The Mythic Invitational – Wizards of the Coast’s first major tournament held on MTG Arena – begins this Friday at PAX East. The members of the Magic Pro League, the top eight ranked Constructed players in MTG Arena, and dozens of accomplished content creators will compete for their share of a $1 million prize pool.
One of those content creators is Brittany Hamilton, best known as Twitch streamer MTGNerdGirl. Brittany is also one of the newest members of the Card Kingdom affiliate network, and we wanted to take this opportunity to introduce her to our community.
Though she got her start streaming Hearthstone on Twitch, Brittany is a veteran Magic: The Gathering player. Like many Magic players, she discovered the game through her D&D group and practiced with her party during lunch breaks. She played casually with friends for about twelve years before a top finish at Grand Prix Las Vegas in 2013 prompted her to make the leap into competitive play.
Limited is Brittany’s favorite way to play Magic, and she attributes her love of the format to her history as a poker player. “I used to play poker full-time in college, and there are a lot of transferable skills there,” she said. “Being able to bluff and improvise is very useful in Limited.”
After a string of successful Limited tournaments, Brittany’s friends suggested she pursue content creation. She began streaming in 2016 and had honed her communication and community-building skills by the time MTG Arena entered open beta. Now, MTG Arena is the primary game she streams, and she couldn’t be happier with the platform.
Brittany was honored to be invited to the Mythic Invitational and has spent the past few months practicing with Constructed decks on stream. But, she admitted, when it comes to playing in big events, the Magic is secondary to the Gathering.
“I’m really looking forward to hanging out in an environment with fellow streamers and professional players,” she said. She’s especially excited about meeting other female streamers, whom she’s interacted with over social media these past few months.
Brittany has been much more active on social media since making the dive into MTG Arena streaming, and she’s constantly looking for new ways to connect with her audience.
“There’s a never-ending list of things you can fix, change, and update for your stream,” she said. “Every day, I set a small goal for myself to improve.”
If you’d like to follow Brittany’s journey and wish her well at the Mythic Invitational, you can watch her stream at twitch.tv/MTGNerdGirl. She’s also on Twitter and Instagram at @MTGNerdGirl.