The Gathering

What makes Magic special? Everybody has a different answer. I've heard some people who think that it's the game design, others who think it's the lore, and others still who think it's the Universes Beyond product integration (they are wrong). After spending the summer working in a foreign country, I've got my own answer.

I'm an American college student, and I found myself in Germany this summer. I was in Bonn, working on an internship at the local university centered on land use. I could talk for hours about the environmental science side of my life, but that's not what I'm here for and it's definitely not what you're here for.

Within a few weeks of arriving in Bonn, I had made great friends with other summer interns in the city, but I still had a great deal of time on my hands after work. I'd brought two Commander decks with me for the upcoming MagicCon in Amsterdam, but hadn't yet found anyone to play with. After going to the local game store and asking, I found out that there was, to my surprise, a vibrant and lively Magic community in the city. They had Commander nights on Wednesdays and Draft nights on Thursdays.

I went, hesitant, thinking that my extremely limited German skills would prevent me from participating in any games. But... I was dead wrong. What I found was a welcoming group of people who were willing to speak a non-native language just to include me in their collective. I had only planned to attend one Commander night at first, but I soon found myself attending them on a regular basis.

I even started attending Draft nights regularly. Before this summer, I'd only completed two drafts in person, one for March of the Machines and one for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, having approximately zero success in either of them. The Draft Booster packs (or Play Booster packs, I suppose) were luckily in English, and I made some great friends during these draft nights.

At one draft, for Outlaws of Thunder Junction, I sat down with my opponent and asked in broken German if he spoke English. All of my opponents before him did, so I was expecting him to as well. But, when he didn't, it made the match even more fun. He kept saying that my Selesnya Mounts deck was "schnell," or "fast," and I just smiled and laughed because I had literally not a single clue what that word meant at the time. I beat him 2-0. For America.

My favorite memory from this summer, despite having done more than just playing Magic in my spare time, is still Magic-related. When I left my home in the U.S., I took with me two copies of the card Far Traveler. This card isn't particularly good, but I liked its name. My time in Bonn this summer was the furthest that I'd ever been from home, after all, so it seemed particularly fitting.

I wanted these cards to be a physical patchwork of my time away. A manifestation of all the people I'd met and their impact on my life. So I took one copy of Far Traveler and asked all the wonderful people I met in Bonn to sign it. I am thrilled to say that I ran out of space. I met so many people who brightened my life in Germany so much that I could barely accommodate all of their memories on the 6.3 cm x 8.8 cm rectangle I had reserved for them.

These signatures include people I played Magic with, my new friends from all across the world who convened in Germany to work, and more. I feel lucky to have met each of them, and feel that it's truly beautiful to have them have left their mark on my far travels.

I brought the other copy of Far Traveler to MagicCon Amsterdam. Here, I felt truly at home in a group of people I'd never met. From having dinner with the other Space Cow Media staff to walking the halls of the huge RAI Amsterdam, it felt like I was truly "in" a group I wanted to be in. I brought the copy of Far Traveler with me, having it signed by my favorite content creators, the Space Cow staff I met, and some friends I made throughout my day at the convention.

Again, I ran out of space on the card. Too many wonderful people and too little space. I couldn't be happier to have each of them leave a little piece of themselves in my memory of this summer.

To me, the best part of Magic lies in its community, its ability to bring people together. I immediately felt at home in a group of Magic players who I had never met. I was able to consolidate my memories of some of my favorite people on two Magic cards.

I am so grateful to be a part of the Magic community, and I'm even more grateful that the people I met were willing to put up with my near-constant ravings about this silly, beautiful game.