Magic The Gathering: A Game, A Community, and My Relationship with Each
Author’s Note
This essay, as I will say at least twice more, is not complete. This is by design. Exploring why I love something is something I must continue doing actively, and I hope to return to this piece at the end of 2021. I hope this piece is valuable to others, and I appreciate feedback. This is the first draft of this piece and I want to spend more time on it at another point. I also want others to see my thoughts, in hopes their thoughts may inform mine.
Preface
This work is my aim at fully understanding my own enjoyment of Magic the Gathering. By no means can I explain why everyone enjoys this game, nor am I attempting to create a complete history of Magic the Gathering. Many smart people have already created and worked on such histories(Barnello). Even the history of one magic format took seven parts, and a great deal of experience with the game. (Barnello). The only format I have any claim to being involved in since its inception is Historic. Despite playing some Pioneer when it was first sanctioned, I played little through the Breach + Inverter Period, despite desires to try out this format. Pandemics run many plans for a fowl. As such, this is not a history of any format. Any historical analysis or record presented here is both incomplete and biased. I make no claims to objectivity. After all, journalism with any purpose is biased (Wallace). So too is historical writing and explications of one’s own personal experiences.
To fully address my own biases, I must recognize my privileges which penetrate my lived experiences both inside of Magic the Gathering, and far more deeply into how I exist in day to day life. Firstly, I am both white and middle class. By no means is this a unique background for Magic the Gathering players, if anything this background represents a plurality of Magic players. My whiteness and class privilege both deeply impact my ability to interact with Magic and how I am perceived by people in the community. As Cedric Philips discusses in “Let’s Get Uncomfortable (Life)”. Being a black man who grew up in Cleveland, enabled him to get into Magic and see it as a path forward, something which according to Philips would likely not have been the case if he had grown up elsewhere. Magic the Gathering is a luxury hobby, the cost of a cheap meta deck in Standard, as of January 1st 2021, is over $150. These prices only get worse as you go back into older formats. The price of magic prevents many poor people, especially poor POC and those who exist at intersecting oppressions of gender, race, and class from participating in the game.
When I started playing Magic the Gathering, I was ten years old. Finding a playgroup was difficult, not many teenagers want a ten-year-old tagging along. My casual enjoyment was reignited in 2013 while working at a summer camp. Sadly, this enjoyment was quickly quenched when returning to high school. Those involved in Magic were both bigoted and social outcasts. Being a social outcast didn’t bother me, almost all of my friends were outcasts, but their bigotry did bother me. I never wanted to spend much time with these people who called themselves my friends, but still made jokes about my autism, queer people, and were generally racist and mean spirited. The problem of finding the right community was a big part of why I didn’t get into Magic more until recently. I also want to address the bigotry of those around me and its impact on me more fully later, but for now, I want to address one aspect of my identity which makes playing Magic the Gathering difficult. I am a non-binary, transgender woman.
When I started playing Magic, I thought I was a boy. While this was not the case, I was lucky to not have to face the stigma and stares of many people when I first started playing Magic. A lot of magic players have anime child porn playmats which they bring to events, and I cannot possibly imagine how that would feel for a young girl to see. I also can’t imagine her parents would be comfortable with her going to Magic events after seeing such behavior.
As a non-binary trans-woman, there are times when the deep seeded bigotry of the Magic the Gathering player base impacts me. However, my whiteness opens doors which would be closed to many black, indigenous people of color, especially those who are further marginalized by their gender identity, class, and ability. Listen to others I reference here, they are far more qualified to discuss racism within the Magic community and ways to combat it.
My perspective exists in the context of my background and privileges. My views are informed by those around me. Both friends, content creators and personal heroes impact the way I view Magic the Gathering. I am exploring something I love. This essay is both a love letter to Magic and a critique of both the game and its community. Loving something means wanting the best for it. My love of Magic, as a game, is a kind of love which can excuse most faults. The faults are there, but I love it despite them. Problems in recent years with broken cards which warp formats or create unpleasant play patterns are ones I can move past.
As Princess Weekes says in her video about Harry Potter, when she discusses JK Rowling, she says “I love trans people more.” This sentiment holds true with Magic, as much as I love the game, I must fight for other marginalized people, even if this risks my comfort at an event or Local Game Store. This is different from Harry Potter because there is not one sole author of MTG who one can point to or lay fault with, but we should recognize and critique WoTC frequently, especially when they make decisions which are harmful to marginalized members of its player base. The aims of this essay are impossible to complete in full here, so dear reader, I encourage you to respond with your own thoughts or correct my mistakes.
Part I — Magic: The Gathering
For me the Magic and the Gathering are two distinct parts of a far greater whole. Magic is the game played with cards, counters and dice. The gathering is the community and events which are created by a desire to play and discuss the game. These two things cannot be entirely separated. Events cannot exist without the game, and the game cannot exist without events and players. My observation here is by no means new, but it is useful for me nonetheless.
In my history with Magic the Gathering, I left the game twice. Once because I was unable to find people who wanted to play with me, and the second because I could not find people I felt comfortable playing with. My reasons for leaving Magic after the release of New Phyrexia were quite different from others. Many players who left MTG after New Phyrexia cite power creep as their reasoning. Similarly, many players left after Throne of Eldraine because of Oko, and then more left because of ongoing balance problems. My point in mentioning this is to illustrate the reason for my distinction between “Magic” and “The Gathering.” While they exist as a complete whole, they each exert different pressure upon people’s motivations.
If I am only playing magic as a means to find friends and community, the question becomes, why this game? Do I even enjoy it? If I only enjoy the game, then what does that mean for my friendships which exist because of Magic? The answer to these questions is one of the aims of this essay.
As I said in the preface, and I want to reiterate again, this piece is both personal and incomplete. I am only answering why I, Florence, love Magic. I am NOT trying to answer that for you. I am writing this essay to present my narrative, my perspective and my reasons. I also hope my words can be helpful to others in answering their view of this question. With all of this addressed, let’s examine Magic as a game.
Part II — Magic
Magic as a card game began before I was born in 1993, and in the interim 27 years, a lot has changed, but a lot remains the same. Let’s start with one of the fundamental pieces which remains, the color pie.
One of the fundamental pieces of Magic are the different colors of Mana, White, Blue, Red, Black, Green (WUBRG). These different colors each represent different ideals and abilities. For example, in Alpha, the boon cycle shows one card in each color which all do three of something. The boon cycle, and specifically Lightning Bolt have been covered in far greater detail by Rhystic Studies. I will in short reflect on why the Boon Cycle is for me a great example of what I love about Magic, and the color pie.
While colors can be, to a degree, ranked from worst to best, the color pie also shows the capacity for cards to center their colors’ powers really well. White’s identity as a color is complicated, but both Lightning Bolt and Ancestral Recall show why blue and red are my two favorite colors. Ancestral Recall is the most powerful blue card ever printed, Oko and Uro notwithstanding. (There is also an argument for Time Walk, but I am trying to be funny, not accurate) Lightning Bolt deals three damage, and Ancestral recall lets you draw three cards. These effects are also great because they don’t need you to read a wall of text, or be an entrenched Magic player to understand how they work.
With the color pie addressed, I want to discuss card types and briefly some of my favorite cards in each type, so I can better understand what cards and play patterns I enjoy the most. I am also going to, for the benefit of my non-Magic friends, try to explain them in lay terms. For my Magic friends, please do not kill me for these, at best, weak definitions.
Lands produce Mana, generally. They are the things you use to cast your spells, but there are also lands which do other powerful things. My favorite land in general shifts to whichever basic art land I am a fan of at one time or another, but a special land I really like is Bazaar of Baghdad.
Creatures are monsters you use to attack or defend with, they often have other abilities. My favorite creature in the History of Magic is Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, and my favorite in standard is Brushfire Elemental.
Enchantments are permanents, so after being cast they remain on the battlefield, and they do varying things, sometimes permanent impacts, sometimes simply drawing cards. My favorite enchantment is Curious Obsession, which does both.
Artifacts are similar to enchantments, but they often take certain different forms. For example, there are equipment which function differently from Auras, the closest enchantment equivalent. Another difference between enchantments and artifacts is which colors are good at removing them, and artifacts also tend to be colorless. I love artifacts, they have been my favorite card type since I opened a Broodstar at 10 and I got extremely excited. As such, I do not want to name a favorite, but the Cat/Oven combo was a revelation for me, and I love playing it.
Instants and Sorceries in some way interact in a temporary way with the board, by sometimes through dealing damage, drawing cards, or making an opponent discard cards. My favorite instant is Lightning Bolt, and my favorite sorcery was Faithless Looting, and is now Manamorphose.
All of the previous card types appeared in Alpha, but one type of card, which has now become almost synonymous with Magic are Plansewalkers. My favorite planes walker is probably Chandra Torch of Defiance, but 11-year-old me would not allow me to post this article were I not to note her love for Jace Beleren. What can I say, some kids just like drawing cards. With this brief discussion of cards done, I want to talk about decks, but to do this, I first want to discuss formats, and the ways in which I have personally engaged with Magic’s different formats.
Limited is a format I only got interested in last year, as I was trying not to spend too much on Magic Arena, so I used free to play and free drafts from in-game money on Arena when Ikoria came out. I got hooked, but then I ran cold, and I didn’t have money to draft anymore. I enjoy limited, but it is not presently my primary means of interacting with magic. Casual Magic is something I don’t engage with often. I enjoy it when I do, and commander with a play group is something I find intriguing. I am glad other people like it, but I genuinely don’t have a lot to say on the topic. For me, competitive one vs. one construction has been where my interest in Magic grew. My experience with Magic, and my time with the game is in my mind defined by certain decks in these types of constructed formats.
My first ever deck was a Magic Core Set 2010 Pre-constructed Deck, titled Death’s Minions. I was ten years old when this came out, and my little child brain LOVED Nightmare and Doomblade. Doomblading my dad’s Shivan Dragon is one of the few early memories I have of Magic, and I think it has impacted my relationship with the game since. My other memory from this time was wanting a Jace, and trying to build around my Broodstar. What can I say, little me did not understand Mana requirements, and just shoved cards she had together.
I didn’t play much outside of my family because it was just hard to find people at that age, so I want to skip to 2018 and the release of MTG Arena. In 2018, I started playing Arena Standard with Mono White Lifegain, and then once full standard came out, I started playing Mono Blue Aggro. This deck was important for two reasons, one it was cheap, and secondly it introduced me to playing with countermagic. This deck was the first one I played which was genuinely competitive, and I loved playing it. I realized I love winning and countering my opponent’s spells.
After this brief stint of playing Magic, primarily for fun in Arena, Throne of Eldraine came out. I loved this set. I opened Oko at a pre-release, as well as Gilded Goose and two Trail of Crumbs. I did not win any matches because I timed out, and I did not know how to close limited games at the time. I was still not super invested in Magic at that point, but I played more on Arena. I was abroad when Throne came out, and in coming back to the states, I felt alone in a way I never had before. In part, I had never been as connected to friends as I was abroad, but I also changed in a lot of other ways too. Magic became my primary escape, and then in February of 2020, I watched BoJack Horseman in one sitting, and I went into a really bad space. The next day, I made it to Diamond on the ladder in one day because I wanted to feel something. No, I do not remember what deck I played.
Then March 2020 happened, at the start of it I expected Magic to fade into the background for me. I was turning 21, I was excited to go drinking with friends, and I really missed pubs. Then, the pandemic hit. I started putting way more energy into Magic, hitting Mythic for the first time in the summer of 2020, and starting to consume a lot of Magic content for months before that. This was the moment I got further in Magic, and I began liking the idea of trying to play in some competitive sense. The decks which I remember the most from 2020 are Sacrifice variants, playing Mono-Blue in historic right after jumpstart, and also making Temur Adventures following the banning of Wilderness Reclamation.
In brief, my love of the game of Magic has flourished in the last year, and the decks I loved ranged from aggro to control to midrange. For me, games where I can win through counter Magic and card draw make me super happy. I also love sacrificing my own creatures, and casting Claim the First Born on my own Priest of the Forgotten Gods for lethal is one of my happiest moments playing Magic. I also enjoy seeing masses of copied spells while using Lucky Clover. Magic is a game I want to play on my terms, and I try to win on those terms. Because of this, I don’t have a single one sentence answer to “Why do I Love Magic?” I do however have some answers. I love card draw, I love countermagic, and I love decks that lead to unituittive lines of play with interesting and meaningful decision points.
Part III — The Gathering
I want to return to a discussion of the community that exists around this game. Online community has been my primary engagement with Magic for a number of reasons. Firstly, I am not the best person to be friends with. I am bad at understanding when people want me around, so I generally assume they don’t. I am very anxious at in person events, so I am frequently sweaty, and I talk too much when I am nervous. The other reason for this is my inability to drive. I have a driver’s license, my brain just screams and doesn’t like being behind the wheel of a car. I live in a small town, and the nearest game store is 40 minutes away. I can only ask friends or family to drive me so often without feeling like a burden, so online Magic and online community has meant a lot to me. The other reason is my transness. I do not pass. I have not yet started medical transition, because of the pandemic and living in a small town. As such, I always get identified as male in spaces, and asserting my transness makes me nervous. Magic players are not universally known for being the most progressive group. Individual players, and a lot of the biggest voices in the game are supportive allies, and many Magic players are trans, I am by no means alone. However, I am scared, and I feel uncomfortable asserting my identity. This discomfort has led me to not want to be in person too much, at least, not yet.
The upsides of in person Magic are not ones I want to diminish, and I do think this boils down to my own anxieties, and my difficulties in finding friends. However, I have found amazing communities and friends online. The Lords of Limited discord has helped me improve at limited, and people have seen me improve a lot as a player. The first game I played in an Ikoria draft, I did not activate my Whisper Squad on my opponent’s end step. A mistake which I audibly heard the person watching me hit the table at.
Beyond this, I have watched a lot of Magic streams, not interacting much because I don’t want to be disrespectful to the streamer, and I am also generally a nervous person about social interaction with people I don’t actually know. Watching these streams has made me feel like part of the Magic community in a way I hadn’t really prior. Community is for me a huge part of Magic, and I am hopeful I can find more friends to play with and talk about the game.
My love of Magic is first and foremost about enjoying a game, but I also have more fun when I play in person, despite my anxieties. I enjoy asking about a play, or asking a combo player “Do you want to play it out?” I enjoy being able to ask people about lines they took, if they don’t mind discussing the game after. I love the game of Magic, and other people help me understand it better. I cannot play this game in isolation, and the brief period at the start of 2018 before I started reading articles, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t improve.
The secret was trying to do it alone. My joy and interest in the game are not, on their own, enough to improve. I learn most when I am willing to learn from others, especially players who were at wildly different levels of ability and interest than me. For example, this past month, I got my one partner into magic. They are very casual, and they HATE counter magic. To the point that it has become a joke between us. As someone who loves counter magic and control mirrors, I was forced to understand how others might not. Community makes us grow, and I think that’s one of the best things about the communities surrounding the game of Magic. When they are positive and goal oriented, and those in charge care about maintaining social norms and discouraging the many reactionaries in the game from harming others, these communities can be healthy and informed places to grow and change. The “When” in that previous statement is, sadly, extremely important. Which brings me to a part of Magic which I do not want to revel in, I want to address it loudly and clearly, without any celebration of its ills. Magic, both as a game, and more importantly as a community has problems and failings.
Part IV — Failings (And How to Address Them)
I discussed community for a while, so allow us to briefly return to the game of Magic. The failings of Magic as a game are due largely in part to it being created in 1996, and a lot of current design decisions have been aimed at correcting some of these seemingly innate problems. Mana screw (having too few lands) and mana flood (having too many lands) are a constant problem in Magic, and they make the game less fun. Changes such as a new mulligan system and Modal Double Faced Cards have worked to mitigate these issues. While the mechanical and design problems of Magic are important, I am not a game designer. My level of knowledge extends to “I enjoy this card; I don’t enjoy this one.” These are not meaningful or worthwhile, so I will leave discussions of such issues to those who are both far more qualified and far more intelligent than me. Rather, I want to discuss the failings Magic has as a community.
Initially, to properly address the failings of Magic as a Community, I was going to list some articles, tweets, and podcast episodes which discuss these issues more fully. However, I am not sure of the appropriateness of this, and it also feels like deflecting my own responsibility. I am not foolish enough to assume, or even hope, my words, or simply pointing to the words of others will meaningfully move the needle for the many bigoted Magic players who exist. This is also by no means enough on my part to combat the problems of bigotry in Magic the Gathering.
This is not to say I don’t want to engage with what they have said, rather to say I don’t have that much to offer. I have never experienced racism being weaponized against me, nor will I. It is not my place to explain what the problems are, nor is it within my ability to offer solutions. My advice is simple: listen to those who know better than you. Challenge bigotry in any space you’re in, this includes local game stores and even Twitch chat. The failings of Magic as a game are out of our individual control, but making safer spaces and communities for this game are something every individual player can and should be involved in.
For this purpose, and also make a point, many of them frequently reference “Don’t just listen to me.” As a trans woman, I can speak to the struggles I have faced with medical treatment in the United States, and as a white, middle class person specifically. There are varied different experiences of people who also identify as transgender women. My point is, seek out voices of those who come from different backgrounds than you, listen to them and believe them when they discuss the marginalization they face. Here are a few people whose work I can personally endorse, having read or listened to it. I want to highlight these voices and individuals as their work is interesting, and they make incredible content. Highlighting voices who are frequently not centered in Magic is extremely important to ensuring new people can participate.
Every week, The Color of Magic Podcast (https://colorofmagic.podbean.com/) posts an incredible podcast where the hosts DeQuan Watson and Brian Allen discuss their lives, Magic, and frequent issues of race and racism. DeQuan also has a YouTube channel, and his Magic videos are really fun and good (https://www.youtube.com/user/PowrDragn). Cedric A Philips podcast (https://soundcloud.com/thecedricphillipspodcast) is also great, especially if you are interested in sports which I, regrettably, am not. Cedric’s streams (https://www.twitch.tv/cedricaphillips) and his twitter feed (@CedricAPhillips) are also fantastic. His streams are especially brilliant when he gets to play aggro decks. Ellie of The Veil (@ellieoftheveil [on twitter]) does amazing writing for ChannelFireball, and her discussion of cosplay is insightful, and her writing about other players is a masterclass (including this article she wrote for Wizards, https://magic.gg/news/an-unwavering-bond). Princess Weekes (@ @WeekesPrincess [on twitter] and https://www.youtube.com/c/MelinaPendulum), who I referenced earlier, creates a lot of amazing YouTube videos on topics usually not related to Magic, but she has discussed command with Tolarian Community College several times now (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_lBN1RzKHw). Lastly, I also want to shout out Jay (@Jaywmtg [on twitter]). He has written a few great articles, and he is open and honest about his life experiences, and his goals in MTG.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and I recognize almost anyone reading this is probably already aware of many, if not most or all of these people. I also definitely could have, and likely should have listed far more players, podcasts, articles, and YouTube videos than this. My other point is also not to say their marginalization is the only reason you should listen to them. All of these people have different perspectives and views on Magic and life, don’t just follow people to pat yourself on the back for meeting some quota of diversity follows on twitter. Listen to them because you care about what they have to say, and try to learn and grow as a person.
Part V — Conclusion
Where does this leave me? Have I answered my own questions? I am not sure. For a refresher, as this piece is far longer than I expected (and extremely self-indulgent), I entirely understand if you skipped to the end. My question at the outset: Why do I love Magic? The answer to this is not an entirely simple one, or else it would not have taken me over 4,000 words, but I will explain the things I most love in one paragraph.
I love decisions and complex plays. I love facets of strategy and specific cards a lot. While I get frustrated by flood or screw, I admire WoTC’s efforts to mitigate that in the game. My love of Magic is of course, my own. I by no means am trying to speak for everyone here.
The things I hate about Magic as a game are not even close to outweighing the things I love, but I want to iterate again how the community is both something I love, and at times loathe. The Magic Community can be incredibly supportive and helpful, but there are people in it who are awful and bigoted. I hope the Magic community can change itself in the necessary ways to become more opening to all people, and especially racialized and gender minorities, as well as disabled people.
The conclusion of this paper is me trying to make a plea to anyone reading this. Think about how you love Magic, and ask yourself how you can make the community better. I know I benefited a lot from trying to do so here. Magic is a game that’s near and dear to me, and I hope I illuminated something here for you to reflect on.
Bibliography
Barnello, Adam, “Recurring Nightmares — Geocentrism” ChannelFireball, April 19, 2011.
https://strategy.channelfireball.com/all-strategy/home/recurring-nightmares-geocentrism/
Phillips, Cedric A. “Let’s Get Uncomfortable (Life)” The Cedric Phillips Podcast. Podcast
Audio.
June 4 2020. https://m.soundcloud.com/thecedricphillipspodcast/lets-get-uncomfortable-life
Wallace, Lewis Raven “The View from Nowhere” Podcast Audio. https://www.lewispants.com/
October 15, 2019
MelinaPendulum. “I’m Done with Harry Potter.” YouTube. YouTube, July 17, 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djfo-AwL5rk.
Chalk, Titus. Generation Decks. REBELLION, 2017.
