Magic: The Gathering isn't just a strategy game, its an introduction to an entire global community. And you can learn to play at Gamers@Hart on Easter Monday from 1pm! Here's what to expect.
Magic: The Gathering is the world’s most popular collectible card game. You take on the role of a ‘planeswalker’, a powerful magic-wielder who casts spells in an attempt to reduce the life of the opponent from 20 to 0. The basic rules are very simple, but the ability to build decks using a huge range of cards means the game is endlessly varied.
MTG: A Global Community
Although the game is fun, it isn’t just a game, it’s a community. It’s an online community of traders and people swapping strategies and tips, but it’s also a physical community of players all over the world.
In 2016 I was traveling with my family to the UK Games Expo in Birmingham. My son (8 at the time) and I got out our MTG decks on the train. When we finished the first game, a random person from further down the train jumped in and asked for a game (although MTG is often played as a duel, it’s very easy to play with much larger groups of players). About six months later I was in the fortunate position of visiting the USA for a conference in Cambridge – as with most conferences, the fun ended around 6pm every night, so to avoid boredom I searched Facebook for local places running MTG drafts and found one in a local bar. This time I hadn’t brought decks with me, but the ‘draft’ format means you create a deck with the cards you’re given on the night – no equipment necessary.
Even locally, we have people from vastly different backgrounds – people who probably would never meet in any other situation because their jobs, their generation, or their social circles are quite different – meeting and chatting and building community. So when we say it’s not a game, it’s a community, it’s because you can jump into groups of players around the world, it’s a conversation starter, and it’s a way to meet new people.
What to expect at 'how to play' events
Our ‘how to play’ events look like this.
- You arrive, we say ‘hi’ and ask if you’re here to learn. And you say ‘yes’. Or something similar.
- We give you a small 30 card deck, and a demonstrator will also have a 30 card deck to play with.
- The demonstrator won’t bombard you with rules, we’ll show you the basics (how you play cards, how you deal damage), and then we’ll take the rules on the cards one at a time as we come to them. You’ll soon get the hang of the cards telling you what to do most of the time.
- At the end, you’ll take the demonstrator’s 30 cards. That gives you a full 60 card deck to play with.
What’s next – the Intro League
So you enjoyed it? Try our Intro League on a Friday night. It’s only very gently competitive, it’s mostly about having fun. It works like this:
- First week, we give you a deck (if you already know about MTG, we give you two Jumpstart boosters). This will be a pretty basic deck – nothing to complicated going on.
- At the end of the first week, we also give you a booster pack. You can use cards from this to improve your deck. This first week costs £15 for the deck and a booster, and a deck box too.
- Then, every other week, it’s £6 and you get a booster every week.
- After around 12 weeks the league ends, and we hand out modest vouchers to the top 3 people.
The Intro league isn’t just for new people – it’s for anyone that wants to play in a less competitive and informal atmosphere.
Find out more on our Facebook Event CLICK HERE