Nagoya MTG Stores: Hobby Station Osu No. 2 and Card Company/TCG 193

I haven’t done a store review in a while and that’s because I haven’t been traveling as much as I used to for MTG due to high tournament prices and time constraints. However, today I’m happy to say that I have two new stores for my readers that just opened in Nagoya. You would have thought that the market here was saturated, but it seems like MTG continues to grow in Nagoya and I wouldn’t be far off by saying that the Osu Kannon/Kamimaezu area is now in direct competition with the Den Den Town/Nipponbashi area of Osaka. There is such as large concentration of stores in the area that you can spend a day here looking through all the stores and still not be able to finish. It’s not become a 2 day trip to Nagoya for MTG.

Today I’ll be talking about the two newest stores to Nagoya: TCG 193 Osu and Hobby Station Osu No. 2.

 

TCG 193 Osu/Card Company

 

I had previously talked about Card Company about a year ago, and if you want to see the previous article feel free to click on this link but be warned that all of the product has been moved into TCG 193 and that Card Company is mainly for play space. The location is still the same, so you can use the same directions I previously posted or you can take an alternate route that I will post in today’s article.

 

As I said above, the Card Company building has since turned entirely into a play space. On both the 2nd and 3rd floors you can find plenty of space for tournaments, free play, and just hanging out. Each floor has space for about 40 people, which means you could have a total of 80+ people here for a PPTQ or pre-release in the future. If you’ve ever visited Magic stores in Osu before then you’ll know that play space is at a premium. Amenity Dream, Yellow Submarine, Hobby Station Osu on Akamondori, and Big Magic are usually packed on weekends and at nights, so this play space for 80+ people is very much welcome. It’s well lit, clean, and spacious. Definite plus.

 

TCG (Trading Card Game) 193 isn’t just for MTG, and you’ll be able to find a number of other cards at this store as well, such as Yugi-Oh on the first floor. It’s not tight or cramped like some stores you’ll find in Tokyo or Osaka, and it’s very well organized. You should have no problem looking for singles here.

 

Speaking of singles, the merging of both Card Company and TCG 193’s stock has created quite a good selection of cards through all formats. Standard, Modern, Legacy, you name it. Their prices are very competitive so if you’re searching for some good deals or trying to get something a little bit cheaper than everyone else in town, check them out. Half of the time you should be able to find some deals.

 

Directions

 

Now that Card Company has been around for a while I’ve found a slightly more direct route to the store that should be much easier to find. Just as before, you’ll start at exit 9 of Kamimaezu subway station on the Tsurumai line (blue line) and Meijo Line (purple line). You can get to Kamimaezu station by taking the Higashiyama subway line (yellow line) from Nagoya station to Sakae, then transferring to the purple Meijo line going counterclockwise towards Kanayama.

From the top of the stairs at exit 9, you’ll want to turn left instead of walking straight. Taking left will have you walking past a temple on your right side and up ahead you’ll see a stoplight. Go to the stop light and take a right. You’ll see a Circle K convenient store on the corner on the right side. Once you’re on this street, walk straight for about a block or so until you pass the Osu shopping street intersecting it. Just after the main shopping street intersection you should see TCG 193/Card Company on your left side. Hopefully this is easier to understand. It should take no longer than about 7 minutes on foot.

 

Hobby Station Osu No. 2

 

This store kind of came as a shock to me any a lot of other people I know. Hobby Station already has 3 stores in the immediate Nagoya area, and this makes number 4. What’s really interesting about it is that it’s on the main shopping street of the Osu Shopping Arcade which means there will be a lot of traffic there, especially on the weekends.

“If you build it, they will come”. Nobody is complaining and I think the growing size of the Nagoya TCG market, including MTG should be able to support it.

 

The size of the store is impressive. It’s incredibly deep and has a lot of product, including a play space on the 2nd floor for about 40 players or so. Since the store just started they won’t be holding any big tournaments any time soon, but they should be able to level it up soon enough and start hosting a lot of events. This store, as well as TCG 193 in Osu, should go a long way of reducing the congestion in the play spaces in the area. My friends and I are always looking for a place to casually draft, cube, or play EDH and now the chance we can find space to play is exponentially better.

 

Hobby Station never struggles for product, including singles. Being a new store, it’s packed with it, including a good deal of foils. They have a few large boxes of bulk singles as well you can look through. The prices aren’t anything special. You’ll find some cards that are overpriced but occasionally find something underpriced like EDH or casual cards. The Magic cards are located in the back area of the first floor of the store. This store also has a large amount of Yugi-oh and Pokemon cards.

 

Directions

This store is much easier to find than any of the other stores I’ve talked about on my blog. Just like with Card Company, you’ll want to go to exit 9 of Kamiemaezu station, but instead of turning left you’ll go straight. From Exit 9 walk straight until you pass a Starbucks on your left side. You should see the main entrance to the shopping road on your left side just after Sbux. Turn left, and walk for about a minute and you’ll see Hobby Station Osu No. 2 on your left side. Very easy to get to and in close proximity to Amenity Dream about 50 meters away.

 

Final Thoughts

It’s always nice having more choices, but its even better to have more players and more options for places to play. I’m looking forward to seeing the MTG community grow here in Nagoya and I think in the near future it will be on par with Osaka as far as number of active players. Both places are worth checking out so be sure to plan a trip to Nagoya sometime in the future to spend a day looking through Magic cards! If you have any questions or comments about these stores or the directions, please let me know down below! Thanks for reading.