THIS YEAR MARKS the 25th Anniversary of the introduction of
Magic: Tlie Gathering. If you're one of the tens of millions of people who
have played the game globally 一 hello there! If you're picking up this book
and are not familiar with Magic: Tlie Gathering (also known as MTG) at
all, you're not alone. If there was an awards category for "most-played
game in the world that nobody has heard of," I think that Magic would win
hands down. Let s look at some facts:
1. Magic: Tlie Gathering is produced by Wizards of the Coast. Wizards
was purchased by Hasbro in 1999, and MTG is now one of the seven
franchise brands of the entire company. The other six are the little
known Nerf, Play・Doh, Transformers, Monopoly, My Little Pony, and
Littlest Pet Shop brands.
2. There is a thriving Magic tournament scene worldwide; in 2017 alone,
Wizards of the Coast gave out over $4 million in cash prizes in their
Pro Tour and Grand Prix series of events. That number is going up
significantly in 2018 to celebrate the 25th year of Magic!
3. MTG is the largest hobbv-channel trading card game, and second
largest mass-market TCG (behind Pokemon). Estimates are that
Magic's overall sales have eclipsed that of the Pokemon TCG, making
it the largest game of its type on the planet.
牛 Magic cards have value. A Mint-condition Alpha Black Lotus from
1993 clocks in at around $30,000. But you don't have to go that far
back to find other higher-dollar cards. Cards printed as recently as
last year are worth over $100.
Magic: The Gathering is a worldwide phenomenon. All major sets are
printed in eleven languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional
Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian,
and Spanish.
Given all that, I m not shocked if you're still unfamiliar with Magic. I've
worked in the MTG industiy for over fifteen years, and countless times
when fve met someone new, they've stared at me blankly when I've said I
buy and sell Magic: The Gathering cards for a living.
I'm blessed in that I am able to make my career in something I am
passionate about. When Kris from Krause reached out to see if I was
interested in writing a book about Magic: Tlie Gathering, I jumped at the
chance. I truly believe that Magic is one of the best games ever made. It's
not only a game, though 一 it’s also a huge collectible market. And it's not
just a huge collectible market 一 it's a huge market that has held value with
steady growth for twenty-five years. We aren't talking about a flash-in-the-
pan Beanie Baby market, or the baseball card market of the late
I98os/early 1990s. Wele talking about a living, thriving economy that has
been forged over decades of product growth.
Richard Garfield, a mathematician and game designer, invented Magic:
The Gathering, and the story goes like this: Garfield wanted to produce a
board game called RoboRally. When he met up with Peter Adkison, who
owned Wizards of the Coast, Peter told Richard that if Richard would
invent a game that was easily portable and could be played quickly
between games of other games, he would produce RoboRally. Richard
took some other games that he had previously been working on, reworked
their rules, and came up with Magic: The Gathering.
Please send email to [email protected] if you have any questions.