r/UIUC•
devmage

Current state of Magic: The Gathering around campus?

So, I've recently gotten back into M:TG, thanks to a girlfriend who plays regularly. I was a big player in the Urza and Masques blocks, and I got out of it largely because I ran out of friends who were frequent players. Now that I'm back in, I'd love to find a few regular groups to play with.

So far, I've found that U-C has two card shops in town: Dragon's Table and Armored Gopher. Between the two, AG definitely has the more regularly updated website, which already has skewed my opinion in their favor. I also stopped by their shop recently, and the guys running the place were quite friendly. From the discussion on a thread here from about three months ago, though, DT is a very welcoming shop with a consistent crowd for its regular M:TG events. I want to, and soon will, check it out - just haven't yet.

Furthermore, the older thread also mentioned a M:TG student club that meets Wednesdays at 6pm in the basement of the Union, with $8 draft play (NB: this is $1 better than at-cost draft play). Their website, though, is dated 2008, and the last activity in their forum (aside from my own post just now) was in July 2011.

Where does a reborn planeswalker go to play some good card in this town? Have I hit the main points? And does anyone know off-hand if the student group still intends to meet in the upcoming semester?

Edit: Phil from the M:TG student club replied to an email that I sent, asking about the status of the club. Apparently things are alive and well!

We meet Wednesdays at 6:00pm in the Illini Union basement, in the food court near the Sushi San. Usually some people booster draft, some play EDH/Commander or Standard, and sometimes there's a cube draft.

Posted Jan 9, 2012, 12:10 PM UTC · edited

33
robosmrf•

Armoured Gopher has a big FNM every week. Usually at least 20 people. Dave Normally posts about it on facebook if you follow them. Schedule is also on the website.

http://armored-gopher.com/

3
kevlar00 CS Grad, Dancer, Climber•

I've been to both DT and AG. DT used to (and may likely still) have drafts Tues/Thurs as well as all the major release events. I had only gone to AG for board game night (where people were friendly and helpful), so I cannot speak w.r.t. their magic scene.

The student club has been going for several years, I showed up a few times in previous years and I saw them playing several times this last semester. I can't imagine they would stop all of a sudden. I wouldn't worry about an out of date website.

2
[deleted]•

I know that the metagamers club, which is mostly for board games, tabletop RPGs and LARPs, also has a bunch of M:TG players who attend the weekly game night regularly and play there. Their club forum is http://www.illini-rp.net/forum/index.php Game night is saturdays at 7 in the English Building atruim, if I recall correctly. I'm not sure how active the forums are, but you might want to ask there too.

1