Article by Taylor Perkins

Drury tries to give students with all interests the ability to come together as a community. One way this is done is through campus recreation and intramurals.

Sophomore Ryan Smith partnered with Dan Cashel, director of student-athlete support services and student affairs & athletic events coordinator, and Director of Intramurals Paige Wilson to start a Magic: the Gathering card game intramural.

Wilson said that they are doing these new activities so that other students can feel connected on campus.

“We are trying to reach out to students who do not play your normal intramural sports,” Wilson said.

Wilson said that she is continuing to host the sports like they have done in past years but also wants to incorporate events like e-sports.

“We will have Madden, the NFL e-sport, before winter break,” Wilson said.

Wilson mentioned that she is also looking into adding Spikeball and KanJam for the spring semester.

This past week there was a Magic: the Gathering tournament. To get an event like the Magic: the Gathering game started Smith first talked with Cashel on potential sports.

“I wrote up a list of 15 to 20 activities that we could hypothetically do as intramurals,” said Smith. “Dan, Paige and I talked for a couple weeks and narrowed it down to what we thought we could do.”

Smith thought of Magic: the Gathering because he saw an interest amongst students.

“I knew of quite a few people on campus who played,” Smith said.

He continued by saying that Magic: the Gathering was convenient because there were not many expenses to make the event possible.

“We don’t have to provide anything for Magic: the Gathering, people bring their own cards,” Smith said.

Smith then explained the basics of the game. He said that players have cards that trigger special abilities. The goal of the game is to kill your opponent’s character. Smith said that there are so many different cards out in circulation that there is no one-way to play. Players use the cards they have to try to attack their opponent and get them down to zero health. Getting the opponent to zero health is the true purpose of the game.

While expenses were not necessarily invested, a lot of time went into the preparation for this event. Smith said that they developed two divisions: beginner and advanced. He said this would help introduce those who were new to the game but also draw in those with previous experience.

Smith explained that getting people to follow through on their commitments can be a struggle, though. People may sign up to play but then not show up. He is working on getting participation up especially because so many people had originally signed up.

Smith said Magic: the Gathering events will continue depending on the success and if the participation level grows. He hopes to see this grow to a weekly game.

“The people who publish the game (Wizards of the Coast) sponsor card shops and other places to do ‘Friday night magic.’ This is when people come in and play for the night and the Wizards of the Coast offer a prize for the top 3 winners. If something like that could happen where we were sponsored by the company or school that would be great,” Smith said.

If you are interested in participating this game download IMLeagues and create an account. Follow the Drury University IMLeagues page to stay up to date on the intramurals available.