Why you should play Magic: The Gathering at university

We’ve seen them, let’s face it. It might be in the pub, maybe the library or even the SU, but the so-called nerds are there in their droves playing weird and just odd looking card games. Well the truth of the matter is that these games aren’t nerdy.

The talk of these games will instantly make you think of Dungeons and Dragons, but the real cool kids play Magic: The Gathering. It’s a highly competitive game with a whole host of different formats, all with a different method of reaching the same goal: reduce your opponent’s life total to 0. Easy right… So why aren’t you playing?

The community

The Magic: The Gathering community has grown exponentially since the early nineties and, with the rise of social media, that doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anytime soon. It’s reached the point now at which you can find a game of Magic no matter where you are in the world with players who are extremely friendly and welcoming, despite any language barriers that may exist.

Spend an evening in your local game store, and you’ll come away with a group of friends you can call on anytime for a game and some obligatory laughs, not to mention that most universities now have a group of players amongst their ranks. At Aber for example we have our own CardSoc for crying out loud.

It’s a spectator sport

You can’t argue E-sports have been on the rise for ages, a German team (Wolfsburg) signed a 22-year-old to their real life football team as their official “Fifa player”. Over the last 10 years or so, the Magic community has been sure to put their beloved game at the forefront of the conversation. Most major events are now streamed on the internet alike E-Sports with professional commentary and production teams so that you keep an eye on what the pros are doing with the new cards that get released. Yes, there are pros as well.

Don’t worry, we still know how to get the beers in

It’s good mental exercise

From calculating the perfect ratio of lands to spells when deckbuilding, to trying to outwit your opponent and trick them into casting their big dude straight into your counterspell, Magic is most certainly a game of the mind.

You don’t need to be quick and agile or beefy and tough, your cards do all of that for you, your only job is to make sure you cast the right spell at the right time and outplay the guy sitting across the table from you. From reading comprehension to organisation and multi-tasking, If you want to find a hobby that will help you improve mentally and give you something to do for a few hours when you’re bored, Magic is where it’s at.

Career and travel opportunities

Do you fancy going away for the weekend? How about the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo? Or how about an open event in Chicago? Magic allows any players with the money and inclination to go to international with their game and play against some of the best players in the world. If you do well enough, you can even make a real career out of playing the game, travelling all over the world for free and getting paid just to turn up. If that’s not something to aspire to, what is?

It’s all good fun

Putting aside all this competitive talk though, let’s be real; Magic is a game, and a really fun one at that when you get into it. Most players will agree that there is no better feeling then building a fringe combo deck from your collection and getting it to go off, or casting an unnecessarily large creature to kill your opponent.

So get some beers in, pick up your decks and just have fun. Isn’t that why we all play games in the first place?