FOR THE KIDS : ‘Magic’ Card Game Has Spell of Success : Despite fantasy overtones, it stresses thinking and strategy. The activity has a large teen-age following. One Thousand Oaks school offers it as a course.

It’s Friday night at the Thousand Oaks Teen Center, and about 30 boys are hunched over a long table playing cards and talking strategy.

But the decks of cards they each wield are like nothing you’ve ever seen. And the strategy only makes sense if you know what a “manna pool” is.

The game is “Magic: The Gathering.” Not only is it a hot card game, but the cards--emblazoned with dark, sometimes bizarre creatures--are collectible trading cards, just like baseball cards.

Available at comic and sports card shops, the fantasy game came out 18 months ago and, in the last year, its popularity has blossomed across the country. It has a spirited following in Ventura County.

The Teen Center draws a crowd of Magic players every Friday night. Over at Aspen School in Thousands Oaks, students huddle during lunch to play and trade cards. Not only that, the elementary school offers the game as an elective course for kids, and it’s woven into the curriculum there for gifted and talented students.

Magic is not a simple card game. Lee Keller, a fourth-grade teacher at Aspen who promoted the game there, calls it “the 20th-Century chess game.”

“I can show you the rudiments in about an hour,” said Keller, who teaches the elective class. But the key to playing well is strategy.

The object of the game is fairly straightforward. The two opposing players are sorcerers, trying to drive each other from the mythical land of Dominia. Their weapons are the cards and what they represent: creatures that can be summoned, spells that can be cast, land that provides power, artifacts that can be commanded.

Players start with 20 “life points,” and as a card is killed by some demonic force, it lands in the “graveyard,” or discard pile (unless it undergoes “regeneration” by an appropriate spell). The game ends when one player’s life points drop to zero.

From there, it gets more complicated. Different colors carry different meanings, and creatures are rated by number on power and toughness. In fact, the little instruction book put out by Wizards of the Coast, the Renton, Wash., company that distributes the cards, is 45 pages.

What makes the game unique is that each player brings his own 60-card deck to the game, assembled however he wishes, with any of the hundreds of Magic cards available.

“You develop a strategy--it’s very personal,” Keller said. “You can use a lot of creatures, or spells, or enchantments.”

He thinks that the Magic craze is great for kids: “You see them playing, and it’s just like the old days--they’re focused, they’re concentrating and they’re not staring at a big (TV) screen.”

Apparently, it’s not just for kids; adults are hooked on the game too, store owners report. Keller, who learned the game from his 13-year-old son, has invested $200 in acquiring 1,000 or so cards.

“I know kids who have spent $1,000 to build super decks,” he said.

A starter deck runs about $8, but card shops sometimes will custom-build decks for more or less. Then individual cards sell for as little as 20 cents or as much as $145, the current top price for a rare Alpha Black Lotus card.

“The cards keep going up in price--there’s been a shortage of them since October,” said Barry Milavetz, owner of the Final Frontier in Camarillo, where Magic junkies gather for competitions.

“It’s hotter than ever,” he said. “It’s bigger than Pogs.”

It seems to appeal mainly to boys, but girls also play.

Magic is the brainchild of Richard Garfield, a former mathematics professor who now has several games on the market. With its dark, sinister-looking card illustrations--the Royal Assassin, Shivan Dragon, Drudge Skeletons, to name a few--the game has been likened to the role-playing fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons. But fans say Magic is just a card game and doesn’t involve role-playing.

“It’s not anything like Dungeons and Dragons,” said Steve Mumpers, a recreation leader who supervises the Friday night games at the Teen Center. “OK, it’s got sorcery and a couple of the cards give the impression of evil, but it’s not anything kids can get into and worship.”

At the Teen Center, there is an ongoing tournament. The players pair off for games that last about 15 minutes, and top scorers play elimination rounds toward the end of the three-hour session. The goal is to be the first to score 20 points and win a gift certificate at Rad Cards & Comics in Thousand Oaks.

Don’t get the idea that this is a quiet, tense scene. It’s noisy--one boy recently played rock music on a tape player next to him--and it’s a little raucous with kids milling about comparing cards.

“Trading is big,” said Roger Buhl, co-owner of Rad Cards & Comics, who also oversees the games. Kids arrive early just to trade. Some have cards worth $40 or $50. They make money off the sale of cards and then invest in more cards.

Joey (Pooty) Puente, 14, a Teen Center player, said he has spent about $300 on more than 1,000 cards since he got hooked on the game in August. He likes it because you have to think about what you’re doing.

“You have to plan a strategy,” he said.

A few, such as 16-year-old Brian Bills, said they taught their parents to play. “My Mom,” he said, “wanted to learn what I was doing that kept me away from the house so long.”

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How about melodrama, kid style? The Magnificent Moorpark Melodrama and Vaudeville Co.’s children’s workshop is putting on “The Phantom of the Melodrama” for families. Performed by kids, it’s a musical comedy about a phantom who lives beneath the melodrama and is determined to replace the theater’s star with another young singer.

Show time is 3 p.m. Sunday at 45 E. High St., Moorpark. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for children. For information, call 800-597-1210.

Details

* WHAT: Magic: The Gathering, a fantasy card game.

* WHERE: Thousand Oaks Teen Center, 1375 E. Janss Road.

* WHEN: Fridays, from 6 to 9 p.m.

* COST: $1 to play. For kids 12 to 17 years old.

* FYI: 494-6664.