Junior Tony Tran, president of Duelist Sanctuary (Yugioh Club), holding up his pristine Yugioh cards. Photo by Vinh Nguyen.By Theo Vuong, Staff Writer
The Duelist Sanctuary, better known as the Yu-Gi-Oh Club, meets every Wednesday during lunch in room 118. They aim to provide a space on campus where students can either play or become involved in the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game and its complex economy.
The club initially began as a simple idea from current President and junior, Tony Tran.
“We didn’t have many recreational activities on campus besides chess club. So, at the time, I was interested in Yu-Gi-Oh. I basically told myself, ‘let’s start this.’ I got a trusted group of friends to start the club with me,” said Tran.
The Yu-Gi-Oh club offers the time and a place to play the game during school hours. There are various shops and stores that promote Yu-Gi-Oh, but the majority that exists are too far to be accessible to students. Similar to other clubs and equal access groups, the Yu-Gi-Oh club offers informative PowerPoint presentations, but theirs detail new mechanics and strategies as new cards are released. They also plan to educate members, new and old, about the economy of the game. Potential members can expect discussions regarding market value, changes in price, as well as how to profit off of selling cards.
Despite there being numerous cards and techniques to master, the creators of the card game have still made it accessible to newer players. The club itself plans to get more people into the game by offering fundraising to purchase community decks that anyone can come in to pick up and play.
“To fully enjoy the game, you have to figure out what the game is. Some people just look at the game and say, ‘oh, it’s Yu-Gi-Oh, I’m not interested.’ Some people look at Yu-Gi-Oh and say, ‘it’s an interesting concept, but I don’t know how to play. That’s where our club comes in. We show people how to play,” said Tran.
All it takes to join is to show up and be ready to duel it out with your fellow students.
