I put enough investment into Magic to consider it the primary hobby. My wife does support my higher level play to an extent, mainly because she’ll get to travel with me. I’m a person who can live with hanging out at home most of the time. She… isn’t. She’s interested in the game, but her mentality would be a kitchen table casual player at best.

To be straight up, everyone is a casual, EDH is quickly proving that even the hardest high level players enjoy casual Magic in some form or another. It’s how often a player flips the switch to ‘hardcore’ that seems to be the point of discussion. Kitchen table players don’t really flip the switch (0-10%). Local FNM regulars that don’t hit PTQ’s flip it on a little bit(10-40%). PT competitors keep theirs on a lot(90%+). We seem to be the 60-75%’ers of Magic. We enjoy competitive play, but we aren’t willing to sacrifice our lives to do it.

great article, I feel you. I’m simliar (for the most part, just too poor for “real” cards like Goyf and Fow X| ) as far as I approach the game… huh, I guess that’s why I like limited as much as I do, now I think about it.
Yes we’re underrepresented because we don’t particularly care if we are noticed, to be honest.

I follow the info, but never compete. I probably know how to handle my own against a top level Jund Deck, but don’t have the funds to build a deck, the time to compete, or really like the way tournament decks are designed. I want fun.

I wish I could get to play more, but actually spend more time making decks than ever actually playing. I get together occasionally with my other geeky dorky friends, terms we don’t mind, but agree I’m not sure about nerd, but never go play in the local store. I don’t feel like I fit in with the guys hanging out there, who quite often seem to have nothing else (including hygiene). I’ve got a career, a wife, a house, and while sure, I think about Magic (cards, strategy, decks, combos, flavor) and other geeky topics (comics, music, movies, toys, etc.) regularly, I, like you, have other things going on. So, yeah, I could play more regularly if I went to FNM or the Saturday tournaments, but I don’t, because I want to play with friends, and people I like, who are all in similar “life moments” as me. Geeks with lives who like to play Magic.

Furthermore, I like to win, but don’t mind if I lose. I really just like “the game.” Magic is a wonderfully constructed game (although I think its execution falls short sometimes, and if I had the time I would design my own mock set to play with, with all those brilliant, better-than-Wizards ideas I have, and I know all of YOU have as well). And even though, I really do just like the fun of it, and the idea of it, and the actual play of the game, sometimes I would like to got to a FNM or some sort of competitive match and just crush someone.

Being a pro Magic player would be cool, (I mean c’mon making MONEY to play MAGIC), yet at the same time, not only unrealistic, but in my mind, absurd. I would need start up capital just to build a tournament competitive deck. I’d need INVESTORS. I’m definitely a “middle child” of Magic, since I don’t have the money, wit, or time to think about Magic professionally. And I don’t know if I would want to. I think that the thought process needed would take away something of my enjoyment of the game. When it becomes solely about winning, and not designing my own decks and playing with friends and the cool interactions of cards, and when every deck played is a near-clone of every other deck, that becomes boring. And Magic, for me, is about anti-boring.

For my birthday this week I bought myself a box of M10 to try to bolster my collection in that set and finish off a set. It’s been sitting on my desk for 4 days and I have to say that there are few things in the world that make me happier than cracking a few packs to see what I get.