Last year my son and I went on an April vacation road trip down to Pennsylvania to visit my parents and my sister's family. It was a rare trip for just the two of us - my wife stayed home - so we took full advantage and stopped at game stores both on the way down and on the way back. This year we decided our first trip was so successful we would do it again, so this week's post is devoted to a recounting of our trip.
The Trip Down
Easter Sunday we rose bright and early, loaded up our luggage into my orange 2004 Honda Element and hit the road.
Our first stop was going to be about 3 hours away and opened at 11:00 am. The roads were incredibly clear because of the holiday so we rolled into New Milford, CT a half hour ahead of schedule.
To kill some time we hit a few stores in a nearby plaza including a WalMart, where we purchased our first Walmart Mystery Booster box. It had five boosters plus a surprise booster, but to nobody's surprise that extra booster had only 6 cards and no foils. I think it was a 2014 core pack and I'm still mystified as to why it had only 6 cards, but I wasn't really surprised that neither of us opened up anything good out of the packs we got.
I generally avoid WalMart whenever possible. There are lots and lots of reasons not to shop there, but I'll resist going into them in detail. Let's just say I manage to limit my visits to once every 3-5 years and even then I feel a little dirty afterwards.
Our disappointing WalMart visit complete, we topped off the gas tank, I scrubbed dead bugs off the windshield and we headed on over to our first destination...
The Goblin's Cavern - New Milford, CT
Hidden in a small professional building was one of the biggest surprises of our trip. At first glance I wasn't even sure there was a store at the location, but I was able to spot their sign and after a little exploring we found the shop we were looking for. It was upstairs and tucked back in a corner of the building - not exactly a great storefront but it was worth the stop.
The Goblin's Cavern has a great selection of comics and miscellaneous stuff, but their card selection was what we were concerned with. They have two tables and a decent assortment of binders. I've got a Ghave deck I'm working on and I was able to quickly find a copy of Earthcraft. I then found a copy of Fecundity, which folks at our LGS inexplicably like to call "Fedunctity". I may carry on that tradition, as I find it pretty amusing. Cryptolith Rite was also fairly easily located and I grabbed something else, but for the life of me I can't recall what it was. I put all four cards directly into Ghave and updated my TappedOut decklist right then and there before we headed out.
The guy behind the counter was personable and we chatted with him and other patrons. It was a little cramped but I would definitely recommend Goblin's Cavern if you are looking to work on a deck and you are in or passing through the area. I can't imagine they have space to have major events or tournaments but it's the kind of place I'd frequent if I was in the area.
The Goblin's Cavern can be found at 221 Danbury Rd in New Milford, CT.
We hit the road again after punching our next destination into my iPhone. We were headed into the city. Not just any city. The City. New York City, but specifically Queens. Last year we stopped in Brooklyn on the way home from PA. The traffic wasn't as bad as I might have feared it would be, so I was game to try it again. As it turns out Easter Sunday is a fine time to go on a road trip and we got around just fine, arriving hungry and a little tired at...
The Geekery HQ - Queens, NY
We stopped in to ask about local pizza and were immediately directed to go check out a place just down the street. It turned out to be closed on Easter so we scrounged up some fast food and headed back to The Geekery to see what we could find.
The place was clean and very nice, but had an underwhelming Magic singles collection. The cards were mostly in long boxes but they had rares in a case. It's possible your average player would be satisfied with their selection, but as an EDH player I like to be able to sort through hundreds of old cards from sets going back to the beginning of the game. Yeah, I'm a difficult customer. I'll admit it.
They told me they do have a monthly EDH tournament, so maybe the local interest in older cards isn't that great. I had picked up a few must-have cards at our previous stop, but still needed to track down a Rhys the Redeemed and an Urbarask the Hidden or two. They didn't have either one.
If you're in the area you should check it out. The Geekery HQ is at 42-11 Broadway Ave in Queens, NY.
They have a really nice shop but it didn't have much that I was interested in for singles. We eventually got back on the road, punched our next destination into my iPhone and headed across town. Our route just happened to take us through Times Square, which was something of a treat. I suspect if it was any other day the drive would have been a nightmare, but it didn't take that long and we soon found ourselves pulling into the...
Aether Game Cafe - Hoboken, NJ
Tucked into a neighborhood right next to Stevens Institute of Technology, the Aether Game Cafe is a cute little coffeehouse with a healthy shot of game store added into the mix. The staff were friendly and welcoming, but we found their selection to be lacking compared to some of the stores we've been spoiled by over the years. They had a few binders and I was able to pick up some cards I'll be able to put to use.
As we were at a cafe, I had to have an iced coffee and it was indeed quite good. After I had rested and had my drink, I hit the binders. There were two - one for eternal formats and one for standard. In the former I found a few cards to pick up.
They had a copy of Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa and I grabbed it for my Ghave deck as it will be trying to make big armies of saprolings. As fate would have it, since then I have reworked my Esper Flyers Partners deck to be Sidar & Ravos Infect, using the Sidar I got from Aether Game Cafe. I also grabbed a couple of Windborn Muses as well as a land, as another goal of this vacation is to upgrade Ghave's mana base. Guildgates are a little embarassing for a "good" deck.
I rounded out my purchase with an Eternal Masters pack and we hit the road.
Before we left the store I opened my booster pack and set my eyes on this little beauty... in FOIL no less.
Karakas is banned in EDH but is worth quite a bit - enough to trade in for some key pieces to other decks or possibly some decent additions to Ghave's mana base! I decided to wait until we hit a store with better selection before trading it in.
The Aether Game Cafe can be found at 519 Washington Street in Hoboken, NJ, and is definitely worth your time to visit - especially if you enjoy a good coffee.
Our last stop on the drive down was chosen because I happen to live on Maplewood Avenue and the store happens to be...
Maplewood Hobby - Maplewood, NJ
We walked in just before 6pm and were delighted to be told that they were still open and weren't about to kick everyone out. It was Easter Sunday and the least surprising thing in the world would have been to find out they were all going home to their families for a holiday dinner.
The store was a bona fide old time hobby shop. They had models, paints, train supplies. I bet there was even model rocket supplies. It felt very old school and I liked it. I grew up making models, so it was fun to wander around and look at all the stuff they had. When I spotted some guys playing a game of cards I quickly identified the game as Magic and just as quickly identified the format as not EDH. The decks were too short.
Still, I'm a chatty fellow so I asked what they had for singles and mentioned that we were EDH players.
Their eyes lit up. We had the attention of all three of the guys at the table, two of whom were knee-deep in a game.
"You wanna play play some EDH?" they asked.
After confirming with my son, as I wasn't sure how tired he was from all of our driving, I responded with something on the order of "Hell yeah!" and the next thing we knew their battlefields, libraries and graveyards had been scooped up and we all retired upstairs to the attic, where there were a half dozen tables waiting for players to put them to use.
My son and I found ourselves at a table with three other guys, seemingly in their 20s although I didn't actually ask. DJ, Kevin and Josh. Of course, I'm bad with names so it might have been DJ, Justin and Josh. Heck, it might have been DJ, Ichabod and Ezekiel or DJ, Bandersnatch and Kumquat, but I know for sure DJ was one of the guys we played with. He sat next to me and had a great attitude, an outsized personality and was a lot of fun to play with.
We'll go with DJ, Kevin and Josh. They were awesome and if you guys read this and I got your names wrong please accept my apologies.
Before we started our game, I offered for them to pick the deck I was going to play. I brought Narset, Sidar/Tana, Ghave, Niv Mizzet, Brion Stoutarm and Saskia. Narset was right out, though after looking at it, one of the guys declared it as not seeming "that strong". I wasn't offended - it isn't that strong compared to some Narset decks. I summed up what each one did, but one of the guys made the mistake of saying that Sidar & Tana also didn't seem that strong. My decision was made - Sidar & Tana was my pick.
I won't go through every turn. DJ was playing Green Omnath. Josh was playing Rhys the Redeemed. Kevin went with... I don't even remember what Kevin was playing. You'll see why in a moment. My son played his Yeva deck, which is mono-green control based on flashing in creatures that can serve as "answers" to boardstate problems.
I was able to play Tana on turn 3, Sidar on turn 4, and swing to make 2 saprolings on both turns 4 and 5. Omnath was in the process of blowing up and someone (DJ?) had cast Collective Voyage so we all had around 18 lands each on the table. We were pulling the train into magical Christmasland and dumb things were going to happen any time now. I dropped an early Authority of the Consuls, so my opponents' creatures entered tapped and I gained a bunch of life over the next 5-6 turns.
I didn't know these guys well but I decided to go for it. Omnath with ridiculous mana is obviously a huge threat. My son is almost always a threat. The other guys had tons of mana, so I had to assume anyone could win the game at any moment.
I had Breath of Fury in my hand but no haste enabler so I couldn't immediately go infinite. I could attach BoF to one of my four saprolings and roll into a series of extra turns. As I made clear what I was about to do my son attempted to blow up the enchantment to keep me from getting out of control - he has seen these shenanigans before. I was able to use Heroic Intervention to stop him and nobody else had any answers. I had been saving that for a boardwipe, but I had to use it.
I was able to pump Tana to 6 power with an instant and had four consecutive combat steps where I sent the saprolings at DJ and Tana at Kevin, as he had no blockers. I dealt 26 damage to DJ with my saprolings and I knocked out Kevin with 24 commander damage from Tana. I now had 32 saprolings in total, the majority of which were untapped. The game wasn't won, but I had at the very least demonstrated that this wasn't a "weak deck" so I was happy.
The game continued a while longer. Omnath kept blowing up, as did my son. Josh was pretty stuck with not much of a boardstate. I'm assuming variance was at fault. I was able to pull off a super ninja play that was fun. I dropped a Windbrisk Heights and put Moment's Peace under it. I then swung on Josh, promising him that he would take no damage. I cracked the hideaway and fogged my own attack. Having the flashbag fog in my graveyard would give me some insurance against future attacks. Unfortunately my son had one in his yard as well. We wound up having a number of turns where players attacked, three of us fogged, and each of us tried to see if there was a path to victory to be found.
I had been hesitating to swing on anyone with my 32 saprolings without a way to pump them but I kept drawing lands instead of cards that would help me seal the win. Eventually I realized - or my son might have pointed out - that I could swing and kill DJ. Of cousre, if I did that I had no way to keep my son from killing me, even with my life total up in the high 70s.
Another game was starting up that DJ wanted to get into and my son and I wanted to hit the road. It was getting past 6pm and we had a bit of a drive before we got dinner. I showed DJ that I had lethal on him.
He didn't see it at first but he was at 12 and only had a few viable blockers. I told him I was NOT going to kill him because I had no way to deal with my son's boardstate so I was going to swing on my son and hope that he would help in that endeavor. As it turns out, I took a chunk of life out of my son and passed the turn. DJ killed both him and Josh - who was already setting up his deck at the second table for the next game - and I in turn killed DJ.
My son confessed that he could have infinitely returned spore frog and kept the game going but he wanted to hit the road. When I say that he always seems to have answers, I'm not kidding - he is a fantastic deckbuilder and player.
So Sidar and Tana won, sort of... but more than anything else it had a good game, we met some great guys and got a game of EDH in.
Maplewood Hobby is at 1970 Springfield Ave in Maplewood, NJ. You should buy all your hobby supplies there and if you drop the magic word "EDH" you might even get in a game! We didn't buy anything at Maplewood, but it was by far the most fun stop of the whole trip down to Pennsylvania.
So, with a great game in hand and food on our minds, we drove to the Clinton Station Diner, had breakfast for dinner and headed to my parents' place. The drive took us nearly twice as long as it should have, but was totally worth it.
Monday Stores
Day two of our LGS vacation started fairly late. My kid is a teenager after all, so while I was up at 6:30, he slept until late and we didn't get going until well after noon. The plan was to hit as many game stores in the Bethlehem / Allentown area and then play EDH that evening at The Portal.
After a quick stop for lunch we found ourselves at...
The Encounter - Allentown, PA
This is a local store near my parents place in Bethlehem that has a ton of comics and collectibles and a pretty good assortment of singles. As fate would have it, they did not have Rhys the Redeemed or Urabrask the Hidden. The Encounter has a wall full of singles binders and a store policy that removing cards from binders only be done by staff.
They have a pretty good selection, but I was unable to find anything I really needed.
I asked what they'd give for a foil Karakas and the answer was $40, $50 in store credit. Given that I was looking to cash that in for Rhys, I passed but I did pick up a bulk rare pack. Of course it had had nothing I'll really want to put into a deck but for $3 it wasn't going to put a major dent in my wallet.
I did get a copy of Providence out of it, however.
One of my lucky numbers is 26 so I've long been fond of that card even if I'd be hard pressed to find a reason to put it into a deck.
Zedruu is the only possible match I can think of and that deck is looking like it might get a rework soon. I suppose you could intentionally handicap yourself at the start of a game but the folks I play against don't need that kind of help to be able to beat me.
The guy who was helping us suggested we go over to a store they are friendly with to see if I could find my Rhys the Redeemed. I wasn't sure we'd be able to and he said that was a shame. He was going to give me a Sundial of the Infinite to bring over. Apparently the owner of this other store collects them and has hundreds of not thousands of the card piled up somewhere. My impression was that it had become something of a running joke between them.
The Encounter is at 811 Union Boulevard in Allentown, PA. If you're in the area, it's absolutely worth visiting.
We headed out, checked the clock, realized we had enough time for an extra stop after all, and set our GPS to take us (sans Sundial) to...
Cloud City Games - Emmaus, PA
This expansive game store looked new. Where The Encounter felt cramped and crowded but had a big room with tables in the back for gaming, Cloud City was one huge room with tables over on the side. A few guys were playing at the time, but I didn't go over to see what game. I think it was Magic, but I was on a mission.
The first thing I did was walk up, introduce myself, and ask if they had Rhys the Redeemed.
They did!
I finally had the bonkers token machine I was looking for to make my Sidar & Tana deck really go crazy. It already wins games, but now it's just that much better.
They also had some of the other cards that I was looking for, and they were willing to offer $40 in store credit for my foil Karakas, so I went for it.
I also picked up a box and two spin-downs (which they threw in for free) and a booster pack of Fallen Empires.
Why did I pick up a booster pack of Fallen Empires?
I think I got it because it was weird, unexpected and only $3. It had a bunch of weird, unexpected cards, probably not worth what I paid for it. Included in the 8 card pack (yes, only 8 cards) were Ebon Stronghold, which is a cute little early ramp that I already have in my Skithiryx deck, and Thelonite Monk, which if I have saprolings to sacrifice, could help deal with players running crazy overpowered lands.
I also found two cards that might be fun for an Atraxa deck: Merseinie and Armor Thrull. Merseine deals in net counters and Armor Thrull lets you put +1/+2 counters on a creature. If I owned an Atraxa I might seriously build "stupid counter type tribal" as goofy, fun take on everybody's favorite keyword-crazy proliferating commander. That might even be worth a blog post on its own.
Cloud City Games is at 1438 Chestnut Street in Emmaus, PA. They had Rhys. They are awesome. You should visit them.
With our second stop of the day complete, we again hit the road - this time bound for EDH night at...
The Portal Comics & Gaming - Bethlehem, PA
We were early, so I worked on a Grenzo deck I'm building and picked up a handful of cards that would help the deck have a chance at being fun and interactive. It might not stand up to really strong decks but with any luck it'll be a fun midrange build with cute interactions and lots of chances to use Grenzo's ability. I added in an Extraplanar Lens along with some double-strike enchantments because Grenzo's ability hinges on combat damage.
Once I had the main deck set up, we retired to the gaming room in the back and chatted up the local players to see if there were games to be had. It was their weekly EDH night and it looked like there were enough other players to get some games in.
Game 1: Ghave
Our first game was a 3 player affair with a guy who was killing time before the store's Modern tournament began. We were fine with him scooping up as soon as they were starting. He played Teferi. I played Ghave and my son played Yeva.
I basically spent a half hour utterly unable to maintain any sort of board-state between being abused by the blue player and being kept down by the green control deck. I made many valiant attempts to even get a few things out but my board was in a pretty sad state by the time our new blue friend was called off to his tournament. I don't recall if there was any leader in the game, but I know for sure it wasn't me. I'd love to see how his Teferi deck would fare against a bigger table. He had a very easy time keeping two opponents off their games. Good guy. Great deck. Not much fun for Ghave, but I'm not giving up hope for him yet.
After the game one of the guys who was watching told me his "first love" in commander was Ghave so I asked him to look over my deck. He has some fantastic suggestions, including adding Aura Shards - which is an all-star in my Sidar & Tana deck. He also said that my build felt "unfocused" and he is correct. I like variety, so it's hard for me to focus a deck down to doing one thing. It's more fun for me to have varied lines of play. I'll be playing Ghave in our EDH League in May so we'll see how that goes and whether I need to tune it more in order to get it to actually win any games.
After that first aborted attempt at a game, we were able to get three other players and have a five player game!
Game 2: Brion Stoutarm
Having won a game the previous day, and not knowing the play level of the local players, I went with Brion Stoutarm. My son played Feldon and we were joined by Simon, Ryan and Dave. Simon played Karona the False God, Ryan played... I don't even remember what Ryan played and Dave played Marath.
Weird thing #1: Somehow I had it in my head that commander damage was damage done by a commander (the card specifically) while controlled by a specific player - so if I controlled Prossh and did 20 damage and then you stole my Prossh and did another 20, that damage would be two distinct totals. I have NO IDEA where I got that into my head, but apparently that is not true. Karona gets passed from player to player, so you have to be VERY careful to not let it get out of hand. If you're out of blockers for just one time around the table you can be dead from commander damage right quick with Karona at the table.
Weird thing #2: This could have been mentioned earlier, as it happened in our Maplewood game, but apparently people haven't gotten the memo that mulligans are Vancouver now. Everyone seems to just want to do Partial Paris mulligans and The Portal was no exception. We didn't argue - when in Rome you play EDH as the Romans play. It still seemed weird that this long after the change we would find so many people not using Vancouver mulligans. I guess folks really like to sculpt their hands.
Weird thing #3: The Marath player was not playing a Marath combo deck. He wasn't playing a Marath aggro deck.
His first card was this:
Water Gun Balloon Game. It's an unglued card. We were confused but not concerned.
Apparently in Rome they like to use unglued and unhinged cards.
Cool. Might have been nice to know ahead of time but it was cool.
Honestly, it makes me think about building a bonkers deck just for places that allow stuff like that.... Still, it was weird to see an unglued card out of nowhere with no question about it being OK to play. I guess I'm used to League play and folks who maybe take such things more seriously.
The actual game went pretty crazy, as Marath was a group hug deck. Before we knew it we had insane amounts of mana. I knocked my son out of the game the turn after he did something to mess with my board. He was right to mess with my board, but Grafted Exoskeleton and Brion Stoutarm can be a dangerous combination and I was able to get 10 infect on him in one swing.
I eventually won after getting out Flamerush Rider and Malignus and using Mob Rule to gain control of everyone's big creatures. Two wins in a row felt good, but this one didn't feel great.
When I had Mob Rule out and everyone's big creatures, one of the other players looked at the board and quickly surmised that I had lethal. When folks do this, I inevitably wind up staring at the cards forever feeling like an idiot because I'm not seeing the path to victory as fast as this other player. In truth, I shouldn't assume people are right when they do this but I always do and then I feel dumb for not seeing it first, but what can you do? I didn't actually have lethal on the table, but after staring at the cards for an embarrassingly long period of time I was able to kill two players. I had a card in hand that I could have used to win that turn but didn't see it. I tend to look for straightforward approaches and don't get lost in abusing (or using) the nooks and crannies of the rules, the stack, layers and all that stuff. I'm not a terrible player but I'm also not a rules guru and some days it's harder than others to see the path through the trees.
So, I felt a little inept at having my opponents watch me stare at my cards for what to me felt like a long time. What can I say. I'd spent maybe 15 hours driving over the past few days. Still, it was fun and after losing a player and picking up another we were on to our last game of the night.
Game 3: Niv Mizzet
After politicking my way to a win the previous day and mob-ruling my way to a win in the previous game, I was not in the mood to whip out Narset and try to wreck a table. My Niv Mizzet deck had been reworked and still hadn't hit some of the cards I really want to play, so I decided to pull it out and give it a spin.
I was playing with my son and three local players - Simon, Lucas and Ryan. My son was piloting his Alesha deck - probably hoping to get me back with a quick Master of Cruelties knockout. Simon was again playing pass-the-commander with Karona. Lucas played... I don't even remember what Lucas played. Ryan played Mayael.
I was playing to win but also playing for fun, so I was not going to try to sneak into a wincon. Early game I played Tandem Lookout and then explained to the table that if I played Tandem Lookout and bonded it to Niv Mizzet and was able to tap Niv, I could combo off.
I basically begged them to disrupt the pieces before I could combo off because the deck had won like that in its previous victory and I was hoping to do something different with it this time around.
The table was unable to do it until I had played Niv and then my son pulled some shenanigans that killed Tandem Lookout and the threat was averted. He always has answers, and I was actually happy this time that I'd have to dig deeper. I got Padeem out fairly early, giving my key artifacts hexproof, and setting me up to get extra card draw.
Simon got out a Notion Thief but he only managed to steal one card draw from me. I had Paradox Engine in my hand along with Sphinx Bone Wand. I was hoping to dig for Isochron Scepter and attach a burn spell to it, but I never got there. I did eventually play Sphinx Bone Wand with enough mana to keep a blue open for Rapid Hybridization in case Akroma was pointed at me.
Mayael got out a 6/6 Dragon that made more 6/6 dragons but I turned it into a frog lizard after Ryan had gotten one dragon, not wanting him to be super mad at me but also not wanting him to get out of control.
Karona had a big impact on play, and every other turn it was something we had to pay attention to. It's a card I may have to look at more closely, as it adds a really interesting dynamic to play.
I was eventually able to outlive all but the Mayael player and then cast Past in Flames to give flashback to all of the instants and sorceries in my graveyard. I proceeded to cast spell after spell, hitting Ryan with the Sphinx Bone Wand damage. That thing is pretty nuts in a deck with tons of instants and sorceries and Past in Flames was what won me the game.
Winning three out of four games - three out of three if you don't count the aborted game one - is a pretty amazing way to spend an EDH themed vacation! The Portal is at 321 Woodlawn Ave in Bethlehem, PA. I highly encourage you to visit it, especially on Monday nights for their drop-in EDH games. Their card selection is also fantastic. As an EDH player, you can't really go wrong stopping in at The Portal.
The next day we spent with my parents. I made one run out to pick up lunch and a copy of Aura Shards at The Portal, but we didn't get back on the LGS road trip until Wednesday, when we drove home.
The Road Home
We packed up our gear, including all the new cards we had picked up, and hit the highway. We had four stores on our itinerary, though two of them seemed like they were practically next to each other, judging by their street addresses.
This part is going to be a little shorter. We were eager to get home and took less time at each stop along the way. We got a later start than I might have hoped, but eventually we got rolling and made it to our first destination...
Amazing Heroes - Union, NJ
This comic shop had an OK selection of Magic cards. They also had lots of sports memorabilia - probably more than any other shop we visited on our trip. We chatted with the guy who ran the shop and I was able to pick up a number of lands for my Ghave deck. If I want to win a game or two in May with the deck I want to run it with a decent manabase, so my guildgates have got to go.
Amazing Heroes is at 966 Stuyvesant Ave in Union, NJ. I'd visit it again if I were in the area.
C and S Gaming Empire - Torrington, CT
This shop might have been the best EDH store we visited over the course of our trip, no offense to the good folks at Maplewood Hobby. According to the store owner they have a large base of EDH regulars and I think they said Friday nights are when they really fill up the tables for Commander. We're talking 18-24 players, with a range of super competitive and more casual decks. The proprietor told me he tries to sort players into tables to keep the really cutthroat players away from the newer and less spikey guys.
I was able to pretty much complete my work on Ghave's manabase and if we hadn't been at the tail end of our trip I probably could have spent quite the sum of money on building up my decks at C and S Gaming Empire. It's a pity we don't live closer, but if you're into EDH it sounded like the EDH scene there is fantastic.
C and S Gaming Empire is at 630 Main Street in Torrington, CT.
Silver Eagle Games - Canton, CT
If there was was a "dud" in all of our stops on our trip, Silver Eagle Games was it. The store seemed nice but they had no real Magic selection to speak of. They did have lots of gaming supplies - just not much for an EDH player.
Silver Eagle Games is at 250 Albany Turnpike in Canton, CT. We didn't even buy any boosters as our next stop was right down the road. Because of Silver Eagle's proximity to the next store, I'd recommend visiting both if you're in this part of Connecticut. You may well find what you're looking for here even if I did not.
Games In Real Life - Canton, CT
Games IRL had a decent assortment of singles in binders and we spent a decent amount of time looking through them and chatting with the guy running the shop. There was a group of kids having typically hilarious kid conversations and it seemed like the place was probably a regular hangout spot for local players. I was able to pretty much finish up my work on Ghave. Now I just need to get good with the deck so I'm well versed in what combination of stuff will let me go infinite. Hint: a ton of things go infinite with Ghave.
I liked this shop and would recommend it to anyone. Games In Real Life is at 223 Albany Turnpike in Canton, CT.
That's it. We headed home from there.
Final Thoughts
Stretching two 7 hour drives into 12-13 hour drives may not be for everyone. I would not recommend turning a family vacation into an "EDH Road Trip" unless everyone is on board with making lots of stops and hanging out to look at cards at each store you stop at. We enjoyed it, but my wife, who doesn't play, didn't come along.
You can buy cards online and get pretty much whatever you want delivered right to your door. Taking a road trip where you stop and random stores can be a lot of fun. We enjoyed it and I hope someday you might give it a try as well.
Thanks for reading. Next week I'll be back with something else - I don't even know what yet but I might take a crack at figuring out what tribes they'll be putting into the four 2017 Commander decks they'll be releasing this summer.