Underground Games — Local services in Copperas Cove

My experience is entirely event related and may or may not reflect the store's presentation on a day to day basis.

The store ran a ARG Dragonball Super Trading Card Game (DBSTCG) tournament on 2/17/2018. This was without a doubt the most unprofessional and inhospitable DBSTCG event I have attended.

The DBSTCG Houston scene has quickly gained popularity due to the professionalism and camaraderie that the stores demonstrate during every 'event'. My experience at Underground games made me question if playing at local stores outside of Houston is even worth it. Without the reassurance of a healthy store environment in Houston I would be finding a different hobby after this event. To see how backwards a store can be and still have the honor of business and blessing of Bandai, the creators of the DBSTCG, is disheartening.

DBSTCG ARG Event started nearly 30 minutes late and was not ran effectively. When called beforehand the employee stated that if any deck list was not submitted on time at 6:00pm there would be no late entry and the player would not be able to participate. Since this was a big event, I took this warning seriously only to be sitting around trying to figure out how to pass the time because of how disorganized the event setup turned out to be.

The head judge was uncertain of rulings and was inconsistent on her ruling with a common card known as Cold Bloodlust, a game defining card that can change the pace of a player’s turn dramatically, and some players decided to agree on their own terms between one another to avoid the frustration of dealing with the confusion. During an event, it should never come to that. To be clear, a player asked for clarification on his understanding to convey to his opponent the ruling and the female head judge gave two conflicting rulings on the card to the same player at different times. This was not acceptable.

Word spread quickly throughout the tournament that in the 6th/7th round of the event, the store hastily ruled in favor of a Ruleshark, someone who uses the rules of the game to gain an advantage instead of using them to ensure fair and correct gameplay, regarding card sleeves, leaving players panicking and unhappy with status of the store. This was a hot topic because the Ruleshark accused the other player of cheating due to the back of her cards being slightly visible through her sleeves. This was troubling because literally over half of the participants had sleeves that faintly showed the back of their cards. Players looked up the ruling on the Official Game rules and with nothing stated against this, the judges took the matter into their own hands. The floor judge ruled in favor of the accused player, but the head judged overruled him and allowed the accuser to decide the outcome!! Although the accused player had two people not in the tournament to help re-sleeve in a timely, effective manner, the female judge and the Ruleshark naturally went against that option. The professional call would have involved the head judge giving a warning, allowing the player to re-sleeve quickly and keep going. This behavior is unacceptable from a head judge of major events and for the health of this location, I hope her position is reconsidered in the future. No one should have to endure what that player did, making it so far only to take an unjust game loss due to the lack of professional experience at the scene.

It important to note that the head judge acknowledged the negative actions of the accuser after the fact and even called him a derogatory name, but refused to revoke the disqualification. After the matter I asked the disqualified player if I could take a picture of her sleeves for this review. The back of DBSTCG cards have an image of 6 balls on the back of the card.

A group of people who drove +2 hours to this event congregated in the end venting their frustrations that this was not the environment that Bandai hopes to encourage with DBSTCG.

Be wary of this events at this location if you have to drive a good distance, a positive experience is...

I will touch on some of the aspects you may feel important and then I will give you a more in depth account of my experience. So first off the store is quite roomy compared to what I am used to. They have an incredibly nice inventory and the display cases are incredibly well organized. I have never been a fan of having to search forever only to find that a store does not have a card in stock, this store has two stations for customers to search their inventory. I was able to locate the cards I wanted in a matter of less than a minute. The prices were extremely fair. The layout was very easy to navigate and roomy. The restroom was clean. I have refrained from doing this review until I was absolutely sure my first experience wasn't just a fluke. I recently moved to the area and happened to drive past this place by chance on a Friday night. The staff not only answered all my questions but seemed to actually enjoy providing me service. The atmosphere was exciting and filled with laughter and chatter. I decided to return just to see if I would get the same experience and I was not disappointed. I also want to point out that every single time I have visited the store, the owner was present and actively engaged with the staff and customers. They had games of Magic, Pokemon, Yugioh, and Warhammer going on. The store literally excels in all categories but none of that is as important to me as the player atmosphere, so I will touch on that. Every time I visited the store to check it out, I did not bring any cards in the store. I was greeted by the players and asked if I played commander. I told them I didn't own a deck and multiple people offered to let me play with one of their decks, so I could join the fun. I was blown away by the kindness and the atmosphere of the players. I should mention that the players were very diverse in age and gender. There was not any bickering or fighting among the players, only laughter and excitement. If you are looking for a new home to play, I highly recommend this place. You will not be disappointed!

Pros Inventory Selection 5/5Prices 5/5 Cleanliness 5/5 Trading 5/5 Atmosphere 5/5

ConsI...

Leaving this reveiw well after the fact, but my experience with this shop was pretty standard until I did a larger trade in of some older sets pokemon cards. Waited forever for an estimate which it was a prerelease night for mtg final fantasy set, so not crazy to wait but way longer than it should have been since I'd come in well before event times.

But after my wait I got my estimate which was vastly different than the estimate I had. The told me the were in poor condition and that even my "good" cards were heavily played at best. Against my gut feeling I decided to do the trade. Well I was scrolling through shortly after and low and behold one of the cards I traded in was on their site and it was graded as lightly played which made about 50$ difference on price so I got about 20$ less than I should have on that card alone much less the other 31 cards I traded in with it. After the 3rd card I came across in their singles list that only had one item in stock and was a part of the trade in I had.

Shame on me for not sticking to my gut but to buy things at a lower grading to resell at a higher grading is bogus ripped me off of my value and/or is charging the community more than they're willing to pay. I know a business need to make money but thats why you get a percentage of the value and not market price.

So ill be using the last of my rewards and most likely discontinuing any future business with them and will actively discourage people from trading with them. Purchases proir to this had been a standard experience so this was kind of a shock when I...