William “Huey” Jensen is a wizard at Magic. No, that doesn’t mean he’ll saw you in half or lift your wallet while you’re not looking; not that kind of magic. But he can blow your mind, and your life total, with his deck of Magic cards.
Huey is a wizard at Magic: The Gathering, a collectible card game where you assemble collections of spells, creatures, and artifacts used to defeat opponents. The game is one of the pillars of nerd culture; right up there in the Pantheon of nerdery with Nintendo, Dungeons and Dragons, and Star Trek. It’s been around for decades and Huey has been playing for just as long, mastering the game, winning championships, and even being inducted into the Magic Hall of Fame. Beyond the King of Kong, Magic players became some of the first pro-gamers, taking their skill on the road to compete in various tournaments. In his decades-long career, Huey has a total of 10 first-place finishes, multiple Top 8 finishes, and he won the 2017 World Championship.
So what’s it like being the best, and how did Huey get there? More importantly, who’s Huey?
So your nickname Huey: Where did that come from?
Do you know the big cartoon duck Baby Huey? When I was younger, I was tall, like 6’8”. When people meet me for the first time in person they often say, “Wow, I couldn’t tell you were so tall on camera.”
How did you first get into Magic?
The summer of seventh grade, around 1995, I went to school and my teacher passed out a pamphlet for summer camp for gifted kids. They had these “classes” for Dungeons and Dragons. They weren’t really classes, but just a thing where you could show up and play D&D for an hour.
I read the pamphlet and I thought, “This really appeals to me.”
I didn’t really care about going on hikes, or whatever else kids do at summer camp. This was the kind of thing that really appealed to me, so I told my mom. She thought it sounded like a great idea and so I enrolled. A few months later summer camp begins. I get there on the first day and don’t know anybody. No friends. This was a completely new group of kids to me and they all were playing this card game. And I’m like, “what is this?” I had never seen it
before. When I got home I told my mom “I want to go to the store and buy Magic cards.” My mom, naturally, is like “what are Magic cards?” After I explained, we bought a starter kit that had like two sealed decks, a rulebook, and some beads to keep track of life. Then I went over to a friend’s house and we started to learn to play and I’ve been playing ever since.
When was the moment when you thought this was something that you were going to pursue professionally?
When you’re a 13-year-old boy or even older, you sort of don’t think of things in that context. I never really thought that, “OK, this is my career now.” It’s just something I did, something I’ve always done. I used to go to tournaments once, sometimes two weeknights a week and always on the weekends. When I was 14, I wasn’t always that happy at school. I didn’t have a ton of friends, but when I went to play Magic, I felt like I belonged. I like to play the game, but Magic also gave me this place where I fit in, where I showed up and everybody was friends. I don’t think I consciously made this decision.
Magic isn’t really a team-based game; you nearly always play solo. Do you have the opportunity to play on teams with other people?
Yeah. They’ve had team tournaments over the years and I’ve played on some very good teams. But teams exist in Magic more in the context of people who you share ideas with. At the highest level of competitive Magic, you form sort of formal and informal teams where you agree for this tournament to have this group of people will share ideas. Enough times those groups stick together and persist for several tournaments for months or years.
What’s the best moment you can remember with a teammate, whether this was something competitive or a cool idea you shared with them?
Well, in 2003, they had a Team Pro Tour [the Pro Tour being the pinnacle of Magic competition]. I and two of my best friends won the tournament. That’s definitely the best team moment.
What’s your favorite kind of deck to play?
My favorite kind of deck to play is control but as a competitive player, you have to value winning over what you like. I’ve learned to play all the decks pretty proficiently (I hope) and mostly I just try to choose whatever deck is going to give me the best chance to win regardless of what my preferences are. But that’s just in the competitive sense. When I’m just messing around on stream I’ll play stuff I enjoy. Especially when I need a day, when I need a break, when I want to feel like I’m having a break, I’ll play something I have more fun with.
What are the things you have more fun with?
They tend to be control decks or really off the wall combo decks.
Do you have a favorite card?
I don’t really have a pet card. A recent card I do really enjoy would be the Glorybringer. It was integral in my deck when I won the World Championship in 2017 so it holds a special place in my heart.
What about a card that gives you trouble?
I hate the card Veil of Summer. It’s a card that can’t be countered, allows you to draw a card, and protects your card from certain mana colors. So against the kinds of decks I like to play, it counters one of my spells, and draws a card for my opponent which is too good. It’s too frustrating to play against.
Do you have a favorite combo?
Probably the coolest deck I’ve played — I actually did play a competitive tournament with this deck — centered around the card Battle of Wits. It’s an enchantment where if you have 200 cards in your deck, you win the game. So I played a 240 card deck in the tournament and I had a lot of fun with it. [Most decks max out at about 60 cards.]
Being able to win with a 240 card deck requires a fair bit of skill so how did you approach mastering the game?
At first I just wanted to play. I grew up playing chess with my father though I never took it seriously, and I was never competitive. I started playing with him at five or six; really young. He was never one of those dads that went “Oh, you’re pretty good at chess, I’m going to get you a tutor and we’re going to get you into tournaments.” It was never anything like that.
We played every weekend for three or four games for seven or eight years. My dad pulled no punches. He told me, “I’m going to teach you to play but I’m never going let you beat me; you may not win a game for years … if you wanna beat me at chess your gonna have to earn it.’
It instilled in me the competitive aspect of my personality. If you want to be good at something, you have to earn it. So when I started playing Magic, I wanted to play, and have fun and win, but I also knew winning doesn’t always come easy. Because of my experience with my father, I knew what it took to win.
I remember the first time I won a game of chess against my father like it was yesterday. It felt like when I won one of these big tournaments. I couldn’t believe it.
Did you have any players you looked up to?
Every local scene has the hotshot — the person who does the best at all the local tournaments. When you’re a 13-year-old boy, that’s the person you look up to because you don’t know there’s a bigger world out there. There was a guy named Rob who filled that role at my local store. He was always happy to talk to me and mentor me, but by the time I was 16 or 17, the roles reversed. I had a bit of success at the ultra-competitive level and — at least in my own head — I became the hotshot.
Do you have a lot of mentees you work with now?
A lot of my close relationships are sort of a mentor/mentee relationship. I like to help people. When people ask me questions, I’m always happy to answer.
What do you love most about the gaming community?
I’ve always loved that it’s a place I fit in. I don’t have a ton of experience with the gaming community outside of Magic. I never really got involved in anything else, but 95% of my experiences have been positive. Mostly it’s a big warm and fuzzy crowd of people who seem happy to be there.
What are some of the things you love about this community that only other Magic people will get?
Probably the high-level strategy. Sometimes you can get involved in a situation that’s so complex with the way the rules and the math work out that we’ll have 10 of the 20 best players in the world talk about stuff like this for hours and we won’t be able to agree on an answer. I think that’s fascinating.
Do you have any superstitions or rituals before going into a match?
Not really. I’m not a superstitious person; I believe in the math. When I was younger I wasn’t superstitious either, but I had a lot more nerves. I think I’ve gotten used to it now. When I was a kid I always thought, “This might be the last tournament” but then I had to tell myself, “Dude, it’s not going to be the last tournament.” There will be another one in a few months and you’ll be at that one too. Just try your best. And that’s what I always try to do.
Do you still get nervous?
I don’t get nervous anymore but I do get anxious. Like when a tournament starts at nine and I get there at eight, I’m kind of waiting around thinking, “Alright let’s get this show on the road.” But I don’t get the, “Oh my gosh, I might lose” feeling anymore.
Is there a recent favorite community moment that gives you the warm and fuzzies?
One of my friends, Reid Duke, got elected to the Hall of Fame just a couple of days ago actually. I knew he would get in but to see it makes me really happy.
If you could sum up a moment that encapsulates why you love the gaming world so much — whether its Magic or another game — what is it?
I came out publicly in 2016. After that, I would occasionally get a message from someone who’s like, “Thank you so much for doing that. Because of you, I was able to come out to my family/local playgroup and thanks to that I’m so much happier.” That’s definitely the thing that brings me the most satisfaction.