CANTON — It’s a Friday night around dinner time, but the back room of Gamer Craze, 21 Miner Street Road, is filling up with people ready to try playing the latest installment of “Magic: The Gathering,” the trading card game released in 1993. “‘Magic’ is one of the most balanced and continually entertaining games I’ve seen,” said store owner Aaron M. While there are a number of variations, the classic game involves two players, each of whom has his own deck of cards. All the cards have a spell, magical artifact, mythical creature or even geographic feature printed on them.
Players start the game with 20 health points, and use their cards’ abilities to reduce their opponent’s health to zero, thus winning the game. Blair Madore, associate professor of mathematics at SUNY Potsdam, has been playing “Magic” since 1995. He taught his son, and when his son was 14, started going to Gamer Craze to play with others. “For the last five years, we’ve been here every Friday night,” Mr.
Gamer Craze hosts events in which people bring their own decks, and, as on Friday, draft events, wherein players assemble decks on the spot from the cards they are given. Friday’s draft was a release event for the Ixalan set, one of several sets released every year to add new cards and mechanics to the game.
“(In the new set) you have merfolk, you have pirates,” Mr. Reardon said. “I mean, just about anybody in their youth or early adulthood can relate to pirates, everyone’s dreamt of being a pirate. Merfolk, maybe, maybe not, but the mechanics they bring to the table are a lot of fun.” Most of the 17 players registered for the draft are regulars at the store, which runs multiple “Magic” events a week. Some have been playing for years, while others started fairly recently. Many attendees started going to Gamer Craze when they came to the area for school.
Francia started playing “Magic” about four years ago in high school in Florida, then started going to Gamer Craze when he began attending SUNY Canton. He says he has probably gone to 40 to 50 draft events at Gamer Craze. “There’s so many magic cards that don’t get used, most people just discard them, they don’t get a whole lot of use outside draft,” Mr. Francia said. “It’s nice to give them some love.” Other regulars are from the area originally, like Ian T. Miller, who works at Sergi’s Pizza and goes to Gamer Craze about once a week.
“Aaron (Reardon) seems like a good guy, and he’ll usually hook you up with a deal,” Mr. Miller said, adding that he wished there were more people for drafting events. Gamer Craze has seen a decline in people interested in playing Magic over the last few years, something that Mr. Reardon would like to change. “The limited community has been shrinking,” he said. “Although the store’s continued to grow and expand, we’re offering more, obviously doing well.
It has been something that’s been unfortunate to see such a decline. That being said, we’re still in, like, the top 88 percent of (“Magic”) communities in the country. We used to be in the 98 percentile.” Most draft events draw about 16 people, while more popular events draw 20 to 30, according to Mr. But the core players will keep coming back regardless. “I was a troubled teen in my day, or troubled kid, and there used to be a card store in Potsdam called Mana Works, and they handed me a free. Deck,” said Johny Brasett. That was 16 years ago.
Brasett, who played competitive “Magic” for 10 years and is now finishing a Master’s at SUNY Potsdam, still comes to Gamer Craze three or four times a week. “I just never stopped playing,” he said. “It kind of kept me out of trouble, kept me doing good stuff. It’s more of a lifestyle now than a hobby.” Mr. Reardon has some ideas for expanding the player base again, including running less expensive drafts at local colleges. “Basically, as cheap as you get, draft just to enjoy a draft without having to put in a big investment,” he said.
Gamer Craze Potsdam Ny![]()
“(‘Magic’ is a) really cool opportunity to try something else when the majority of our time is spent looking at a screen. I think it’s a great opportunity to get together with people, socialize, have some laughs.”.
Rivals of Ixalan (RIX) is going to be upon us shortly. So to get you ready for the next set we have compiled this handy list to prepare you for the weeks ahead. Each of these topics will be covered again as we approach them to remind you of what is coming up next. First we have our event schedule so you can see all the different RIX events we will be doing and when they are.
Our first event will be the Magic Open House. This event is designed for experienced players to h. Elp out new ones. Also we will be giving out Silvergill Adept promos for everyone that attends. Next is Pre-release weekend. Come and experience with everyone all the treasures that RIX has to offer. You can catch a first glimpse of all the dinosaurs to vampires before the set is officially released.
Speaking of release when you buy a box from us you will also get a Captain's Hook promo. Launch weekend will be Draft Weekend where you can draft the set for the first time and get a cool Brass's Bounty promo. Standard Showdowns will be held every Saturday after launch. You can battle for Showdown packs that are like their own treasure chest.
Last are our FNMs that we hold every Friday. You can come and enjoy our drafts and Modern events and acquire some promo tokens. Not much is known yet about the Store Championship event and what loot it will hold but we will inform you when we find out what will be in this chest of goodies. That is a lot of stuff happening in the beginning of the New Year.
Don't be overwhelmed by the dino-sized amount of events in one place though. The events will be presented again as we near their date. So we hope to see you all around and have a happy New Year. Share this with friends!! Coming 2/24 Gamer Craze will be doing a Charity Event which will be streamed for the Snack Pack Program. This is an amazing program providing Kids that have very little with food for the weeks/weekends.
100% of the entries for this event will be given to this AMAZING charity! If you are able to give extra that would be awesome we will be collecting donations through the month and will be running a donation tally during the stream the day of! Lets raise a TON of money for this great program!! I know you GC folks have it in ya! Thanks a TON!
By ABRAHAM KENMORE CANTON — It’s a Friday night around dinner time, but the back room of Gamer Craze, 21 Miner Street Road, is filling up with people ready to try playing the latest installment of “Magic: The Gathering,” the trading card game released in 1993. “‘Magic’ is one of the most balanced and continually entertaining games I’ve seen,” said store owner Aaron M. While there are a number of variations, the classic game involves two players, each of whom has his own deck of cards.
All the cards have a spell, magical artifact, mythical creature or even geographic feature printed on them. Players start the game with 20 health points, and use their cards’ abilities to reduce their opponent’s health to zero, thus winning the game. Blair Madore, associate professor of mathematics at SUNY Potsdam, has been playing “Magic” since 1995.
He taught his son, and when his son was 14, started going to Gamer Craze to play with others. “For the last five years, we’ve been here every Friday night,” Mr. Gamer Craze hosts events in which people bring their own decks, and, as on Friday, draft events, wherein players assemble decks on the spot from the cards they are given.
Friday’s draft was a release event for the Ixalan set, one of several sets released every year to add new cards and mechanics to the game. “(In the new set) you have merfolk, you have pirates,” Mr. Reardon said. “I mean, just about anybody in their youth or early adulthood can relate to pirates, everyone’s dreamt of being a pirate. Merfolk, maybe, maybe not, but the mechanics they bring to the table are a lot of fun.” Most of the 17 players registered for the draft are regulars at the store, which runs multiple “Magic” events a week. Some have been playing for years, while others started fairly recently. Many attendees started going to Gamer Craze when they came to the area for school.
Francia started playing “Magic” about four years ago in high school in Florida, then started going to Gamer Craze when he began attending SUNY Canton. He says he has probably gone to 40 to 50 draft events at Gamer Craze. “There’s so many magic cards that don’t get used, most people just discard them, they don’t get a whole lot of use outside draft,” Mr. Francia said. “It’s nice to give them some love.” Other regulars are from the area originally, like Ian T.
Miller, who works at Sergi’s Pizza and goes to Gamer Craze about once a week. “Aaron (Reardon) seems like a good guy, and he’ll usually hook you up with a deal,” Mr. Miller said, adding that he wished there were more people for drafting events. Gamer Craze has seen a decline in people interested in playing Magic over the last few years, something that Mr. Reardon would like to change.
“The limited community has been shrinking,” he said. “Although the store’s continued to grow and expand, we’re offering more, obviously doing well. It has been something that’s been unfortunate to see such a decline. That being said, we’re still in, like, the top 88 percent of (“Magic”) communities in the country.
We used to be in the 98 percentile.” Most draft events draw about 16 people, while more popular events draw 20 to 30, according to Mr. But the core players will keep coming back regardless. “I was a troubled teen in my day, or troubled kid, and there used to be a card store in Potsdam called Mana Works, and they handed me a free. Deck,” said Johny Brasett. That was 16 years ago. Brasett, who played competitive “Magic” for 10 years and is now finishing a Master’s at SUNY Potsdam, still comes to Gamer Craze three or four times a week.
“I just never stopped playing,” he said. “It kind of kept me out of trouble, kept me doing good stuff. It’s more of a lifestyle now than a hobby.” Mr.
Reardon has some ideas for expanding the player base again, including running less expensive drafts at local colleges. “Basically, as cheap as you get, draft just to enjoy a draft without having to put in a big investment,” he said. “(‘Magic’ is a) really cool opportunity to try something else when the majority of our time is spent looking at a screen. I think it’s a great opportunity to get together with people, socialize, have some laughs.”.
Canton Retailers Gamer Craze, 47 Main Street, Canton (315) 386-8616 21 Main Street, Canton (315) 386-3740 40 State Hwy 310 Canton (315) 386-4563 Living Curiously, 109 Main Street, Canton Save-A-Lot, 5933 SR 11, Canton, NY 13617, (315) 714-2078 Stewarts #119, 115 East Main St., Canton (315) 386-3157 (NO Gas Sales with Bear Express) Stewarts #404, 32 Gouverneur St, Canton (315) 386-2648 (NO Gas Sales with Bear Express) Are you a local merchant who would like to participate? Visit to learn about the program and to download the contractual agreement.
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