"Nerd Herd" Makes Magic
Connor Strange
Staff Writer
The land lay scorched and wasted, fire raging across what remained of the once luscious ocean of grass. The goblins had razed the surrounding countryside on their way to launch a siege against a large human settlement, and now they hurled spells and enchantments at the city’s walls.
Every day after school a large group of students gathers in the commons to play the card game “Magic: The Gathering.”
“It has gained such a large following because it’s fun and we’re nerds,” senior Dusty Stafford said.
Some of them go every day, others less regularly, but they all find their way to the lunchroom to face off against each other with pricy decks of cards.
The game is pretty complex, with a lot of different factors to take into account. First and foremost is choosing which card works best.
“[It’s] Pokemon on steroids: you pick cards that you want and make a deck out of them; the card tells you what the card does, and you combine them to do special effects,” junior Ben Bevans said.
Many students have picked up the game already, most of which are good friends. Somewhere among them, an individual found “Magic” and turned the rest onto it.
“We have a pretty massive friend group,” junior David Johnson said, “So when one of us starts doing something and we all realize it’s such a great thing, we start doing it as well.”
According to numerous members of the group, it’s as expensive as it is entertaining. Decks are composed of at least sixty different cards, and many players have more than one deck. All of that totaled together adds up to quite a large sum.
For a less pricey alternative, there is the virtual version of “The Gathering,” of which the most recent edition costs $9.99 on the online marketplace “Steam,” if the buyer chooses to gain cards by playing rather than purchasing them.
Some people prefer the online version to the physical, but others are “converts” to real card play.
“I’ve been playing for two years now, mostly online,” Johnson said. “Recently, my friends have been getting actual cards, so I just started joining them.”
The visual aspect is a favorite of some who enjoy playing, whether on a computer at home or on a table in the commons. Junior Reid Reynoldson, and avid player, reported that the card pictures are both cool and fancy.
The game is looked at by some as a smidgen on the nerdy side, which turns some prospective players away. The players don’t think it’s a fair representation.
“Try it,” junior Brandon Grady said. “Don’t hate on it until you’ve tried it.”
But most importantly to a lot of the guys and gals who attend the gathering for “The Gathering” is friendship. They don’t just get together to compete, but rather to hang out and have a good time.
“I actually get people to talk to me when I play Magic,” junior Hunter Long said, jokingly.
The fun isn’t just limited to the people who play it now and their close friends; it’s open to anyone who is interested in participating.
“If you ever want to join us, we’re always here at the end of the day in the commons,” Johnson said. “And we have spare decks!”
