That’s right…Magic: The Gathering.
Originally I had
not planned on featuring MTG for a couple reasons. First, it’s
essentially a two player game. Sure, there are variants that include
multiple players, but the goal was to get as many people involved as
possible in a given game. Then there is the cost. I’m probably ignorant of how MTG
is produced and marketed, but I was there when it began over 20 years ago, and
it left a bad taste in my mouth. The game seemed to benefit those who
could afford the best decks, or were lucky enough to pull the best cards.
Not knowing enough about the game, I also lost some cards in a bad trade that I
would later learn were quite valuable. It soiled the game for me.
Magic also has a ton of rules. Although the core of
the game is simple enough: tap the land, cast the spell, attack, block, repeat...but with each
expansion Magic introduced new abilities. I felt it would be a challenge
to teach new players.
But over time, I changed my tune. The game is still
fun and deeply engaging. I enjoy the variety of strategies, and the art
and mythos of the game is quite intriguing. I do like the online versions
of MTG, and I’ve played them on the iPad and XBOX Live. The game is also
quite popular with students, and I’ve witnessed many students over the years
playing in the library or Commons during lunch or spare periods, but the idea
of introducing Magic to the game club still did not occur to me. The only
way I was going to introduce Magic: The Gathering was if I was somehow provided
with preconstructed decks that were balanced to be competitive, engaging, and
yet easy to work with.
Lucky for me, that’s just what happened; I met
Bill O’Dell.
Bill is married to one of my coworkers. He is also a
huge fan of Magic, as well as an advocate and proponent of the game. He
writes for and moderates a number of different blogs, including one for his
culinary talents (http://www.rgf-chilihead.com/),
and one for his love of Magic: The Gathering (http://planechasing.com/about) .
He also contributes to a number of other fandom sites in the realm of Geek
culture. Please check out his work. It’s incredibly inspired.
I met Bill face to face at a literary conference, I being an English teacher, and he at the time managing a successful book store. We talked about the game club, and he made an incredibly generous offer: from his colossal collection of cards, he would construct decks for my game club, free of charge. Each deck would be colour specific for simplicity, but balanced so they could compete with each other. A couple weeks after our conversation, his wife presented me with five decks. I bought colour coded card sleeves, and voila... the Table Top Game Club was infused with Magic!
For Friday's special Magic session, I let the students know well in advance so Magic players could bring their decks, but more importantly, veterans of the game could teach the game to new players. This proved to be incredibly valuable, as we had a number of new players, and the veterans actually enjoyed teaching the game to new players, and the new players had a blast.
Like I said, the decks were designed to be easy to play but effective. I tried the green deck against a new player who grabbed the red deck, The red deck was built around goblins, and cards that buffed each other based on the number of goblins on the table. Having never touched the game before, she looked at her hand, and said "Oh...I get it...summon lots of goblins and swarm you!". She beat me three games to one.
It was a great session, and I plan on featuring Magic much earlier in the year for next season's Table Top Game Club. I know it will become a "go-to" game for quite a few students on open gaming sessions, or those days when there are more players than the feature game allows. Magic is a solid addition to the club, all thanks to the generosity of Bill. Like I said, check out his blogs and Twitter posts. You'll be happy you did.
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