We meet twice per week to play the card game Magic: The Gathering, specifically the casual format called Commander (or EDH). Everyone is welcome to join, from veterans to new players! We are happy to teach you the game and lend you a deck to play if you do not have one.
We mainly communicate through Discord which you can join from the link below. You can also contact us through email.
Magic: The Gathering (also known as Magic or MTG) is a tabletop collectable card game released in 1993. It is the first and most popular trading card game (TCG) in history, and has over 40 million players worldwide.
Each player in MTG takes the role of a Planeswalker, a powerful wizard who can travel ("walk") between dimensions ("planes") of the Multiverse, who battles against other players by casting spells, using artifacts, and summoning creatures as depicted on individual cards drawn from their decks.
There are many helpful tutorials on YouTube. This video is specifically aimed at teaching the specific format we usually play for brand new players.
You do not need to own your own deck to join us for the first time. Let us know you are planning to attend, and we can make sure we have a deck for you to play. If you want to own your own deck, you might consider first buying a preconstructed Commander deck, which is ready to play from the box and doesn't require you to learn how to build a working deck.
One great way to get into the format and learn the rules is by watching your favorite celebrities and creators playing the game. There are various Commander gameplay shows that post on YouTube, and these are often highly edited and have graphics explaining the cards that are played and the rule interactions that happen. Each channel has its own style and personality but here listed are some of the popular ones that might suit newer players:
We can link specific episodes to start with in the Discord server!
Vsevolod "Seva" Nikulin was a PhD student at OIST. He was also a very knowledgeable and skillful MTG player who loved this game in all its forms. Seva's tragic untimely departure was a great loss to his family, colleagues, and friends. The "OIST Magic: The Gathering (MTG) club" was officially constituted to honor his memory.
