Marriage: The Gathering

[Norm4eva]

A few years back, back when my wife was just my girlfriend/band leader/awesome chef, she caught me goldfishing at gigs and wanted to know what I was up to.  Over the last few years we've been playing Magic on and off, and lately we've been playing a lot more and she's becoming more familiar with the finer points of the rules, things like combat tricks and understanding the stack, etc etc.  She's become pretty competent with Goblins and is moving onto Angel Stompy; lately it's actually been fairly challenging to play against her.

Now I'd imagine that for many of the players here, Magic is their 'my time' hobby, the thing that they do independently of their significant other.  I also imagine there are some others out there like myself, so I'm wondering... how many of us either play with the spouse or because of the spouse? 

[JewLightning]

I definitely taught my girlfriend how to play Magic. She loves to play and enjoys the challenge. She just top 8ed her first Vintage tournament this last weekend. Magic playing ladies FTW

Brennen

[ReAnimator]

Magic is def my hobby and she has her own, however she used to play back in highschool and still knows the basic rules so if i'm excited about a card or a deck she understands what the hell i'm talking about which is cool.

She doesn't do any sort of gaming any more but back in the day she was way more of a gamer nerd than i was, and oddly enough i didn't know her back then, she actually got less nerdy once we started going out which is sort of baffling considering i'm a big nerd.


/Yes she is the perfect woman
//No she is not your typical nerd girl, and certainly doesn't look like one

[Schonkreuz]

Amusingly enough I convinced my now fiancee to teach me how to play just so he would talk to me (before we were dating). They were playing at the Youth Group we used to attend and it was some ridiculous like 6 player casual game. I hadn't ever heard of magic before, and so being as sweet as I could I asked him if he would teach me how to play. Two and a half years later I've gotten fairly good, and he has gotten even better. At our local game store (s2d) I am in top 4 often, though I tend to be the only girl that plays. I must say though...I will always be a silly magic girlfriend at heart (you know, the ones that only kinda play for their guy, and don't really know the rules) because white is so my favorite color to play. I even have a magic visor with the plains symbol on it, along with a tattoo of a cross with the pretty sun behind it.

[Hellsing293]

@Schonkreuz: If only more men realized that women like you DO exist. 

Most men feel that they will be shunned if they even mention to women that they play Magic, and I admit I used to be the same exact way.  However, we(men) fail to realize that WOMEN can be open minded too.  I mean, if you can watch the Notebook with your girlfriend only because she's says it's good, why wouldn't your girlfriend TRY playing Magic if you say it's fun.

Oh, and I taught my girlfriend how to play Magic.  She thought it was really fun, except since I'm currently on a Magic break we don't play often.

[Schonkreuz]

Yea, that seems to be the issue most of the time. Every time I'm at a tournament and I see a girlfriend I make sure to go over there and talk with them, always making the point that they could be having fun and playing magic instead of sitting around and being bored. Often though they say they have never really been taught, or if they have it was just barley. So teach your girlfriends how to play, gawsh. I don't want to be the only girl that plays magic everywhere I go  .

In all seriousness though, I'm addicted to the game. Because of my work schedule I don't always get Saturday off and I get so frustrated when that happens. I'm usually on MWS for hours at a time during those weeks to get ready for the next time I can play at our local store.

But key point here, don't be afraid to ask your girlfriend if she wants to learn how to play. I'm sure she wouldn't mind at least trying it our once or twice!

[Syvanis]

My wife plays magic. She is more into for the social aspect and would never play in a tourny. But when we get together for a big EDH game she pulls out her Akroma deck and gets that sly smile on her face.

She also plays tons of other games!

[dandan]

My wife plays but refuses to play against Blue or Black - those colours 'cheat'. For example it is fine to Bolt or StP a creature but should the colour of death take out a creature using Terror that is cheating, ditto for counterspells (she may well have a point there) and heaven forbid any form of discard. I have built her a RG deck with Bolts, Kird Apes, Lhurgoyfs and Shivans, generally stomps on Type II decks but not up to Legacy.
However my daughter has just turned 7, is good at maths and likes monsters and faeries so I think she will develop into a Magic player. My son is just 3 and still far more into Lego than Magic.

[Moxlotus]

Not Magic, but I'm teaching my fiance to play D&D.  Less math and no strategy in deckbuilding.  She'll like the use of imagination.

[aosquirrels]

My two sons and myself tried to teach my wife how to play.  She liked the cute green forest creatures along with the cards Fog and Constant Mists (Heaven forbid anyone would get hurt in combat).  When Wizards unrestricted Earthcraft I built her a decent Army Of Squirrels deck (hence my ManaDrain name).  She decided shortly thereafter that the squirrels looked too mean and quit playing.   

[GrandpaBelcher]

I've been teaching my girlfriend, now fiancee, to play for a couple of years now.  We started with some homemade "beginner decks" (simple cards, one or two colors), moved on to sealed and Winston draft, and are now playing Vintage periodically.  She's X-0 vs. Jerry Yang and has a better record than I do in prerelease two-headed giant.  She likes it and recognizes the mental challenge aspect of it, though she still thinks (rightly) that some of the card names, art, and flavor text is a little hokey.  I keep trying to convince her to come to a Vintage tournament with me, but she doesn't think she's ready for that kind of nerdery.

[papercrackaddict]

OK, I totally admit that I was a "magic girl-friend".  My now husband turned me on to the game a little after we met. We were married in 2000.  I will say it has given us something to talk about other than crappy days at work, kids, and the proverbial stupid relative story.  He started me out on basic creature decks and I still prefer them over all.  We go to pre-release tournys but aren't into the really "specialized formats".  I like MTG, like playing, even building the decks. 

[Dr.KnowMaD]

My parenting partner originally came to me and wanted to learn to play (plus get close to me, tricky tricky) so I started her of with a mono aggro build, she learned fast and had a blast.  To this day she"s still really competent and likes to play at times but its not as close to her top hobbies.  More of a casual fun thing to do sometimes like local drafts an such.  When she will help I can get some good testing from her.

My kids also love magic.  Especially the taste, texture, and magical way the cards fold into all sorts of interesting shapes.  My three year old does know most of the letters and all of the single whole numbers which is a good start.  He will definitely let you know when he's about start the beat and slam one of his goblins or dragons onto the table. (turns?, Mana?, pss who needs those) and they're his cards of choice, nothing to do with me.

All in all I hope more people can get involved in general, men, women, boys, girls, aliens, and its always nice to see people willing to brake the mold.   

                                                                             
                                                                                                                                             Dr.KnowMaD