Asking for 12k USDC for Nouns to impact the Magic the Gathering community, a beloved trading card game with over 50 million players worldwide.
I'm a longtime Magic fan, and ever since I discovered Nouns I've been searching for an opportunity to combine my passions and do something meaningful within the realm of Magic. A few months ago, I found what I think is the perfect inroad; a new format called Timeless.
For the uninitiated, a Magic 'format' is a distinct rule set within the broader context of the game. Texas Hold 'em as a form of Poker is a good shorthand.
The Timeless format fits Nouns well because it has a small but tight-knit community of players, is fairly unsolved (ie, there is room for innovation), and is mostly neglected by Magic's owners WotC/Hasbro.
The last point is important. WotC is not doing much with or spending resources on Timeless, which creates an opportunity for us to step in. With only a little bit of funding, Nouns can have an outsized impact on a niche but passionate part of the Magic community starved for tournaments and competitive incentives.
Dollars fund tournaments, tournaments facilitate congregation, congregation ignites passion, and passion fuels communities.
— Darren, TheGathering
The plan is to hold regular community-run Timeless tournaments. Tournaments attract players (including streamers and pros) and add pressure to innovate and create better decks. All this generates content and discussions that can be attributed back to Nouns. Most of the 12k USDC would go to prize payouts and the remaining funds to tournament overhead.
I believe this underloved and underfunded corner of the community can be the perfect grassroots wedge for Nouns to eventually do more and bigger things within Magic.
Team
For tournament organization, I've teamed up with TheGathering.gg. They are well-known within the Timeless community and have a great reputation for running Magic tournaments online. I think they are the perfect team to execute this idea.
Darren at TheGathering has written an addendum to the proposal which can be found below. It goes into more detail about Magic, Timeless, their team, motivations, and benefits to Nouns.
Budget Breakdown
- Tournament prizes: 10k USDC
- TheGathering tournament organization: 2k USDC
- Total ask: 12k USDC
Transactions
- 12k USDC to 0x0cEa93176d794fb2C81AfB34059576B8b1cf9663
Proposal Addendum by Darren at TheGathering
What is Magic: the Gathering?
Magic (MTG) is the world’s first trading card game. Released in 1993, it was among the first platforms to combine fantasy tropes with thought-provoking mechanics and skill-testing gameplay. The game has been growing strong over the last 30 years and has one of the most devout and loyal fan bases of any modern hobby.
There are two primary ways that people engage with Magic; as a casual hobbyist or competitively, aka “Spikes”. Appealing to Spikes had been the main business driver for Wizards of the Coast (WotC) for over two decades. Around the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a shift occurred to focus almost exclusively on the casual segment.
While a logical decision given the challenges of the pandemic, it also disenfranchised a large portion of the competitive Magic community. This is the player base that TheGathering is creating content and tournaments for, filling a void in the market.
The Timeless Format
The concept of 'deck-building formats' is a way to deal with Magic's long history and vast pool of cards. It solves problems emerging from old and outdated design choices as well as card availability and financial complications. For example, the Standard format rotates to only feature cards printed in the last 3 years, while the Modern format allows players to use every card dating back to 2008.
There are also so-called 'evergreen' formats using the entire existing card pool. Timeless is such a format and is unique in featuring all cards available on Magic Arena - Magic’s flagship online client. It offers players a way to make use of their entire card collection, including old reprints and Arena-only cards, giving the format a unique texture.
Why are we choosing Timeless as our focus over other formats? Magic Arena was released in 2019 and has since grown to be the most popular way to experience the game. New players are funneled into the Standard format, which is sensible considering its relatively low barrier of entry, both in terms of financial costs and card complexity. This is where WotC is committing the majority of its attention and resources.
In comparison, the Timeless format feels like an afterthought. The player base lacks even the most basic events infrastructure and rarely receives any special attention. This is where TheGathering has identified a hole in the market, and where the proposed funding from Nouns can make an outsized impact.
Who is TheGathering?
TheGathering.gg is a worker cooperative consisting of a team of Magic content creators. Our mission is to provide Magic players with a sense of community that we believe has been lost as Magic and its owners have gradually focused on the financial aspect of the game.
Currently, The Gathering is focused on Magic's most enfranchised players, providing them with in-depth articles, tier lists, tournaments, and other content that WotC used to provide up until 2020. The audience for this type of content still remains and we want to see it grow and thrive.
What is the benefit for Nouns?
Magic players - and especially Spikes - are very passionate about the game and everything surrounding it. What's more, Magic is an expensive hobby and tends to attract people with disposable income. We believe this proposal is a great opportunity to get the Nouns brand in front of an audience that is already naturally predisposed to align with Nouns mission when it comes to community, ownership, and impactful funding grants.
We have seen branding ventures do well on third-party tournaments in the past - mostly card sleeves from companies such as Ultimate Guard and Ultra Pro. We have never seen a brand try to appeal to Magic players as people though. Aligning with the people rather than appealing tangentially to their interests feels like an underexplored and valuable space.
We think this is an opportunity to get a well-meaning mission in front of a great community with the means to make a difference.
Magic Tournaments
Tournaments, and the culture and community surrounding it, have been the backbone of Magic since its inception. Although WotC has shifted its focus to a casual audience, for a large part of the player base competition and tournaments remain the main appeal and primary way of interacting with the game.
What will these tournaments look like? Tournaments are digital only and played via Magic Arena. We use third-party software (Matcherino or Melee) to record and schedule games, using a tournament structure called Swiss. Discord is used for announcements and general communication.
Tournament costs Prize payouts are the majority cost of each event, and are commonly done on a cascading scale. For example:
- 1st - $500
- 2nd - $250
- 3rd / 4th - $100
- 5th-8th - $75
- 9th-16th - $50
- 17th-32nd - $25
Depending on what we choose to do with each event, additional costs may include marketing, guest appearances, commentary teams, and coverage. TheGathering can fulfill all of these roles in-house, making it cost-efficient for us and our collaborators. For the Timeless events funded by Nouns, we aim to be lean while experimenting with what provides the greatest overall impact for the community and players.
