08/05/2026
About The Tactical Turtle
A Game Store Built by Players, for Players
Hi, I’m Matt, the owner of The Tactical Turtle in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Before I was a game store owner, I was a gamer.
I started playing Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and World of Darkness RPGs back in the early 1990s. I’ve been buying cards, building decks, rolling dice, painting miniatures, reading rulebooks, playing games with friends, and spending far too much time thinking about my next strategy ever since.
Magic: The Gathering is still my favorite game, but my interests have always gone well beyond trading card games. I love strategy games, tabletop gaming, role-playing games, miniatures, wargaming, board games, and all the accessories and supplies that go along with them.
That is the foundation of The Tactical Turtle.
We are a small, locally owned and family-run game store in Portsmouth, Virginia, serving gamers throughout Portsmouth, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, and the greater Hampton Roads area. We sell Magic: The Gathering cards and sealed products, Pokémon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece Card Game, Warhammer 40K, miniatures, wargaming supplies, board games, Dungeons & Dragons books and accessories, role-playing games, dice, card sleeves, deck boxes, binders, and other tabletop gaming supplies.
But more importantly, we are players first.
Why a game store?
The Tactical Turtle was built around a simple idea: gaming should be fun, and players shouldn't have to get ripped off to enjoy it.
The gaming hobby has gotten expensive. We all know it.
Scalpers, flippers, artificial shortages, inflated prices, and people buying up products simply to turn around and sell them to another player for as much as they can possibly get have made an already expensive hobby even harder to enjoy.
That's not what we're about.
I'm a player. I understand what it is like to want that card for your deck, that Warhammer box for your army, that new board game for game night, or the sleeves, dice, deck box, binder, or other supplies you need to actually play.
That's why The Tactical Turtle follows a player-first, price-aggressive business model.
We work hard to offer great deals and competitive prices because we would rather put gaming products into the hands of players than squeeze every possible dollar out of them.
We're not trying to be the store that charges the most because something is hard to find.
We're trying to be the store that gamers remember because they got a great deal.
For players. By players.
That's the way I believe a game store should operate.
From Magic: The Gathering to Warhammer 40K and Everything in Between
My gaming background started with Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and World of Darkness in the early 1990s, and I've never really stopped being a gamer.
Magic remains my favorite, and trading card games are a major part of The Tactical Turtle. We carry Magic: The Gathering singles and sealed products along with other popular TCGs such as Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and One Piece Card Game.
But The Tactical Turtle isn't just a card shop.
We have a strong focus on tabletop wargaming, especially Warhammer 40,000. We carry Warhammer products, miniatures, wargaming supplies, and the accessories players need to build, customize, and play their armies.
We're also a destination for board games, Dungeons & Dragons, role-playing games, dice, card sleeves, deck boxes, binders, storage solutions, and other tabletop gaming accessories.
Whether you're a competitive Magic player, a Commander fan, a Pokémon collector, a Yu-Gi-Oh! duelist, a One Piece Card Game player, a Warhammer 40K hobbyist, a D&D player, an RPG fan, a board gamer, a miniature painter, or someone just getting started in tabletop gaming, you're welcome here.
Why "The Tactical Turtle"?
The name actually comes from two very different things that ended up fitting together perfectly.
The "Tactical" part comes from my love of strategy gaming and the strategic side of the hobbies I enjoy, especially games like Magic: The Gathering and Warhammer 40K.
The "Turtle" part comes from my wife.
When we first started dating, we were in a long-distance relationship. Apparently, I had a habit of being a little slow getting off work and getting on the road to come see her.
She started calling me "Turtle."
Put the two together, add my love of Magic and strategy games, my growing obsession with Warhammer 40K, and the idea of building a game store around the hobbies I've loved since the 1990s, and The Tactical Turtle was born.
It's a name that is personal to me, and it's a pretty good description of what we are building.
A Small Local Game Store That's Growing
The Tactical Turtle is located at 3512 Airline Blvd #2 in Portsmouth, Virginia, inside a large local retail plaza that is also home to two other business, Auto City, along with Mike's Auto Repair.
We're a small store, and we're still growing.
That means we're not a giant national retailer, and we're not pretending to be one. We're a locally owned, family-run business operated by people who actually live in the community and participate in the hobbies we sell.
Right now, our physical store is small, but the goal is to continue growing The Tactical Turtle into something much bigger.
As we grow into a larger location, we plan to expand our gaming space and eventually host events, tournaments, Commander nights, prereleases, Pokémon events, Warhammer games, D&D sessions, learn-to-play events, and other opportunities for local gamers to get together and play.
I want The Tactical Turtle to become more than a place where you buy cards and games.
I want it to become a place where gamers come to find their next deck, army, campaign, board game, RPG, or hobby, and where players can eventually sit down across the table from one another and actually play.
Your Local Game Store in Hampton Roads
If you're looking for a local game store, hobby store, card shop, or tabletop gaming store in the Portsmouth, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, or Virginia Beach area, we'd love to have you stop by.
We're building The Tactical Turtle one customer, one deck, one army, one game, and one great deal at a time.
I'm not just the owner behind the counter.
I'm the guy playing Magic.
I'm the guy who understands why you want that card.
I'm the guy who understands how expensive it can be to build a Warhammer 40K army.
I'm the guy who has spent years playing D&D and RPGs, buying board games, collecting cards, rolling dice, and trying to find the best deal on the next thing I want to play.
I'm a player first, and that's how I run my store.
The Tactical Turtle is a game store for gamers, built by a gamer.
For players. By players.
Come see what we're building.
The Tactical Turtle
3512 Airline Blvd #2
Portsmouth, VA 23701
Serving gamers in Portsmouth, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, and throughout Hampton Roads.
Send a message to learn more
