Lotus Games

Lotus Games is a card and tabletop game store at 199 Old Hartford Rd in Colchester, Connecticut. It carries Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering and One Piece Card Game, and it runs a calendar built as much around miniatures and board games as around cards. That mix suits players who split their time between a Magic deck and a Warhammer army, and it suits anyone who wants to learn a new game in a room with other people doing the same.

What's on the shelves

Magic: The Gathering singles are a core part of the stock, with cards searchable by name and set and priced from pocket change up, in conditions ranging from near mint to lightly played. Recent Magic sets are well represented, including Avatar: The Last Airbender singles.

One Piece Card Game gets similar depth. The store stocks singles and sealed product, and its card database runs from Romance Dawn through recent releases, covering leaders and characters across the Black, Blue, Green, Purple, Red and Yellow color families. Pre-release, super pre-release and anniversary tournament promo cards are part of that range.

Sealed Magic product skews toward current releases. The shelves have held Star Trek commander decks, a bundle and booster boxes, Marvel Super Heroes beginner boxes, scene boxes and booster boxes, and a TMNT bundle. Most of these are available for in-store pickup only, and several carry a purchase limit of one or two per customer, so the way to get them is to show up in person.

Pokémon is carried as well, and the store runs a presales section for upcoming releases.

Events

The events calendar is varied. It is filterable by game and lists Kill Team, Gundam, Warhammer 40K, Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon events, plus sessions for learning a board game. Pokémon accounts for the largest share of the schedule, with Kill Team and Magic next. The store has no fixed weekly slots to list, so the calendar is the thing to plan around. The store also runs a rewards program for regular customers.

Hours

The store keeps a short week, open three days and closed the rest.

Friday and Monday run late, which makes them the evenings for organized play and open gaming.

Getting there

The store is in Suite 2 at 199 Old Hartford Rd, Colchester, CT 06415.

The local scene

Zac's Video Game's is the closest neighbor, under a mile away in Colchester. In Norwich, about 13 miles off, are Game Xchange and Aic Gamer, and Bobby's World of Cards and Comics is in Middletown, about 14 miles away.

For card shows, The151CardShow Halloween Bash is about 17 miles away and starts October 31. Hard Hittin' Card Shows runs about 22 miles out, with dates beginning October 30 and November 22. A Berlin show follows on November 8, and a weekend sports and Pokémon card show sits farther out, about 47 miles away, starting November 29.