Do you remember your first game of Magic? The experience of this new
card game, intrigued by the images, words and iconography. The feeling
of entering this new world full of mythical beings, spells and
enchantments waiting for you to explore to your hearts content.
Some of you may have heard of a player called Dana Fischer. She’s made a name for herself appearing at GP’s over the last couple of years, including San Diego, Los Angeles, Vegas and Minneapolis, along with attending Portland recently a couple of weekends ago.
When it comes to GP’s, Dana likes to set goals for herself like most players would going into a tournament. Her goal was to get five wins in a GP. Now, to some of your that may not sound like much but it’s a goal she has achieved, falling just short of making day two. Did I mention Dana is 7 years old?
Dana’s father, Adam, has been teaching her Magic from the early age of three and a half and she took to it quickly. The decks started out very basic and, even with her vocabulary at such a young age, she has picked up and memorised card names and text with the more cards she’s used. Adam is a former pro himself so it’s easy to see where she gets ability and competitive nature from, but even with that fire to compete Dana has admitted that it’s hard sitting across the table from grownup players but fun at the same time. In those moments however, she states that she can only grow up and be herself, a tactic that has made her everyone’s favourite pint-sized planeswalker.
With Dana being so young her father accompanies her on her magic ventures. He isn’t allowed to help her obviously but sits beside her only giving her a hand to shuffle her library as Dana’s hands aren’t big enough. That hasn’t stopped her though and has found that what she lacks in dexterity Magic has provided her with in areas like; reading, maths and strategic thinking. Dana’s been playing since before she could read and Adam has credited a lot of her ability with words to Magic. When asked about the education side and how it affected Dana, Adam said "I'm very comfortable with it resulting in her missing a little bit of school here and there because I know she's getting so much out of it. It's really helped her along with reading and math and strategic thinking, as well as with social skills. So it's good on a lot of levels. As long as she wants to play I'm happy to support it, and as long as it doesn't create any issues,"
"I want to keep playing Magic because it's so educational," Dana said. "One of the reasons why I wanted to go to Las Vegas Grand Prix was because it was more educational than the last two days of school."
Her ultimate goal is to be the youngest ever player to day two a GP, with the current record sitting at 10 years and 10 months of age. The rate she’s been taking down players much older than her, I’m sure that won’t be long. Dana has already made herself known on camera with a handful of feature matches and has had support from the likes of Reid Duke. Players have been so generous as to donate some of their unwanted cards to her and can’t help but cheer for this plucky little player. For lack of a better word, she’s a prodigy that seems destined for greatness, be it at a young age and breaking records or just honing her craft and being consistent.
Thanks to her performance at GP Portland, Dana earned herself a round one bye in Oklahoma City. It does mean one less chance to see her on camera in the first round but does improve her odds for a day two.
I wish Dana all the best on her continuing Magic career and can’t wait to see what she does next, good luck to her.
Keep you eye on Dana in the near future and definitely keep checking back to Game Changers for me gaming news and updates.
Some of you may have heard of a player called Dana Fischer. She’s made a name for herself appearing at GP’s over the last couple of years, including San Diego, Los Angeles, Vegas and Minneapolis, along with attending Portland recently a couple of weekends ago.
When it comes to GP’s, Dana likes to set goals for herself like most players would going into a tournament. Her goal was to get five wins in a GP. Now, to some of your that may not sound like much but it’s a goal she has achieved, falling just short of making day two. Did I mention Dana is 7 years old?
Dana’s father, Adam, has been teaching her Magic from the early age of three and a half and she took to it quickly. The decks started out very basic and, even with her vocabulary at such a young age, she has picked up and memorised card names and text with the more cards she’s used. Adam is a former pro himself so it’s easy to see where she gets ability and competitive nature from, but even with that fire to compete Dana has admitted that it’s hard sitting across the table from grownup players but fun at the same time. In those moments however, she states that she can only grow up and be herself, a tactic that has made her everyone’s favourite pint-sized planeswalker.
With Dana being so young her father accompanies her on her magic ventures. He isn’t allowed to help her obviously but sits beside her only giving her a hand to shuffle her library as Dana’s hands aren’t big enough. That hasn’t stopped her though and has found that what she lacks in dexterity Magic has provided her with in areas like; reading, maths and strategic thinking. Dana’s been playing since before she could read and Adam has credited a lot of her ability with words to Magic. When asked about the education side and how it affected Dana, Adam said "I'm very comfortable with it resulting in her missing a little bit of school here and there because I know she's getting so much out of it. It's really helped her along with reading and math and strategic thinking, as well as with social skills. So it's good on a lot of levels. As long as she wants to play I'm happy to support it, and as long as it doesn't create any issues,"
"I want to keep playing Magic because it's so educational," Dana said. "One of the reasons why I wanted to go to Las Vegas Grand Prix was because it was more educational than the last two days of school."
Her ultimate goal is to be the youngest ever player to day two a GP, with the current record sitting at 10 years and 10 months of age. The rate she’s been taking down players much older than her, I’m sure that won’t be long. Dana has already made herself known on camera with a handful of feature matches and has had support from the likes of Reid Duke. Players have been so generous as to donate some of their unwanted cards to her and can’t help but cheer for this plucky little player. For lack of a better word, she’s a prodigy that seems destined for greatness, be it at a young age and breaking records or just honing her craft and being consistent.
Thanks to her performance at GP Portland, Dana earned herself a round one bye in Oklahoma City. It does mean one less chance to see her on camera in the first round but does improve her odds for a day two.
I wish Dana all the best on her continuing Magic career and can’t wait to see what she does next, good luck to her.
Keep you eye on Dana in the near future and definitely keep checking back to Game Changers for me gaming news and updates.
Also
check out Arcane Cards for you Magic singles needs and for some great
articles and decklists.
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