I used to play Magic: The Gathering (MtG) quite a bit. I started shortly after it released, and I played a lot. I played for fun. I played competitively. And I was good! I came in 3rd at a Pro Tour qualifier, back when the format was Alliances/Ice Age.

Shortly before getting out of the Air Force, I sold all my cards to one of the engineers I worked with and used the money to build a computer. The computer ultimately led to my career, so the time and money were — arguably — well spent.

A few years ago, I thought about getting back into it. I tried playing online and found the experience adequate, but not compelling. Another time, I went to the game store and bought a case of the newly released 13th edition, but after sorting and building a deck, the habit didn’t stick. The cards went into a box and are now collecting dust.

Every now and then, I get exposed to some MtG content and feel like playing again. I don’t want to invest a bunch of money into a habit I kicked a long time ago, but it could be fun to put together an elf deck for Melissa, and have her try to beat some weird off-meta contraption based on a couple of weird cards.

This evening, while listening to a gamer on YouTube talk about MtG, a strange thought crossed my mind: I have a decent printer. If I want to play with my family, I don’t have to buy the cards. Just the sleeves.

Is that theft? That kind of seems like theft, right?

I wound up having a fun and intense conversation about it with Chris, who was of the opinion that it is not theft, and that if I want to print and play, I should just do it. He is convinced that it does no harm.

My arguments are that it isn’t much different from someone illegally downloading a book and reading it. They’re getting the experience of the story without the artist getting any benefit from it.

Historically, playing with proxy cards was common, and no one batted an eye over it. You couldn’t use proxies in tournaments, and obviously proxies have no trade value. But if we were just trying out some decks in order to see if the cards had value, we would grab some old land cards, mark them so we knew what cards they represented, and try it out.

How many proxy cards does it take for it to become an act of theft? Sixty? Thirty? Maybe it’s as few as one.

Is it the printing that makes it theft? One doesn’t have to print the cards in order to proxy them. You can take any old deck of playing cards and make a chart of what each card represents. I have enough cards memorized that I don’t need to see them in order to tell you what they do or how they work. The game is in my head, not on the cards.

Maybe books are the wrong analogy, though. A story is art created by an artist, capturing their thoughts and emotions and voice in a specific away, that is repeated with each reading. A game of MtG is different every time.

Perhaps a closer analogy is music. If I hear a song, then sit at the piano and play it, I’m not really stealing the music, am I? Musicians do covers all the time. As long as I’m not trying to take my cover and sell it, I’m in the clear.

Wizards of the Coast isn’t going to lose money if I print some cards, put them in sleaves, and play a couple games with Melissa. If anything, playing a few games might make me want to go buy some cards again.

What do you think? Let me know if you have fond memories of MtG like I do.