Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University. This week, Thorne discusses the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Magic: The Gathering set and some of the changes at GAMA.
Well, it is certainly nice to be right on occasion (see “A Flood of Sets Hitting Standard“). I had feared the unrevealed Universes Beyond set releasing next year would be a mishmash of Nickelodeon properties, but had guessed it would be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (mainly because the Turtles are the best-known Nickelodeon IP and have the most material from which to develop a Universes Beyond set). Wizards of the Coast had Turtle Vans cruising New York Comic Con this past weekend, offering free pizza and the opportunity to get a copy of the Unbreakable Formation promo card from the set before the official announcement at Friday’s panel (see “Cowabunga Dudes“).
All of this hype is a far cry from the days when WotC did the best it could to prevent spoilers showing any of the cards from a new set. Now, we still have two sets before Teenage Mutant Turtles releases in March 2026, and players have already seen nearly two dozen cards from the set and even gotten their hands on a promo. This is a far cry from the secrecy with which Wizards shrouded sets some two decades ago. Ah, well, at least the pizza lands have an interesting design with pizzas taken from those ordered during the cartoon series.
Several changes took place at GAMA in the last few weeks: a name change, Game Store Day, departure of John Stacy from the executive director position at the end of November and moving the GAMA Expo from Louisville to Baltimore starting in 2027. Here are a few thoughts:
Baltimore. After all of these years, I must say Baltimore is an interesting city for GAMA to choose for its premier event (see “GAMA Expo Officially Moves to Baltimore“). Since the GAMA BOD asked for input on choosing a new location for the GAMA Expo and I never got around to commenting on available choices, I really have no grounds on which to complain (If you don’t vote, don’t complain).
I have not made it to any GAMA Expo since the show moved from Las Vegas (no real problem with the locations, it is just the time frame for the show did not work out for me. I hope to make it for at least a couple of days during the last Louisville show though, but I have heard reports of several problems with the Galt House location, including cleanliness of the bedrooms and harassment outside of the hotel of some LGBT GAMA attendees.
John Stacy. Stacy came into GAMA at a pretty rocky time following the censure of the organization’s president and the unpopular decision not to renew the contract of the previous Executive Directory John Ward (see “Stacy Leaving GAMA“). Membership and GAMA Expo attendance have both doubled during his time in office, which are pretty impressive numbers. I have heard some dismay expressed about the focus of GAMA on Origins and GAMA Expo as well as expanding into other conventions, but overall it appears Stacy has left GAMA with sound financials.
I do want to comment on the name change and Game Store Day but will take that up in the next column. Comments? Send them to castleperilousgames@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
Source: ICV2
