Dragon Lair Gaming

09/08/2025

Two posts in one day?? What the heck?? (I remembered the account password)

Meet the team, and today we're introducing the final (and newly appointed) Council member, Mark Samuelson!

About me: I am a husband and father of 2 amazing and competitive girls, Mackenzie and Olivia. They love to come to RCQs with me regularly, so keep an eye out for some upcoming competitors!

Set you started playing: 4th Edition

Best Finish (any games): 29th at a Pokemon Regionals, 177th at Spotlight Series Atlanta

Favorite card, deck, colors, and format: Big fan of combo and Mono-Green strats. Lotus Field combo in Pioneer is probably my favorite deck/strategy.

Favorite hobby outside of Magic: Being a dad and watching my girls compete in Gymnastics and Cheerleading, plus big into 3d printing.

09/08/2025

Recap!

The past couple weekends, the team has been hard at work getting invites!

For the weekend of August 29th, the team brought home one invite and several Top 8s! Brent was able to get his invite at Tapstart Games (Westminster, SC) on 8/30, while Blake, Josh, and Brent were able to Top 8 at Parker, Banner, Kent, and Wayne (Cornelius, NC). Even with two teammates in the playoff, Blake was not able to secure another invite :(

Then, this past weekend we got two invites! On Saturday, Mark and Mike made the cut to Top 4, then were able to get themselves placed on opposite sides of the bracket of the 2-Slot at Empire Games (Anderson, SC) and win their win-and-in! Additionally, Mike made Top 8 at Empire Games the weekend prior on August 24th, but lost in Top 4 for the invite. Great rebound, Mike!

Sunday saw many of the team go to Victory Point Games (Gastonia, NC), but none of them were able to make the cut with Blake finishing the highest at 9th.

Summaries of the past couple weekends below!

Brent
1st + Invite - Tapstart Games
Top 8 - Parker, Banner, Kent, and Wayne

Blake
Top 8 - Parker, Banner, Kent, and Wayne
9th - Victory Point Games

Josh
Top 8 - Parker, Banner, Kent, and Wayne

Mark
1st/2nd + Invite - Empire Games

Mike
1st/2nd + Invite - Empire Games
Top 4 - Empire Games

09/06/2025

Invites #4 and #5 for the season!

08/30/2025

08/18/2025

Hey, y'all. Remember on August 4th, when I said I would post a recap the following week to put a lot more announcements into it? Yeaaaaaaah ( ._.)

Anyhoo, here's a recap of the past three weeks for the team!

Before we dig into the RCQ finishes, special shoutout to Blake who recently placed 12th in a MTGO Standard Challenge with Mono-White Tokens!

On August 2nd, Brent made Top 4 (UB Midrange) at Mighty Meeple (Concord, NC). Then on August 3rd, Blake (Mono White Tokens) secured a Top 8 at Parker, Banner, Kent & Wayne (Corneilius, NC). That same day, we had two more players finish in the Top Cut at Decks and Dice (Seneca, SC)! Juan (Naya Yuna) finished in Top 4, and Josh (UB Midrange), as you all might remember, secured the invite with a 1st Place finish!

Moving to the next weekend, August 9th saw Juan (Naya Yuna) make Top 8 at Charlie's Collectible Show (Stone Mountain, GA). The next day on August 10th, Juan (UB MIdrange) followed that up with another Top 4 at Decks and Dice. In that same RCQ, Zach (UW Control) and Gabriel (Vivi Cauldron) also made Top 4. Gabriel was knocked out in Top 4 when he was paired against Zach, and Zach was knocked out in the finals against Team Primetime's Leonard Routh and his UB Midrange list.

But wait, there's more!

August 10th also saw John (Esper Pixie), Alex (UW Control) and Blake (Ketramose Demon Midrange) all make Top 8 at Victory Point’s (Gastonia, NC) 2-Slot RCQ! Unfortunately, John lost in Top 8 to fellow team member Alex. Then in Top 4, Alex and Blake were both knocked out with invites on the line. Honorable mentions here to Brent, who sadly got paired into John R1 and Blake R3 of that same tournament :((

Finally, this weekend's results! On August 16th, Juan (UB Midrange) made yet ANOTHER Top 8 at Charlie's Collectible Show in a 2-Slot qualifier. He was able to beat out Temur Otters in Top 8, then played cleanly against UW Control in Top 4 to earn his invite!! Since joining the team, Juan has made Top Cut every day he has played an RCQ!

In team news, today it was made official that Gabriel and Alex were officially made full-time members of the team! This promotion was, frankly, long overdue for two members who made their presence known immediately in the team!

That's it for this recap! Below, you'll find a TL;DR of all of the top cut finishes for each member! See you next time!

Josh
1st - Decks and Dice (8/3) - UB Midrange

Brent
Top 4 - Mighty Meeple (8/2) - UB Midrange

John
Top 8 - Victory Point (8/10) - Esper Pixies

Alex
Top 4 - Victory Point (8/10) - UW Control

Gabriel
Top 4 - Decks and Dice (8/10) - Vivi Cauldron

Blake
Top 8 - Parker, Banner, Kent & Wayne (8/3) - Mono White Tokens
Top 4 - Victory Point (8/10) - Ketramose Demon Midrange
12th - Standard Challenge - Mono White Tokens

Juan
Top 4 - Decks and Dice (8/3) - Naya Yuna
Top 8 - Charlie's Collectible Show (8/9) - Naya Yuna
Top 4 - Decks and Dice (8/10) - UB Midrange
1st/2nd - Charlie's Collectible Show 2-Slot (8/16) - UB Midrange

Zach
Top 4 - Decks and Dice (8/10) - UW Control

08/05/2025

There will be a longer recap of this past weekend and this weekend’s results next week, but we want to make two important congratulations!

To start, congratulations to Josh Leger after he snagged his invite in the first weekend of the season at Decks and Dice (Seneca, SC)! As always, his consistency in-season is impressive and something we all strive for! Will we finally get him to smile in a ticket picture someday? Well… 🤷‍♂️

Next, we would like to welcome the newest member of the team, Juan Ramos (pictured between Gabriel and Josh in second picture)! Juan was a friend of some team members that wanted to get into the competitive circuit. After a weekend where he played his first three RCQs ever (and securing a top 4 finish in one of them!!), he left a great impression on the Council members who voted him in last night! Welcome to the team, Juan!!

08/04/2025

Meet the team is back, and today we have the second Council member (and team co-founder) featured after Josh!

Fun fact: Michael won back-to-back Store Championships with the same exact list, despite there being an extra set of cards legal!

My name is Michael Buntele, I am a husband and father of one amazing little girl. I have been playing Magic since Theros block came out in 2012. My favorite card is Treasure Cruise cause Mom said we have ancestral recall at home. I think my favorite colors are Izzet (Red/Blue) which makes sense because my favorite deck is Izzet Pheonix in pioneer. My favorite format though is standard, it's how I first started playing competitively. So far my best finish is 1-4 in an RC in Texas. My favorite hobby outside of magic is spending time with my family and traveling. GGS Everyone!

07/22/2025

Final weekend recap for the season!

This past weekend saw the team finish strong in four seperate tournaments across two days!

First, on Friday, both Alex Strange (3rd win) and Gabriel Solarte (2nd win) took down store championships at Timmy Mac's (Morganton, NC) and Dragon Lair Games (Piedmont, SC) respectively. Meanwhile at Gamer's Alley (Gastonia, NC), Blake McDonald ended up splitting the finals with his opponent.

Then, on Saturday and with a determine team behind him at The Deck Box (Fletcher, NC) (as well as behind Conner Campbell, who was also attempting to nab a last-minute invite!), Alex Strange was finally able to secure his spot at RC Las Vegas! He went 4-1 in Swiss playing Dimir Frogtide, then took down the Top 8 to get that elusive invite! Great job, Alex! Finally!

With the season coming to a close and Standard season + rotation fast approaching, the tally for DLG invites this season is six! Congratulations to John Hall, Brent Clift, Alex Strange, Blake McDonald, Mark Samuelson, and Josh Leger on qualifying for RC Las Vegas (where you can find us in November! Come say hi!)

07/13/2025

we're cookin' some things up

07/02/2025

Next up on our “Meet the Team” series: John Hall!

John (AKA John Hall, Khan of the Abzan) is one of our competitive team members, and also a writer for Star City Games! He joined the team in June of 2024 (roughly), and in that time has qualified for three different RCs!

Fun fact: he has the highest MTG ELO of all of the competitive members of the team (for now >:))

Set you started playing: Mirrodin Besieged
Best Finish: Hartford Regionals (36th)
Favorite...
card: Thragtusk
deck: Junk Reanimator
colors: Green, Black, White
format: Standard
Favorite hobby outside of Magic: bein a dad

07/01/2025

Time for the Meet the Team series! First up, we have Josh Leger!

Josh Leger is the owner of Dragon Lair Games and one of the co-founders of our team! While he actively competes in every RCQ season, he also serves as the Team's Manager and the duties that entail.

Fun fact about Josh: he has qualified for the corresponding RC of every RCQ season since Winter 2022!

Set You Started Playing

I first started playing magic with my brothers during Ice Age (and had 0 clue what was going on)

Best Finish (any games)

Top 16 SCG 10k in Charlotte and top 8 a Pioneer Showcase Challenge on MTGO

Favorite...

Card - Liliana of the Veil(?)
Deck - Samwise-Amalia Combo
Colors - Anything Bx
Format - Standard (unless its bad)

Favorite Hobby Outside of Magic

PC games, spending time with the family, and Magic :) (not the magician kind) (also not following my directions >:( )

07/01/2025

You know what time it is!

This weekend, we only had one member attending RCQs. Brent Clift first went down to Columbia, SC on Saturday for Firefly's five-rounder, but unfortunately took a loss in round 4 and missed Top 4.

Then on Sunday, he made the trip to Gamer's Alley (Gastonia, NC) for another RCQ. After going undefeated and double-drawing into Top 8, he sadly lost in quarters against Goryo's where "all three games were hella (sic) long" and "Games 2 and 3 both got down to top deck wars and he hit gas before I did both post board games :PepeHands:".

Even though he was unable to nab an invite this weekend, he still did great on the weekend and we are very proud of him!

Be sure to keep an eye out later tonight for the first of our "Meet the Team" series, where I will introduce a team member at a currently unknown frequency!

Top 8s:
Brent Clift (Gamer's Alley)