Pictured are those who placed in Saturday’s Magic: The Gathering tournament. From left: Chadwick Alt, second place; Brian Rogers, first place; and Chris Holt, third place.

On Sept. 18 UnderGround Games (UG Games) held the latest in a series of Magic: The Gathering tournaments hosted by RadioShack in New Martinsville. The event format was an unorthodox type: a booster draft using a random assortment of booster packs ranging from sets released over the last 12 months. Each player was asked to draw three packs divided between Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi, and Magic 2011 from a container. The players then drafted cards from the randomly selected packs. In total, 11 players participated in this DCI sanctioned draft which began around 7 p.m. The format was decided upon to provide a break from the recurring format of M11 draft and to further test players’ skills at handling untested environments. Players in the event were awarded special promotional cards as well as other prizes for their efforts in the event.

After five rounds of Swiss Draw play, only one player remained with an undefeated record. Brian Rogers played a heavily control-oriented black/blue deck to victory. The deck took advantage of cards like Consuming Vapors to gain card economy and slow opponents’ tempo while utilizing two Scroll Thief cards and a Shoreline Salvager to draw extra cards while attacking.

Second place went to UG Games coordinator Chadwick Alt. Alt played a host of small aggressive blue/white creatures backed up with tempo control cards like Sleep and Excommunicate. He also had the powerful board sweeper, Day of Judgment, just in case the game started to get out of hand.

The third place spot went to Chris Holt who played a green/white deck. His deck featured massive green creaturesand white creatures with evasion to deal the final blow. Some key pump spells like Giant Growth served to help Holt keep his opponents off balance.

On Sept. 25 UG Games will be hosting the first ever Magic: The Gathering Prerelease tournament to be held in the New Martinsville area to celebrate the release of the new Scars of Mirrodin expansion. The Prerelease offers a chance to acquire and play with the new cards before they can be purchased in stores. For more information about UG Games or upcoming DCI sanctioned events including next Saturday’s schedule of events call 304-455-5700 or stop by RadioShack in New Martinsville.