English speaking player looking for a place to play :)

[Nantuko]

Hello , sorry for English but i am really fresh in Netherlands , so i have no command in Dutch .

Now that i finished my relocation in Netherlands ( and apart from 3 decks , the rest collection is on the way here )
i am looking for a place to play FNM , or even a non official place , where i can meet other players .

I am living in Purmerend and working in Amsterdam . I red somewhere that there is a shop in Purmerend
that organize FNM . Is this true ? If yes , is there anyone that can give me the address or the name of the shop ?

Have you any other recommendation of how i will find a place , or just the players around Purmerend ?
( Or at least at Amsterdam - near Lelylaan area )

I hope i can play Magic in my new country as often as in my old one

Thanks a lot !

[Jibz]

Out of curiosity, where might you be from?

Myself, I'm still in China for a week, so won't be available for a bit yet.

[Nantuko]

I am from Greece
( So all my cards are in English ... )

Are you living in Purmerend or in the area in general ?

[Jibz]

Interesting, I studied Ancient Greek in high school, and know a bit of basic stuff in Modern Greek, very interesting language though.
In the Netherlands all cards are in English as well, so no language barrier for you there.

When I return to the Netherlands, I will reside with my parents in Veenendaal (close to Utrecht) for the first week, then probably visit my brother in Leiden (close to Den Haag/The Hague). Not specifically close as you can see. There's some people from Amsterdam on the forum though.

[pi]

Welcome to The Netherlands!

I myself am located in Amsterdam Noord, which is like 20 minutes with the bus or car for you. We often play EDH on Sunday afternoons in Amsterdam center. If you like you could join us some time? I work near Metro stop Henk Sneevlietweg, which is fairly close to station Lelylaan.

I've also heard of an active FNM community in Purmerend, I believe it's organised by Zap! games. Their website can be found here, their address is at the bottom of the text on the main page. I've been there a few times, but never for the FNM specifically and not more than like once every 2 years or so. They have some tables set up upstairs and it used to be that you could sometimes find people to play with there. If you want to visit the FNM I would check with the shop where they play as I have some doubts they can fit an entire FNM in their room upstairs.

Long ago, between '99 and '03 I used to visit a monthly convention in Purmerend that attracted about 40 players at a time and the Unhinged pre-release in Purmerend had about 50 players in it. I'm afraid I'm not sure how active the Purmerend community is these days, but I do still run into people from back in the day every now and then. As they run FNM's there I would guess the Magic scene in Purmerend is still going strong.

You might also consider playing in Amsterdam as it's fairly close to you. Nedermagic.nl organizes a weekly draft in Amstelveen, which is like +/- 500 meters outside of Amsterdam, they sometimes have other formats too: this Sunday they're doing a Legacy tournament. There is also the weekly draft tournament in the 2 Klaveren, a bar/cafeteria that caters to gamers. This tournament takes place Monday evening. Also pre-releases in Amsterdam are usually held at the 2 Klaveren (though it sometimes varies).

Amsterdam has a brick & mortar store as well, named the Gamekeeper, which is located fairly close to the royal palace at Hartenstraat 14. If you want to travel a little further I would look at Zaandam and Haarlem. I know there are players there, though I'm not as knowledgable on where they play.

If you're also into board-, card- and dicegames I organize a games afternoon in Landsmeer every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month, that should also be convenient to go to from Purmerend (there is a bus that goes through Landsmeer that rides back and forth between Amsterdam and Purmerend). We will have a summerstop, but the 13th of July we'll do the final one if you'd like to check it out (and it'll include a BBQ to boot, though you will have to sign up for that and pay 10 euros, the games afternoon itself is free).

[Nantuko]

Thank you very much for this excellent feedback !

I think I saw the store you mention in Purmerend , is 5 min walking from my house , so definitely worth it start looking there first .
As I am not a hard core player ( although I like to attend releases or FNM – and play in weekly base ) I will check what I can do in Zap Games first .
Its very important for me to be next to my place , at least for the cold winter night that will come ( I hope not soon ) .

Zaandam of course is also an excellent option.
And I’ll check for sure 2Klaveren , as I can see is not far away from my job And look like a nice place! I can easily pay a visit for a coffee and magic there

We already discover Gamekeeper , at the first days in Amsterdam . But I thing If I can find the stuff I won’t at Purmerend , ill support my local store .

Is excellent idea your game afternoon, and for sure I would like to attend at some point when you start again after summer . Unfortunately at the 13 July the transport company with my household arrives (and the rest of my small magic collection ) so is impossible for me to attend that weekend .

Thanks again for all your answers - you really helped and make me happy

[pi]

You're welcome!

The 2 Klaveren is pretty cool, they have very nice food too. Unfortunately the weekly drafts tend to run a little too late for my taste (and I'm not big on 1:1 games anyway), but I do like to play there every now and then. There have been regular Magic events there since at least '97 but probably for longer (I only started playing in '97). Both Zap games and The Gamekeeper are pretty nice shops, it's a shame nobody ever plays at the Gamekeeper anymore, they have a pretty big table that's ideal for multiplayer games and they have an even nicer basement (though that's just used for storage purposes now, they had too many issues there and didn't want to assign someone to permanently watch it). I'm feeling nostalgic now, lol.

I can add your e-mail to our games afternoon mailing list? The mail I send is in Dutch, but you can probably gather date and location from it (or if not, mail back asking for where to find that info). It acts as a reminder that another games afternoon is coming up, I usually send it out on the Wednessday preceding it. We also have a facebook page if you prefer to keep an eye on that instead: https://www.facebook.com/Spelletjesmidd ... ark_t=page. Again, it's in Dutch, but you can look at the events. On the 13th we'll be starting at 13:00, but it tends to get pretty late when we combine it with a BBQ so it would not be a problem if you arrive late, many will. (Though I can imagine your day might be too busy anyway, just putting it out there).

No interest in playing in our multiplayer group on Sundays? (Don't worry about forcing us to speak English, we've had foreign players join us before, in fact one of the regulars is a Canadian guy whose doesn't speak Dutch very well so we often speak English anyway).

Was your work the reason you relocated, or are you perhaps a student too? There is a pretty active student organization at the VU where they love playing games, including Magic, hence my question.

[Nantuko]

Then I definitely see you around soon!

I am going to visit 2 Klaveren for sure in the next couple of weeks!
And I have already liked your event page in facebook to watch the activity.
Although is ok to put my email to your mailing list. Is not a problem that is in Dutch,
Google translate is my best friend here! I will manage don’t worry!

As for the multiplayer group at Sundays, ill pay a visit soon.
The last year I managed to “organize” every Sunday a nice multiplayer event in a cafe/restaurant in my country ,
so I would like to continue something like this .
Actually I just gather up some friends that was old players, and those bring more old players,
we have a couple completely new and we manage to gather up 10-15 players in the same huge table playing almost all day ...

Thank a lot for the extremely warm welcome. We will meet soon I guess!

[pi]

I'm sure we'll meet at some point. Do let me know when you'd like to join us, attendence is sometimes a bit spotty, we tend to play when we know at least 4 people will be there and I should be able to tell you if we are going to play or not. We tend to play EDH, are you familiar with the format? My group is fairly casual, though it has grown a little more competitive than it used to be. We have people with all kinds of experience levels, ranging from one guy who says he's even played with Alpha playtest cards that his friend's dad had to another who only learned to play like half a year ago (unfortunately the former lost his collection at some point along the way). I myself have been playing since Tempest.

I've put you on the mailing list for the games afternoon, expect to start receiving mail when we have our 2nd BBQ (we do one at the beginning of the summer and one at the end) and for regular games afternoons after that. Btw, if this sounds like something anybody on this forum would like to attend (we do get people from all over The Netherlands anyway, even a Belgian girl) send me a PM and I'll get you the details or put you on our mailing list.

I'd love to play with 10-15 people in the same game, unfortunately it's hard to find people who like really big games. Most I know start having trouble keeping track at 4-6 players, though admittedly when there are many cards in play with "incorrect" art (I tend to only recognize the earliest art) I start having some difficulty at 6 too. Still, I'd absolutely love to be in such a big game.

There's another discussion topic going on gathering with a group of people from the forum, don't know if you have the ability and willingness to travel to Veenendaal on the 27th? http://www.magicforums.nl/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4931