The EPI-log

  Wanna be the very best like no one ever was? It has been a slow-growing process however, EPIC Ipswich is finally opening our doors to the Pokemon Trading Card Game. This will be a fun social group that is all-inclusive and child friendly. The hope for this social group is for new players to learn how to play the game with their collected cards and finally get to experience a game that is predominantly online in Australia. EPIC Ipswich will not be running the games or any tournaments we organise as sanctioned events and therefore there will be no prize support for the immediate future. The Pokemon Company have limited sanctioned games and tournaments to Japan only- however hope is not lost. EPIC Ipswich is stocked with all the newest releases, binders, playmats, decks and folders to help assist Trainers with their deck-building and card maintenance needs. Games will run from 12 PM every Saturday at EPIC Ipswich and there is no cost to come in and start playing! Your Friend and All...

 Welcome to what is left of what is the rapid approach to Halloween night. EPIC Ipswich is proud hosts to Strahd VonZarovich and Adventurers League. They once again bid you welcome and invite you all to prove yourselves this Halloween at EPIC Ipswich.  Strahds Castle is taken over by Strahd.... and Strahd.... and Strahd again.... There's how many Strahds? All in his castle? Wow. Yup. Ah ha. Readers - I have just been informed that there is seven Strahd's in his Castle, each one representing one of the seven deadly sins! Can you eliminate this evil before the clock strikes midnight? Or will your corpse and soul forever be tortured for new adventures to find and be terrified? This is a multitable oneshot run by Adventurers League for level 8 characters made per the Adventurers League Character Creation. You may dress up- each of your Dungeon Masters are. Speaking of, there are seven volunteer DMs we really wish to thank: Quentin  Gottie Tarl Jacob Duffy Craig Bron for agree...

  If you've read any of the previous blogs on here pertaining to Call of Cthulhu, you won't be surprised to learn I am a massive fan of the RPG. At points in time I, myself, had even been a Keeper of Arcane Lore when the game started running the first time at EPIC Ipswich.  Unfortunately, we have had to pause the Call of Cthulhu games for the past four weeks due to the Game Master (GM) availability, I am also unavailable to GM myself due to the time it takes to prepare for running the game. This is not goodbye forever, we have many enthusiastic players wanting to continue playing and should we find the next month I will take some time to make preparations to continue the games as a Keeper myself. May the insanity continue, Lachy

 Just when we thought Springcon would be the gift that has finally stopped giving (until next year), there was a surprise for us all on Saturday when our staff discovered that a local gaming podcast took an extraordinary amount of time from their podcast to sing praises about EPIC Ipswich. Most of the conversation that is detailed on their most recent trip to Springcon '22 was focused on telling their listeners about our store. The Benevolent Owners were so excited they even decreed that whichever staff member writes the blog should give them a shout-out to thank them for the plug. I just so happen to be that said staff member, and normally when I am so instructed it's accompanied by a sense of fear - this time I'm actually excited, these guys earned it. You may listen to the podcast here and if you ever get the opportunity, tell them EPIC Ipswich says thank you.  Your Friend and Ally, Lachy

  Just under a week since the final of Season 1, and as excited as we are, next season will start in 2023. We have received a lot of feedback and can promise you we are not taking any of it lightly. We have heard and look forward to implementing some of the following changes for next season: NOTE - These are ideas and we cannot promise that all these changes will come into effect Changes to Thursday Night Once our new member cards (you read that right) come in, we can allow people a 10% discount off all magic products. This is due to the $17 Modern Horizon II boosters going out of stock, whilst we give one away with the $15 entry, this business model is not going to last long and needs to change. By allowing 10% off, it equates to around the same discount our players are already receiving. Prizes will also change on Thursday. We want to reward the hard work of players, however we don't want people to feel the need to play for sheep stations and be discouraged from not getting to th...

Despite the age of this blog, I have still not written a blog for every event we hold, EPIC Crafty Creative Day is perhaps the most prominent one I've missed.  What is EPIC Crafty Creative Day? EPIC Crafty Creative Day started off as a concept way back when EPIC first opened, the premise was to combine Trish's Crafty Studio and EPIC on one day a month, where creative parents could craft whilst their kids could craft on minecraft (yes that was way back when we ran a minecraft server in store). Over time it transitioned into miniature painting for games like Warhammer, D&D and such using the paint supplies from crafty whilst the crafty studio adopted a crop day structure. Both retail and space for EPIC Ipswich and The Crafty Studio will remain open all day as per usual. The price? The price? oh riiiight, the price! Yes that'd either be your mortal soul or ownership of your first born child..... KIDDING! It's free with exception to hiring supplies and purchasing a mini...

  12 legendary weeks of trialing matches - 1 week of finals. The EPIC Battle League saw a lot of cash given away. The Top 8 The leagues Top 8 played off on Thursday the 6th, with a top prize of $200 everyone was eager and keen. congratulations to Ryan Kruger, Greg Davies, Rowan Haynes, Matthew Macinante, James Nicol, Liam ED, Patrick Collingwood and Tim Stieler who had all made it valiantly into the top 8. A huge congratulations to James Nicol who one the evening. Ahead of the final match-up both James and Ryan agreed to split the prize money regardless of the results each taking home $150 - excellent sportsmanship. Saturday saw a massive attendance from the 17 people that attained a 75% attendance rate, 12 people attended the event proper and many more attended to buy swap and sell with Jene's MTG who helped sponsor the league and will be sponsoring next season. After a muck around in round 3 due to the shameful tournament organiser (myself) mislogging a match pairing. Results wer...

  If you haven't read my previous article  on the release of the One Piece Card Game, you can either read it now or I can cut to the nitty gritty of it - IT IS POPULAR! So much so that every local store's super-prerelease was booked out! The original starting decks? All four of them are selling for $700 and they were just $30 each! One Piece has taken the world by storm ahead of the new live-action show/movie that's being made. To my knowledge only one other local game store is supporting One Piece Card Game ahead of the official release in December, that being said, you can now consider this our official declaration that we are doing the same. EPIC Ipswich is proud to announce we will be supporting unsanctioned One Piece game nights with our enthusiastic locals. EPIC is not selling any products, however, if you want to come in and play, our local group of players really wish to see it take off here and are happy to lend you one of their decks or alternatively EPIC will let...

  EPIC Ipswich was at Springcon this weekend! What is Springcon you ask? To oversimplify it, a bunch of gamers from Springfield got together one year, called it a convention and decided they'd host it in a school. After a lot of set up on our end - taking brochures, vouchers, stock, games, and some of our best staff and patrons to represent us. Saturday was a day filled with tables of community and competition. Star Wars Legion, Warhammer and your general games were played en mass. A lengthy day (9 AM - 5 PM) with the Springfield Gamers QLD and Beyond Blue representing our local gaming community. A massive thanks to Quentin, Bron and Gottie for assisting and representing EPIC Ipswich last weekend! Your Friend and Ally, Lachy

 There is a terrible terrible stain on my soul - As a long-time player of Magic the Gathering. I moved from standard and settled into Commander due to the ever-rotating legal cards in standard. It's the quick rotation of Standard that has made a lot of players and game stores cease their regular games of the Standard format. Whilst other formats have found little success outside of a few smaller communities, Commander became the main face of Magic the Gathering's community. Unfortunately, since the parent company of Magic the Gathering (MTG), Wizards of the Coast (WotC), have failed to sell their newest sets due to the failure of the standard format, their greed has destroyed what I'd argue as the last great format Magic has left - Commander. It all began with the concept of MTG Universes Beyond, a frantic cash grab to sell more products to fans of other series. MTG universes beyond introduces cards specific to fan bases like The Walking Dead, and Warhammer 40,000 and will ...

  After 11 weeks of league play, the final week of The EPIC Battle League is finally here, with our top 8 Thursday tonight and our Saturday Finale on the horizon, I thought now would be a great time to catch you all up to speed on the League! Thursday Top 8 After all the weeks of play, our top 8 players are playing off this Thursday, due to the restriction of eventlink, we cannot make top 8 in the custom pairings and keep it single elimination. The pairings will be as follows: Ryan Kruger VS Greg Davies Rowan Haynes VS Matthew Macinante James Nicol VS Liam ED Patrick Collingwood VS Tim Stieler A huge congratulations to them all, regardless on how they place during Thursday, they will all be walking away with cash. The prizes for top 8 are as follows: 1st wins $200 2nd place wins $100 3rd place will win $75 4th place will win $50 5th - 8th place all walk away with $25 In addition to top 8 this Thursday, our modern community has asked to do their own side tournament, each person cont...

 Say what you like about the anime the game was based on, there is no denying the card game absolutely rocks! The One Piece Trading Card Game has done something that many a game has failed to do, streamlined, beginner-friendly trading card game that you can open and start playing. EPIC Ipswich had 2 Super Pre-releases for the game on Saturday the 1st of October. The 12 PM session and the fully booked 6 PM games. Every attendee took home their deck and promo pack and had the chance to purchase one of each starter deck on the day. I could go on and talk about the logistics and who won but the really exciting thing I would like to talk about today is the future of the game! Booster packs, more decks and sanctioned events are going out within a year, the EPIC community is already coming in on Wednesday nights to play unsanctioned games with their starter decks. Moreover Judges are now being nominated across Australia for sanctioned games and tournaments, proudly I am aware of two patro...