“Are you guys playing Magic!? I didn't think anyone still played that.”

The guys stop their game for a moment, and the lanky one replies, “Oh yeah, there was a lull for a while, but it has come back and is becoming more popular every year. Did you used to play?”

He shakes his head and sends a couple of drops of melted snow off his head to the floor. “No, but I had friends who did for a while. It looks like a fun game. What's the basic idea?”

The shorter player, even thinner than his friend, jumps in before his friend can answer. “It's a blast!” he practically shouts excitedly. “You win by doing 20 points of damage to your opponent before he does the damage to you. You can also win by decking your opponent, which means that he doesn't have any cards in his library when he needs to draw. There are some cards that say that you win if you do specific things, but that is really rare. You can even win with poison damage, but that almost never happens.”

He takes a breath and keeps going. “You do the 20 damage by casting spells, usually creatures or some type of spell that does something right away. Eventually, you do 20 damage and you win.”

The muggle looks with his eyes wide and tries a different tack. “What do the pictures mean?”

This time the taller player cuts off his friend. “Technically nothing, but they make it way easier to tell what the cards do. After you play for a while, you recognize the pictures and don't need to read all the cards. Some of the art is just amazing, though—angels, zombies, goblins, and the like. There are posters and deck boxes with the art, too.”

“They have stuff you need on top of the cards?” questions the stranger.

“You don't need it, but it can be cool—deck boxes, dice, and tokens. Some things are there to make it easier to keep track of things. Life counters and those dice on those cards are +1/+1 counters. That means the creature is permanently bigger. There are websites with Magic articles, and there are even books based on the backstory for the cards. There are different kinds of tournaments to go to that use different kinds of decks and thousands of different cards! It just keeps going and going! You want to sit down and play a game or two?”

“Seems like it is more complicated than I remember. I've got to run. Enjoy your game!”

• Reading articles/listening to podcasts/watching videos;
• Thinking about deck ideas;
• Talking about Magic;
• Sorting cards;
• Building decks; and
• Playing Magic.

For me, I do all those things and:

• Prepare and run prereleases and regular tournaments;
• Organize my weekly casual game; and
• Write weekly articles!

I have taken care never to try to calculate how much of my day is taken up by Magic-related thoughts or actions, for fear I would decide that I need help. Magic is definitely an obsession for me.

While my obsession with Magic is harmless, it can make introducing new people to the game very difficult. The short story that opened the article was about me (the taller, lanky one) and my Winnipeg Magic friend Troy (the shorter, skinny one). This was a prospective player who was certainly put off by our over-exuberance for the game. We crushed him under the weight of all things Magic, turning the basic introduction to the game he was looking for into something completely unintelligible for him. Our obsession with the game drove him away.

Potential New Players

The obvious way to deal with the obsession is to be more subdued, but this is easier said than done. The chance to tell someone new about Magic is like a line of Coke: Start telling him or her a little, and pretty soon, you're babbling rapidly about extraneous details that even the most diehard Magic player couldn't care less about, all while mowing down henchmen, screaming, “Say hello to my little friend!”

Assuming you can keep this under control, there is a danger that things could go the other way. If you appear to have little interest in the game or that you aren't enjoying Magic, it is even more unlikely that the potential player will want to play.

Family and Friends

“Brian Demars just won GP: Boston! I thought for sure Cedric Phillips would take it all when he made Top 8!”

“That's a Magic tournament you're talking about, right?”

The real issue with the people who are close to you is that it can be very difficult not to obsess with them. When my children were younger, I knew that at some point, I would introduce them to Magic, but I knew I wanted to be careful. I've loved this game for more than fifteen years, never taking a break. I bought the Magic books when they came out in the fat packs. I discovered my collection of old Duelist magazines is still sitting in storage at my mother's house (back to issue eleven!). I have a sixty-drawer library card catalog to hold my cards. They already know all of this.

As my kids grew old enough to understand Magic, I made a point of introducing each of them to the game. The idea was to play a few games when they asked about it and then back off and wait to see if it was something they wanted for themselves. This may have been overkill, but I wanted to be sure.

Chloe is the oldest and was the first to actually learn the game. She grasped the game quickly, even to the point of understanding some basic strategy without having to be told. Unfortunately, all of this happened during a stormy weekend at a lake house with all of the family and nothing else to do. Since then, Chloe always had something else to do, and she never expressed any further interest in the game.

Max and his younger brother Spencer were next. They both came to understand the basic rules, but not much else. They liked the collecting aspect of the game the best, but after a few months, Max was done with the game. He did not see the strategy and just didn't like the idea of sitting down for a quiet game of Magic when you could be playing video games instead.

Spencer was three years younger than Max and just barely understood the rules. Creature combat was pretty much all he understood, and even there, he could not understand why giving up even 1 life point was right when he could chump-block instead. He also grew bored with the game and moved on to other things.

Several years later, Spencer discovered several of his friends played Magic, and he pulled out his small collection and started playing with them. That pull from his friends, and access to my collection, sparked his interest and has kept him in the game.

One out of three kids . . . Not the best percentage!

How Best to Do It

Keep in mind that for the prospective Magic player, learning should be like taking a sip from the garden hose. Obsession can make them feel that they are trying to take a sip from a fire hose. We know we need to dial down our excitement while not appearing bored of the game.

Some things I have learned from my past attempts?

1. Discover what is drawing the new player to the game. Is he enamored with the art? Does he love the card interactions? Is it the tournament competition that has sparked his interest? There are many aspects of the game, and it is unlikely the new player is interested in every one. Some small thing got him or her started. Focus your obsession on that area of Magic. You will be demonstrating excitement about the game in an area of the game the new player is particularly interested.
2. Duels of the Planeswalker – While I love Magic as a card game between people, Duels does an excellent job providing the basics of the game. Let the game provide the basics for the new player, then start to add on the layers of complexity.
3. Multiplayer is a great way to learn the complexities of the game. Obviously, playing multiplayer is not the solution for every new player. If you realize the player is mostly interested in tournament Magic, games of Commander are not going to be the solution. However, you see so many card interactions and new cards in just a single game! The groups that I have played with have always left the weakest player alone. This is ideal for the new player with a small card pool. The player has the joy of playing in multiplayer games while still growing his or her small card pool.

Multiplayer also lessens the chance that your over-exuberance with the game will drive the new player away. You and your friends will talk to each other as you always do during your games, and you'll simply include the new player in the conversations. It will become clear that while you have a particular interest in the minutiae of the rules, someone else in your group is focused on the flavor text, and someone else is focused on the value of various cards. The new player will jump into the conversation when the discussion turns to something he or she is interested in.

Our obsession with Magic comes from the joy we draw from the game. It isn't going away any time soon. When the time comes to introduce new players to the game, use your exuberance for the game as a selling point. With a little luck, you'll have a new player who is just as obsessed as you!

Bruce Richard