by Thomas Traplin | Mar 19, 2016 | Articles, Community
Before we can figure out what make a friendly local game store successful, we need to define what makes a game store a game store in the first place. What defines your friendly local game store? Friendly local game stores come in many shapes and sizes. Some are big,... 
by Thomas Traplin | Feb 15, 2016 | Articles, Fundamentals, Tournaments
One of the major factors in making Magic: the Gathering successful and popular is how well Wizards supports the game with an organized play program. The strength of organized play has set the game above the other CCG’s. Taking advantage of the systems in place... 
by Thomas Traplin | Feb 7, 2016 | Articles, Tech, Tools
Today, as part of the continuing series on streaming a live Magic tournament to Twitch.tv we’re going to cover creating an account on Twitch and getting your OBS settings ready to go. If you haven’t read the first entry in the series, you should go do that... 
by Thomas Traplin | Jan 30, 2016 | Articles, Community, Fundamentals, Marketing
Being on the play is generally where you want to be in Magic. There are exceptions, sometimes the extra card is more important but most of the time having the tempo of playing first is a big advantage. The same idea applies to life and our everyday interactions that... 
by Thomas Traplin | Jan 26, 2016 | Articles, Community
Pat’s Games, a pillar of the Austin, Texas Magic community and past guest of the Manaverse Podcast has suffered quite the blow recently. According to a post they made on Reddit, they were broken into in the wee hours of the morning and had $75 000 worth of Magic... 
by Thomas Traplin | Jan 25, 2016 | Articles, Tech, Tools, Tournaments
Streaming is the future If you’ve never heard of Twitch.tv before, you will soon. Twitch.tv essentially allows millions of viewers to watch other people play games live over the internet. It originally focused on PC games like Minecraft and League of Legends but... 
by Thomas Traplin | Jan 25, 2016 | Articles, Mindset, Tom's Blog
This post is a little different from the usual topics I write about on this site but it’s been on my mind recently and I wanted to lay out my thoughts on paper so to speak. Maybe you will gain something from my ramblings, maybe you’ve felt the same way so... 
by Thomas Traplin | Oct 30, 2015 | General Business, Marketing, Podcasts, Sales, Tournaments
The featured guest on today's episode of the Manaverse Podcast is Jay Mason-Grant. Jay is the owner of Black Knight Games in Hamilton, Ontario. Jay has a pretty interesting origin story for how he got into the business, and yet the path he took is often overlooked by... 
by Thomas Traplin | Oct 23, 2015 | Community, Podcasts, Sales
KW Vintage Games - from retro to cardboard Joaquim Mendes is quite the character. Our guest today is the owner of one of the most unique shops in Kitchener, Ontario. Within the walls of his relatively small store is virtually any retro video game or Magic card you... 
by Thomas Traplin | Oct 17, 2015 | Fundamentals, Podcasts
Nerd Haven v2.0 Welcome to a slightly delayed edition of the Manaverse Podcast. Today’s podcast is an update with a previous guest. Roughly six months ago Aaron Tillman started up Nerd Haven with $500 and a laptop. Now, he’s expanded into a location with more than 5...