This year, Autumn Burchett made Magic: The Gathering history. They were the first person to obtain the title of Mythic Champion in the game’s most elite division of competitive play.
The Mythic Championship is a rebrand of the former Magic Pro Tour with an increased $1 million prize pool. Burchett, who came from their native England to participate in the Cleveland, Ohio tournament, put on a particularly noteworthy performance in a series of close matches in order to win the title.
See also: Meet 'Magic: The Gathering' World Champion William 'Huey' Jensen
I had the opportunity to speak to Burchett about their recent victory, their extensive Magic: The Gathering career, and what it means to be Magic’s first nonbinary champion:
Orsini: When did you start playing Magic? What appealed about it to you?
Burchett: I started shortly before [Magic: The Gathering card set] Dragon's Maze released, back in 2013. My boyfriend at the time introduced it to me since I already really loved tabletop games in general, but whereas I'd lose interest in most games after a few months, my interest in Magic only ever grew as time passed. This is partially because Magic almost acts as a rules set rather than an individual game—the formats you can play are so numerous, and vary so wildly in nature, that if you ever get bored of playing Standard you can just go play Legacy instead, or Cube draft, or 2HG Sealed, or... The other reason my interest in Magic has only ever grown is because every few months a new set is released, and the upheaval this has on the game’s two biggest formats—Standard and Booster Draft—is so dramatic that it sometimes feels like you're starting over again.
Orsini: Leading up to this tournament, what was your daily or weekly practice schedule like?
Burchett: I tried to do at least one draft a day, but often two or even three, on Magic Online in the month running up to the tournament, and on top of that streamed a lot of standard on Magic Arena on my Twitch channel (AutumnLilyMTG). Once I figured out a standard deck I liked I started playing games with it against teammates off-stream. Overall I was probably doing at least 40 hours of preparation per week for the last three weeks.
Orsini: How does it feel to represent the UK with this win? What about the nonbinary community?
Burchett: I don't really take any pride in coming from the UK, or anything like that—I am in no way nationalistic. That said, I know that for many local friends seeing someone from their country and their communities succeed meant a lot to them, and am happy I could provide that.
Representing the non-binary community, and just generally trans people, makes me so incredibly happy though for a bunch of reasons. I know that for me personally seeing a trans person succeed at the game would have been a huge confidence boost to me when I was just starting to learn, as well as making me feel safer as part of the community. Having they/them pronouns used on coverage in front of such a large audience is huge both in terms of visibility for non-binary people, and in terms of acceptance (the more that large organizations, like Wizards of the Coast, do things like this the harder it is for people to argue against the acceptance and adoption of they/them pronouns for non-binary people in general). The most meaningful thing for me though is that I've heard from a bunch of other non-binary people that because of my win, and the positivity surrounding it, they feel more able to come out to their friends, their local game stores, or just in general.
See also: Meet Jessica Estephan, Magic: The Gathering's First Female Grand Prix Winner
Orsini: How did winning the Mythic Championship compare to becoming English National Champion?
Burchett: Becoming English National Champion meant a lot in terms of building up my confidence, finally having a big achievement to my name, and feeling like the work I was putting into the game was starting to show. That said the Mythic Championship win means so much more to me personally, professionally, financially, on top of meaning a lot more in a larger sense due to the high-level representation it provides, that it almost feels unfair to compare them.
Orsini: From your perspective, how is the Magic: the Gathering community when it comes to accepting people who differ from the male majority?
Burchett: I think this is something that varies a lot from context to context—I've been in some local game stores that are both accepting and have an at least relatively diverse player base, and have (more commonly) been to others where I have felt both uncomfortable and intensely out of place.
In general, I'd say that the Magic community is better in regards to all this stuff that basically any
other major gaming community I've interacted with, and that it is constantly improving, but that it also has a long way to go too (as is reflected in the vast majority of competitive players being men).
Orsini: I heard you were in the hospital recently for surgery. I hope you are recovering well. How will it affect your play schedule, if at all?
Burchett: It has affected it pretty significantly. I went a week playing zero Magic whilst in hospital (up until that point there was maybe one day all year so far that I hadn't played Magic?). I have started playing again in small amounts now I'm out of hospital, but am unlikely to return to streaming for at least a week longer whilst I continue to heal.
Orsini: You've been very open about your surgery for gender reassignment from the beginning. Is this an effort on your part to increase visibility for diverse Magic players, and if so, why?
Burchett: That's not really the reason, though I'm happy if it has that effect. It's more that I am just naturally a very open person, and not keen on the idea of hiding such a massive event in my life from my audience.
Orsini: How has Magic Arena changed the competitive play scene for you?
See also: With 100,000 New Invites, 'Magic: The Gathering Arena' Opens The Floodgates
For me personally, it hasn't changed much. I love Arena, and play on it a lot, and it is clearly a much more elegant, fun and refined experience than Magic Online, but I still play about the same amount of Magic as I did before Arena came along, and still interact with the game in generally similar ways.
That said it has been really exciting seeing the game explode in some regards due to Arena. MagicFests here in Europe are now regularly selling out after years of rarely coming close to doing so, which is never what I would have expected but it makes me happy to see so many people excited about the game.
Orsini: Any thoughts on the most recently announced set, Modern Horizons? It'd be great to have some insights from the Mythic champ.
Burchett: It's exciting! I think a couple years back I would have been less on board with it, but honestly it feels like the perfect time to inject some new life into Modern. Magic is all about change and evolution, and giving Modern a bit more of that sound great.
Orsini: Do you think the switch from the “Pro Players Club” system to the “Magic Pro League” system will be good for the game?
Burchett: This is a hard question to answer as we still don't know all the details about the Magic Pro League. I am a big fan of the fact that MPL members receive very good wages (whereas formerly Platinum players in the Pro Players Club would still not be close to paying their living costs off of their benefits). I'm also a big fan of the push towards better branding for the highest level players, and encouraging these players to engage in activities like streaming. My main concern is what happens to the players that would have formerly been Silver or Gold level players in the Pro Players Club, and whether some sort of system is going to exist to allow them to keep re-qualifying for Mythic Championships etc, but I am aware that we still don't have all the details of how things are going to work and that these concerns could easily be alleviated. Overall my feelings are pretty positive and hopeful.
Orsini: Do you see yourself as a role model for younger players? Why or why not?
Burchett: Personally I've never really considered myself as such, but based on some of the responses I've seen to my successes there very clearly are young players who take a lot of inspiration from me—in particular I've had a few parents reach out to say that it was meaningful to their daughters to see someone who isn't a boy have success in Magic, and that it makes their daughters feel like they can have success one day too.
