On any given day at Labyrinth Games & Puzzles, located in the heart of Washington, DC, you’ll find a community of players constantly in motion: a Learn to Play Magic: The Gathering class celebrating its first counterspell, a D&D session kicking off a new campaign, and children playing a game of Uno after school.
For Melissa (owner of Labyrinth) and Ed (Labyrinth's TCG Manager), the palpable joy and inclusivity in this local game store is exactly what makes it special.
The Journey to Labyrinth Games & Puzzles
Melissa’s journey to becoming the owner of Labyrinth started with a love for tabletop gaming. Back then, she was living in California and regularly met with friends for board games, Magic: The Gathering, and Pokémon. When she relocated to DC in 2019, she saw that Labyrinth was hiring and took the retail job. Six years later, she’s now the new owner of Labyrinth Games & Puzzles. “It’s my favorite place to be in the world,” she shared.
Ed’s path to Labyrinth began with playing Magic: The Gathering in 1996. He then stepped away during his “too cool for this” middle school phase, to eventually return as an adult, realizing he wasn’t “too cool for anything.” When he found Labyrinth, the discovery coincided with a critical moment in his life. “I was going through a dark place at the time and the community here embraced me, and helped me get through that.”
His experience shaped the community Ed wanted to build inside the store, sharing that he often thinks back to how he was welcomed and wants to ensure everyone has that going forward.
Hobby Shop of the Year
We’re excited to share that Labyrinth Games & Puzzles is the official 2025 Hobby Shop of the Year winner! When Labyrinth became a finalist for TCGplayer’s Hobby Shop of the Year, both Melissa and Ed described the title with the same word: validation. It is recognition that years of intentional community-building has had a notable impact. But the best part for them is the excitement of telling their players.
Learning Through Play: The Labyrinth Teacher Fund
Education is central to Labyrinth’s mission, as seen with their Labyrinth Teacher Fund. Every year, the store hosts an annual used game sale, where community members sell or donate games they’re no longer playing. All proceeds are then reinvested into the Labyrinth Teacher Fund, which has raised $16,000 to support DC-area teachers and schools.
This donation helps educators bring games into classrooms and after-school programs, supporting reading comprehension, math, critical thinking, and social-emotional learning. For Melissa, a former middle school science teacher, this work particularly resonates with her own values, noting that you can learn so much better through play.
Education and play is at the core everything they do, and expands beyond just classroom settings. Their in-store educational programming spans nearly every age and experience level, from First Moves (a class for ages 3-5 that introduces counting, collaboration, and early strategy), to Learn to Play Magic, MTG Academy: Deck Building, Boozy Board Game Nights, D&D sessions for kids, girls, teens, adults, and many more. Labyrinth also runs summer camps where kids spend full days immersed in board games. They’ve even played Finspan under the giant whale in the National History Museum.
Partnering with the Local Community
Beyond supporting local educators, Labyrinth also partners with nearby organizations. One collaboration is with the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, where Labyrinth staff teach Votes for Women, a board game about the women’s suffrage movement.
They also partner with As You Are, an LGBTQ+ community center in DC, supporting game nights and D&D sessions. For both Melissa and Ed, these collaborations reinforce why youth-focused safe spaces matter.
How TCGplayer Helps Support
Behind the scenes, TCGplayer’s tools are essential to supporting Labyrinth Games & Puzzles, to ensure they can continue serving their local gaming community. Quicklist, TCGplayer’s collectible card scanning software powered by intelligent image recognition, plays a central role in allowing Labyrinth to purchase cards and estimate their market value. Meanwhile, MassPrice, a pricing tool that enables sellers to schedule price updates, automate price changes, and set custom rules, helps Labyrinth price their inventory competitively without manual workflows.
The Spirit of Labyrinth
When asked to describe the soul of Labyrinth, Melissa shared a moment that summarizes it all. During a stretch of heavy snow in DC, a regular Magic: The Gathering player who uses a wheelchair emailed the store, unsure of whether the icy sidewalk would be passable. Without being asked, staff arrived with pickaxes and cleared a safe path so that he could attend Magic that weekend. “That encompasses the Labyrinth community,” Melissa said.
Words of Wisdom
When asked what advice they would give to someone looking to start their own game store, their advice was simple: do it for your community. Get to know the customers who walk through your doors, and especially don’t overlook kids and teens. “They’re the future of your store,” Melissa said.
Labyrinth has created something so magical: a space for play, and therefore a space for people. “Everywhere should be a safe space for everyone,” she said. “When everything is so terrible, it’s fulfilling to know we have created a space both for our employees and customers, where you can watch the shoulders sink as people walk in the door. This is a space where you can be accepted for who you are. Our mission and vision for the longest time has been spreading joy through games, and to be that for people is of the utmost importance to us.”
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