Cassius Marsh compares Magic: The Gathering to football.
NFL star and Magic: The Gathering influencer Cassius Marsh has been in the spotlight in recent years as his passion for MTG became public knowledge. The Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker also recently opened a trading card shop in California. Marsh recently talked to Game Rant about his love for Wizards of the Coast’s popular trading card game, and he explained what makes MTG and football different and similar
When asked if he felt the same level of competitiveness while playing Magic: The Gathering that he does while playing football, Marsh said that he enjoys the casual side of the trading card game more than its competitive side.
“For me Magic is a casual and fun kind of thing. It’s unwinding and fun. And it is semi-competitive at this point, but as long as it’s a good game [I’m having fun],” Marsh explained. ” I used to get really salty and overly competitive, but I think that I’ve toned it down a lot because that kind of thing is never fun to be around.”
Casual MTG players prefer to play the Commander format, a format where players build 100-card decks with each card except basic lands appearing no more than once. We’ve seen Marsh play Commander in the popular YouTube series called Game Knights twice before, so it’s not surprising to hear him say that he’s more of a casual than competitive player even though we’ve seen him compete in Grand Prix events before.
Marsh also explained to Game Rant how Magic relates to football: “Deckbuilding and film study are two things that you can really compare between Magic and football,” he said. “You know, mentally you have to put your deck together, get all of your strategy out there and that’s sort of like watching all of their [other football teams’] games or all of their runs and snaps and trying to key in on tendencies and the best way to attack a team or address a certain player in terms of matchups. But Magic is also just great for intellectual development in general.”
Marsh’s comparisons between Magic and football are interesting. Although Magic is not as physical as football, the element of strategy in their games is what makes them similar to each other, but Magic is also a fun game about patience, math, and sportsmanship.
Marsh’s Cash Cards Unlimited opened to the public on Friday, Feb. 26, 2021. Check out the shop’s Instagram page.
