Magic: The Profession

Brad Nelson, a 23-year-old professional Magic: The Gathering (MTG) player from Fargo, just placed fourth out of roughly 1,200 players at a Magic Grand Prix in Minneapolis.

Not only had Brad finished ahead of the pack at the Grand Prix, but when this article hits the stands he will be in Rome to compete in the Magic the Gathering World Championships. Brad has also become a force to be reckoned with on Magic Online as his handle FFfreak. Beyond this he is quickly becoming a trusted name in game strategy commentary on the website “Channelfireball.com” for which he writes. He’s basically a celebrity of the Magic scene—even signing autographs for eager fans at tournaments.

Magic the Gathering is a fantasy-based (dragons, zombies, knights, sorcery, etc.) trading card game designed by math professor and designer Richard Garfield, and published by Wizards the Coast (who also own TSR, the makers of Dungeons & Dragons). In the game you play “land” cards as a means of “casting” spells. Spells consist of Creatures, Artifacts, Enchantments, Sorceries or Instants.

Players take turns attempting to whittle their opponents’ life totals to zero by casting spells or attacking with creatures. Spells of all kinds have varying “casting costs” which relate to how many lands you need available to play the spell (that’s important because it involves math).

Magic the Gathering was first published in 1993 and has spawned nearly 50 expansion sets, a professional Pro Tour Circuit that awards hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money at many events throughout the year, and an online version of the game with its own tournaments and events.

Brad had just placed fourth (his third major finish in this, his first professional season) and even after playing for two days straight, he was still ready to talk Magic.

High Plains Reader: So, when you tell people you are a professional Magic: The Gathering player, and they ask, “what’s that?” how do you explain the game and the competitive aspect of it?

Brad Nelson: It is a mix between a lot of mathematical games like poker and chess. The whole fantasy of the game gets a little lost at the professional level. So it’s not like in Dungeons and Dragons, the dragon stuff and the elf stuff doesn’t really matter. It’s mostly a lot of math and strategic playing. It’s very [strategy oriented], and that’s the reason I play it.

HPR: When did you start playing Magic?

BN: When I was 17 years old, a friend from high school asked me to play and I had always been a math kid, and I start seeing the game and at the beginning, it’s a whole new world, and I got really addicted to it real quick. I loved the competitive aspect. Well actually, I saw the casual atmosphere and how friendly and fun, and I made a lot of friendships.…

HPR: The social aspect of the game…

BN: Yeah, there’s a big social aspect to the game. One thing that binds us together is that every Magic player has a pretty lighthearted feel to everything they do.

HPR: And how often do you play Magic, either casually or professionally?

BN: I actually don’t play casually anymore at all. I probably play competitive Magic, 60-70 hours a week, at least on Magic Online.

HPR: Magic Online has given people more opportunities to compete and practice. How has that changed the game?

BN: Ever since that happened the game plays at a faster pace. The environment gets faster, it’s kind of how, with the internet, Magic got better. People got better, it makes players way better. It’s a great tool for anyone who looks at it as an outlet to get better rather than just as a video game.

HPR: So when did you go from playing casually with your friends to playing online every day to improve your skills and go pro?

BN: Well, about a year and a half to two years ago I kind of went all-in on Magic. It just recently started paying off. Two years ago I decided to put a lot of work into improving my game. I knew I had to get better to be competitive. I thought I had talent in it. I just had to hone my skill. Winning is what I want out of the game. In all honesty, I think the best way to play Magic is on a kitchen table, but once you get to the top level and you get to travel the world, it’s definitely a lot better. [Still], just playing the game, you can’t beat sitting at a kitchen table with your brother and your friend and his friends, playing on a Sunday afternoon. I miss that, when we were all just bad.

HPR: Back to playing online, do you see parallels between the Magic Online community making the game better, and when people started playing Texas Holdem online and they suddenly had that ability to play real people online?

BN: They go hand-in-hand. The availability and the amount of players makes the game better. The thing where Magic trumps Poker, is it is probably the best game ever imagined for skill and depth. In a booster draft [a tournament setting where players draft their decks from random sealed packs] from the first pack opened to the last game played is ten times more complex than playing poker.

There are so many more decisions and situations that make the game more interesting and fun, and the primary reason people will choose poker over Magic is profit. You can make a better living off of it, but they come back to Magic. I can play Magic for the next two years and all it’s going to do is pay my bills and feed my habit. I’m only 23, and if I spend the next two years and I get out of it without a dime, it’s all relative. What’s the monetary value of being able to see the world over sitting in a poker room?

HPR: So right now you don’t have a day job, you play Magic all the time?

BN: I play Magic all the time.

HPR: So, you are at one end of the spectrum, but what does somebody need to get started? Say, if they read this article and decided they wanted to give Magic: The Gathering a go, what would you recommend?

BN: What they need…is to go to Paradox, that’s the shop in Fargo, or you go to the shop in your town, and you go on a Magic night, and you talk to the locals. I can guarantee that 90% of the magic players playing on Friday Night Magic are accepting. There aren’t usually big cliques, we’re all nerds, we all love it and we all embrace it. It’s the most fun you can have.

HPR: Kind of a “the more the merrier” type of mentality…

BN: It’s good for the game because I don’t want to play the same six people every week. I have more fun at a Magic tournament in Fargo than I have doing anything. Just start making connections with people, people are willing to help. You don’t do it alone. You go down to the shop and see if you’ll like it.

HPR: So, of course, congratulations on your top four finish at the Grand Prix in Minneapolis this last weekend. Now, what does it mean to be in the top four, in terms of your standing or your career?

BN: This is my first top four at a Grand Prix. June, when I took 9th in Hawaii, was my first ever finish. There is a rookie of the year competition and I am four points away from the leader. This Grand Prix Top 8 got me enough pro points, and I am now automatically qualified for every tournament next year. Now if I do good at Worlds [the World Championships in Rome this week] then I start getting invitation fees.

HPR: Okay, so you’ve mentioned Worlds, in fact you will be in Rome playing when this goes to print, to play in the World Championships. How did you qualify to play at that level?

BN: There are multiple ways to qualify for Worlds. I qualified off my rating, for being in the top 50 in North America. I qualified with my pro points, and I also placed in the top four at Nationals.

HPR: What final thoughts do you have for any readers out there who play Magic and want to take it to the next, more competitive level?

BN: I would say to up a person’s game, casual or competitive, is to always analyze your game, and never blame anything on luck. Luck is sometimes a factor, but if you always blame things on what you can’t control, you won’t improve your game.

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