book reader these days (but you SHOULD be reading Avengers Vs X-Men!), check out X-Factor #236 this week – here’s hoping this is a new trend that will stick around for awhile.

One other note for this week – Dark Horse is in the midst of another round of “Pilot Season”, in which a series of new #1 concept books get released, and the readers get to vote to choose which one will be developed as an ongoing series.  But the pilot books don’t usually have two high-profile names like Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead) and Marc Silvestri (what HASN’T he drawn?).  This week Hardcore #1, from these two big names, imagines a sci-fi future where anyone can be turned into a trained assassin with just a quick dose of special sauce.  Making it hard to really trust your kids anymore.

Wednesday,  May 16th – 6pm & 7:30pm – D&D Encounters – We’re officially into Season Six of Encounters!!  A new format of play for D&D that has really been a hit, the Encounters experience allows you to essentially “drop in” on Wednesday nights for a quick, one-hour D&D encounter that is not part of a sequential story.  In other words, you don’t need to worry if you can’t make it every week, because the experience is setup in a way that whoever shows up each week will not need to have participated in anything prior.  If you participate regularly, you can bring back the same character that you begin with since week 1, but character progress is well-paced enough so that you can show up for the first time in week 7 and not be totally outclassed with your brand new character.  Each Encounters season lasts 13 weeks, and is supported by our RPG Reward Points program.  You can also read more about the Encounters program here, on D&D’s official website.

Thursday, May 17th  – 6:30pm – Magic the Gathering Standard tournament – Avacyn Restored is here!!    The pre-release is this Sunday, but do have two more Thursday tournaments to run before those cards kick in.  We run fully sanctioned Standard tournaments for Magic every week, starting around 6:30pm, and you can now incorporate some Avacyn Restored cards into your deck.  We also support these tournaments with great prize support using our Magic Reward Points program.  Of course, for these tournaments to be sanctioned, we need 8 participants – most of the time, that’s no problem, but sometimes during college finals or bad weather, it can be a stretch, so make sure you call around and get your friends to come with you!  Make sure you come in and trade in the cards you’re not using anymore and get ready to pick up a box or two of the next set!  Check out our current stock online, and figure out which cards we’re taking in.

Friday, May 18th – Sunday, May 20th – Motor City Comic Con – The Motor City Comic Con has done a great job of re-inventing itself since the great Porn Bust of 2006.  The lineup of both comic and media guests has gotten better every year, and it’s absolutely worth the trip over to Detroit if you’ve got time this weekend.  On the comic side, you can meet / get signatures from Ale Garza, Brian Pulido, Ethan Van Sciver & Ryan Stegman.  Plus you can meet the hosts of Hardcore Pawn, Dot Com (from 30 Rock), and Billy Dee Williams.  Or, if you haven’t got stars in your eyes, just hit up the 50+ dealers that will be set up there.  I know, I know, it’s hard to believe that you might find something there that you couldn’t get from Clem’s, but occasionally, it does happen.  Check out the MCCC website here.

Saturday, May 19th –– 10:30am – Heroclix tournament – Every Saturday at 10:30am, the longest-running game at Clem’s gathers, the time for Heroclix.  Ever since this game released, we have had a sure and steady cast of players, and it shows in our weekly turnout.  We’ve hosted pre-release tournaments, marquees for every set, special tournaments for promos and big-figure sets… and the best is yet to come!!  Typically, though, every Saturday is a constructed tournament, with details being released on our message boards usually within 5 days of the next tournament. The tournaments are all in good fun, and are supported by prize support from the game’s manufacturer, Wizkids,  who send us limited-edition figures to give away each and every Saturday.

The new Galactic Guardians sets are in-stock, and you can use those figures in our tournaments!  Plus the new “Avengers Movie” Heroclix – there’s a lot of fresh figures around here lately, making our Saturdays even more creative.  Plus, if you’ve entered our Supremacy League (or if you would like to), you can usually get in a few of those games on a Saturday here too.

Saturday, May 20th – Annual Solar Eclipse – Unfortunately you’re not going to see it.  Unless you’re reading this newsletter from China, Japan, or California.  So why put it into our newsletter at all?  Mostly because we’re scrapping for some interesting news this week, but I suppose we can tie it in by asking the question on everyone’s mind – any chance Valiant Comics brings back Dr.Solar as part of its relaunch?

A page on our website is in the works, where you will be able to give feedback and suggestions for us to do even better next year – it has now annually become our most successful day of the year, and we want to keep that up by bringing you even more activities.  Our whole goal with FCBD is to make it something where you and the family will want to hang out with us for a half hour or more, instead of just the 5 minutes it takes to pick up your books, and it really felt like we accomplished that goal this year.

Many of you who came into the store this weekend were inquiring about how you could setup a “pull file” with us, or basically, a simple way to subscribe to comic titles and make sure that new issues get set aside for you.  We have a FREE program for our customers to do exactly that, and you can even manage your list online to add or drop titles that you want (or don’t want) to read.  You can read more about that on this page on our website, and as always, please email us or call us if anything is unclear.

Wednesday, May 9th – New Comic Book Day! – We didn’t do a newsletter last week, and it was a shame because there were an insane number of anticipated books and titles that got kicked into gear last Wednesday.  Among them were the first pair of issues for the Batman: Night of Owls crossover story, the #3 issue of Avengers vs X-Men, the first Valiant relaunch issue (X-O ManOWar #1), and four of the Next Wave of DC titles including Earth Two, Dial H, GI Combat, and World’s Finest.

But amid all of that noise last week, there was another big comics release event – DC began selling some of the collected editions of their New 52.  For those of you who may be new to this newsletter, DC Comics (the home of Superman, Batman, and many others) undertook the massive task of restarting their ENTIRE UNIVERSE of characters in the fall of 2011.  Every title received a new #1 issue and basically started from scratch, telling origins stories and in many cases, even changing the background of characters that had been pretty static for decades.  Many people loved it, a few hated it, and when the dust settled, DC had put themselves in position to tell brand-new stories with well-established characters, and allow folks who hadn’t read comic books in many years to “get in on the ground floor”.

Last week, we finally began receiving some of the collected editions of those titles – for instance, Justice League Volume One, a hardcover that collected the first six issues of the series plus some bonus material, released last Wednesday.  We also got in a softcover collection of Animal Man, the acclaimed Vertigo-like series from Jeff Lemire.  The releases continue this week with Batman Volume One (hardcover) and Justice League International Volume One (softcover).

In terms of new #1 issues, we’re looking forward to a few other cool things.  Dungeons & Dragons has enjoyed a pretty successful comic run since IDW Publishing began trying to adapt the fantasy role-playing game into a graphic series, and this week they begin a companion title with D&D Forgotten Realms #1.  Boom! Studios also kicks off a new sci-fi series called Higher Earth which will begin with a $1.00 first issue – this “cheap first issue” promotion has worked well on other series, so we’ll see how it plays out here.  And cult favorite creator John Byrne is also back on the shelves this week through IDW Publishing, with a new series called Trio.

Wednesday,  May 9th – 6pm & 7:30pm – D&D Encounters – We’re officially into Season Six of Encounters!!  A new format of play for D&D that has really been a hit, the Encounters experience allows you to essentially “drop in” on Wednesday nights for a quick, one-hour D&D encounter that is not part of a sequential story.  In other words, you don’t need to worry if you can’t make it every week, because the experience is setup in a way that whoever shows up each week will not need to have participated in anything prior.  If you participate regularly, you can bring back the same character that you begin with since week 1, but character progress is well-paced enough so that you can show up for the first time in week 7 and not be totally outclassed with your brand new character.  Each Encounters season lasts 13 weeks, and is supported by our RPG Reward Points program.  You can also read more about the Encounters program here, on D&D’s official website.

Wednesday, May 9th – NEW Video Game Releases – I’ll be honest, I haven’t got a clue about how this Minecraft stuff works.  But I think this just might be the week I discover it, when it releases through the X-Box Live Arcade to players on the X-Box 360.  It’s been lauded as one of the most innovative and enjoyable new games of the last few years, but up to this point it has only been available on the PC.  I think what makes this game is so intriguing is that in an age where every new video game is reaching for even more realism and explosive graphics, this franchise seems to thrive on simplicity.  I’m building a virtual castle out of 8-bit Legos, for crying out loud – how did they ever pull this off?  I intend to find out this week.

Thursday, May 10th  – 6:30pm – Magic the Gathering Standard tournament – Avacyn Restored is here!!    The pre-release is this Sunday, but do have two more Thursday tournaments to run before those cards kick in.  We run fully sanctioned Standard tournaments for Magic every week, starting around 6:30pm, and you can now incorporate some Avacyn Restored cards into your deck.  We also support these tournaments with great prize support using our Magic Reward Points program.  Of course, for these tournaments to be sanctioned, we need 8 participants – most of the time, that’s no problem, but sometimes during college finals or bad weather, it can be a stretch, so make sure you call around and get your friends to come with you!  Make sure you come in and trade in the cards you’re not using anymore and get ready to pick up a box or two of the next set!  Check out our current stock online, and figure out which cards we’re taking in.

Friday, May 11th – NEW Movie releases – If there was ever a new movie release that we would have wanted to trumpet in the Clem’s Comics & Games newsletter, it would have been last weekend’s Avengers.  But judging from the $204 million in box-office receipts that were collected in the first 3 days, there were probably enough of you going to see it so that it didn’t really need the extra promotional push from us.  And Johnny Depp probably doesn’t either, but just in case you didn’t know, this new Tim Burton vampire comedy looks hysterical.  Maybe you’ll watch the trailer and decide to give it a whirl.  Or maybe you’ll go see the Avengers for the 3rd time.

Whichever you decide to do, we recommend Celebration Cinemas for your movie viewing.  They were such an incredible support of Free Comic Book Day this year, and have always been a strong business partner for us.  They are especially supportive of both local film and local business, and they also serve Pepsi.  It’s a win/win.

Saturday, May 12th – 10:30am – Heroclix Infinity Gauntlet tournament, Part 5 – Our series of EIGHT Infinity Gauntlet tournaments continues this month – if you didn’t get a chance to play in the first few, don’t worry – they’re not structured so that you need to play in previous tournaments, to play in current ones.  But of course everyone who attends EACH tournament is going to wind up with a SWEET Infinity Gauntlet Heroclix piece when all is said and done!  This month, every participant will receive the “Space Gem” Heroclix LE, and winners will receive an LE of “The Runner”.

This tournament is scheduled to be a constructed event.  You are to build 700-point teams, but 400 must come from either the newer Hulk set, or the just-released Galactic Guardian set.

Saturday, May 12th – 2pm – Dominion LEAGUE / Open Board Gaming – Our second league event for Dominion is this Saturday.  If you want to read all about what we’re doing, hit this link and head over to our website to read all about it.  But if you just want the Cliffnotes, here it is – six different league dates (five remaining), each one followed by an open board-gaming time around 6pm.  If you didn’t make any of the previous dates – Fuggedd aboud it!!  You can still qualify to win the big prizes at the end.  The cost for each event is $5, and a portion of the prize pool will go to the winner of each league event, and the rest going to the grand prize pool that will be given out at the Finals, here in  August.  The sets that will be used at each event, will be randomly chosen / announced at each event.  And like I said, if you’re not a big Dominion fan, just come by around 6pm to play some other games with your friends!

  This coming Saturday, we’re trying something we’ve never tried before – a board game LEAGUE.  We’ve thrown around a lot of ideas about how this will work, and what games we could use, for our first run, we’re going to be running just one game – the Clem’s DOMINION LEAGUE kicks off this Saturday, April 28th, and will have 6 total dates, ending with a “Finals” at the beginning of August.  The best part?  You don’t need to come to all of the dates, or even most of the dates, to have a good shot to win!  Each Dominion League date will bleed right into an open board gaming time in the late afternoon, so if you’re not a Dominion fan, you can still come hang out.  Check out all the details here…

Also want to take a minute to advertise for our friends at Celebration Cinemas.   The Avengers movie premieres on Friday, May 4th (yep, the day before Free Comic Book Day).  To celebrate, Celebration is going to be doing a special all-day Marvel Movie Marathon on Thursday, May 3rd.  Get to the theater at 11:30am and for only $30 bucks, you can watch Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Hulk, Thor & Captain America, all in succession with bathroom and meal breaks, that will lead right into a special midnight showing of the Avengers movie!  ALL SIX MOVIES for only $30 bucks?  It’s going to be a blast.

We’ll be at Celebration on that Friday night (May 4th), by the way, giving out free comics to the peeps going in to see the Avengers, and handing out special bookmarks to advertise our Free Comic Book Day the next morning – it’s a tradition of ours every May, and Celebration has been a great partner.   They’re also donating a ton of those “free popcorn” things that we plan to give out on Free Comic Book Day in our store.

The final piece of cool news this week is a special SALE (sort of) on some very hot books.  There has been a huge crush of really fantastic new, non-superhero, comic books in April, and we want to give you a cheap opportunity to try out a few more of them!  THIS WEEK (from Monday, April 23rd through Saturday, April 28th), when you buy any two #1 issues from the selection below, you’ll get a 3rd for free!!  Once again, BUY TWO, get ONE FREE.  Here’s the list:

• America’s Got Powers #1 (Jonathan Ross & Bryan Hitch)
• Brilliant #1 (Brian Michael Bendis & Mark Bagley)
• Manhattan Projects #1 (Jonathan Hickman & Nick Pitarra)
• Saga #1 (Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples)
• Secret #1 (Jonathan Hickman & Ryan Bodenheim)
• Secret Service #1 (Mark Millar & Dave Gibbons)
• Supercrooks #1 (Mark Millar & Leinil Francis Yu)

Let’s get into the calendar!

Tuesday, April 24th – New Video Games Releases – Prototype 2 arrives this week, the sequel to the heralded (was it really heralded) hit from 2009.  The concept is an apocalyptic storyline, in which a spreading virus transformers human beings into some sort of monster-alter-version of themselves, with no other desire but to kill the remaining human beings who haven’t been infected yet.  So, it’s essentially like Walking Dead except that instead of becoming a zombie, one of your arms can grow into a big pointy sword like the T-1000 from Terminator 2.  I’m not sure about the plot, but I do know that this video trailer featuring Johnny Cash’s “Hurt”, is fantastic.

Wednesday, April 25th – New Comic Book Day! – I hate to beat a dead horse here, but this week, we get the release of Issue #1 of AvX: Versus.  This is the only other stand-alone series that will be released alongside Avengers Vs X-Men, and it will focus exclusively on the dream matchups that we’ve always wondered about – each issue will just be two different battles, and this one features Iron Man vs Magneto.

Now there’s been quite a bit of debate about this around the store lately, particularly because we’re running a contest in which our customers can try and correctly pick the winners of these fights, and win some store cash for guessing right.  You’ve got until Wednesday morning to try and pick the fights in issue #1, and after that, we’ll just remove these first two fights from the ballot – you’ll still get credit for the ones you guess correctly in the next five issues.

But, anyhow, the debate – the debate has centered on whether Iron Man is currently using a suit of enough non-magnetic material to fend off Magneto’s attack.  Because if he’s not, it just seem like a no-brainer to pick Magneto in this fight.  A little more internet research and debate has shown that he IS in fact using current alloys that would be susceptible to magnetism – but if it seems so simple, why would Marvel lead off the series with this matchup?  Grab this issue on Wednesday to find out!

Wednesday,  April 25th – 6pm & 7:30pm – D&D Encounters – We’re officially into Season Six of Encounters!!  A new format of play for D&D that has really been a hit, the Encounters experience allows you to essentially “drop in” on Wednesday nights for a quick, one-hour D&D encounter that is not part of a sequential story.  In other words, you don’t need to worry if you can’t make it every week, because the experience is setup in a way that whoever shows up each week will not need to have participated in anything prior.  If you participate regularly, you can bring back the same character that you begin with since week 1, but character progress is well-paced enough so that you can show up for the first time in week 7 and not be totally outclassed with your brand new character.  Each Encounters season lasts 13 weeks, and is supported by our RPG Reward Points program.  You can also read more about the Encounters program here, on D&D’s official website.

Thursday, April 26th – 6:30pm – Magic the Gathering Standard tournament – Avacyn Restored is almost here!!    The pre-release is this Sunday, but do have two more Thursday tournaments to run before those cards kick in.  We run fully sanctioned Standard tournaments for Magic every week, starting around 6:30pm, and you can now incorporate some Dark Ascension cards into your deck.  We also support these tournaments with great prize support using our Magic Reward Points program.  Of course, for these tournaments to be sanctioned, we need 8 participants – most of the time, that’s no problem, but sometimes during college finals or bad weather, it can be a stretch, so make sure you call around and get your friends to come with you!  Make sure you come in and trade in the cards you’re not using anymore and get ready to pick up a box or two of the next set!  Check out our current stock online, and figure out which cards we’re taking in.

Saturday, April 28th –– 10:30am – Heroclix tournament – Every Saturday at 10:30am, the longest-running game at Clem’s gathers, the time for Heroclix.  Ever since this game released, we have had a sure and steady cast of players, and it shows in our weekly turnout.  We’ve hosted pre-release tournaments, marquees for every set, special tournaments for promos and big-figure sets… and the best is yet to come!!  Typically, though, every Saturday is a constructed tournament, with details being released on our message boards usually within 5 days of the next tournament. The tournaments are all in good fun, and are supported by prize support from the game’s manufacturer, Wizkids, who send us limited-edition figures to give away each and every Saturday.

The new Galactic Guardians sets are in-stock, and you can use those figures in our tournaments!  Plus the new “Avengers Movie” Heroclix – there’s a lot of fresh figures around here lately, making our Saturdays even more creative.  Plus, if you’ve entered our Supremacy League (or if you would like to), you can usually get in a few of those games on a Saturday here too.

Saturday, April 28th – 2pm – Dominion LEAGUE / Open Board Gaming – Our first league event for Dominion kicks off here.  If you want to read all about what we’re doing, hit this link and head over to our website to read all about it.  But if you just want the Cliffnotes, here it is – six different league dates, each one followed by an open board-gaming time around 6pm.  The cost for each event is $5, and a portion of the prize pool will go to the winner of each league event, and the rest going to the grand prize pool that will be given out at the Finals, here in  August.  The sets that will be used at each event, will be randomly chosen / announced at each event.  And like I said, if you’re not a big Dominion fan, just come by around 6pm to play some other games with your friends!

Sunday, April 29th – Noon – Magic the Gathering PRE-RELEASE – Avacyn Restored is upon us!  This third set in the immensely popular “Innistrad” block, our pre-release is set for noon this Sunday.  What’s more, this pre-release is propped up with the Helvault, a special obelisk full of extra prize support that was sent out to participating stores.  So above and beyond the extra packs or boxes that you can win at the pre-release, will be this unique vault full of exclusive cards to be distributed!  The first (and primary) tournament will cost $25 (with which you get 6 sealed boosters) and will be a Swiss-format tournament, the number of rounds played will depend on attendance.

UPDATE 4/20:  We are re-seeding the field at a special tournament this Saturday, April 21st!  This means that you will have a 1-day shot to move right into the red ring, or even the center of the board!  We still have 2 of the special LE prizes for the Supremacy League to give out, and after that we’ll move on to some other special prizes.  Get here THIS SATURDAY, APRIL 21ST, at 1:30pm.

We’ve done a ton of Heroclix events and tournaments over the year, but this might be the most fun and innovative one yet!  Introducing the Supremacy League!

The single greatest thing about the Supremacy League is that you can play it just about anytime our store is open!  It doesn’t replace a tournament or other events on our schedule, the games are limited only by whether or not your opponent shows up to play you!  All of the contestants are placed on this large scoreboard (pictured, click to enlarge), and they can challenge any other player who is one level closer to the center.  The goal is to move the into the very center of the board, in other words, king of the hill!!  If you win 3 straight challengers from other players while you are the Top Dog, you win an ultra-exclusive LE from Wizkids (these figures are going for anywhere between $50 and $100 on ebay), and then you go back to the bottom of the field to try and fight your way up the chain again.

Sound like fun!  It does to us too!    More of the nuts-and-bolts about how this works will be discussed when we hold our First Annual Seeding Tournament on Saturday, February 4th, but here are some other ground rules you’ll need to know before you decide to get involved:

1) When does it start and end?  Our first Supremacy League session will begin THIS SATURDAY, and we will wrap it up on March 31st, the Saturday before the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the next full Heroclix set from Marvel.  We’ll begin a second session, with a new seeding tournament, shortly after that.

2) How much?  The cost for each player is just $5.  Five bucks.  To participate in this organized league, with highly valued prizes, for TWO MONTHS.  What a deal!!  What’s the catch?

3) Where can I play?  All games MUST be played at the store, during store hours.  This is for a couple of reasons.  There will inevitably be disputes over rules, and since Alec works most of the hours that the store is open each week, we’ll have an independent arbiter on hand (more on this in point #4).  But also, both players are to immediately report their match and sign the scorecard in front of a Clem’s staffer.  There will be no disputes about why a certain player who lost an off-campus match hasn’t been in to sign the scorecard yet, or didn’t show up on a pre-arranged Saturday to sign for his loss.  We will not be in the business of tracking down game participants to confirm results.  All games WILL BE PLAYED at Clem’s.

4) How do we handle ruling questions if there is no judge here?  Well, as stated above, most of the time we’ll have Alec around to act as an independent ruler.  If you happen to play on a Saturday while Michael Macias is still around, he can help you out.  But, as in most of life’s Heroclix games, if you just absolutely cannot agree and there’s no one around, the dice can always solve a dispute.

5) How do I get myself a match?  All kinds of ways!  Hang around after Heroclix tournaments on Saturdays and challenge somebody.  Or just arrange with other players on Saturday for a time to meet at Clem’s during the week.  The best way is to use the Miracle Of The Internet and get yourself a username at clemslansing.com.  Then you can use our forums to issue a challenge for a match, arrange a gametime, etc.

6) Can I get booted?  You absolutely can!  Clem’s reserves the right to give the player a swift kick from the league if they regularly display poor sportsmanship, if it is determined that they are cheating, or if you wear any Ohio State clothing to your match.  Just kidding about that last part.  Or was I?

7) What kind of Heroclix team can I use?  The basic construct rules are 300 points of Modern Age characters.  This is going to include not just any Heroclix since Secret Invasion, but also the recent releases of Street Fighter, Gears of War, Lord of the Rings & Halo.  But once you have beaten an opponent to move into the middle blue ring on the board, you have to keep using the same team (which will be registered with the store) until you either drop back to the yellow ring, or go all the way to achieve a Championship LE.

8) How are we keeping track of all of this?  When you come in to play, you’ll receive a scorecard, which each player will sign at the conclusion of the match to confirm the results.  If one of the players moved into the blue ring as a result of that match, he must record his exact team build on the back of the scorecard for us to keep and monitor.  We will also take a picture of the overall leaderboard (hanging on the wall in our store) and post it online for everyone to see.

In addition to our open invitation to drop by and play whatever board games you want with your friends, we’re going to inaugurate our FIRST attempt at a board game league!  We’ve been throwing a lot of ideas around as to how to pull this off, and how it could lead to other formats of board game leagues with a wide variety of games!  But we’ll try this Dominion idea first and see what we learn.

Each “league date” will be a combination of the Dominion League and Open Gaming – for those that want to just play other games, you can come at 2pm and look for other like-minded, Dominion-hating individuals, or just come around 5pm or so.  The Dominion league play should break up around that time, and all of our players will be free to hang around and play other stuff.

Here’s a quick summary of the important points:

• Five different league dates, and one Finals date, spread out over five months
• Each event will cost $5, but be worth $7 in prize credit for each player
• Prize payouts at each individual event, with the big prizes coming in the finals

Even though our league will consist of six game-days, the first thing you need to know is that even if you only make it to ONE EVENT, you can still win big!  We’ve structured this so that it benefits you to attend as many league dates as possible, but even if you can only play in one of them, you still have a shot at a big prize.  We’ll explain more about that below.

The Dominion League / Open Board Gaming Dates for the rest of the summer are below:

• April 28th (kickoff) – 2pm
• May 12th – 2pm
• June 9th – 2pm
• June 23rd – 2pm
• July 14th – 2pm
• July 28th & August 11th – possible “rain dates” if we have to make up a tournament date
• August 8th – FINALS – 2pm

Each league game-day will look something like this:  6 rounds of play, using 2 different cardsets.  These cardsets will not be announced ahead of time they will be drawn (or announced) at the event.

Each event will cost $5 to play in, and this money, as it has in the past, will ENTIRELY go into the prize pool, with an extra $2 per player credited by Clem’s.  So a total of $7 credit per player in the pool.  At each individual league event, 22% of the prize will be distributed to the winner.  So there will still be a prize distribution at each event.

The TOP SIX PLAYERS in the Finals (August 8th) will receive a prize payout (in the form of store credit).  To qualify for the finals you must have played in 3 of the first 5 events.  There will also be TWO RANDOM DRAWINGS for a prize payout, for all other players, who have appeared at any time in any league event.  You will have more raffle tickets in those random drawings, depending on how many league events you came to.

Here’s how the final prize distribution breakdown will pan out:

1st place 33% rounded down + any remaining funds after all payouts including raffle drawings

2nd place 20% round down

3rd place 15% round down

4th place 10% round down

5th & 6th place 7% each rounded down

2x raffle drawings 5% each rounded down

If you sit down and do the math for awhile, there’s huge potential here.  And as with our other Dominion events, the payouts for both the individual events AND the grand prizes go higher with every player we have attending!

The Clem’s  Dominion League kicks off on April 28th at 2pm.

SATURDAY, MAY 5TH – 8am to 6pm

Artists – As we usually do, we have several local artists scheduled to be with us throughout the day.   It’s always a treat to see the artwork that these guys can put together – they typically will have prints or other work to show off or sell, and they can whip up a quick sketch or personalized drawing for your kids too!  We’re really proud of the local talent we have in Michigan, and the fact that these guys are willing every year to put in some time at our store and have some fun with us.  Dean Stahl will be here with us for the early-bird shift from 8am to 11am, and then we are pleased to welcome some new artists to our store – Adam Talley and Sherief Abouelseoud.  They will both be here from 11am to probably at least 2pm.

Comics – Lots of free comic books!  Contrary to popular belief, however, it is not as easy as just running through our store, picking whatever you want off our shelves for free.  Each of the major publishers sells us 1 or 2 exclusive comic books for this national event, and then WE give them away for free!  There will be designated tables full of the free stuff available, both in our store, and next door at Downtown Subs where we will have many of our other attractions set up.  You can see all of the free comics that will be available at the official national website of Free Comic Book Day, http://www.freecomicbookday.com.  Please note that not ALL of the different offerings will be at Clem’s, but we do our best to order a huge variety that will appeal to all of our customers.

The 501st Legion: Great Lakes Garrison – From about 12pm to close to 2pm, and then again after 4pm, we will have some special visitors on Free Comic Book Day – I’m told that Boba Fett, Darth Vader, and some other characters will be on hand to meet and greet our customers!   We’ve never had these folks to our store before, and we’re really looking forward to checking out the costumes – they’re known around the USA as the most friendly and cooperative galactic enforcers you could possibly meet.   Visit their website here.

Sales – We try to offer some special deals on certain products every year for the masses that come to visit, and this year will be no different.   One book in particular that we we will have ridiculously cheap is this one – Spider-Man Family Ties.  It’s a great all-ages collection of different Spider-Man stories, which we considered fitting with the new Spider-Man movie that’s coming out this summer!  Normally priced at $14.99, you’ll be able to grab this book for FOUR BUCKS on Free Comic Book Day!

There will be more deals, likely on grab bags, T-shirts, value-priced graphic novels – we’re still working out the specifics and you can see what we decided when you come in that day!

Door Prizes – As usual, we will have special comic book cover variants and other things to give away to random people who come in the door on FCBD, depending on if you are lucky customer #20, #50, #100, or any other random numbering that we will choose.  Good luck!

Trivia Contest – Each of our customers on FCBD will have an opportunity to answer a comic-or-comic-movie related trivia question from our Master Of Trivia.  If you get it right, you will get a ticket that you can use for an extra comic book, plus you’ll be allowed to put in an extra raffle entry into our prize raffle!

Heroclix Giveaway & Demo – Every year Wizkids Games offers a free exclusive Heroclix figure for Free Comic Book Day, and EVERY YEAR, without fail, we run out of them!  We will have them again this year, but you will need to ask at the counter for yours – we need to insure that our regular Heroclix players will have a shot at them before they all disappear!  Just ask at the counter for yours when you come in that day.  Don’t know what Heroclix is?  It’s only THE most engaging game using popular superhero licenses to EVER exist.  That may sound like an exaggeration, but Heroclix has been around for almost 10 years now, and it’s probably the most popular game to this day, that we sell at Clem’s.  We will have a table set up to demonstrate this awesome game, in Downtown Subs, from 11am to 1pm.

Kids Coloring Table – We will have a kids table set up at Downtown Subs where your little ones can occupy themselves with coloring pictures of Batman & the Avengers, while you browse the store or grab some lunch.  They can even turn in their colored picture for an extra comic book, and later we’ll have all of them up on display in the store for a month!

Free Cookies – Everybody loves cookies!  We’ve been fortunate to have the spouses of Clem’s staff donate their baking skills to feed our customers when they come in every year for Free Comic Book Day, and they’ve agreed to do so again this year!

Lunch Specials – Downtown Subs is offering a FREE FOUNTAIN BEVERAGE to anyone who shows a Clem’s receipt at their counter during Free Comic Book Day.  That’ll make your lunch tab come in a little cheaper.  Plus, you can go down to Deckers Coffee, show your receipt there, and get a FREE SMALL COFFEE.  How about that for value-adds for your Clem’s purchase that day?

SO… as you can see, there’s a lot going on!  You can email us at clemslansing@gmail.com with any questions – otherwise, see you Saturday!!

From all of our entries thus far, here’s how our customers see some of these fights shaping up.  Don’t forget that you can WIN $50 worth of store credit just by picking these fights correctly.  If you haven’t made your first set of picks, do it now!

It looks like people are really lopsided on the first matchup, Magneto Vs Iron Man.  Could it be because Magneto commands all things metal, and Iron Man wears a giant suit of iron?  I’m guessing that’s where we’re going with this.  But why would Marvel present us this matchup, then, unless they had some ideas of how it could be evened out?

Another interesting one is this Spider-Man Vs Colossus fight – apparently the free-wheeling, more agile fighter is winning the hearts and minds of our audience…

Finally, our most even match-up so far is the Black Widow Vs Magik fight.  Magik has teleporation, sorcery… but Black Widow just kicks opponent butt without compromise, and people seem to like her slightly more in this matchup so far…

MagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoIron ManMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoIron ManMagnetoMagnetoIron ManMagnetoIron ManMagnetoIron ManMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoMagnetoIron ManIron ManMagnetoIron ManIron ManMagnetoMagnetoMagneto

First, I just wanted to get this announcement in – we have confirmed that we will have members of the 501st Legion here for Free Comic Book Day this year!  The 501st legion is a professional organization that takes costumes to the next level – they are a troop made up entirely of volunteers who have the most authentic-looking Star Wars outfits that you will ever see.  They literally have outposts across the entire country, and their Great Lakes Garrison is going to send us a handful of special guests for this year’s FCBD!  I’ve been told that we might see Boba Fett, Darth Vader, and some storm troopers right here at Clem’s – don’t forget that Free Comic Book Day is Saturday, May 5th!  We’ll post accurate times of when we are expecting the 501st, as the date draws closer.

Second, I just want to put a reminder out there to everyone that if you have not yet given us your choices for who will win the biggest battles during Avengers Vs X-Men, you still have time!  You can win $50 in store credit with enough correct predictions, and the series titled “Avx Vs”, which will bring us all of these great fights, is scheduled to begin on April 25th.  Get over there and enter now!

Finally, a friendly reminder that if you are the sort of person who’s constantly got your smartphone on you, you can pick up a FREE COMIC, once a week, when you check in with our store on Facebook!  We began this new “check-in” rewards program after we hit 500 fans on Facebook back in November, and as of today we’re at 615 fans and still rising!  Make sure you check in with us when you stop by the store this week, and we’ll add an extra comic book to your pile for FREE.

Wednesday, April 11th – New Comic Book Day! – We are a little concerned that we under-ordered the hot new “America’s Got Powers” mini-series by Jonathan Ross & Bryan Hitch, so it is going to get only a passing mention here so that we don’t get you all too excited and find out that we’ve run out of copies.  So, don’t be too mindful of this awesome new series from Image about an American-Idol-like reality show that gives six young super-powered individuals the chance to join their country’s pre-eminent superhero team (Justice League or Avengers, you can fill in the blanks).  Nothing to see here.

Instead, let’s talk some more about “Secret Service” the second big release from Mark Millar under the “Icon” label at Marvel (did you pick up “SuperCrooks” a few weeks ago?).  Millar’s premise for this title, which is drawn by Dave Gibbons (WATCHMEN), is how one would undertake the personal training required to be a 21st-Century James Bond type.  The series is set to be a six-issue run, but with success, of course, Millar is not above sequels (see Kick-Ass Part Two).  Read more about the series and check out some art here.

And keeping with our theme of potentially hot smaller-press stuff, how about “Secret”, the new ongoing series beginning this week from Jonathan Hickman?  That’s right, the guy behind Nightly News, Red Wing, Pax Romana, and the recent sell-out hit “Manhattan Project”, has yet another reality-based espionage / conspiracy comic book beginning this week.  Watch this video trailer for the title, and I can pretty much guarantee you’ll be intrigued.  Hickman is turning into the Martin Scorsese of the comic world – let the guy spin his own tale and set the tone, and you’ve got a hit on your hands.

Wednesday, April 11th – New Heroclix Release:  Galactic Guardians – Players have been looking forward to this set for awhile – truthfully, from the moment that the somewhat under-selling Hulk series came in a couple months ago.  But as Wizkids has slowly previewed some of the pieces in this new set, we are feeling more and more confident about Galactic Guardians, and you can get your hands on them first thing Wednesday morning.  We open at 10am!

You’ve got a new Doctor Doom in this set, a new Thing, a new Silver Surfer – plus the Heroclix debut of a few cosmic figures that we’ve been waiting for.  If you play in our regular Heroclix tournaments on Saturday mornings, you can probably expect to see a lot of these figures in your opponent’s army in the next few months, so we’d better get you loaded for bear so you can fight fire with fire!  One other note on this product – instead of a “Buy It By The Brick” incentive for this set, Wizkids has sent us a set of marquee figures, the #100 Super Nova, that we will be giving out with each brick purchase until they’re gone.  Limited supply, though, so you’ll want to be among the first 20 people to buy a brick from us!

Wednesday,  April 11th – 6pm & 7:30pm – D&D Encounters – We’re officially into Season Six of Encounters!!  A new format of play for D&D that has really been a hit, the Encounters experience allows you to essentially “drop in” on Wednesday nights for a quick, one-hour D&D encounter that is not part of a sequential story.  In other words, you don’t need to worry if you can’t make it every week, because the experience is setup in a way that whoever shows up each week will not need to have participated in anything prior.  If you participate regularly, you can bring back the same character that you begin with since week 1, but character progress is well-paced enough so that you can show up for the first time in week 7 and not be totally outclassed with your brand new character.  Each Encounters season lasts 13 weeks, and is supported by our RPG Reward Points program.  You can also read more about the Encounters program here, on D&D’s official website.

Thursday, April 12th – 6:30pm – Magic the Gathering Standard tournament – Dark Ascension is here!!  We run fully sanctioned Standard tournaments for Magic every week, starting around 6:30pm, and you can now incorporate some Dark Ascension cards into your deck.  We also support these tournaments with great prize support using our Magic Reward Points program.  Of course, for these tournaments to be sanctioned, we need 8 participants – most of the time, that’s no problem, but sometimes during college finals or bad weather, it can be a stretch, so make sure you call around and get your friends to come with you!  Make sure you come in and trade in the cards you’re not using anymore and get ready to pick up a box or two of the next set!  Check out our current stock online, and figure out which cards we’re taking in.

Thursday, April 12th – Sunday, April 15th – 1st Annual Capital City Film Festival – We’re hoping this will become an ongoing annual event – Lansing is hosting its first film festival!  Showcasing a huge variety of films made both locally and nationally, you can get a pass to the entire event’s worth of showings for 50 bucks, and use this nifty scheduler on their website to figure out what you’re going to see, and then to review it afterward.  The whole thing kicks off with a Red-Carpet party on Thursday at 4:30pm here in downtown Lansing, at Troppo, and wraps with a special showing of “We Need To Talk About Kevin”, the Oscar-nominated movie starring Tilda Swinton, at 7pm Sunday.

Saturday, April 14th – 10:30am – Heroclix Infinity Gauntlet tournament, Part 4 – Our series of EIGHT Infinity Gauntlet tournaments continues this month – if you didn’t get a chance to play in the first few, don’t worry – they’re not structured so that you need to play in previous tournaments, to play in current ones.  But of course everyone who attends EACH tournament is going to wind up with a SWEET Infinity Gauntlet Heroclix piece when all is said and done!  This month, every participant will receive the “Time Gem” Heroclix LE, and winners will receive an LE of “The Gardener”.

This tournament is scheduled to be a sealed event, using boosters from the just-released “Galactic Guardians” set.  Two boosters will cost you only $23 for this tournament, tax included, and you will build the best 400-point team that you can, from the figures that you open.

Saturday, April 14th – Pathfinder Society?? – Pathfinder Society is basically the PF version of D&D’s Living Forgotten Realms.  No past experiences or adventures needed, just a character who is the appropriate level, and you can just show up and play!  All in a one-and-done session (albeit a session that may take several hours; PF Society does not enjoy the brevity of D&D Encounters).  Sound like something you might be interested in trying?  Read more about Pathfinder Society on the Paizo website, or visit our forums to find out when the next session is scheduled, and what level character you will need – right now we’re possibly looking at April 14th, but you need to keep an eye on the forums to know when that’s finalized.

Sunday, April 15th – 10pm – New TV:  NYC 22 – Another new police procedural that CBS is placing in the timeslot of CSI:Miami for the rest of the season, NYC:22 is a new show about a cadre of rookie beat cops in New York City, specifically in upper Manhattan.  This show stuck out to me for one big reason:  Robert DeNiro is executive-producing.  Reason enough to give it a look on Sunday?

Sunday, April 15th – Tax Day – You haven’t paid yet?  You’re in luck, pilgrim – the IRS is still going to give you a couple extra days, since Tax Day fell on a Sunday this year.  So now you’ve got til Tuesday.  Or else.  I won’t do anything so obviously corny or shameless as to tell you that you should come spend your tax return $$ at Clem’s, since most of our customers are surely going to wind up PAYING the IRS due to their enormous rolls of cash that have rocketed them into the highest tax brackets.  So really, you ought to be spending more money here at Clem’s all year round!!  Come on!!!  Get in here!!

UPDATE 4/19/2012:

AvX VS #1 is on our shelves NEXT WEEK, and at that time we will no longer be accepting picks for the first two matchups, because well, no cheating!

But make sure you pick this issue up next week to see how these fights turn out, and so you can keep track of your own choices!  We’ll occasionally update this website with the standings.  We’ve had over 40 customers sign up for this contest, still plenty of time for you to get your votes in on all the fights for issues #2-#3 !  Remember that for every two fights you pick correctly, you get an extra raffle entry for the $50.

As of today, 78% of our customers like Magneto to take Iron Man next week, and 67% like the Thing over Namor.  We’ll see what happens next week!

ORIGINAL POST:

Now that AVENGERS VS X-MEN #1 has arrived, we have one other Marvel series to push on you, and we think you’re really going to love it:  the one primary companion series to AVENGERS VS X-MEN is going to be a six-issue mini-series called AVX VERSUS (innovative!) which is basically just:  the fights.  For those of you who are interested in just who Marvel sees winning a man-to-beast fight like Thor Vs. The Hulk, this is going to be something you’ll want to check out.  Each issue of the series will feature two knock-down, drag-out fights between two Marvel heavyweights.

And doesn’t that sound like a great premise for a contest?

It’s very easy:

• Fill out the form below, and choose who you think will win each one of the 12 fights.
• For every TWO fights that you guess correctly, you will get an entry into a raffle that we will hold at the end of the series (so, if you get all 12 correct, you’ll have 6 raffle entries at the end).
• We will draw two winners in the raffle to win a $50 gift certificate to Clem’s!!  (the equivalent of getting the entire 12-issue AVENGERS VS X-MEN series for free!).

Now, Marvel hasn’t released all of the matchups yet (so far we only know who is fighting in the April and May issues), so we will be putting up a new form around the end of May, to list the second half of fights.

And we also know that sometimes the publisher might choose to to straddle the fence and call a fight a draw (anybody remember Robin Vs. Dazzler) – in those cases, we will have an independent judge from our store decide who won the fight based on the content that was presented in the comic book.  This judge will NOT be eligible to win the prizes.

Sound like fun?  All you need is a name, an email address, and some instinctive knowledge into the fighting attributes of each Avenger or X-Man that will make your choices smarter than everybody else’s!!

X-Men Vs Avengers - Pick 'Em!

Your Name (first and last): *

Your email address: (we will need to contact winners) *

OK, already! Let's make some picks!

Can we add you to our mailing list?

Yeah!

I'll pass

I think you've already got me, but yeah!

AvX #1 - on sale April 25th! - EXPIRED

AvX #1 - on sale April 25th! - EXPIRED

AvX #2 - on sale May 9th!

AvX #2 - on sale May 9th!

AvX #3 - on sale June something!

Black Widow

Magik

AvX #3 - on sale June something!

Thing

Colossus

It’s time to PARTY!!

Tuesday, April 3rd – 8pm – Avengers Vs X-Men RELEASE PARTY – This is IT !!  While we can’t be sure of what other surprises may await us this year from DC or other publishers (Before Watchmen, anybody?), it does seem pretty likely that Avengers Vs X-Men #1 will be THE most HIGH-PROFILE book of the year, and definitely the hottest issue from Marvel in 2012.   Marvel needs a hit, and the sales and hype on AvX sure sounds like it will be the boom event that they are banking on.  Will it live up?  You can make the call starting this week, as Avengers Vs X-Men #1 hits the stands!

But you don’t even have to wait until Wednesday to read it!  That’s because Marvel and Diamond Comics Distributors have arranged for qualifying stores to sell this issue EARLY, starting at 8pm on Tuesday.   SO… stop downtown at our store between 8 and 9pm to pick up the most-talked about comic of 2012, along with a special on Avengers and X-Men books and merchandise, special door prizes for the first few people in line, a plethora of goodies from Marvel for FREE for our customers (including buttons, lithos, mini-posters).  Plus we will have FREE cupcakes that will be honoring the X-Men (we chose their side for this party), and you will also have the chance to buy the PARTY variant cover, a special versionof AvX #1 that was uniquely produced for stores hosting the early-release party.

Wednesday, April 4th – New Comic Book Day! – It’s a tough time to be a fanboy.  Entertainment costs are rising, and social disdain is also.  Even the urban dictionary refers to fanboys as “trolls”, “arrogant”, “annoying”, and someone who “who lets his passion override social graces”.  Well, ok, maybe that last part is true.

On top of that, now we’re being trapped in Hall H at the San Diego Comic Con while the humanity around is transformed into a mass of zombies.  That’s the premise of this new series from Boom!, as they spin the story of a group of convention-goers, trapped against this horrifying calamity, “armed only with their knowledge of comic books and skills earned from countless hours of video games.”   Will the fanboys triumph, and prove to mankind that they are more than just a breathing encyclopedia of Star Wars knowledge?

It’ll only cost you ONE DOLLAR to find out – this first issue drop this week with the price tag of only a buck.

Wednesday,  April 4th – 6pm & 7:30pm – D&D Encounters – We’re officially into Season Six of Encounters!!  A new format of play for D&D that has really been a hit, the Encounters experience allows you to essentially “drop in” on Wednesday nights for a quick, one-hour D&D encounter that is not part of a sequential story.  In other words, you don’t need to worry if you can’t make it every week, because the experience is setup in a way that whoever shows up each week will not need to have participated in anything prior.  If you participate regularly, you can bring back the same character that you begin with since week 1, but character progress is well-paced enough so that you can show up for the first time in week 7 and not be totally outclassed with your brand new character.  Each Encounters season lasts 13 weeks, and is supported by our RPG Reward Points program.  You can also read more about the Encounters program here, on D&D’s official website.

Thursday, April 5th – 1pm – Detroit Tigers home opener – This is relevant to our readers in three ways.  First, the advent of baseball is universally understood to be the true beginning of spring, which means that warm weather, and Free Comic Book Day, are just around the corner!   Second, the Detroit Tigers are being tabbed by most experts to win their division by around 20 games, easily advance to the playoffs, and have a very good shot at making the World Series this year.  This probably means a lot of good feelings around Michigan this year, which means people spend more, which means Clem’s sells more comic books!  Thirdly, wait a second, you mean you DON’T have a copy of Baseball Legends #2, in which Ty Cobb is everybody’s superhero?

Baseball starts today against the Boston Red Sox!  GO TIGERS!

Thursday, April 5th – 6:30pm – Magic the Gathering Standard tournament – Dark Ascension is here!!  We run fully sanctioned Standard tournaments for Magic every week, starting around 6:30pm, and you can now incorporate some Dark Ascension cards into your deck.  We also support these tournaments with great prize support using our Magic Reward Points program.  Of course, for these tournaments to be sanctioned, we need 8 participants – most of the time, that’s no problem, but sometimes during college finals or bad weather, it can be a stretch, so make sure you call around and get your friends to come with you!  Make sure you come in and trade in the cards you’re not using anymore and get ready to pick up a box or two of the next set!  Check out our current stock online, and figure out which cards we’re taking in.

Friday, April 6th – Lansing Lugnuts home opener – Even if baseball isn’t your thing, and you’re already annoyed that you had to read a paragraph about the Tigers, I think we can all agree that Lansing Lugnuts games are just a good time.  How many times are you planning to visit Oldsmobile Stadium Cooley Law School Park this year?  The hot dogs and beer will begin flowing at the Crosstown Showdown on Thursday night, but Friday night is the Lugnuts official season starter against the Great Lakes Loons.

Saturday, April 7th – 10:30am – Heroclix tournament – Every Saturday at 10:30am, the longest-running game at Clem’s gathers, the time for Heroclix.  Ever since this game released, we have had a sure and steady cast of players, and it shows in our weekly turnout.  We’ve hosted pre-release tournaments, marquees for every set, special tournaments for promos and big-figure sets… and the best is yet to come!!  Typically, though, every Saturday is a constructed tournament, with details being released on our message boards usually within 5 days of the next tournament. The tournaments are all in good fun, and are supported by prize support from the game’s manufacturer, Wizkids, who send us limited-edition figures to give away each and every Saturday.  The new Incredible Hulk set, plus the Halo, Street Fighter & Gears of War sets are all fair game for these!