01/06/2026
🚀 Mena Game Lounge: 2026 Roadmap 🚀
Happy New Year, everyone! We hope you all had an amazing holiday break.
If you haven’t made a New Year’s Resolution yet, might I suggest: "Visit my favorite local game store more often"? It’s a lot easier to stick to than a gym membership, and way more fun. 😉
First, a major service update:
For those asking—we have officially launched as an Amazon Returns Hub!
We’ve been an Amazon Partner in Mena for about a year and a half delivering packages, but now we can accept returns right here at the shop. It took months of logistics to pull this together, but we are proud to bring this service to the community. It's live, it's free, and we are ready to help.
Community Shoutouts:
We have to give a massive thank you to the Clean Team (the 9 legends who helped us deep clean/inventory the store) and the Potluck Crew (18 people!) who rang in the New Year with D&D. You guys are the heartbeat of this shop.
The 2026 Roadmap: What’s Coming Next?
📅 For the Collectors:
Starting in February, we are launching Pokémon Trade Night on the 3rd Sunday of every month (2pm-6pm).
Bring your binders, complete your sets, and trade safely with community guidance.
📅 For the Players:
Warhammer: Christian is running casual Learn-to-Play & Painting sessions on Saturdays starting at 2:15pm. Plus, a massive order of Official Warhammer 40k Stock is landing this month.
Lorcana & Sunday School: We are hosting Learn-to-Play Sessions every Sunday starting at 2pm! If you’ve been curious about the Disney TCG (or want to learn Chess/Magic), this is the perfect low-stress time to jump in. (And for our vets: The Set Championship is Jan 25th!).
Dungeons & Dragons: Tables are open every Wednesday night. Eli and Scott are running alternate weeks for their respective campaigns. Looking to learn how to play? Come stop by and spectate on a Wednesday evening!
Magic: The Gathering:
FNM & Late Night Commander (Saturdays) continue as always.
New League (Tuesdays): Once the current Sealed League wraps, we are launching a 1v1 Non-Meta Duel-Commander League. It’s the perfect chance to take the cards you earned in the Sealed League and upgrade them into a competitive deck!
📅 Thursday Night Update:
We originally planned to launch a "Chess Knights" league this month. However, we love seeing the gaming community grow, and we see that a local community group is starting up a meet-up of their own!
To support the community and avoid splitting the player base, we are shifting Thursdays to "Lounge Night."
The Vibe: Open Tables, Board Games, Pool, and yes—Casual Chess is still welcome!
We are hitting "pause" on the official store league for now to let the new community group find its footing. For now, Thursdays are just about hanging out.
👀 One More Thing...
This is just the start. We have some massive plans in the works for later in 2026 that we can't talk about just yet... but let's just say you're going to want to keep an eye on this page. 🤫
Check the graphic below for the full Weekly Schedule breakdown! 👇
P.S. The 2026 Hype Watch: 🚂
If you thought last year was big, check out what’s landing this year:
Magic: The Gathering: We kick off with Lorwyn Eclipsed on Jan 23rd!
Look out for: Secrets of Strixhaven (April), Marvel Super Heroes (June), The Hobbit (August), and Star Trek (November). It’s going to be a massive year for collectors.
Disney Lorcana:
Q1: Get ready for Winterspell! ❄️
Q2 Milestone: We are thrilled to announce that starting in Q2, we will host our First Official Pre-Release Event featuring actual Pre-Release Kits! No more just cracking packs—you get the full kit experience.
Warhammer 40k:
One last reminder—our Massive Stock Drop lands THIS MONTH. Whether you need a new army or just fresh paints, we’ll be fully stocked and ready for Saturday skirmishes.