Back in 1993, a little company called Wizards of the Coast released a game called Magic: The Gathering, and tabletop gaming was changed forever. While MTG wasn't the first collectible card game (CCG) to hit the market, it was the breakout star, transforming the genre forever. Within a few years, it went from comics-store exclusivity to availability in just about every store selling games of all types, including grocery store checkout aisles. Because the game is thematically similar to fantasy role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, it was initially relegated to the basements of nerds across the world, but like D&D (whose parent company, TSR, was bought by Wizards of the Coast, saving it from likely extinction), it's an incredibly entertaining game. People from all walks of life play it - including celebrities. Here are some big names you may not have known were secretly MTG players.
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A well-known UFC combatant, Josh Barnett isn't the kind of guy you'd think would play MTG. But you'd be mistaken: He's been playing MTG since the very beginning, when he was just 16 years old. He's still got some coveted, vintage Alpha cards in his collection. He hates playing blue decks and prefers a black-red deck, which is his standard.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been acting since he was a child, and while you might think most of his time was spent rehearsing or working on set, he was also getting busy with some MTG cards. Since joining Reditt, Gordon-Levitt has done a few Ask Me Anythings, and his love of MTG has come up on more than one occasion. He admitted to preferring the game over Pokémon. When he was asked, "Inquiring minds need to know: what's your favorite Pokémon," he simply replied, "Magic: The Gathering FTW." This elicited another question asking which was his favorite MTG card, to which he replied, "Time Walk. Never had it."
Chris Kluwe played for the Minnesota Vikings, but before he got into professional football, he was heavily into MTG. Klue is an out-and-proud gamer and "fan of all things nerdery," so it's not surprising he's into Magic. He got into the game at the tender (though not that tender in MTG years) age of 13, when the Revised Edition was released in 1994. He plays a blue-black control deck, which gives him the opportunity to play most of his cards during his opponent's turn. You might not think of an NFL player as someone likely to embrace nerd culture, but - as this video shows - Kluwe is happy to prove otherwise.
Seth Rogen is probably best known for his writing, acting, and producing, so it's probable that you don't think of him as much of a gamer. He got his start performing standup comedy at an early age (14), but his real passion was writing. He began scripting Superbad when he was only 13; he spoke of this during his opening monologue while hosting Saturday Night Live in 2013. In that monologue, Rogen described watching shows like Night Rider and playing games like MTG, even going into some of his ideas for new cards. He hasn't spoken about how much he plays these days, but his admission of early MTG fandom piqued Joseph Gordon-Levitt's interest.
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise to learn that the man who played Superman and the Atom is a fan of geek culture. He's just as nerdy as many of his fans, and Routh has been playing MTG for a long time. In a response to a tweet by Nathon Fillion about how he was learning to play the game, Routh wrote, "Been tappin' that mana for years. Welcome to the club. #GreenFTW." Routh's fandom doesn't end with simply being another player. He lent his voice talents to the character "Ral Zarek" in the 2019 video game, Magic: The Gathering Arena.
Allie Brosh is the writer and illustrator of the immensely popular online webcomic, Hyperbole and a Half, and while she spends most of her time working on her next strip, she takes some time every once in a while to play some MTG. Brosh spoke about her time playing the game in a Reddit Ask Me Anything in response to a question related to her boyfriend's depression: When I'm depressed, I don't want to see anyone, but I still somehow like being around Duncan, so we watched a lot of movies and watched/played a lot of Magic: the Gathering online together. It's comforting when you can just be with someone and not have to pretend or feel pressured to feel better than you are able to feel. This was followed with a question about whether she preferred a draft or constructed deck, to which she replied, "Drafting Magic has gotten me through my worst periods of life. I find it lets me have social activity when the rest of my brain rebels against the concept." While she can/has played with physical cards, she prefers to play online where she can find herself lost in games for as many as nine hours at a time. "I have far-fetched dreams of being a professional Magic player," Brosh says. "Because that’s what you do when you take on any calling. You try to be the best at it, right?" Sounds like the words of a true fan.
Felicia Day is well known to nerd culture as a woman who loves fantasy role-playing games, so it might not be too surprising to learn that she's a fan of MTG. She's been playing for years, and she's also used her platform to try to increase the number of women who play the game. In a tweet from March 2019, she wrote, "I created Spellslingers years ago in order to make it [MTG] more accessible for people like me to get into. How to increase diversity on a pro-level is a big challenge though." She was referring to an article on Kotaku about increasing female acceptance of the game. Day spoke about her love of MTG in a vlog post in May 2013 where she mentioned having recently picked up MTG, and while she was certainly late to the party, she began playing after a visit to Wizards of the Coast inundated her with a ton of freebies. After looking into it, she dove right in, and began playing the game on a regular basis. She doesn't have a lot of love for white decks, though she didn't expand on which color she prefers.
Magic: The Gathering may be deeply rooted in the fantasy genre and nerd culture, but it is, at its core, a card game. So it's not a huge stretch to think that a professional poker player might be drawn to it. David Williams is one such player. Williams is definitely known more for his skills at Texas hold 'em than for Magic, but he's been playing the game for years and credits it for preparing him for his professional career: I think Magic is great because it's a non-gambling game that kids can play and it will prepare you for poker or a ton of other career paths you can go down. I learned more playing Magic than I did at school until I got to the more advanced stuff in college, and the cool thing is that you don't even realize you're learning because it's so much fun. A lot of people have moved from Magic to poker, but I have a lot of friends from Magic that have gone into finance or technical fields, but basically, they're mentally prepared to succeed in anything in life.
Alan Tudyk (Wash in TV's Firefly) is a well-known actor who has worked with Joss Whedon, Felicia Day, and other entertainment pros known for their standing in the gaming community. Tudyk began playing MTG in July 2015 so he could appear on an episode of Magic: The Gathering: Spellslingers alongside Day and her brother Ryon. Tudyk must have enjoyed the game, seeing as he and Day defeated their opponents with a climactic swarm of elves and goblins.
Brandon Sanderson is a fantasy and science fiction writer who is probably best known for finishing Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, but that's hardly his only foray into the genre. He's been expanding his bibliography for years, writing books for young adults, dedicated fantasy fans, and everything in between. It was only a matter of time before Wizards of the Coast approached him to write a tie-in novel for Magic: The Gathering. Sanderson is an avid gamer and has been playing MTG for years, which is how he managed to find his way into writing Children of the Nameless for Wizards of the Coast. Not only did he spin an impressive tale based on MTG lore, you can read it for free here. Sanderson's agreement to write the book required that it be made freely available to fans, and any money generated in a future collection, which would have normally gone his way, was instead to be donated to charity.
Wil Wheaton has solidified himself as one of the biggest names in popular nerd culture since playing Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation as a kid. He's grown into a major advocate for gaming, popular culture, and pretty much anything you might find wandering around a comic book convention. He's appeared on shows like The Big Bang Theory, where he played himself with little alteration to his real-life persona, and is known as an avid gamer. With all that, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to learn that he's been a fan of MTG for many years. He played a gread deal growing up, though his playing has waxed and waned through the years. He authored a blog article about his success in connecting with his son through MTG.
Best known for his work on Mythbusters, Grant Imahara is a confirmed fan of MTG, having played on episodes of Tabletop and Magic: The Gathering: Spellslingers. He enjoys playing a black-white deck for the balance it attains between creatures and enchantments. Watching him play, you can see the energy with which he dives into the myriad tactical choices MTG presents.
