What a way to start a NEW YEAR!
I previewed this message in a Video a few days ago.
I got permission to post this on social media.
This is a message we got monday morning Jan 6th.

MON 8:53 AM
James T
Just a quick note Mr. Bell to say thank you for the great environment
you create for folks at your shop! Canon loves coming to play there,
and he always comments on how awesome and generous you are -
I love it when my kids get to spend time around folks
that are such great examples of how to be good in life.
Thank you for that! What you're doing over there has real impact
and blessings for the world.

MON 4:54 PM
Bell's Gaming Center
Thank you James! It means a lot to me when I get feed back like this.
Sometime I wonder if we are making a difference or just wasting our time.
If you really want to thank me, tell other people what you just wrote here
and give me permission to post this message on our social media sites.

TUE 8:00 AM
James T
Absolutely sir! Share it anywhere, and I'll do the same
​- gotta keep good shops like yours in good business! ​

Summer Slam Information.
Format Modern
Summer Slam 2019 is free entry,
You must Qualify to play in Summer Slam.
How to Qualify-
Summer slam Qualifiers.
We run Modern Monday and Fridays at 7:30pm $6 Entry.
Any of these events that has 8 or more players counts.
You earn Summer Slam 2019 Qualifer points in these Modern events based on the points you earn during the event.

The Friday War of the Spark was Legal to play is when we started keeping track of Summer Slam 2019 Qualifier points.
3 points for a Match Win.
1 point for a  Match Draw.
0 points for a Match Loss.
Larger events that are 4 or 5 rounds are more valuable because you have extra rounds to win points.
Tie Breakers
If 2 or more players finished tied in DCI points. The payer with the least amount of losses win the tie breaker.
If you finish in the top 15 in the points standngs you qualify to play in the summer slam 2019.
SUMMER SLAM 2019
will be Single Elimination matches.
Each elimination match is the player that wins 2 games 1st.
You can not get a draw. A winner must be declared each round.
How does the store pay for summer slam prizes?
Starting May 20th. The store will take $1 per player in Modern entry fees to help pay the cost of the prizes.
What are the prizes?
1st place is the Modern Champion of Bell's Gaming Center.
AKA Summer Slam 2019 Champion.
1st place wins free modern entry every Monday and Friday for 6 months (September 2019 to March 2020)
The potential prize of over $300 if all events are attended by the champion.
2nd place prize is still to be determined.
It will be some amount of store credit or Pack prize Equivelent.
3rd-4th place prize similar to 2nd but a smaller amount.
5th-8th place prize similar to 3rd-4th but a smaller amount.
9th - 16th a crisp high five.

Mythic is the Highest rank you can Achieve in MTG Arena.
I hit Mythic in February and I wanted to go mythic 2 months in a row. But after doing it 1 month and proving to myself that I can do it. I wasn't as driven to get there the 1st half of the month of March.
If you end a month in Mythic. You begin the Next month in Platinum Tier 4. To level up 1 tier you have to have 6 mores wins than Losses. Every win moves you 1/6 of the way to leveling up to  higher Tier. But. Every Loses lowers you 1/6 and you come that much closes to leveing DOWN.
So to regain Mythic I would have to have 48 more wins than Loses for the Month of March to regain Mythic Status.
Tiers of MTG Arena
Bronze lowest level Tier 4
Bronze Tier 3
Bronze Tier 2
Bronze Tier 1
Silver Tier 4
Silver Tier 3
Silver Tier 2
Silver Tier 1
Gold Tier 4
Gold Tier 3
Gold Tier 2
Gold Tier 1
Platinum Tier 4
Platinum Tier 3
Platinum Tier 2
Platinum Tier 1
Diamond Tier 4
Diamond Tier 3
Diamond Tier 2
Diamond Tier 1
Mythic Highest level

​ I tried several decks because I like to have fun while playing. I don't like gettting burned out on a competitive deck. But each deck I tried wasn't really getting me anywhere and each decks weakness was exposed early and often. None of them could get me out of Platinum and into Diamond. No matter what Deck I played it was 2 steps forward and 2 steps back.
Different versions Black White control and Izzet Wizards was what I was trying out.
I decided to go back to my 1st love from 1996. Mono Black. I like the Diversity and power that Mono black can produce. The jack of all trades and master of none is my style. Improvise adapt and overcome. Be creative with what you have to achieve more with less.
So I trided Mono Black. At this point I am playing the Mono black version I posted earler in the week. No sword Point Diplomacy. 3x Duress and 3x Fungal infection. 15 land and 4 Murder.
I got to Diamond tier 4 around Sunday March 23. My goal was to go up 1 tier every day and go mythic. Monday I ended the night a Diamond Tier 2 with 1/6 wins to diamnond tier 1. but then Wednesday Happened. On wednesday I went on to lose 13 games in a row to opponents always top decking everything they needed 13 straight games. Yeah, it was frustrating. I got to the point of the gambler at the table betting black on the roulette wheel and red came up 13 straight times. And instead of just taking a break and coming back to fight another day I just kept double downing it and losing. I stopped the skid at diamond tier 4 with zero wins by switching to Rob's version of mono blue(plus X1 negate plus Dive down x1 minus x2 Mist merfolk unblockable guy). Yes I was one more loss away from dropping to platinum.
With Mono Blue I went on a winning streak and got to diamond tier 1 with 5 wins on Friday. Yes 1 win away from Mythic for 2 straight months.Then it happened. Friday Night I went on to 11 straight losses. 3 of them I probably punted. The other 8 were vs mono red. And Mono red went 1st all 8 games. And I had to mull to 5 in 4 of them...
So back in diamond tier 3 I switched to mono black again and slowly started to grind back.
Saturday march 30th.
So I trided Mono Black and ended up with this version. 
Mono black with 2x sword point diplomacy and 4x duress and 4x fungal infection. Reduced walk the plank and cast down to x3 each. Murder is reduced form x4 to x2.
I played all night Saturday night/Sunday morning after I closed the shop. I went home at 930am after I posted that I made diamond tier 1 this morning. By the time the store opened and I got our two events going it was 1:46 pm. I played a rattled off 4 wins in a row and time ran out as you can see in the 1st image after the decklist. That profile image is where I was at 1:59pm today. 2 wins short of platinum. 2:00pm today was the deadline. So I started a game to see what happens if it finished after the deadline. As you can see in the victory image. I did not get credit for the win.
I ended up 2 wins short of platinum. I got there with both mono blue (went From Diamond Tier 4 with 0/6 wins to Diamnond tier 1 with 5/6 wins to mythic) and mono black(went from Diamond Tier 3 with 0/6 wins to Diamond tier 1 with 4/6 wins to mythic). So doing that with 2 different decks makes me happy that it wasn't just the deck that got there.
The rest of the images are my final ranking and rewards and my starting rank for the new season.

 To level up 1 tier you have to have 6 mores wins than Losses. Every win moves you 1/6 of the way to leveling up to  higher Tier. But. Every Loses lowers you 1/6 and you come that much closes to leveing DOWN.
Tiers of MTG Arena
Bronze lowest level Tier 4
Bronze Tier 3
Bronze Tier 2
Bronze Tier 1
Silver Tier 4
Silver Tier 3
Silver Tier 2
Silver Tier 1
Gold Tier 4
Gold Tier 3
Gold Tier 2
Gold Tier 1
Platinum Tier 4
Platinum Tier 3
Platinum Tier 2
Platinum Tier 1
Diamond Tier 4
Diamond Tier 3
Diamond Tier 2
Diamond Tier 1
Mythic Highest level
TLDR
Izzet wizards goes MYTHIC on 4th try at 5/6 wins at Diamond 1 tier.
Wow. I ripped off 5 wins in a row to start the night. Finished 10-4 to rank up.
Shot #1. Mull to 5 on the draw and was 4 damage away from going 6-0 through diamond tier 1 to Mythic. All I have to do is untap. I have 2 electrostatic fields out and burn in hand. Then my opponent rakdos theater of pain just went off. I felt sick to my stomach. Like the magical run was over. Record 5-1 plus 4.
I proceeded to win my next game for shot #2. Lost. Horribly to a golgari Krasis deck But hey I got to go 1st and mull to 5 and keep a garbage hand. I go 1st about 1/5 games or less. I know you don't believe it. But the other night I played 24 games. Was on the draw 20 of them and went 13-11. Record 6-2 plus 4.
Feeling down at getting curb stomped I proceed to lose another close game. Seriously feeling like I blew my best chance at shot #1. Am I just going to bounce between 3-4-5 wins and never get there? Record 6-3 plus 3.
I won 2 in a row for shot number #3. I am as usual on the draw. So in typical fashion after a couple of wins in a row....I mull to 6 and drew a garbage 2 mana do nothing hand but I don't want to mull to 5 with 19 land deck. Lose to Izzet drakes with tons of counter spells. Record 8-4 plus 4
I win and get shot #4 vs gates. A good match up as I can go all in damage to the face and not worry about killing dudes. Yep on the draw. But I have a good hand. I punt horribly and don't do 4 extra damage. I cast goblin electromancer instead of casting shock. The shock in graveyard would give my 2 lava runners +1/+0. So I attack for 2 with my 2 lava runners still at 1/2. My opponent then gates ablaze to wipe my board. So now I have no creatures instead of electromancer in hand. And I have done 4 less damage. I got opponent down to 6 with shock and risk factor in hand and electrostatic field in play. I am super irritated that they should be at 2. So I cast risk factor. And this gate deck SYNCOPATED my risk factor. They go to 5. I don't even get to recast risk factor because it gets exiled.
The next turn I rip a shock. So I cast shock #1. It resolves putting them to from 5 to 2 with electrostatic field trigger. I cast shock #2... they didn't have the counter spell. I am waiting for my shock to resolve to to rank up. And my opponent taps 4 mana and casts chemsters insight with counter mana still available. My opponent is at 1 on shocks cast trigger of electrostatic field. I have no cards in hand. This is it. Do I level or lose to gates miracle come back. My opponent wiffs and drawing a counterspell and I rank up! Record 10-4.

Attention Board Gamers
We carry Several of the top 100 rated games on board game geek.
#1 Gloomhaven
#2 Pandemic Legacy Season 1
#3 Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
#4 Terraforming Mars
#5 Twilight Struggle 
#6 Star Wars: Rebellion
​#7 Scythe
#8 Gaia Project
#9 Great Western Trail 
#10 Twilight Imperium
#11 Terra Mystica
#12 The Castles of Burgundy 
#14- 7 Wonders: Duel
#18 Arkham Horror: The Card Game
#19 Viticulture
#21 Caverna: The Cave Farmers
#25 Mansions of Madness
#30 A Feast for Odin
#32 Star Wars: Imperial Assault
#37 Azul Origianl Game
Extemely Popular Azul: Stained Glass stand alone Expansion
#45 - 7 Wonders
#54 Eldritch Horror
#62 Time Stories
#72 Dead of Winter a crossroads game
#75 Pandemic
#78 Root
#79 Descent Journeys in the Dark second Edition
#90 A Game of Thrones Board game 2nd Edition
#97 Ticket to Ride: Europe
#106 Captain Sonar
#123 Splendor
#135 Ticket to Ride
#143 Carcassonne
#177 Mysterium
#196 Small World
Betrayal Legacy
We also have Family Favorites 
Port Royal, Simon's Cat, and Zombie Dice!

Bell's Gaming Center
Now Stocks the highest rated family games on there own shelf.
"Family Games" Category Ranking on Board game geek.
#01- Azul
#02- 7 Wonders
#03- Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure
#04- Patchwork
#06- Pandemic
#07- Stone Age
#08- Code Names Duet
#09- Santorini
#10- Ticket to Ride: Europe
#11- Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries 
#12- Jaipur
#13- Sagrada
#15- Splendor
#17- Ticket to Ride 
#18- Sushi Go Party!
#21- Carcassonne: Base Game
#27- Mysterium
#31- Small World
#34- Takenoko
Board Game Geek Reference
https://boardgamegeek.com/familygames/browse/boardgame… 
​

Sean Piloted his Death's Shadow deck to victory.
1st place won a box of Ravnica Allegiance
Sean "Death's Shadow" Qualified for winter slam and a shot a taking the belt away from the immovable Object.
2nd place won a Ravnica Allegiance Bundle
3rd place won a free Pre release entry to Ravnica Allegiance
4th place won a free Pre release entry to Ravnica Allegiance
5th-8th place won 2 packs of Ravnica Allegiance