About

Magic: The Gathering, also known by the acronym "MTG", is a collectible and digital card fantasy game. The game features wizards known as "planewalkers" who cast spells and summon creatures, similar to the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons

History

Magic: The Gathering was invented by Richard Garfield, a doctoral candidate in combinatorial mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, in the early 90s. In 1991, Wizards of the Coast gaming company CEO Peter Adkison saw the game and decided to produce a commercial version. On August 5th, 1993, the game was released to the general public under the name Magic.^[1]

Magic: the Gathering Online

On June 24th, 2002, Wizards of the Coast released Magic: The Gathering Online, a video game adaptation of the card game. This version would allow users to play a virtual version of the card game via the internet. As of February 2007, Magic: The Gathering Online had more than 300,000 registered users.^[2]

Autumn Burchett Mythic Championship

On February 23rd, 2019, Twitch streamer lucaan posted a clip of Autumn Burchett responding to entering the Top 8 of the Mythic Championship as a non-binary trans person, the first non-binary transgender person to do so. The Mythic Championship is a yearly, invite-only tournament featuring the highest-ranked Magic players in the world.^[8] The post received more than 22,000 views in two days. The following day, Redditor ^[7] Luccan posted the clip on the /r/magicTCG subreddit. The post received more than 300 points (65% upvoted) and 250 comments in 24 hours.

That day, they tweeted^[9] that they had won the Mythic Championship. They wrote, "I won a Mythic Championship! So much love and thankfulness in my heart right now." The post received more than 540 retweets and 5,400 likes in 24 hours (shown below).

Film Adaptation

On January 13th, 2014, The Hollywood Reporter^[3] announced that 20th Century Fox had acquired the screen rights to Magic: The Gathering, looking to develop into a fantasy film series similar to Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.

Reception

Magic: The Gathering has been considered a massive success, selling billions of cards around the world. In February 2018, Wizards said that between 2008 and 2016, more than 20 billion cards had been printed.

The game has also received numerous awards, including induction into Games magazine's Games Hall of Fame in 2003.

Fandom

The Magic: The Gathering Facebook ^[5] has more than 1.6 million likes and follows.

On October 19th, 2010, the Magic Twitter ^[6] account launched and has received more than 212,000 followers as of February 2019. Magic: the Gathering also sports a dedicated wiki and subreddit, with the latter hosting over 317,000 members as of April 2019.^[10][11]

Related Memes

My Brief OKCupid Affair With a World Champion Magic: The Gathering

On August 29th, 2011, an article was published to Gawker Media's technology blog Gizmodo by intern Alyssa Bereznak titled "My Brief OKCupid Affair With a World Champion Magic: The Gathering Player".^[4] The article described the author's recent date arranged through the online dating site OKCupid with a man named Jon Finkel who revealed that he was the world champion of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. The article has received 892,775 views as of September 1st, 2011.

Grand Prix Richmond Crackstyle

Grand Prix Richmond Crackstyle, also known as Magic: The Gathering Buttcracks, is a series of photos by Magic: The Gathering player Sid Blair taken at the Grand Prix Richmond. Following Blair's publishing of the photos, the series quickly went viral on the internet and gathered a variety of reactions.

Jeremy Hambly Magic the Gathering Harassment Ban

Jeremy Hambly's Magic the Gathering Harassment Ban, also known as #MagicGate , refers to a controversy surrounding the banning of YouTuber Jeremy Hambly from attending Magic: The Gathering events due to complaints alleging he harassed cosplayer Christine Sprankle.

Search Interest

External References