Reversals of fortune

Whenever I post about Magic The Gathering: Arena, some of the comments are usually critical about Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast, which is fair, because the company has done some sketchy stuff.

But there is one thing I do appreciate about MTG that I think the game captures quite well.

The vagaries of fortune. Or the whims of chance, if you prefer. The randomness of the game is a good metaphor for the randomness of life.

An anecdote may illustrate the point. If you’re unfamiliar with the rules, in a standard MTG match both players start with 20 life points, and whoever gets knocked down to zero life points first loses the game.

Yesterday I was playing a match, and I had 3 life left, and my opponent 18. I almost thought about conceding, but I had promised myself I would clean up the kitchen after this match, so I decided to hang on a bit more until I lost. Yet the next card I drew completed changed the vector of the game, and I ended up winning with 33 life, and inflicting enough damage on my opponent to take his life score down to negative 22 in the final attack.

I suppose this demonstrates the value of three different things:

1.) Hanging on in the face of adversity.

2.) Because random chance is just that, random, and today’s misfortunate might turn to tomorrow’s good luck. Medieval people sometimes portrayed fortune as a wheel, endlessly turning from good luck to back.

3.) Good luck or bad, you still have to try your hardest. Because if I had not played that game-changing card at exactly the right time and with exactly the right creature, I still would have lost.

Once again, this has gotten weirdly philosophical for a game about battling Space Wizards. 🙂

-JM