This game has been my hobby now for more than 30 years. I often wonder why I keep coming back again and again to this game. I’ve learned countless other games. I like many other types of activities from running and skiing to cooking and programming. And yet, this game has been a recurring passion. Meanwhile, as an adult, I find I have far less time to spend on myself and my hobbies, so I continually think about how I can get the most from my time spent on it. And to be clear – my goal isn’t winning more. My goal for how I spend my time is to truly immerse myself in the parts of the game I love, and bring joy to those that I play this game with.
As a hobbyist game designer, cube designer, and deck designer, I think a lot about what “fun” actually means to me and others. Why do certain experiences stick? Why do some hobbies fade and this one persists? Years ago, I read this paper about the 8 types of fun on the topic and it shaped my thinking a lot. What do I and others enjoy most? Quite a while ago winning went out the door as the primary motivation for me to play this game and others. So what replaced it? Why spend my time on games? Because they’re fun!
I wanted to write down the reasons why I enjoy this game so much so here we are. Why do I keep investing time in a 30-year-old game with known decks, known strategies, and no prizes? Because it’s fun for me! But of course it’s also fun to analyze, so here’s my breakdown of why I think our hobby is still so enjoyable after all these years.
And why is Ramirez DePietrio the pic for this blog? Because I think he’s fun! I don’t need a reason other than that 🙂
Let’s get into the 8 types of fun.
1. Sensation
Sensation is the most immediate kind of fun – the way something looks, feels, sounds. Before I even knew the rules to this game, the art and the idea of a magical battle captured me. These are beautiful game pieces to look at, and I still spend a ton of time on this hobby simply pouring over the cards, looking at the art, noticing small details in the background. It draws me in endlessly.
The old card frames themselves are gorgeous. The swirling blues. The bubbling blacks. The wood-grain on green cards. From Alpha onward, Wizards pulled together a wide range of Seattle artists with wildly different styles. These original artists went so far for me for detailing this intriguing, beautiful world that I wanted to visit again and again. A few of my favorites include Mark Tedin, Mark Poole, Melissa Benson, Anson Maddocks, Dan Frazier, Doug Schuler, Christopher Rush, and Jeff Menges. It’s hard to even make any sort of short list since they all made the game what it is.
A big part of the appeal of the original Old School format at the beginning was this belief in the aesthetic. The early players and purists go for the alpha and beta and original printings. There is no doubt these are beautiful pieces. It’s absolutely a draw for me to play Alpha 40 to assemble some beautiful cardboard, and also a reason I’ve put together my 7pt singleton deck full of blue and red elementals from only Unlimited.
What I look for here, and why I keep playing this game, is to play cards that bring me joy to see. Shivan Dragon for sure is an amazing piece. The view from below as this ancient behemoth is awe-inspiring. I’m pleased every time I get her into play. Basic Island is great here too, plus any alpha or beta cards I get to cast always bring me a smile. I love when an opponent asks to pick up a card just to look at it. It’s fun to have cards that make an impression and to share them with others. That brings a smile to my face.
2. Fantasy
Fantasy as a type of fun means the escapism and the use of imagination to enter a new world. I get to step outside my life and encounter novel scenarios and dream of untold outcomes. Magic is chock full of this of course. I do enjoy leaving busy life aside and just entering the world of djinns and lightning bolts, and stringing together a series of incantations that lead to victory.
I’ve consumed plenty of fantasy novels and played plenty of fantasy games. Magic is of course a structured game with rules and where resource management is a key to victory. But my favorite way to play this game is to imagine myself as a great wizard, like Worzel out of the Alpha rulebook, and pretend to sling spells to best my opponent in a duel.
To that end, my favorite decks deploy a flurry of instants and sorceries for immediate victory. I tend to shy away from the groundpounder summons and want to accumulate resources and end the duel in a big flash of power. I’m not into the slow, repeated bites from a savannah lion. I want to end duels with one giant fireball or arcane spells that exchange my undeath for my opponent’s lifeforce. I like my decks to have narratives that support me being a chronomancer or a wizard of fire and water, or an undead lichmeister. It’s fun for me, so these are the decks I keep pulling out of my backpack again and again.
3. Narrative
Over the years, I’ve declared countless attacks; I’ve won a bunch of games and lost maybe even more. And I’ve actually captured a fair amount of that in notes and spreadsheets to help me analyze my performance. I’ll probably do a post on that at a later point. But those totals don’t matter. The thing we remember, the memories that circle in my mind when I’m falling asleep at night thinking about this game, are the clutch moments where I had just the right card at the right moment.
We all have our favorite stories. Our favorite moments that we tell. Even a highlight from the last get-together can crystallize a long event into a few key moments. Moments of peak fun. Whether they are sweet sweet victory or bitter defeat, creating these moments is an important part of enjoying this hobby for me. It’s why I write these blogs. I could be playing more games instead, but I like lingering on the moments, polishing them, thinking over them again, and sharing them. That brings me more joy than another pickup match versus a top deck-to-beat.
I play a lot of TwiddleVault. It’s a deck engineered for narrative. You’re often down to one life, barely holding on, staring at a topdeck that either saves you or breaks you. Those moments stick. Timetwister is a key piece of that. It’s my all-time favorite card to cast, because you never know what result you’ll get, and how your opponent will respond with their fresh seven cards. It creates stories by itself.
My all-time favorite story had me playing TwiddleVault and involves Timetwister of course. I had a Mox, a Howling Mine, and a Sylvan Library in play. My opponent cast Armageddon. Then Mind Twisted my hand. I was at 3 life and dead next turn. And then I drew Timetwister. I also got Black Lotus from Sylvan. I twisted, drew seven, hit Time Walk and Island, chained into another Howling Mine, then added Time Vault + Twiddle, and won game three and the match. Brandon still gives me a hard time about that match whenever we meet, as he should.
I’ve told that story countless times. That moment brings me endless joy, regardless of how many other matches I win or lose.
4. Challenge
This is the type of fun that gets discussed most. Challenge just means that we enjoy thinking through hard problems and coming up with creative ways to solve them. It’s a core part of Magic no doubt. Endless content online covers magic strategy and sideboarding. It’s discussed as the main topic on podcasts and articles. All this assumes that this is the key pillar of fun. It assumes that if you are better at magic, and win more games, you will enjoy it more. I don’t take that approach.
This is a hobby for me. I like winning for sure. But I’m not trying to maximize my EV, or make a living based off of my plays. That’s not why I’m here at all. And thankfully for old school, pretty much no one is. This makes for a really fun environment for those that stick around for this pasttime. Those that are in it for fame and fortune can play a sanctioned format that has better paying prizes. Old School is not that. And because of that, it’s a better game.
Self-improvement is fun. It’s satisfying to realize I could have sequenced my plays differently. It’s fun to test and iterate. It’s fun to debate lines with friends. And I do really enjoy this pillar of fun. I like to think through the different plays. I like to debate maindeck and sideboard choices. I like to collect data and analyze to see what’s a better option. I like to think more deeply about strategy and what blindspots exist where I can gain an edge.
But that’s not enough. Part of building a better gameplan is keeping the goals in mind. And even if I did everything right, and won every game, what would I win? A game, to be precise. So I keep this in perspective, and make sure that I’m cultivating the other parts of the experience for myself, so that even when I lose or make mistakes, I still have fun. Because that’s what’s most important.
My life already contains other responsibilities and goals. Magic isn’t for me where I seek validation through having a higher win percentage. Many in the Old School cohort feel the same. We are busy adults carving out time not to grind value, but to enjoy ourselves. Challenge is certainly a pillar of fun—but not the whole structure.
5. Fellowship
It’s a common trope that the best part of Magic is the gathering. And it’s odd that Fellowship comes in at #5 here. We humans are social animals, and this is often the #1 reason we do things. It’s why I barbecue. It’s my favorite way to drink whiskey – with friends. And it’s the best part of Magic too.
Old School has done particularly well here with the emphasis on events. And not just a bunch of people in a conference room collecting ‘W’s, but visiting exotic locations, and organizing hikes and get-togethers that go way beyond the bounds of our cardboard context. And it makes for lasting friendships. It’s hard to make friends as you get older. But this hobby specifically allows for that in an authentic way. We already have something in common that we love. We grew up in the same era. We listened to the same music. We experienced the same culture. And now, when we meet, it’s easy to connect with someone new.
And through the game, I’ve gotten to know so many more people and so much more about their lives. I like getting to know about their kids, and their cats. One of the best things for me in Colorado is the formation of my local group for the Rocky Mountain Yetis. We get together somewhat regularly. But we chat on discord or text far more often. The bonds have escaped the game, and they are true friends. As are many other old schoolers. I really appreciate that.
So when I think about this hobby, the gathering is a crucial part. It’s part of why I like to cube. The barrier to entry is lower. I can invite people that aren’t as invested in old school. You don’t have to bring a deck that’s the same power level to have fun. You just show up and play. And when I do play old school decks, I prefer to make space to chat. I like getting to know people at the beginning, and the end. I like to share some of my story about my personal cards and get to know theirs. It makes this hobby so much richer.
6. Discovery
Humans are curious creatures, and one of the areas that games fulfill is our quest to understand more. Initially for me, it was to learn more about Dominaria, and the rules of the game. What were these fantastic creatures? What spells could I discover and use against my friends? Later, discovery moved more into how can I learn more about the strategies, the top decks, and the top players who play them. Magic is a deep discipline and I wanted to know everything there was about this game.
Long ago when I first started playing I had so many questions about how the world fit together. What was the creature being shocked in Word of Binding? What other types of merfolk existed out there in the vast seas? I knew that the cards that I saw only represented a small fraction of what was out there to explore. I knew there were many more creatures and spells that I had yet to encounter, and imagined even more that no known mage had yet seen.
Now after playing old school for more than half a decade, I’ve finally begun to unlock some of that understanding that I craved as a kid. I wanted to try so many things. Was a clone deck full of dance of many and vesuvan doppleganger the best deck because I could copy all my opponents best stuff? It turns out no. Now I know. I’ve gotten to answer so many questions that I had about this game as a kid. And there was no way for me to answer them in the few years I played growing up before everyone moved on to new cards and new hobbies. Now I can. I can try them over and over again, and explore into some of the deep niches of this childhood game.
I’ve been able to acquire pretty much all the key cards and try out the best decks. I’ve become familiar with the vast majority of card interactions and play styles. So many things that were unattainable to me as a kid I’ve gotten to do for years now. I remember seeing Braingeyser in a display case for like $15 and wondering what it would be to cast it. Now I’ve cast that card countless times and lost track of how many copies I own.
I’ve gotten to spend years exploring and testing different configurations of a lich deck. I’ve gotten to play it casually, and in tournaments. I finally get it. It’s not an unknown quantity to me any more. And being able to discover and understand these deep veins is hugely rewarding for me. I never had the chance to do this as a kid. I didn’t have the cards. I didn’t have friends that wanted to play all these weird decks. I didn’t have the time. Now, over many years I get to do that discovery.
I think this is why “spicy” decks are so alive and well. Sure we can play lightning bolt endlessly. It’s a good card. But everyone wants to try out if they can make Yawgmoth Demon work, and props to ya’ll for staying fresh and trying new things.
Discovery is also rediscovering old sets. I get to go beyond old school. I love the cube formats. And I love getting to go deep into ALICE and MirViLight formats, and building new cubes. I got to cast Petra Sphinx for the first time probably ever. It was awesome. I never got to do these things back in the day.
As a hobby, my wife and I really like to watch movies from the 80’s and 90’s. There were a lot of R-rated movies from then that we never got to see because we were too young but always wanted to. Now I finally get to watch movies like Terminator and Highlander. And the way I figure it, we could just watch new movies from those two decades along with rewatching favorite films and that could last us our entire lives. We probably won’t watch every movie that was produced in those 20 years before we die. And that’s okay. That’s how I feel about old school. I don’t think I’ll get to experience every niche interaction before I die, and that’s okay. There is plenty left to explore, and that is one thing that always keeps me coming back.
7. Expression
Expression means we get to showcase who we are through the gameplay. Sometimes this is also called “identity”. Identity always seems a surprisingly powerful concept to me. People get locked into a set identity and do everything in their power to defend it. The alternative is that people are willing to change their minds, and change their stances, or their habits. But people don’t do that. And it’s because the idea of self that we latch onto is incredibly important. It’s literally who we are.
Games of course latch onto that too. It’s one avenue where we get to differentiate ourselves in a crowded field, and say this is what I’m about. For me, I like to be more flexible, and dip my toe into a few different archetypes. But the identity that I latch onto most here is the nostalgia I personally grew up with. I like Fourth Edition and white borders. It’s not as fancy as playing with Beta cards, and it’s not the true original Swedish version that the most established players play. But it’s unique to me. So I will play 4th edition when I can. People also like to personalize their decks. Whether it’s alters, or signatures, or specific versions of cards. I do that too. And I like my white border prints when I can play them.
For deck choices, I like playing combo. I didn’t set out to be the “combo guy” but I do try to make it work when I can in old school, cube, or other weird formats. It’s fun, so I might as well lean into it. This can be anything you want it to be, but doing it your way is the important thing. And I try to take care to take the time to personalize my decks and deck pics, and tell my story through them, and my through my writing.
8. Submission
This last type of fun is the one that puzzled me the most, especially for Magic. Submission is the ability to switch off your brain and just do something on rote. It could be knitting, or sanding woodwork, or some other monotonous task. And I do enjoy these types of tasks, but I couldn’t see where for Magic.
But then I realized it’s all the quiet organizing of the collection. While perhaps not the highlight of this game for me, I do enjoy sorting and going through my collection to organize it. It can be sleeving up a cube or resleeving a deck. It’s nice to administer important maintenance to my beloved collection.
It’s not the flashiest part of this hobby, but it is something I enjoy. And I don’t really try to prioritize time for this type of activity, but it is worthwhile to call out as an area I spend time on that still brings me joy when the games are done. I’ll reorganize my cube. I’ll put away cards from a deck I deconstructed after a unique format. It’s fun and still enjoyable to me.
It’s still fun after all these years
I was talking to a mentor about life in the last year and asked him what helped him make his choices through his career. He said that he wanted to do things that his 8 year old self would think were awesome and that his 80 year old self would be proud of. And I think Magic as a hobby fits into this. I am totally fulfilling what I hoped to do in this game when I was 8. And I think at the end of my life, I would be proud to have spent so much time enjoying something I love with friends, and really investing in going deep in something I love.
To me, it’s a worthwhile passion for now and for the ages. For this chapter of my life I don’t get to travel much to events, but I can enjoy this hobby in other ways – like writing blogs on topics I care about. So until next time, go have some fun!
Rocky Mountain Yetis 
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