Ryleigh Piper, a sophomore history major, started playing Magic the Gathering last year after playing it with a friend. Now, it’s one of her favorites.

“I started playing last year in June when my friend Jack introduced me to it,” she said. “I just fell in love with it. I definitely have a lot of good memories here. It’s where I’ve met my current partner and made some amazing friendships that have definitely helped me out.”

Magic the Gathering is a card game similar to other fantasy card games like Pokemon and YuGiOh. The game consists of battling against another person with monster or creature cards until your life count drops to zero.

“It’s definitely one of the things where you have to have a hands-on learning experience with it,” Piper said. “There’s tons of different formats and tons of different card types, so there’s something for everyone pretty much.”

Brock Hollinger, a senior who is majoring in accounting, is the current president of the club.

Hollinger became the president of the club after the previous president stepped down. He said he had to rebuild the club after he became president.

“The previous club president and his party were essentially the only couple people involved with the club,” he said. “Essentially from there we had to rebuild and spread the word out that there was a club.”

Hollinger said there are generally around 15 people who play on average, but that number can be more or less depending on the day.

He also said the club has helped him form new and lasting friendships.

“I have so many good friends now that I’ve met through the club,” he said. “A lot of the people in the club have become important people in my life and I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

Stefan Hendricks, a senior computer science major, said the game can really engage your mind and recommended it for people who are interested in learning in-depth gameplay.

“If you’re looking for something fun to go in-depth with, then I’d definitely recommend learning how to play,” he said. “Since it’s a really in-depth game, you have to get really familiar with the deck that you’re playing, which can take a while to learn. Some of the decks people have built are insane with how powerful they are.”

Hendricks said the game can be harder than something like chess to learn at first, but once a person gets the hang of it, it’s fun and rewarding.

Magic cards feature artwork that initially captured the attention of Kyle Amstutz, a fifth-year student with a major in professional aviation. Thursday night was only his second time playing with the club.

“At first what got me was the artwork on the cards,” he said. “The artwork is really nice to look at, and also learning the game around it and playing with people is pretty fun.”

When recounting one of his favorite memories so far playing the game, he laughed a little.

“There was this cool game I played, but I lost it,” he said. “I lost to 250 squirrels. I tried to stop them, but they just kept growing and I lost.”

Piper said what really got her into the game was the fantasy element and being able to play something that included a lot of different fantasy characters.

“I’ve always been really interested in fantasy,” she said. “I was super interested in learning in the first place because I didn’t have it where I lived. My favorite deck so far is my zombie deck, which has this zombie commander where you essentially lead your army of zombies into battle.”

Being one of the only girls who plays in the club, Piper said it was very intimidating when she first began playing with the club.

“It can definitely already be an intimidating game to learn at first with all the mechanics involved,” she said. “But especially with the idea of gamer guys thinking girls can’t play games, it was definitely a fear I had coming in, but I didn’t have to worry about that. The rest of the club didn’t act like that with me, which made me feel very welcomed and included.”

The club usually meets on Thursday nights from 6-9 p.m. in Student Center Room 316.

Molly Hoffer is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].