Claiming that something is the best of its kind is a bold statement. It’s impossible to convince everybody, and others will always have their own opinion. However, “Magic: The Gathering” (MTG), one of the most popular card games of all time, has qualities that I haven’t seen in any other game. All of the possibilities that the unique game style offers makes an experience like no other.

Based in the world type of High Fantasy, similar to the J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”, MTG lets players enter a unique, magical world. The game has been printing new cards every few months from 1993, and has sold tens of billions of cards. So what makes it any more special than other trading card games?

First of all, MTG has an interesting gameplay structure. Compared to other games like “Pokemon”, its turn structure is much more complicated, and involves a much more in-depth and strategic view into the game. When a card is played and/or a creature attacks in MTG, the other player can use card from his/her hand to counter the attacking player. This creates a sense of strategic planning like no other game.

Given the fact that tens of thousands of individual cards have been printed, the possibilities are endless. If you have a certain deck of cards, there’s a fairly large chance that your opponent will have no cards similar to yours. When a game has so many different possibilities, different play styles emerge. These playstyles let the game explode into a worldwide hit. Today, tournaments are held with prize pools of over $300,000.

To add to that, local MTG events are held in almost every town. Different formats of play, from Standard to Draft to Sealed are available at many different game stores and locations nationwide, are exceptionally easy to hold with just a group of friends.

“Magic: The Gathering”, by far my favorite non-video game, is something that I highly recommend everyone should try out, as it’s a world of fun and competition. In such an in depth game, the investment needed to really get into it is more, but the satisfaction from making your own decks and coming up with your own ideas is definitely worth the time and money. The bond created with friends and potentially family members from playing a casually competitive and strategic game such as MTG is worth the time, and the investments you make will always be fun.