State of Stevenson

State of Stevenson

It’s hard to believe that this is the 2-year mark for the store. First and foremost, thank everyone that continues to support the store by playing in events and purchasing product through me. This is a pretty challenging climate to maintain a LGS, and I am fortunate for those that continue to support week in and week out, I’m incredibly humbled and grateful.

Within the last year, we have seen what I believe to be the tail end of the “COVID” games and are going to settle back into “normal” times. Games with big developers behind them and strong intellectual properties will thrive and those that are newer or are leaning on stale IPs will lag. A lot of games have been able to establish themselves during this time and Hasbro’s complete dropping of the ball with MTG. Moving forward, I suspect that some of the games that are out now will be facing uphill battles as they fight for store representation and player bases due to a lot of overlapping of games types.

MTG still remains the bellwether for all games, and during economic downturns, players tend to “return home” – meaning they sell off from other games to play the stable MTG, no matter the state of the game. A good way to think of MTG is the Gold Bar of TCGs – when the economy is crazy, people convert stock to gold – same thing here. I would expect to see a lot of collections of other games hitting the markets soon – so be aware of deals that could be around.

In-Store Game Discussion

As per normal, I am going to give my rundown of the games in store and what the future looks to hold for them and my support. This is going to be a tad longer than last year due to picking up some games and talking about ones on the horizon.

• Altered: This is a game that is on the radar for 2024. The group that is developing this game has an incredible track record in the board game sphere and looks to be putting forth an intriguing TCG. There are still a few outstanding questions regarding the game and how it will work for organized play, but I’m very hopeful. I suspect it will be a slower catching game with myself and Games and Stuff likely being the only local stores to initially support it. I’m excited for it and we will be finding a regular time for it.

• Battle Spirits Sage: In Japan, this is Bandai’s flagship game with a long history, however, it hasn’t quite yet translated to the US markets. A variety of mishaps ranging from pushing stores to over-order, lack of in-store play incentive, and (for lack of better words) a long bad meta has turned a lot of people off for the game. Set 3 will be releasing shortly and fully introducing the color pie to the game. Bandai has made banned and restricted changes to the meta that is likely to address the problems, however, at this point, the game is stagnate until the next set releases due to a dead meta. We will be resuming play again on Set 3 release. Set 4 is the first big collab set with the Evangelion property, which could get some new eyes on the game. If we are not able to maintain a consistent player base on Tuesdays, I will no longer be supporting the game. I have already taken a loss on this due to being stuck with product that people aren’t purchasing; I am hoping for the game to pick up, I think it is one of the best designed games in the market and probably the one I spend the most time deck building with.

• Flesh and Blood: As many of you all know, this is my main game. I cannot express how much I enjoy this game and the mechanics of it, I highly recommend it to everyone. A major issue with this game is the race to the bottom when new sets release. Moving forward, I will be discontinuing selling FAB singles in store, and will be putting all singles on TCG Player/store website only. For sealed product, I will be dramatically reducing the amount I am purchasing and will be taking pre-orders for all sets moving forward – if you think you will want product, please pre-order. Armory turnouts generally are lower than I would like, which disincentives people to come if they expect only the same 2-3 people to show. In the short term we will be dealing with RTN seasons, so I expect the turnout to be lower then. If the demand for in-store sales continues at this level, I will no longer support the game in store. This is a tough decision for me, however, I need to ensure that the store can continue to thrive for those players that support the store through ordering through us and coming to regular events and not merely premier events; we will be evaluating looking forward. Similar to BSS, I hope the game picks up locally for us and I will be doing whatever I can to drive players to the store, however, we could be in a situation that there are enough stores for local players.

• Grand Archive: This falls into a similar lane as Battle Spirits; the game was recently released and has been plagued by a stagnate meta game. The developers are doing a lot of the right things with the game and I am excited to see where it ends up. For our shop in particular, the level of interest has been not exceptionally high. We have a few players that have decks, however, there hasn’t been much of an interest to make it more than causal. I will be putting feelers out regarding the game moving forward – if we can get a time that works regularly for people who are interested in the game I will schedule it, otherwise we will be cutting it from the store. I’m excited to see how the recent B&R announcements shake up the meta and spark more interest in the game.

• Lorcana: This has been the break out game of 2023. Aside from obvious supply issues, the game is relatively well balanced and threads the needle of easy to play and learn, but offers a lot of strategic depth. I’m hoping to see an increase of supply for product moving into next year. This game has a lot of room to grow; we will definitely be sticking with it. Set 2 is likely to be highly allocated, like Set 1. Both sets are already slated for a reprint – so I highly advise against buying over inflated boosters at these prices.

• Magic the Gathering: The store generally doesn’t have a MTG crowd, nor are we fighting for one. Hasbro has done some positive things for most stores by eliminating set boosters, however, in my opinion, this completely kills the draft environment for the game. I understand why their decision was made, but they have effectively killed my favorite format of the game. I will no longer be purchasing MTG product unless pre-ordered.

• One Piece: This game has continued to surge since last year. I am excited to see the game continue to grow and how the meta is (slowly) starting to shift. The game is doing well and I see no signs of it slowing down. We added a second day of the week to run the game due to its popularity – that says a lot.

• Pokémon: While we do not currently have a day for in-store Pokémon play, it is something that is on the radar. Additionally, Kurt is working on putting together a Pokémon bootcamp, if you will, to assist tournament aspirational players to improve their strategies and deck building decisions. We will be starting this at the beginning of next year with more information to follow. It is a unique thing that no other stores are currently undertaking, so definitely excited on that front.

• Shadowverse: This game falls into the similar lane of BSS/GA etc, as a JP game that is focused on reducing randomization and rewarding play. Currently the SVE weekly Friday group hovers between 4-12 depending on the day. Hoping to see the player base continue to grow, this game is insanely popular in Japan, and I expect it to continue to pick up steam as more people learn about it. As more stores order, I will likely be reducing the amount of “extra” product I get and will be focusing on having accurate pre-order amounts. Game is great; if you haven’t, check it out.

• Sorcery: This is a kind-of new game that will be coming out at the end of this year. The Alpha launch of this product was a great success, and with the Beta release coming, and allowing for drafting, that will unlock another exciting way to play the game. A lot of people have expressed interest in this one, I am hoping to see the game grow – this a casual game - and truthfully plays more like a board game. We have demo decks in store for people to check it out, excited to see where the game goes moving forward. This is currently slotted for every other Saturday, but if interest remains high, we could add another night or shift to a day that would allow weekly turnout.

• Star Wars Unlimited: This one is hot off the presses from Fantasy Flight Games. Many people who have been around the LCG space has played FFG games – such as LOTR, Netrunner, Arkham Horror, etc. They are a company that puts out great products – however, they have a bad reputation with competitive games such as Star Wars Destiny. In checking out the game, it seems like another well done game from FFG, and I will be dipping my toe in it, but it will be on a short leash initially. A contact I have a FFG told me they are currently already developing the 7^th set of the game, so they have put a lot of time and focus into this game knowing they have bridges to mend. I expect to have more information about ordering at the beginning on the year.

• Universe (MHA): This one is a bit hard to evaluate at the moment. UVS is overhauling (pun intended) a lot of it corporate structure ranging from distribution to OP and everything in between. They will be branching out from the My Hero umbrella and bring back some of the older IPs they have had the rights to, such as Trigun and Cowboy Bebop. I ordered a bit much of this game initially, so I will be scaling back and focusing more on pre-orders. We have a dedicated group who play on Wednesday nights, if you want to learn the game swing by and they will teach you. It is a very unique game.

• Weiss Schwarz: I have already mentioned that I will be scaling back the ordering for this game into the future to exclusively pre-orders. The game is great, however, it hasn’t quite caught on at the store since some of the players we able to get a more local store to them to begin supporting the game. This suffers a similar fate as Flesh and Blood in that players generally will purchase boxes at wholesale prices, or get base rarity play sets from SP chasers. Currently, people play it casually after Wixoss events every other week, and we suspect it will stay there unless there is a play group the forms and would like another day for it. We will continue to run Shop Challenges in the future, but will likely be increasing entry cost and increasing prizing to assist in filtering through product we currently have.

• Wixoss: This has been one of my favorite games since the store has opened, and truly is a cornerstone of the store. If you haven’t checked out the game, now is a fantastic time to hop in. With the next set P11 coming at the beginning of December, effectively every set that releases afterwards has a new exciting mechanic or playstyle. We also have a fantastic community that plays everything from meta decks to strategies that people think are fun. One of the best games in the store – hands down. I would run it every night if I could.

Misc.

• Moving: We are currently looking for a spot to move that makes sense for our store and the games we support. Due to the smaller amount of volume that the games we host tend to do, if we move to too large of a store, we could be in a bad spot. We are actively looking for a space that could seat 24 players as we feel that is the sweet spot for the number of players we get and could expect to have for weekly events.
• Other Games: There have been some request regarding if the store would be willing to run events for a particular game – such as Vanguard or Yu-gi-oh. At this point in time, I would be open to it with a caveat. I have attempted to start a scene for Yu-gi-oh and was not able to get it started. I am more than willing to give space for players, but I need to ensure there will be a dedicated group, if you feel as if you have 4 or more players that are interested in running weekly events, let me know and we will set up a time for it.
• Other Product Lines: At this point in time, the store is mainly focused on TCGs. Our board game selection is good, however, due to the nature of board games, they generally don’t move as well as other products. We will likely continue to have a board game presence, however, we will be scaling it down and having more of a focus on games that the general local community is looking for. When we end up moving to a larger space, we will take a look other unique product lines that other stores haven’t explored – and that aren’t on Amazon.

If you made it here, thanks for reading through all of that. I am incredibly passionate about maintaining the best atmosphere with the best players around. Pre-order was the overall theme, with the economic situation being what I expect (and with hoping to save for a future move) I need to ensure the product in store is what I need to meet the immediate player demand. I am eager to continue to be the best mini LGS around.

-Larry