[1] Magic: The Gathering celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year. Yet, despite Magic's influence on the games industry and the field of game design, there has been a relative dearth of scholarly work on the subject. The arrival of Beyond the Deck: Critical Essays on Magic: The Gathering and Its Influence, edited by Shelly Jones, is indicative of increased scholarly interest in Wizards of the Coast's trading card game colossus. This volume covers several themes of emerging scholarship on Magic: The Gathering through a wide variety of disciplinary and methodological approaches in an effort to "critically examine how Magic: The Gathering has changed and challenged the ways we view analog gaming" (2). Beyond the Deck presents research on the "myriad ways in which Magic is performed across multiple realms" (4), from local communities to online platforms, and how this often crosses over between both digital and analog spaces. The collected essays also demonstrate the way that Magic interacts with the broader ecology of games and media.
[2] Beyond the Deck is separated into four sections of essays that are more or less thematically linked. The first section is perhaps the most interesting for a broader audience, as it focuses largely on the design elements of Magic. The feature of this section is Aaron Trammell's interview with Mark Rosewater, the current head designer for Magic. The interview provides valuable insight into Rosewater's approach to game design and the production of Magic, a perspective that is invaluable to both designers and game design students. Additionally, the interview provides an easily citable source for academics aiming to analyze Magic's design ethos.
[3] Similarly, Michael Nixon's chapter "Waiting for Player" outlines the effects of temporality on both the design and play of Magic. Nixon highlights the implications for both analog and digital games and outlines the different ways time affects player behavior. Nixon notes how the affordances of the platforms produce different behaviors between players as well as changes in strategy that emerge across platforms. Additionally, Nixon highlights the way that digital interfaces often miss the mark in accessible design when it comes to how quickly users are able to perform actions within a digital platform. My only point of friction with this piece is Nixon's reliance on flow as an organizing principle of play; however, I do not think it detracts from what is one of the strongest essays in this collection.
[4] The second section covers many of the economic aspects of Magic, ranging from the strategies emerging from secondary markets to broad analysis of Magic's predatory monetization schemes in both analog and digital. Justin S. Schumaker's essay stands out in this section. Schumaker explicitly calls out Magic's use of "digital platforms to create a contained experience aimed at generating perpetual revenue from play" (91), which is a claim that indicates not only the state of Magic but also more broadly reflects the state of the ludic platform economy. Meanwhile, Eugenio Luciano and Alexander Di Re's ethnographic approach toward Magic's primary and secondary markets is an easy piece to cite in any discussion regarding the economics of collectable cards, whether they are tied to Magic or otherwise. I find that this section is the most productive for media studies scholars doing work on digital platforms even beyond game studies.
[5] The third section is more explicitly sociological in nature and describes the construction of communities and player motivations within Magic communities. Rachel Guldin and Brandon C. Harris's piece stands out in this section. They examine both player motivation as well as the barriers for entry and inclusion in Magic communities. In particular, they draw attention to the racialized and gendered nature of these spaces and the way that players understand diversity not through player demographics "but on their play style and interests" supplanting "the brand and its supplied narratives" in lieu of actual understandings of the reality of their communities (164). This section may be of interest to scholars studying the formation of communities around specific media properties.
[6] The final section is organized around literary readings of Magic's thematic and mechanical elements. This section highlights the myriad ways Magic: The Gathering can be approached beyond just thinking about the economics or design of the game and instead imagines possibilities of play beyond winning and losing. In "Gay Play," Aaron Aquilina deftly observes that "Magic's invitation to build our own decks and construct our own narratives is…an act through which one may decide to embrace non-normative routes of play, atypical cards, and narratological aims; ultimately, a different approach to the concepts of winning and losing" (246).
[7] This question of the digital/analog divide is one of the most interesting throughlines of the collection for me. Jones's introduction to the collection identifies Magic as an important case study for examining analog to digital adaptations, a sentiment I agree with, due to Magic's longevity, impact on the industry, and the variety of ways that the game has been adapted. Although digital clients for playing Magic online, such as Magic: The Gathering Arena and Magic: The Gathering Online, are often bracketed out of the more in-depth discussions of many of these articles, other digital components of Magic are addressed, such as browser-based playtesting simulations, content creation and live streaming communities, and the digital marketplaces where transactions occur. What the collection lacks in explicit analysis of the analog/digital divide, it makes up for with several different angles that can be used by scholars in conjunction with external methodologies to draw a picture of the relationship between analog and digital platforms that exist within Magic's ecosystem. This is an important element of studying Magic, as it provides a link to broader questions regarding the digital platforms and the ludic platform economy that is rapidly solidifying itself as a hegemonic force. Magic is an important lens for examination and critique because, as noted by Schumaker and Jiwon Ohm in their respective chapters, many of the elements ranging from design implementations to monetization that we find in digital platforms incorporate systems that are found within Magic.
[8] The thing that is missing for me in this volume is an in-depth analysis of Magic as a transmedia franchise. In the conclusion, Jones highlights "Wizards of the Coast embracing transmedia and cross-medialization" (291) through products such as Dungeons and Dragons crossover properties and even incorporating several other media properties, like Hasbro’s Transformers and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, into Magic itself. There are references to the transmedia experience in the context of content creation on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube in Jan Švelch and Justin Schumaker's chapters. Švelch briefly mentions Magic's transmedia narrative tie-ins, and these properties likewise are referenced in Aaron Aquilina and Valentino Paccosi's chapters. However, this is always in service of other analysis. These elements are important for Magic's brand image, yet do not get much time in the spotlight. The absence of these topics marks more of a gap in the literature for possible further research rather than any shortcoming of the work that is presented in Beyond the Deck.
[9] Ultimately, Beyond the Deck succeeds at showing the breadth of possible scholarship related to Magic and providing a necessary starting point for scholarly projects looking to engage with Magic or other trading card games. Its broad coverage makes it valuable for game studies scholars looking to examine the design, economic, and social aspects of the game and is a necessary starting place for forthcoming work. Likewise, fan studies scholars will find several sections of this volume useful for analyzing things like the economic flows through collector communities or how fan identity can be represented through engaging with games. As mentioned previously, there is much that will be useful for digital and analog media scholars interested in the tension between analog and digital as well as emerging trends within platform economies. Shelly Jones has compiled a solid collection of essays that provides an overview of scholarship on Magic: The Gathering as interest in its academic study is reaching a critical mass, and there is plenty of solid work to build on in this volume.