Five Years (Plus Ten)

The Duelist premiered in January of 1994, six short months after Magic: The Gathering made its big splash at GenCon. Five years and 33 issues later, they took a multifaceted look at the history of the most popular game in the world.

A little over ten years after that, we take a look back at their retrospective in honor of Origin Stories Week. These articles, some republished here for the first time, follow the early life of Magic—from a hurried pitch by an excited grad student to the development of the Pro Tour and more.

For more about Magic's early days, see Mark Rosewater's article about his first encounters with the game.

• In the Beginning by Peter Adkison
• Mechanically Inclined by Brady Dommermuth
• Simple Rules are the Holy Grail of Magic by Dan Gray
• DCI Organizes Magic Play by Jason Carl
• Musings on the History of the Magic Pro Tour by Mark Justice
• What You See Is What You Get by Pete Venters
• A Magic History of Time by Michael G. Ryan
• A Few Minutes with Richard Garfield by Mark Rosewater
• I Never Metagame I Didn't Like: The History of the Magic Metagame by Mike Flores