The soft fwip of a plastic-coated piece of paper hitting a table, followed by another, thrown down in vengeance. And another. And another. Until it’s all over. It’s a game of Magic: The Gathering, and after years in dormancy, it’s rising from the grave with a bang — and a fwip. 

Magic: The Gathering is a collectible and competitive card game played by millions of people around the world in events with cash prizes, like the upcoming 2012 world championships in Indianapolis for over $100,000.

Here at South there is a thriving community of players that play at all sorts of different levels.

“Usually, everyone here plays pretty casually,” explained senior Tony Spicer-Covin, as he played a friend in a heated game. “I’ve been playing for ever since I can remember, but I just started getting more into it lately. Most of my friends play a lot and I just found some cards and joined right in.”

Magic has a simple premise. “Players eventually whittle down each others’ life totals by casting and then attacking with creature cards, casting instant and sorcery spells that cause one-time effects in the game, and enchantments that can completely change the game,” explained South High graduate James Lunning, “It’s a really simple idea, but each card does something else, and it’s how people combine each one to make different and interesting strategies.”

Lunning is an experienced Magic player, and is getting certified to be a rules judge for tournaments at a national level.

Senior Nathan Fantauzza said, “I really like playing it because it’s a very customizable and personal game. There are so many different strategies and cards, and even though some are more expensive than others, there’s a way for pretty much anyone to play.”

“It seems that most people that play, at least in our group, started sometime in middle school and then stopped,” explained senior Sam Belo, who was in the middle of a game in his VOICES class with other seniors David Baldus, Sean Popham, and Spicer-Covin. “I mean, it was just a point where we just somehow decided to start playing again, and I mean we aren’t that great but it’s fun just to play super chill.”

Baldus agreed. “It’s actually very interesting to play,” he said as he attacked another player in the game, “I like playing it mainly because it’s a better thing to do than something more mindless, plus there are some real goofy people to play at South.”

“It’s weird because most people when they think of who plays or enjoys this game, they usually just jump to the stereotypical world of warcraft kid sitting in their basement, but it’s definitely not true! I mean just look at me, I’m not in my basement!” exclaimed Popham, who shares this sentiment with most of the schools’ players.

Lunning agrees. “It’s true there is a sort of stigma about who plays and doesn’t, but I mean it’s like anything else that kids do, and then stop doing. People just like to make assumptions one way or another.”

Junior Ryan Wiskerchen “first started playing almost 10 years ago. I got a lot of [playing] in class – once the work’s done, the decks come out. I didn’t buy my first cards until 9 or 10, and I didn’t play really intensively until this late winter.”

So why then do people come back to magic?

Popham explained, “it was fun then, and it’s fun now, so why stop when it’s just like something that you enjoy doing? I mean it’s not like we are super serious about it, we just like to really have fun.”

“The feeling of playing first, winning second is something that separates the magic community here at South from the more serious tournament crowd that you’d find at monster’s den,” explained Lunning, “and that’s what makes it great. Pretty much anyone that’s willing to sort of get over that preconceived notion of social isolationism that goes along with Magic can join in.”