A Tour of Nagoya Card Stores

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Introduction

In 2024, a long-time friend from the local scene and I planned a trip to Nagoya together, booked cheap round-trip tickets to Nagoya on Peach Aviation, and set off in early September!

Where Nagoya’s Card Stores Are and What They Offer

The densest cluster of card stores is around the Osu shopping district. Between Kamimaezu and Sakae stations on the Nagoya subway there are about twenty card stores, and nearby attractions include Osu Kannon and the Chubu Electric Power tower, among others; the next densest area is around Nagoya Station.

The biggest share of what they carry is Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, followed by One Piece, Dragon Ball, Duel Masters and WS, while Magic is only a niche. In all of Nagoya city there are only about six card stores running Magic.

The Standard Tournament at Hareruya Osu

Before entering you have to sign up for a Hareruya membership, and you can also collect points when you buy things; you show your barcode when registering. The event announcement is styled differently from Taiwan’s, with extremely thorough details and caveats, which I suppose gives consumers more protection.

It was my first time playing in Japan, and I entered that day in an exchange spirit, hoping to improve my Japanese along the way, and of course getting some Japanese-art promo cards would be even better. The alternate arts of Saheeli, the Sun’s Brilliance and Glimpse the Core, wait for me!

And so, here is the match report.

Quick Tournament Notes

There were seven players that day, and the share of aggro was very high; almost everyone was holding a different kind of aggro deck.

My own decklist is here.

Round 1: 0-2 vs. Rakdos Lizards

Game one, I was on the play; the opponent laid down too many Lizards late and I couldn’t win, and I also made a rookie misplay… I had just drawn Urabrask’s Forge and happily played it, then attacked with a 1/1 token, completely forgetting the opponent had a 2/2 Deep-Cavern Bat on the board.
Game two, I was on the play; the opponent mulliganed once; although I had a sweeper in my opening hand, my tempo didn’t go smoothly and I lost the game.

(When I first sat down I told the opponent: “Nice to meet you, I’m from Taiwan.” We also chatted a little after the match; I said the Taiwan environment is more diverse, and they were curious whether I had traveled to Tokyo or Kyoto, and I answered that I had already been to both.)

Round 2: 0-2 vs. Red Aggro

Game one, I was on the draw; I flooded a bit and didn’t draw burn, and was straight up finished on turn four.
Game two, I was on the play; I flooded, and in the midgame the opponent cast three Manifold Mouse in a row, picked Heartfire Hero as the combat-phase target and just pushed me dead.

(The opponent was also on red aggro, and he shared that Manifold Mouse combined with Heartfire Hero can trigger +1/+1 counters easily.)

Round 3: 2-1 vs. Gruul Valiant

Game one, I was on the draw, and it went back and forth. I forgot some details, but in the end I killed the opponent with a Heartfire Hero holding two +1/+1 counters.
Game two, my opening hand had plenty of burn, and the opponent also played quite a few one-mana tempo creatures this game; I killed the opponent’s creatures early, but made a mistake on turn four and left the opponent two creatures, and got beaten down in one big wave.
Game three, the opponent got stuck on one land for a turn, and my opening hand had Rockface Village + Voldaren Thrillseeker, so I took the opening. After that I solo-carried with Heartfire Hero, and when the game ended Heartfire Hero was a 5/5 and the opponent conceded.

My game-three opponent, Ｍatsuda-san, was super nice; when he learned I was just traveling and would be going back to Taiwan the next day, he gave me the Japanese-art card he won in that day’s tournament raffle, which became a very precious memory for me.

I forgot to bring a life-tracking sheet that day, so I just used the one the hotel provided… you know.

Sightseeing Itinerary

It is rare to travel to Japan, and I felt that only touring card stores would be a bit empty, so I arranged the following extra stops, which are generally must-see spots on a first trip to Nagoya; here I briefly cover them with a few photos.

Chubu Electric Power Tower

The views are beautiful both in the daytime and at night.

濱松地焼 鰻 まさ

The eel was tastier than I imagined; chain stores almost always steam it first before grilling, but here you could feel it was grilled to order, and the texture was softer than usual!

Gifu Castle

The view from the mountain of Gifu Castle is beautiful.

There is not enough space to write down all of my travels; my friend and I also visited Nagoya Castle and Sanko Inari Shrine, saw a beautiful torii gate against the sunset, and the legendary Kusanagi sword, among other things, making it a very fulfilling trip.

Finally, these are the singles I picked up over several days in Nagoya.

By the way, some good news: the local bulk bins are really something.

Conclusion

At first I was really nervous playing in Japan; even on the main day of the MIT I wasn’t that nervous.
As game after game finished, I found it was actually about the same as in Taiwan, just with a slight language barrier, and I am glad I was willing to take this step, bravely sign up for the tournament, and finish my matches.