Sweet spell of success

Magic's high rollers ply their trade in Somerville

by Chris Wright

Climbing the stairway up to Your Move Games, in Davis Square, doesn't feel like entering a magical kingdom. The space is quintessential pre-boom Somerville: dropped ceilings, strip lighting, grubby brown carpet. But there is magic in the air here. Sort of. At the top of the stairs is a little room packed with the accouterments of Magic: The Gathering -- the cards, the figurines, the dice. Teens and techies mill about talking strategy, fingering cards with names like Ancient Craving, Pygmy Pyrosaur, and Defender of Chaos.

Oh, and cracking jokes.

Q: What do you call cheap cards like Icy Prison?

A: Blue cheese.

If you laughed at this, you're a Magic player. If not, you've got your work cut out for you. For the first-timer, attempting to understand the basics of the game can produce effects similar to having a piano dropped on your head. Suffice it to say, Magic involves cards lavishly illustrated with goblins, dragons, and sorcerers. Each card has certain powers, which can be combined with other cards for new powers . . . 

Ouch!

So far, six million people worldwide have managed to master Magic's Byzantine rules. Tonight, about 50 of them have planted themselves in Your Move's spacious game room -- which resembles a mess hall, only messier. And the players in this tournament look equally, um, casual. These guys (and they are mostly guys) clearly have higher things on their minds than sartorial elegance. Cards are stacked, brows are furrowed, expressions are juror-straight. There is a whiff in the air of what could be tension, or someone boiling a bucket of gym socks.

But don't let the shabbiness fool you. There is glory, fame, and money -- big money -- at stake in this game. Hasbro recently forked out $325 million to acquire Magic's parent company, Wizards of the Coast. New sets of cards are issued three times a year, and no player worth his salt is going to pass up the chance to own one -- even at prices as high as $300 a set. A single rare card can go for as much as $500. "I've spent a lot of money on the game," says Your Move manager Darwin Kastle. "A lot of money."

But the cash flow isn't all one-way. As Magic gains in popularity, so too do high-stakes pro tours. In September, Team Your Move Games -- Kastle, store owner Rob Dougherty, and Dave Humphreys -- competed in a tournament in Washington, DC, in which they beat out 200 competitors for a $30,000 purse. And Kastle just returned from another tournament in London, which netted him around $5000. One year, having made $35,000, Kastle, 28, entered "professional card player" on his tax return.

"I suspect I've won more money playing the game than anyone else," he says. "If I'm not number one, I'm certainly second or third on the all-time winnings list."

Even better than the money, says Kastle, is the glory. Two years ago, he went to Rio de Janeiro to compete with the world's best players -- an "All-Star Game," he calls it -- which he won. The prize was the opportunity to invent his own card. Kastle also got his beefy, bearded visage used in the card's illustration, which made him something of a Magic bigwig.

Along with fame and fortune come other, more visceral pleasures. "I don't know how to describe it," Kastle says. "It's some kind of high. It's something that I hunger for." Some people call Magic "cardboard crack," he says, adding: "It's definitely addictive."

Though Magic players have little in common with crack addicts, there's no doubt that playing in big tournaments -- the stress, the lack of sleep, the bad food -- can take its toll on one's health. This is what happened to Rob Dougherty on Your Move's recent DC trip. "I remember at one point he was lying on the floor," says Kastle. "It was really horrifying. By the time it was clear how sick he was, I was probably more worried about him than the tournament."

Like all avocations, Magic requires dedication. "People laugh when I make comparisons to professional golf or professional tennis, but like these games, you've got to put a lot of time into it," Kastle says. "I play every day. I think about it constantly." Then he adds, "I don't have as much of a social life as I'd like to."

Kastle's romantic life has also fallen victim to his obsession. "When I started playing in tournaments, I was engaged," he says. "I don't think it's the reason we broke it off, but my fiancée did complain that she was competing with Magic for my attention."

It only got worse when he found a girlfriend who was interested in the game. As Kastle discovered, hell hath no fury like a woman outscored. "One of the sticking points was that she could never beat me. She found it really frustrating and thought I didn't respect her because I was so much better than her," Kastle says. "It definitely does mess with relationships."

Kastle's defeated girlfriend needn't feel too bad. She was, after all, playing one of the top Magicians in the state, the country, the world -- if Kastle does say so himself. "In the right circles, I'm a pretty big celebrity," he explains. "If people follow the game at all, they almost always know who I am."

Then again, you don't have to be a superstar to be a devotee. On the evening of the Your Move tournament, a guy named Matthew Matheny stands outside smoking a cigarette. People never ask him to sign their cards; nor do they flock around him seeking strategy tips. But that doesn't seem to matter. "The human soul," he says, "thrives on competition."