Photo by Brandon Stephens
Carbon School District Press Release
On Saturday, Oct. 8, Mont Harmon‘s Trading Card Game (TCG) Club hosted a tournament. The club advisor, Mr. Brandon Stephens, has been running the club since his first year at Mont Harmon in 2015.
Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game that focuses on strategy, tactics and deck building. The game’s website, magic.wizards.com states, “Bringing people together with friendship, competition and fun. At a glance, Magic is a trading card game filled with strategic battles and unique card decks. But Magic has always been bigger than the box. Whether you’re having fun at the kitchen table or battling in a high-stakes competition, there’s a place for you here.”
The club holds a tournament each quarter. They play a Swiss bracket system where each person plays a best of three matches against four people. Then, wins and losses are tallied and a winner is announced. These tournaments are pretty low key, Stephens said. “We have a potluck and hang out with friends while doing what we love.”
He started the TCG Club seven years ago at the request of one of his students. Stephens recalled, “They had finished the assignment, and we only had a few minutes left in class and I noticed they were looking through their [Magic] cards. I commented on it, and the student was really happy that I knew what they were. Later that week, after a few more casual conversations about the cards, they asked if I wouldn’t mind advising a club. Obviously, I said yes, and here we are.”
Stephens even has a class during school hours now that students can choose to take in addition to the weekly club meetings after school. During any one week, there are anywhere from 10-25 different students in Stephens’s classroom on a Friday afternoon. His club is focused around making friends, learning more about the TCG and learning sportsmanship.
When asked about the feedback and reactions from coworkers, Stephens said that the feedback has ranged anywhere from accusing him of teaching students witchcraft, to gratitude for creating a friendly place for students who don’t play sports to be.
“In all honesty, the card games we play, Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering and Yugioh!, are just card games based on strategy,” he said. “They help students learn math, reading, psychology, sportsmanship and strategy. I look at it as only helping students bring out their creativity and build friendships.”