When Adam Nau, a junior in biology, came to the U in Fall 2011, he found the Magic: The Gathering club at the U had died out after its founders graduated the prior spring. Once he asked for the founders’ permission to start up the club again, it has met every week since.
Nau is currently the president of the Magic: The Gathering club and welcomes all levels of players.
“This is one of the first trading card games in its modern form,” said Isaac Kramer, an undecided sophomore. “It’s more easy to understand. I tried playing the YuGiOh card games, [and] I just never got into it like Magic: The Gathering.”
Some of the members found out about the club through neighbors in the dorms. Erik Poole, a senior in biology, played Magic: The Gathering in junior high but was re-introduced to it by Nau in the dorms. Other members found the club through the Crimson Gamers’ Society or from the ASUU website. Nau said a lot of the members are now his closest friends.
“Magic is fun because it allows you to create a deck of cards and match your abilities as a player against the abilities of another person,” Nau said. “Decks are individualized, and many of us feel very proud of what we can create.”
In the card game, one builds a deck of 60 cards, which can contain any type of creature. Some of the club members have a vampire deck, a deck only of goats or a deck with cards that have the same watermark. Like many games, the point is to eliminate other players or the other team in the game with the creatures on the card.

“There’s a lot of strategy to it, both in deck building and playing the game,” Poole said. “Everyone plays very differently.”
About 30 people are in the club, and 15 to 20 attend weekly. The club meets on Tuesdays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Union.
This semester, the club has a budget of $375, and so far they have spent $100 on a booster draft event, which is a competition in which every player has three booster packs each. These packs contain fifteen cards.
Nau said the game is fun because it acts as a battle of wits with a casual atmosphere. Although all people attend, including competitive players, the club is meant to be a place of fun “while exercising the brain,” Nau said.