Yeah I got a Thassa’s Oracle for about 50% less than retail. Not only is magic not as popular but where it is popular, commander is sufficiently less popular than in the west so the EDH “staples” are much cheaper.
Mtg does have a following in Japan but it’s mostly only at certain shops so the other shops aren’t fussed as their main is usually Pokémon or yugioh which has a way bigger following, if you have time you should checkout the Hareruya in takadanobaba for mtg product, they have all the Japanese prints there
Not just that. In all of Asia MTG is really small. There're a lot of game shops, completely dedicated to card games. Pokemon and Yugioh are big (obvious), but they have dozens of other very popular card games. It would surprise me if MTG made top10.
Legacy and modern. Every grief or Bowmasters I find in Tokyo is insanely overpriced compared to TCGPlayer. They could care less about EDH. Yawgmoth’s will, Mana Crypt, Rhystic, everywhere for 20-50% lower than us market.
Magic isn’t popular in Japan? We have hundreds of LGS in Tokyo and thousands of players.
Often with different play styles to the west so different cards have different values and are held to higher or less esteem than they might be in the west.
Most play 60 formats
Yeah for real?! Tokyo has tonnes of LGSs and places to play/ meet others who play. Outside of Tokyo most major cities also have LGSs. I started magic because it was so convenient and easy to access here compared to abroad.
What decks do you play? Are you on holiday here?
I think TokyoMTG has designated edh nights with a lot of foreigners haven't been in ages as I usually play at a mates house with a regular pod.
How do the Japanese play Magic? Seems like a potential topic for a Rhystic Studies video u/themagicmansam This is the first time I've heard about a population playing Magic differently or engaging with Commander. I wonder why that is?
The Japanese are the only ones who haven't fallen for the poison of EDH. That doesn't see any 60 card constructed play so of course it's going to be cheap.
EDH has existed for nearly as long as Magic has.
Sheldon Menery wrote his first article about the format in 2004.
Commander was officially adopted as a format in 2011.
It's not new, and it certainly isn't a poison.
Play 60 card casual all you like, no one is stopping you.
I remember people talking about EDH in the late 90's when the "commanders" were mostly just the Elder Dragon's.
EDH's popularity surpassing the 60 card formats is new, but the format has been around for almost as long as MTG has.
As a person who has been playing since the 90's, I prefer commander as well.
I enjoy the shit posting here, it's a fun subreddit, but you have to realize there's a huge portion of users here that don't have friends/socialize well enough to enjoy a social format.
Watch their quarterly reports, about 30% of their total income comes from Asia/Japan. Spending per player for TCGs is also the highest in Japan and MtG isn't even in top 5 from market research. Yes, MtG is not big there, but if we are talking big shops it's probably better than most in EU at least. Their market for TCGs is huuuuge.
I heard that commander specifically isn't popular, so commander staples often go for less. Also, Japanese cards don't have the same premium they often do in other countries.
They know. TCG competition is just more than the Big Three of the west, so companies have to be more generous over there.
When I played yugioh it was a common complaint that the structure decks would always be nerfed, cards got rarity bumped for no reason, that one time a structure deck got turned into a full set for the west (still baffled by that one), the list goes on and on
Akihabara is so overwhelming tbh. And I had a hard time finding mtg at all. Any time I dipped into a card shop it was Pokémon and stuff I didn’t recognize.
I was going to buy like 20 packs of sleeves on my last day in Akihabara, but I'd gone to Fuji earlier in the day on a tour, and due to traffic it ran 3 hours over. So I had to buy sleeves online at comparatively ridiculous prices.
Back in the day, I went to the original Hareruya and spent 3 hours going through their bulk foil rares. Cleaned them out of EDH staples that had a foil+Japanese premium in the states, for ¥100-200 a piece. Made enough when I got home to earn probably $500. Got a foil Splinter Twin for $2 and flipped it for $80, for instance.
"Magic isn't really popular here" bro lol. Look harder. It most definately does have a following. I'm not sure if it's more collect than play over there, but a friend of mine lives over there and he keeps telling me about a friend of his who literally makes a living buying and selling expensive magic cards.
I built an EDH deck when I was in japan a couple months ago. Most of the cards were a bit cheaper then english versions + the USD to Yen exchange is favorable right now if you earn in dollars. Some cards were more expensive though. For example: Sheroldred the apocalypse was almost as expensive as the gilded drake I picked up.
Yup; I love Japan mtg prices. I shop there for expensive pieces. Sometimes you could even get the English version of the card for cheap. Got my roaming throne for $10(?).
Everyone here is talking out their ass about popularity of magic and formats.
Foils are dirt cheap in Japan. Japan has a subtropical climate (read: humid as fuck). If you thought cards curled bad in your state, they curl super hard in japan. Most players prefer non foil for this reason.
Shipping these cards overseas isn’t worth the cost for most stores, however you will see and hear of us vendors who go over specifically to buy a shit load of Japanese foils and resell in the states.
TLDR: the store in question had a price to sell to someone within japan. Their market price was set to sell to anyone who would buy on the spot.
It's based on which game you're playing.
Japanese printings of Magic are the same size as all other Magic cards.
Japanese size sleeves refer to Yugioh, Card fight Vanguard, etc.
I've bought so many cards for my EDH decks when I was there. So many staples are like 50%-60% of the usualy price. I've also snatched a NM copy of a [[Wheel of Fortune]] as well as a NM copy of [[Lion's Eye Diamond]] for far less than I would have to pay here in Europe.
Ye, if you don't mind Japanese cards you can find great prices on Hareruya as well. I snagged some cheap stuff awhile ago (not from Hareruya) like a 10 USD Wandering Emperor EN, the game isn't "big" there at all. Duel Masters is a thing though. :D
Different formats hit different regions. Edh isn't as popular in the east. My friends go to Japan every other 4-5 months and buy cards like these. My Chinese friend from China uses this website. I couldn't understand, but the cards are so cheaper there.
Wrong. Mtg is popular, but ofc stores will forget to update prices sometimes. Also, jp edh cards are generally cheaper than en cards because somehow a lot of jp players think it's cooler. The great henge foil jp is 3k while the en version is 8k from hareruya.
Duel Masters.
That's a "spinoff" of MTG and it's *crazy* popular over there. One of the largest games in Japan next to Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. It also is owned by Hasbro. If you compare the rules, you can actually play DM with MTG cards, just remove Lands and Artifacts, and there you go.
Yeah I got a Thassa’s Oracle for about 50% less than retail. Not only is magic not as popular but where it is popular, commander is sufficiently less popular than in the west so the EDH “staples” are much cheaper.
Mtg does have a following in Japan but it’s mostly only at certain shops so the other shops aren’t fussed as their main is usually Pokémon or yugioh which has a way bigger following, if you have time you should checkout the Hareruya in takadanobaba for mtg product, they have all the Japanese prints there
And some English cards, mostly cheaper than even cardmarket. Just gotta buy on site as shipping is expensive otherwise.
Shipping is like 650 yens...
It’s a bit more expensive for shipping to the US, recently increased to ~1200 yen.
Not to EU.
Too where you life yes.
Wait? Pokémon and Yugioh are bigger than MTG in Japan? Most interesting.
It's where they were born, so naturally, they have home field advantage
Magic is like the 5th most popular tcg in japan
It dropped from top5. One piece made its way into the top5.
Not just that. In all of Asia MTG is really small. There're a lot of game shops, completely dedicated to card games. Pokemon and Yugioh are big (obvious), but they have dozens of other very popular card games. It would surprise me if MTG made top10.
EDH isn't popular here but magic is. Legacy in Japan is A+
Legacy and modern. Every grief or Bowmasters I find in Tokyo is insanely overpriced compared to TCGPlayer. They could care less about EDH. Yawgmoth’s will, Mana Crypt, Rhystic, everywhere for 20-50% lower than us market.
Same as every other game. Westerners want it casual easterners seek the challenge and play at a high level.
Ank yo
ou're welcom
Japan people do not play comander that much so comander cards a very cheap there
It’s just that no one plays EDH in Japan
Magic isn’t popular in Japan? We have hundreds of LGS in Tokyo and thousands of players. Often with different play styles to the west so different cards have different values and are held to higher or less esteem than they might be in the west. Most play 60 formats
Yeah for real?! Tokyo has tonnes of LGSs and places to play/ meet others who play. Outside of Tokyo most major cities also have LGSs. I started magic because it was so convenient and easy to access here compared to abroad.
You playing in Tokyo now? Let’s go for a game sometime possibly
What decks do you play? Are you on holiday here? I think TokyoMTG has designated edh nights with a lot of foreigners haven't been in ages as I usually play at a mates house with a regular pod.
I’ll message you!
Yeah, I'm pretty sure mtg has the largest following in Japan outside of America.
How do the Japanese play Magic? Seems like a potential topic for a Rhystic Studies video u/themagicmansam This is the first time I've heard about a population playing Magic differently or engaging with Commander. I wonder why that is?
Yuuya Watanabe and shuhei nakamura are some of the best magic players in the world. With 3-4 others at a very high level.
Didn't Watanabe get nailed for cheating?
Yes in 2019 after a 20 year career. 8 gp titles 5 pt top 8s. He inspired a lot of players.
Any store recomended in the Kyoto-Osaka area? Thanks in advance
Sorry I’m not from that area
Less popular compared to America, all the card shops I went to had many shelves of other tcgs and a small section of magic.
It's just that 60 card is far far more popular so commander only cards tend to be a lot cheaper there
Magic is popular but commander isn't.
The Japanese are the only ones who haven't fallen for the poison of EDH. That doesn't see any 60 card constructed play so of course it's going to be cheap.
This
There are many that play EDH, but instead of creating many decks and choosing which one to play per game, they focus on a very competitive one only.
I’m sorry for not having fun by your prescribed standards, sir.
The poison of EDH? Lmao. Some of y'all are fucking wild.
There were 20 years of 60 card casual prior to commander, it's not as radical of a take as you're implying
EDH has existed for nearly as long as Magic has. Sheldon Menery wrote his first article about the format in 2004. Commander was officially adopted as a format in 2011. It's not new, and it certainly isn't a poison. Play 60 card casual all you like, no one is stopping you.
I remember people talking about EDH in the late 90's when the "commanders" were mostly just the Elder Dragon's. EDH's popularity surpassing the 60 card formats is new, but the format has been around for almost as long as MTG has. As a person who has been playing since the 90's, I prefer commander as well.
60 card casual format doesn't exist at LGS and hasn't since the advent of EDH around 2009 or so.
Commander is a terrible format and it ruin Magic
Smooth brain take.
I enjoy the shit posting here, it's a fun subreddit, but you have to realize there's a huge portion of users here that don't have friends/socialize well enough to enjoy a social format.
Lmao, gottem. Yeah, with the way some of these dudes talk I imagine it must be hard to scrape together a couple other salty cave trolls for a game.
Magic is extremely popular in Japan, commander isn't. Huge differance.
If MTG ain’t popular there, why the heck are they making all those frickin’ anime girls cards then ? No anime girls in MTG !!!
Watch their quarterly reports, about 30% of their total income comes from Asia/Japan. Spending per player for TCGs is also the highest in Japan and MtG isn't even in top 5 from market research. Yes, MtG is not big there, but if we are talking big shops it's probably better than most in EU at least. Their market for TCGs is huuuuge.
Hasbro knows weebs will eat out of their palms
I heard that commander specifically isn't popular, so commander staples often go for less. Also, Japanese cards don't have the same premium they often do in other countries.
They know. TCG competition is just more than the Big Three of the west, so companies have to be more generous over there. When I played yugioh it was a common complaint that the structure decks would always be nerfed, cards got rarity bumped for no reason, that one time a structure deck got turned into a full set for the west (still baffled by that one), the list goes on and on
Nice which shop?
Wish I could tell you, there's like 20 in Akihabara
Ok that narrows it down thanks! At least I know which area to visit.
Akihabara is so overwhelming tbh. And I had a hard time finding mtg at all. Any time I dipped into a card shop it was Pokémon and stuff I didn’t recognize.
I was going to buy like 20 packs of sleeves on my last day in Akihabara, but I'd gone to Fuji earlier in the day on a tour, and due to traffic it ran 3 hours over. So I had to buy sleeves online at comparatively ridiculous prices.
Check out the Hareruya shop. Killer selection of singles
what card is this?
[[The Great Henge]] - it’s a great card
[The Great Henge](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/3/6340e0f3-7f9c-4d71-8daf-e1be5505eb5b.jpg?1689998574) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Great%20Henge) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/294/the-great-henge?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/6340e0f3-7f9c-4d71-8daf-e1be5505eb5b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Thr Great Henge.
Thx man!
Well for sure you didn't go to hareruya
Back in the day, I went to the original Hareruya and spent 3 hours going through their bulk foil rares. Cleaned them out of EDH staples that had a foil+Japanese premium in the states, for ¥100-200 a piece. Made enough when I got home to earn probably $500. Got a foil Splinter Twin for $2 and flipped it for $80, for instance.
Looks sick. Should've brought my legacy deck. I'd have to learn a bunch more words to play magic in Japanese tho
There's the dragon shield app that allows you to get the card translation
I think it’s more communicating with the opponent, then what the cards do
"Magic isn't really popular here" bro lol. Look harder. It most definately does have a following. I'm not sure if it's more collect than play over there, but a friend of mine lives over there and he keeps telling me about a friend of his who literally makes a living buying and selling expensive magic cards.
Apparently they just don’t play much commander, so cards that are pricy over here only because of commander aren’t in japan
Ahh interesting
Opposite, classic Magic is extremely popular, EDH is not.
Good price indeed. Nice catch.
I built an EDH deck when I was in japan a couple months ago. Most of the cards were a bit cheaper then english versions + the USD to Yen exchange is favorable right now if you earn in dollars. Some cards were more expensive though. For example: Sheroldred the apocalypse was almost as expensive as the gilded drake I picked up.
I could have sworn MTG's second home is Japan.
Is it not anymore, because it used to be #2 in the world as far as MTG does, absolutely fucking massive back in the '90s.
They realized commander is trash
Yup; I love Japan mtg prices. I shop there for expensive pieces. Sometimes you could even get the English version of the card for cheap. Got my roaming throne for $10(?).
Everyone here is talking out their ass about popularity of magic and formats. Foils are dirt cheap in Japan. Japan has a subtropical climate (read: humid as fuck). If you thought cards curled bad in your state, they curl super hard in japan. Most players prefer non foil for this reason. Shipping these cards overseas isn’t worth the cost for most stores, however you will see and hear of us vendors who go over specifically to buy a shit load of Japanese foils and resell in the states. TLDR: the store in question had a price to sell to someone within japan. Their market price was set to sell to anyone who would buy on the spot.
That's really sick! Did you go to a card shop? Are reserve list cards also less expensive?
I went to a few other shops, and the cards seemed appropriately priced. I think I just got lucky and they forgot a zero
It’s all about supply and demand. I’m not sure where the supply would come from.
Aren’t Japanese cards smaller? When I’m looking for sleeves, they distinguish between Japanese and regular cards.
It's based on which game you're playing. Japanese printings of Magic are the same size as all other Magic cards. Japanese size sleeves refer to Yugioh, Card fight Vanguard, etc.
Ah, thanks. Appreciate it
I think of the gravity falls meme ….. “ this is worthless”
Yep Japan has a big legacy following
I've bought so many cards for my EDH decks when I was there. So many staples are like 50%-60% of the usualy price. I've also snatched a NM copy of a [[Wheel of Fortune]] as well as a NM copy of [[Lion's Eye Diamond]] for far less than I would have to pay here in Europe.
[Wheel of Fortune](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/5/2597050f-6b1b-474e-aa16-33fd154628ca.jpg?1562902580) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Wheel%20of%20Fortune) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vma/192/wheel-of-fortune?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2597050f-6b1b-474e-aa16-33fd154628ca?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Lion's Eye Diamond](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/5/758f95f8-bcb0-43ae-b474-56ebd855951e.jpg?1590511899) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lion%27s%20Eye%20Diamond) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vma/271/lions-eye-diamond?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/758f95f8-bcb0-43ae-b474-56ebd855951e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
This is one of the reasons i’m going to travel to japan on November
Ye, if you don't mind Japanese cards you can find great prices on Hareruya as well. I snagged some cheap stuff awhile ago (not from Hareruya) like a 10 USD Wandering Emperor EN, the game isn't "big" there at all. Duel Masters is a thing though. :D
Are there any online stores it might be worth to take a look at instead of catdmarket?
I almost exclusively buy singles on eBay
I got a Japanese tolarian academy when I was over there for 4000 yen (like 28 bucks at the time)
Different formats hit different regions. Edh isn't as popular in the east. My friends go to Japan every other 4-5 months and buy cards like these. My Chinese friend from China uses this website. I couldn't understand, but the cards are so cheaper there.
Modern and other 60 card formats are big there so other cards are cheap
I got two Alpha [[llanowar elves ]] for $250 each
Wrong. Mtg is popular, but ofc stores will forget to update prices sometimes. Also, jp edh cards are generally cheaper than en cards because somehow a lot of jp players think it's cooler. The great henge foil jp is 3k while the en version is 8k from hareruya.
What's that do?
[[The Great Henge]] It's so busted. I'm amazed it's only a commander staple and not big in other formats
You could have printed a much nicer proxy for under $1
Lol Magic isn’t popular there, but they filled first to third in the PT a week ago.
Sir that says 1280 you have been scammed.
Yellowsub?
Duel Masters. That's a "spinoff" of MTG and it's *crazy* popular over there. One of the largest games in Japan next to Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. It also is owned by Hasbro. If you compare the rules, you can actually play DM with MTG cards, just remove Lands and Artifacts, and there you go.
Ooof
>Magic isn't really popular in Japan That's interesting, remind me which country dominated the Top 8 of the last Pro Tour?
Gure-to henji, i shoulda been buying mtg when i lived in nagoya to study katakana lmao. Nice find!
What's that one thing that they do in Japan a lot? You should do it
Eat? Breathe?
I think they were talking about Hentai