San Diegan Dana Fischer wants to be one of the world’s best "Magic: The Gathering" players and she is starting early. She is just seven years old and is already a force at some of the game’s most competitive events.
"Magic" is a fantasy card game. Players make decks with different cards representing fantastical creatures like dragons or elves and arcane spells. Those creatures can attack other players or defend against attackers. There is a lot of strategy involved in planning a way to victory.
Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes "Magic," holds tournaments almost every week around the world and hands out millions of dollars each year to top-ranked players. Fischer’s father used to play Magic professionally and started teaching her before she could even read the cards.
“He would read them to me and I would have to memorize what they did,” Fischer said. “Once I was able to read, it went much faster.”
Fischer has traveled across the country this past year playing in Magic competitions called Grand Prix. Players who do well in the early rounds get to stay for a second day and compete for a top prize of $10,000. So far Fischer’s been just one win away from being able to compete on day two of the tournaments. She said her goal is to be the youngest player ever to make the second day and she has about four years to make it happen.
“I’m really competitive. Every Grand Prix I hear of, I go to my dad, I want to go, I want to go,” Fischer said. “And then we have to talk to my mom and sometimes my mom says no and sometimes my dad says no because it’s too far.”
She already has a sponsorship from Channel Fireball, one of the game’s most popular retailers and a major tournament organizer. And Fischer doesn’t expect to slow down anytime soon.
“I think I’m going to be playing Magic forever,” she said. “I also want to be an artist when I grow up. So I could be an artist and do Magic—I could be a Magic artist.”
