A game of Magic the Gathering unfolds. Photo from Tourtefouille/Wikimedia Commons
By Mackenzie Sams
It’s nearing 7 p.m. at Mad Hatter’s House of Games and players are restless. Its weekly Magic: The Gathering tournament is about to start.
Some players fiddle with an app that allows them to track their progress of wins and losses. Others start to fold their game mats or shuffle their decks. The more dedicated players in the room have repurposed tool organizers from hardware stores to carry multiple decks at once.
This isn’t without reason, as a deck built out of Magic: The Gathering’s more expensive cards could cost a player thousands of dollars to replace. Though these tournaments occur every Friday, players have a reason for the extra excitement–or nerves. This is their first chance to buy and play with the pre-release of Magic: The Gathering’s new expansion pack, called “Murders of Karlov Manner.”
February of 2023 marked Mad Hatter’s House of Games’ 30th year of business. Located at 1507 Texas Ave., the establishment celebrated the anniversary with pizza, cake and free Magic: The Gathering card packs for each player in attendance.
Magic: The Gathering tournaments, along with other events, such as Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournaments and Dungeons & Dragons nights, have been a staple of Mad Hatter’s since its founding in 1994, owner Theophile “Hatter” Guimbelleaux said. Approximately 66% of small businesses fail within ten years, according to data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of all small businesses that opened in 1994, only 13.7% made it to 2023.
Texas Tech student Daniel Vo, a junior biology major from Amarillo, plays Yu-Gi-Oh! at Mad Hatter’s every Saturday. He said the community the company has formed is part of its draw.
“Everyone’s very generous,” Vo said. “If you’re missing a card, you can just ask around and you might be able to find someone with it, and they’re always willing to do trades or sell you the card for much less than market value.”
Vo said that when he first started playing participating in the store’s Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments, he lost every round. But the more experienced players offered tips, and that kept him going. Now, though he only participates in the free tournaments, he’s been winning frequently.
Another Lubbock resident, Marshall Chapman, has been playing Magic: The Gathering at Mad Hatter’s since high school.
“I really like going to Hatter’s for fun,” Chapman said, “not just because of the great staff, but also the community.”
For Guimbelleaux, it’s these connections that have cemented Mad Hatter’s in the greater Lubbock community.
“This is the get-together place,” Guimbelleaux said. “We’re welcoming, open, inviting. It’s like the island of misfit toys.”
This may be why Mad Hatter’s maintains a stable customer base, even as its products become more or less popular with time. For example, Guimbelleaux said Dungeons & Dragons hasn’t been as popular lately due to its publisher, Wizards of the Coast, nearly changing its open game license.
The open game license gives players ownership of what they create through Dungeons & Dragons. The proposed changes to the license would have transferred that ownership to Wizards of the Coast and de-authorized previous works.
Though Wizards of the Coast let go of the planned changes to its open game license after players complained, some players were still angry about the situation, Guimbelleaux said. Rather than not showing up to Dungeons & Dragons nights at Mad Hatter’s, these players chose to play a game called “Pathfinder” instead.
In the future, Guimbelleaux said he’s looking forward to another year of insanity, as well as an upcoming expansion to another board game called “Terraforming Mars.”
About Reece Nations
