Nostos Games — Local services in Ipswich

In short:

Nostos Boutique is the best local game store I have ever visited. The space is bright, inventory is well organized, and there is a great selection of Magic the Gathering and Pokémon singles and sealed products. The owner, Krisy, is so welcoming and kind and the community overall makes you feel comfortable to play no matter your experience level. Thank you for building and maintaining such a wonderful place to play, socialize, and collect!

A long winded and more in-depth review:

I have been a Pokémon collector most of my life but am new to the MTG scene. I have visited many game stores in the North Shore area and have often felt judged and or spoken down to as a woman of color in the gaming community. Note: this has been my experience, however I acknowledge that this is not everyone’s experience. I was apprehensive the first time I visited Nostos Boutique but quickly realized that this was not like any other game store I have been to. Nostos defies the common stereotypes of local game stores as the space is clean, bright, and well organized. The Nostos community welcomes new players of all skill levels and the more experienced players have even helped me navigate the often complicated world of MTG. Krisy owns and operates the store like a well oiled machine. She has gone out of her way to make me feel comfortable and teach me the basics and nuances of MTG. Krisy and Tim have even helped me build my first EDH deck and have kindly let me practice my developing MTG skills through casual commander games. I greatly appreciate their generosity and the time and effort they put into teaching new MTG players. I am so happy to be a part of the Nostos community! I would encourage anyone who wants to learn about MTG to stop by and give it a try. Even if trading/playing cards are not your thing, Nostos has more to offer including vintage toys, books, board games, tote bags, candles, and stickers. I always love spending time at Nostos and am excited to continue my MTG...

First stop in to this lovely shop on my trip to the Boston area. It was great, though I'm disappointed I couldn't bring any of my decks as they have a ton of events for folks to participate in (looking at their calendar anyway). As a consolation prize I did get to look through their well organized and prolific singles selection.

The coolest thing about my experience, however, was eavesdropping on the owner (I'm pretty sure) while she taught some other young women how to play Magic: the Gathering. I often feel privileged as a cisgender, white male when I walk into other comic/game shops. Typically my experience is pretty great, whereas others' experiences may vary (especially those of my girlfriend and daughter). I'm not sure if it's amazing or sad to say I recognized just how special this store was in seeing how welcome EVERYONE was, when often in stores like this that's not the case. I love my hobbies, and I love when more folks get into the same or similar hobbies because then there's just more fun to go around, and I'm glad to see this store working so hard to make it a welcoming and safe environment. Solid 5 Stars, would bring...

This store is the definition of family & fun. I’ve been coming here with my brothers to hangout and play games like Magic The Gathering or Dungeons & Dragons for going on 3 years now. The store owner Krissy is kind and super knowledgeable she is nothing but super supportive and helpful to anyone that come into the shop. The husband Tim is awesome and willing to help anyone that has any questions and will even take a minute to sit down with you to figure out anything you need like understanding rules or even teaching you how to play the games. The regulars are kind and always talking about the newest things going on in various topics from Video Games, Comics, Movies, Card Games, ect. and they are all super nice and willing to help you out aswell. The shop has a atmosphere that’s friendly and it’s a safe space. The shop is clean and spacious nothing out their compares to a experience like...