We've talked about how we'll stay safe. We've made plans for our very first in-person events in over a year. Now it's time to talk about the rest of the summer! So join me on a little journey through what the rest of June, July, and August will (hopefully) look like.

The Phoenix Summer Schedule

Before we get too much into the details, a brief reminder: the schedule and events that I'm about to talk about are all based on the assumption that the pandemic is and will slowly recede as the levels of vaccinations rise. These plans can and are subject to change with little notice depending on a variety of factors. These events are also all subject to some added safety requirements that we spelled out in a separate blog here.  

With that formality out of the way, let the excitement commence! We're opening back up and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again in person for some board gaming, Magic, Comic and RPG meetups. Whatever floats your boat - our goal as we reopen is to provide a little bit of something for everyone. To make sure that happens, we're starting slow.

June will mark the return of later hours, Tuesday Night Modern, and Friday Night Drafts (and boy do we have some spicy ones planned for you). July should see a complete return-to-normal of our late weeknight hours, as well as the reintroduction of some beloved weekly and monthly events such as the Queer Geek Board Game meetup, D&D Adventurer's League, and more! And in August, we (hopefully, with many fingers crossed) will get to celebrate my favorite comic book holiday - Free Comic Book Day. 

June Schedule Outlook

Getting started is the hardest part! And as much as part of me wants to throw a million things up on the schedule, I think we all need a little bit of time to acclimate to how things are about to change. 

So, beginning June 1, our hours of operation will open up alongside our event and table space. Our new hours will be:

• Monday - Friday, 11 AM - 10 PM
• Saturday / Sunday, 10 AM - 9 PM.

We're going to take the early weeks of June to allow people to come in and game casually here at the shop. We want everyone to get comfortable again before we roll out events. We also want to give folks space to stake a claim to a night and re-establish old events such as our Wednesday commander meetups, or to create new meetups that didn't exist in the pre-pandemic Phoenix lineup.

If you're interested in either of these outcomes, my suggestion to you is to reach out to your friends and colleagues within the community. Once you've got groups or meetups organized, reach out to us, or just call ahead and show up! We'll be keeping an eye out for groups meeting weekly, and that will effect the schedules for July and August.

Our first major event back will be our Modern Horizons 2 Prerelease Events that run from June 11-15, with a special welcome-back Release Weekend Sealed event on June 18 as well! Preregistration for all of these events is already up on our events page here.

We'll also be adding 2 weekly events: Tuesday Night Modern, beginning Tuesday June 22 at this 6 PM, and Friday Night Magic Drafts, beginning Friday, June 25 at 6 PM.

Tuesday Night Modern

During the past year, one of the best and most frequently attended webcam events were our Tuesday Night Modern events. So we're continuing that offering with some in-person Modern tournaments, with 2 changes. First, each event will cost $10 (up from $8 pre-pandemic), and second, the event will start at 6 PM (instead of 7 PM pre-pandemic). Prizes remain the same - event entry fees return to players in the form of store credit based on player turnout and performance.

Friday Night Magic Drafts

This is the big new event of the month: the return of FNM! Now in pre-pandemic times, we would always offer both a draft and standard event. Sadly due to capacity restrictions, we're going to limit ourselves to just drafting for the moment.  But to make things more exciting, we're going to mix things up a little. And I'm going to fulfill a promise I made to folks when the lockdown first started.

We're gonna have flashback drafts.

We have the following sets available in limited quantity for drafting:

• Mystery Boosters
• Double Masters
• Ikoria
• Commander Legends
• Time Spiral Remastered

During the months of June, July, and August, we're gonna draft these sets alongside current standard mainstays Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim, and Adventures in the Forgotten Realms (once it releases in July). Here's the current schedule:

• June 25 - Mystery Boosters
• July 2 - Ikoria
• July 9 - Time Spiral Remastered
• July 16 - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Prerelease Weekend
• July 23 - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Draft
• July 30 - Double Masters
• August 6 - Commander Legends
• August 13 - Zendikar Rising
• August 20 - Mystery Boosters 
• August 27 - Kaldheim

Prices for these events will vary based on the set in question, but expect them to range from $20 to $50 per draft (tax included). Prizes packs will be set boosters as well. 

July Schedule Outlook

Once we've had a good month to get our grooves back in place, we'll be assessing what the new event landscape looks like and starting to set it in place. We'll look at days that aren't currently occupied and see what we can do to fill in those gaps on our calendar schedule. We'll also open up a little bit more capacity (either to 24 or 32 depending on how quickly the pandemic is receding), so that we can better accommodate a wider variety of groups and games.

We'll fill in more here as we get closer to July, and as we see community events start to crop up. For now, here's a couple of events that are already on the calendar:

• July 10 - Queer Geek Board Game Meetup
• July 11 - XL Bears Game Night
• July 16-18 - Magic Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Prerelease Weekend

August Schedule Outlook

By the time we hit August, I'm hoping that our schedule will be really starting to formalize and gel nicely. We'll be looking to fill in the last nooks and crannies in our schedule, and we'll be ready to take another look at our capacity with the goal of something a little closer to normal. I do know of at least one event you'll want to save the date for though: Free Comic Book Day, August 14th!

Free Comic Book Day

Normally this event marked the store's birthday, but due to the covid the event was pushed back to the 2nd Saturday in August. As in years past, Free Comic Book Day is exactly what it says it is - a day in which you can stop by and partake of a bounty of Free Comic Books. This year we'll be reaching out to local creators to see if we can't give a little bit back to the community in the form of a mini-convention, or at the very least get a few wonderful creators to stop by to sell copies of their work. Either way, you won't want to miss it!