Top Deck Towers Cards & Games is an exercise in passion for owner Michael Eakin. He opened the business — located at 3805 W. River Road — in 2017 after deciding to turn his love of tabletop card and miniature games into a career.
“This is me 24/7, 365,” Eakin said. “My mission statement’s been since day one: It’s a game store that was opened by a gamer, for other gamers.”
Customers won’t find euchre and bridge here. These cards depict heroes, demons, giants and other fantasy figures.
The big-name games Eakin has at his store include Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer 40,000, Dungeons & Dragons, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon and Pokémon.
Eakin explained what’s at the foundation of most of them.
”All have their own rules, but mostly you and an opponent sit down across from each other,” he said. “The overall objective is to bring your opponent from whatever the game’s life total is all the way down to zero.”
On any given night, especially Friday and Saturday nights, the game room will be filled with players. Typically, Eakin said, they will have anywhere from a dozen to two dozen people playing. Eakin strives to make it a family-friendly place.
“We don’t discourage parents from bringing their kids,” Eakin said. “We do ask that if the kids are younger than 16 that they have a parent with them, whether that’s for tournament play or just browsing through the shop… We totally encourage parents to come out with their kids.”
In fact, Eakin is working to get some elementary- and middle-school-aged kids’ activities going starting in June. He’s currently planning to have a day when kids can come to play Pokémon or Magic: The Gathering. One of the games, Dungeons & Dragons, will be for kids 10 and older. The children’s days are a way of keeping his customer base growing.
“At the end of the day, if you don’t have the younger generation getting interested in the hobbies, the hobbies will eventually die out,” he said.
Most of the shop’s revenue comes from sales of cards and associated items, such as miniature figures. However, customers can also rent a gaming table.
At least two of the tables feature terrain, one for Warhammer 40,000 and the other for Star Wars: Shatterpoint. They come with miniature buildings and cityscapes. Eakin himself put together some of the buildings, but others were donated.
Although there are several other card stores in town, customers like David Toothman like Top Deck Towers because it has good terrain and good play space, he said.
“It’s a good store,” Toothman added.
In the end the gaming is about camaraderie and having fun.
“Everyone needs a hobby to keep themselves sane,” Noah Spillane, another customer, said. “Whether it’s painting and doing the hobby or playing and being competitive, fun needs to happen and you need to be part of a community to do it.”
Top Deck Towers Cards & Games
3805 W. River Road, Tucson
Open noon to 10 p.m. daily
520-268-8786
www.facebook.com/TDTCG/
This article appears in May 16-23, 2024.
