The game I started working with was a magic-themed game I called Five Magics.
I tried a few possibilities before settling on a framework I had been tinkering with for perhaps nine years. I remember telling Peter Adkison, the head of Wizards of the Coast, that poker, bridge, or chess wouldn’t be good if players could choose your own components – so it wasn’t obvious to me how to make a good game with that characteristic. But at the same time, I didn’t even know if you could make such a game any good. The idea hit me all at once and I was swept away with excitement for the possibilities that opened up. The core concept for Magic was a game where the players had different components. I was ending my first year and about to start my last year teaching math at Whitman College in Eastern Washington. Magic: The Gathering was launched that summer, and it turned my life upside down.
26 years ago, Richard Garfield changed gaming forever with a groundbreaking card game that turned into a cultural sensation. In his own words, he tells the story of Magic: The Gathering’s early years
