Learn to Play Magic: The Gathering with This Group of Friendly Twin Citizens

It’s difficult to be a new Magic: The Gathering player in the Twin Cities during winter. Because a heavy snowstorm can pop up at any moment, some days may be too bitterly cold to even consider setting one foot outside the door to go to Friday Night Magic (FNM) on a weekly basis, someone who really wants to improve their in-person playing skills may need some extra motivation in order to do so.

That’s why it’s helpful to have a playgroup that meets regularly. You can even start one at your own kitchen table. But what if you don’t know enough friends who play Magic? What if you’d like to learn how to play, but none of your friends can teach you? That’s one of the problems that St. Paul resident Erin Yaritz hoped to eliminate for new and veteran Magic players alike with Learn to Play events like the one she’s hosting along with members from the Lady Planeswalkers Society—Twin Cities (LPSTC) on March 28, 2020.

Erin Yaritz buys trophies like this one from thrift shops to give to winners of Lady Planeswalkers Society events. Lady Planeswalkers Society—Twin Cities

For over a year, members of the LPSTC have been regularly meeting at Lodestone Coffee and Games for sanctioned Standard drafts, cube drafts, and Commander events in a setting that’s less stressful than FNM. From its humble beginnings as a group of friends Yaritz invited to play in public with her at the store, it’s grown to the point that someone who drops in to one of the group’s scheduled events can expect there to be anywhere between four and six other people willing to play with them in a more relaxed environment.

The original Lady Planeswalkers Society was started in in 2011 in Seattle, Washington, by Tifa Robles (then Meyen) when she was working for Wizards of the Coast as a brand manager. Many of her female friends were interested in her stories about her job and wanted to learn how to play, but they found that going to a store by themselves was too intimidating and/or the play style was too competitive for them to feel comfortable learning a new game.

Robles began to host regular game nights at her home, and when the group grew too big for that, she contacted her local game store, Card Kingdom, and moved the group’s meetings and events there. Word spread, and when Robles heard folks bemoaning the lack of a group like hers in their location, she urged people to start their own local chapters. I even attempted to start a group here back in 2013; unfortunately, financial issues prevented me from being able to play on a weekly basis, and I let the group lie dormant for five years.

Luckily for the local Magic community, Yaritz reached out to me in October 2018 and asked permission to restart a chapter of the Lady Planeswalkers Society here in the Twin Cities. I gladly deactivated my Facebook group and introduced her to Robles. Since then, the group has held regular meetings at least twice a month, and there are over 100 people in the current Facebook group who can also join a Discord community.

The people who showed up for the very first official Magic draft for the group. Lady Planeswalkers Society—Twin Cities

Yaritz said that it was tough at first to get people to join. “I made some business cards, and that [helped get] the word out,” she said. “I drove around to the different game stores that I knew of around the Twin Cities. I also made some posters.” She even started approaching other women at prereleases to let them know that the group existed and that it was an inclusive and welcoming place to play.

Yaritz herself started playing Magic nine years ago but really found herself hooked in to the game full time around the time of the Rivals of Ixalan prerelease—which was the first time she ever played at a sanctioned in-store event. “I was so nervous—especially when I looked around and only saw three women in the 60-something group of attendees. I immediately had a feeling of pressure to do well, to show that women could perform at the same level as the men who play,” she said.

“I was relatively new to playing in a competitive environment, so suffice to say I didn’t do the best. But I won one out of four rounds, and my hopes weren’t completely dashed. I resolved that I was going to work as hard as I possibly could to get better, good enough to be a formidable opponent.”

Yaritz spent the next year tightening up her game and researching methods for how to be a better player. At the same time, she learned about the Lady Planeswalkers Society and realized she wanted to see a group like that thrive here in Minnesota as well. “I wanted to see the disparaging ratio of men to women and nonbinary people change in the Twin Cities and the MTG community at large,” she said. “I think the group is really helping our members feel less alone in their efforts.” Seeing a whole bunch of members wearing their official LPSTC T-shirts at MagicFest Minneapolis in August 2019 while playing in a wide variety of events also helped raise visibility for the group.

At the Learn to Play/Bring a Friend event at Lodestone on March 28, the LPSTC will have free starter decks and card sleeves to give away to newbies, who can learn from a few of the group’s more patient members and judges who have volunteered to teach.

Starter decks and basic lands will be available for newer players to use in learning how to play. Lady Planeswalkers Society—Twin Cities

“Magic is a difficult game to teach,” Yaritz admitted. “Those who have been playing for a while can get lost in teaching the minutiae and strategy that they’ve come to love. Simple mechanics take a while to master, though. It’s easy for new players to get scared off if they aren’t eased into the game a little. When I first fell in love with MTG, about two years and a half years ago, I definitely made those mistakes while trying to teach my friends.”

If you would like to know more about the Learn to Play event or one of the group’s other regularly scheduled events, you can join the Facebook group or email Erin Yaritz at erinyaritz@gmail.com.