#8 Foreign Languages

Magic players love foreign languages.

They love foreign languages because foreign languages are sort of like secret decoder rings that popped out of a cereal box.

While the actual secret was usually simple and irrelevant, the more important thing was that something existed in a form that wasn't readily recognizable. There is a code that has to be broken and understood before it has meaning. It just so happens that Magic players love codes and they love breaking things.

To the rest of the world, it seems as though the whole game of Magic is a foreign language, unrecognizable. Things like "upkeep" and "CMC" have no inherent meaning to someone who doesn't play Magic.

This is a code in itself. A Magic player knows what EOT means, it's a code. If another player nods in understanding to EOT, both of them can nod at each other, a mutual understanding.

After all, one of the coolest parts of secret handshakes isn't the actual handshake itself, but the moment one realizes that someone else is in on it too.

Foreign language printings of cards present a Magic player, even one who is well versed with the game in his own language, with a code to break.

Most of the time, Magic players will default on the identification of the artwork to break the code. While the word upkeep might be unrecognizable in another language, the color blue is blue is blue, no matter where one hails from.



This is why tournament rules allow foreign language cards because the artwork is a huge tool that players have in breaking the code. It is also why any artistically modified or altered card have specifications that a Judge can allow or disallow. The card has to be recognizable.

The other aspect of foreign languages is that it tells a Magic player that somewhere else, someone can naturally read that card.

This is a universally binding appeal to players. While a Japanese player might not be able to read a Russian Baneslayer Angel, he knows that somewhere in Russia, someone might be taking to the skies with their own Japanese Baneslayer.

And in the off chance these two players meet each other, they can plop down their foreign angels and with no other words, nod in mutual understanding.

Foreign languages might seem like barriers and walls between people who can't communicate with each other normally. Magic players however, love foreign languages, because they use that code to follow and adhere to a bigger code. The one that binds them to their world community.