Warzone-Matrix

THE place for magic cards in Cleveland! The owner has every single ever! And packs are 3 for $ 11 bucks, I have not found a better deal anywhere else. The back has a large gaming area that is a blast to play games at or draft at. The front room is very cluttered but I hear it’s getting taken care of soon which will make the store much more appealing to the eye. I love the place though.

Very cluttered space. Walked through the store and found myself bumping into things. Claustrophobics beware. Wasn’t too much room to sit and play and had to squeeze in and then walk threw the maze to get to the other side to play.

Interesting place. If you’re claustrophobic, then wandering through the board games here might be a bit daunting. Also, as everyone says, the front room is just a mess (I heard about it and I still wondered if they were renovating or something). The owner seems nice enough, though, and was helping a few people pick a game when I got there. I’d say the big plus here is selection: they have everything board game wise including some cool used Avalon hill classics and what not. The drag is price: there are no bargains to be found. I would have been happy to drop a few bucks but couldn’t bring myself to go over even eBay prices. Totally worth a visit, though.

The store itself is nice enough, a bit cramped and overflowing with merchandise but that’s pretty common for this type of store. The owner has quite a few Magic the Gathering singles for sale but they are often overpriced. He has taken advantage of several player in our play circle when they were just starting and didn’t have a clue what the cards were actually worth. I understand that an owner has to make a profit but selling cards at outrageously inflated prices (we’ve caught him selling cards for 10 – 20 times the actual value) because the buyer is unaware is like stealing in my books. He intentionally does not list prices on his singles so he can give whatever price he thinks he can get away with. I advise every player I know to avoid this store.

Oye, as the other person said this one is a toughie. First of all you will be shocked at what a pigsty the first room you walk into is. Literally piles of stuff everywhere, boxes, half painted miniatures, posters, and everything in between. Not only that, two card playing nerds were at a table right near the door and would barely budge to allow egress into the rest of the store. Thanks and welcome to the store, I guess. As my friend put it, you literally think you are walking into some back stock room when you come in. I wonder how many people walk in and walk out due to the absolute mess they immediately see.
Once you press on, however, you are treated to a literal treasure trove of stuff. «Inventory carrying cost» has apparently been stricken from the owner’s lexicon, because there is a huge selection of board games, RPG’s, scenery, paint, and just about everything else a gamer geek would want. The selection is only rivaled by Games Plus in Chicago, which is probably one of the best gaming stores I’ve ever seen. After you press through the first room, things are slightly better organized. There’s another huge room full to the rafters, and a few smaller rooms devoted strictly to board games. The main room has a door leading outside, but it is locked up. Why the owner wants you to come into the room you do and not there is beyond me. Well, come to think of it I think he plays cards with his friends in the back a lot, so he’s not always minding the register, so to speak, and doesn’t want to be inconvenienced. There’s not really a register, more on that later. You could spend hours here, and probably will if you are a gamer. If the rating were based on selection alone, this place would get 5 stars.
But it’s not based on that. Unfortunately the customer service is sort of typical for game stores. I noticed the owner playing in the card game in that first room. You know, that was the one that was blocking entry into and out of the store. In other words, the owner is a gamer nerd himself and as we all know, they aren’t real good with people skills or salesmanship. A friend of mine brought an older RPG book up and asked if the guy could take money off the jaw dropping $ 150 price. My friend offered $ 100, which is retail for the book. Or was, when it was new probably 8 years ago. The guy would barely budge, saying he’d drop $ 10 off. My friend passed. Good thing, too, because he found it online for $ 40. New. That book will sit on his shelf for another 8 years and he could have gotten $ 100 for it that day. I was starting to see why the inventory was so high. Apparently «cash flow» has also been taken out of the owner’s vocabulary.
That wasn’t the only issue with price. Everything seemed a bit inflated. I realize it’s tough for brick and mortar stores these days, so I don’t mind paying a bit extra for the convenience and wonder of going through places like this. Having said that, I will not subject myself to highway robbery. I found a baggie, literally a Glad baggie full of rigid plastic figures probably salvaged from some long lost board game. I had a mild interest in them, figuring they would be worth it for $ 5. No sir, $ 15. That’s just plain arrogance. A Star Wars Saga edition book was going for $ 85. Yet there was an entire box of the rereleased D&D special edition GM’s Guide and Player’s Handbook just sitting there, full. How he thought he could sell all of that is amazing to me. I did buy some good stuff, but I made sure that I wasn’t getting ripped off by calling a competitor we planned on hitting later on. I probably would have bought a bit more, but knew I’d be overpaying way too much for it.
There were other poor business decisions, too. I asked if they had any scenery of a certain type on hand. He said they don’t. As I was travelling around the store guess what I bumped into? When you can’t even remember if you have a $ 100 product that a customer is asking for, maybe it’s time to thin down the stock just a tiny bit. Or inventory the stuff so you can check. Well, that would take weeks, so I guess I can see why he’s not in a hurry. But I had to laugh when I did check out at the «inventory tracking» method that was being used. No cash register, just a calculator. Whatever you bought the owner hastily jotted down on a crumpled up piece of paper. It was farcical. The bag he gave me was, I am fairly convinced was used for the delivery of Chinese food to the store at some earlier date.
Having said all that, would I go back? Hell yes. We barely scratched the surface. But just because you have a great stock doesn’t mean your store has to be a dump. Dear lord that first room and first impression. Also, make sure you aren’t getting gouged on what you buy. Obviously some of the stuff is old and out of print and is going to command bigger money, but other things have no business being marked up as high as they are.

This place is for nerds by nerds and it doesn’t try to hide it. Stuff seems to be piled everywhere and it can be a little intimidating upon first walking in. The staff have been very friendly to me and answered my many questions. They invited my son and I by to view tournament 40k play and that was another good experience. We found a great group of players who were very welcoming.

I don’t even know how to review this place. First impression: it’s an effing pigsty. The games, minis and other merch is disorganized, stacked in random piles and visibly dusty. When you walk in, the owner or whoever is there doesn’t greet you. There were cobweb-​covered Halloween decorations out… In July.
In order to look at minis once, my boyfriend and I had to maneuver around each other. I bought some paints today, and after checking out, they were handed to me in a used Arby’s bag. (Seriously… It had grease stains.)
However, this place has a pretty impressive selection of minis; board, card and hobby games; and miscellaneous geeky accessories. It’s the only place in the area that you can get P3 paints without having to order them. So, as much as I don’t want to give these people my money, sometimes I do.
All that being said, Gamer’s Haven in Middleburg Heights is not too far from Warzone. And it’s clean. And you can play there. And though it doesn’t have quite the selection that Warzone does, the guys at Gamer’s Haven will place orders by request, and they usually have your stuff within a week or so.
So, long story short: Warzone is gross but necessary at times. Gamer’s Haven, in my opinion, is a much better option for most of your gaming needs.