The Wrap Up (The Final Nagoya Hobby Store profile and current metagame)

It’s been a lot of work going around town and collecting the information about all the hobby/card stores in Nagoya, but now it’s finally coming to an end. Today’s store is the other Hobby Station store, located near Nagoya station. It’s another Hobby Station branch, so the selection and prices (as well as buy prices for your cards) are going to be the same. The big difference will probably be in stock since it is a smaller store. You’ll most likely find more things at the store located in Osu on Akamon street (see past profile posts to read information about the other Hobby Station). What makes this Hobby Station unique is it’s location. All of the others are pretty much located in the Sakae/Osu shopping district center. If you live on the JR line near Nagoya and you’re looking for a place where you can quickly get back on the train after a game and head back home then Hobby Station Meitetsu Eki is your store. Magic the Gathering and Yugi-oh seem to be the main draws to this place, with the majority of case space going to both of these games. You can buy boosters for a variety of games her as well, with the prices pretty much standard (meaning nothing special, no good deals, etc.). They hold Friday Night Magic every week, and also have Legacy, Modern, and other various standard tournaments each month. Turn out is usually pretty good for the weekends events, usually pulling in 14+ people. The place itself is kind of small and cramped. On game days it can get pretty packed. The playing space is a decent size as well, but on games days it can get packed as well.

Hobby Station #2 out near Nagoya Station

The store is located on the backstreets so you might find it a little difficult to get to the first time. I’ll do my best to give you landmarks and the fastest route there. From Nagoya station go to the Taiko Dori side. This is the side with Bic Camera across the street (if you can’t read Katakana, look for the big building with the names of many electronic companies on its side). It’s probably best to cross the street and get on the same side as Bic Camera. Turn left after crossing the street and walk down the main road AWAY from Bic Camera. After a few minutes of walking you’ll see a stoplight with a Mini Stop convenience store at one of the corners. Take a right at this intersection and walk down to the next stoplight. You should pass both a Sukiya (beef bowl place) and a Lawson convenience store on this road. Once you get to that next light, turn right, crossing the street. On the other side keep walking straight and you should see the tiny Hobby Station store on your left side. I missed it a few times at first due to it’s small size, so be careful. If you are on the same street as Animate, you need to go over one more block.  Hopefully these directions will suffice, but if you need better ones, don’t be afraid to call the store.

The main reason to go to Hobby Station Mei Eki is if you need to get your MTG fix on the weekends. They do a good job of spacing out the tournaments between this branch and the other one in Osu, so that they don’t overlap. You could go to one tournament here one week, and then another one in Osu the following week. And with that I will wrap up the coverage of Hobby and Card stores in Nagoya.

UPDATE: Selling Cards at Hobby Station Meitetsu Eki 

If you want to sell cards at Hobby Station Mei Eki, here’s some information. They buy both current standard play cards as well as older cards however, unlike the Osu Kannon Hobby Station, they do not have a visible buy list. Sometimes they have the lists of “buy” cards on the walls back near the play area, but I’m not 100% sure.  It wouldn’t hurt to bring in popular cards and see what you can get for it. The prices will probably be similar to the other Hobby Station stores, but it all depends on their supply/selection. This store has less than the Osu Hobby Station store. Most of the cards they are buying are rares or mythic rares, but occasionally they will buy commons and uncommons depending on their popularity at the time.  As with any store you sell to, be sure to bring an ID. This can be a foreigner card, a Driver’s License, and even your passport. Even if you’re just visiting the area on vacation from overseas, it wouldn’t hurt to see if you can make some extra cash. You might make a nice profit with the Japanese yen being so strong right now!

Don’t know Japanese? Say this “Card oh ooritai (I want to sell cards). “Card oh Miite kudasai!” (please look at my cards). Good luck selling!

I hope you found the profiles useful and the directions weren’t too confusing. I look forward to playing against you if you decide to play in any events this year in Nagoya. Before I finish I’d like to quickly review the stores once more with their weak/strong points, and also drop a few opinions about the current metagame.

STORE WRAP UP REVIEW:

• Card Brunch: + good promo cards, M&F game nights – lack of singles, limited booster packs
• Amenity Dream: +spacious, well organized, tons of singles, Thursday matches and weekends sometimes – prices are a little high (both for singles and boosters), buy prices are kinda low too.
• Big Magic: + lots of older cards, decent selection, lots of boosters in both Japanese and English, weekly Sunday matches, decent buy prices – kinda dirty (the tablecloths need to be cleaned I think), space for FNM and Booster drafts are limited (players are selected at random, NOT on a first come first served basis)
• Yellow Submarine: + board games!, lots of boosters, cheap accessories with good variety – doesn’t hold many events for MTG, single card selection is so so
• Phase: + near JR line (Chikusa) if you’re coming from the countryside – limited singles selection, limited booster pack selection
• Hobby Station (OSU): +big game turnouts, weekend matches, huge playing space, decent singles selection – buy prices are hit and miss, accessories are kind of limited, have to go back to the 1st floor (from the 4th) for the bathroom
• Hobby Station (Nagoya Mei Eki): +located near the JR lines, decent turn outs for matches – kind of small and cramped, out of the way if you don’t live near it

Current Nagoya Metagame

I don’t know how everybody else is doing this weekend, but I’ve seen a change from last weeks Spirit/Tokens deck. The spirits no longer rule the boards thanks to Whipflare and other board cleaners. Although I did play against one Token deck (which wiped the board with me thanks to his Increasing Devotion flashbacked . . .), I’ve seen a lot more people using Birthing Pod with Undying creatures lately. It makes total sense, and coupled with Morbid it can be pretty nasty. If you don’t have a Grafdigger’s Cage, you better get one. It’s going to be an incredibly useful in the coming weeks. Other great cards to have are Mimic Vats (removes undying creatures before they have time to come back) and Red Sun Zenith’s (remove creatures from the game if they go to the graveyard). The mentioned cards are probably a cheaper substitute to the Cage, but they are still just as effective. I’ve also seen some pretty powerful WolfRamp cards running Huntmaster of the Fells. But the key point in taking out both of these decks is killing their mana producers quickly and stopping that Birthing Pod. I went 2-3 today at Hobby Station, barely losing two of them but getting blown out in none of them. With a little more tweaking my deck will be able to handle whatever people throw at me.

Thanks again for reading. With spring coming soon, I’m hoping to do some articles on the Chunichi Dragons when baseball season starts, as well as soccer and sumo in the summer. I’m also looking forward to finding some live music houses around here and sharing them so that people kind find music they like and rock out :D. Be sure to check back from time to time! See you again!