Game boy

Lisa Ferguson

Thursday, Dec. 5, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

There's nothing up Viradeth Konkeosisouphanh's sleeve, nor can he pull rabbits out of hats.

Still, he's a Magic wizard.

Magic: The Gathering is an outrageously popular game that debuted three years ago and has spread across the country like wildfire.

It combines the strategical elements of bridge and chess with the role-playing fun of Dungeons and Dragons and collectibility of baseball cards.

Viradeth, who graduated from Western High School this year, learned how to play Magic only six months ago. "I saw some kids playing. I asked them how to play," he recalls.

He caught on quickly, though, and began competing in small-scale tournaments at game and card shops around the valley, including Neal's White Knight in Commercial Center.

"There aren't too many players that can beat him," says owner Neal Ranzoni.

"I've seen people playing on the same level as him, but they've been playing for a year and a half, two years. I've never seen anybody this good."

Recently, Viradeth, 18, competed in Magic: The Gathering's Junior Championships in Dallas, where he placed 99th out of 200 international players.

"They were all really good," he says. "There were a lot of people who flew in from Japan, Australia. You got to see all the pros, and sometimes you got to play against them.

He plans to participate in a local pro-qualifier tournament later this month. If he wins that, it's on to a Southern California competition in February and, possibly, a tourney in Paris next spring.

Viradeth, 18, says he's not surprised by the spell Magic has put on players around the globe.

"I think Magic is easier to learn than the role-playing (games). I tried to get into (Dungeons and Dragons) and I got confused, but Magic sucked me in easy."

But it was the game's creepy, illustrated cards that first caught his eye -- foggy forests, scary swamp creatures, wicked warriors and spooky sorcerers, among others.

"I thought they were cool," he says, estimating his collection at "a couple thousand" cards, which includes a few written in Italian and Japanese.

Though a pack of cards sells for around $3, a few individual cards have become collectors items, like the "Black Lotus" card, which, according to Ranzoni, sells for $215.

But the ominous-looking cards have tinged the game's reputation, Viradeth says.

"Most people think it's a devil-worshipping game, but it's not. Some pictures really look mean, but they're not," he says. "If people would give this game a chance, they'd probably like it."