Creator Spotlight: Young Mage
Updated: Oct 31, 2020
Young Mage is helmed by a young man named Rhino. Rhino, Speedy (Rhino's sister) and Papa Mage (aka Phil Morris, Rhino's dad) all help out on the team.
Obviously these aren’t their given names. Rhino got his name when he started to walk. He didn’t really start walking, he charged from one obstacle to another. He wasn’t a little boy, he was a rhino.
Speedy got her name because Papa Mage was once good enough at archery to be considered for the Olympic team. Very fond of Green Arrow comics and Speedy was his sidekick. So she became Speedy.
Do you play Magic? If so, when did you first start playing?
Rhino - Started when he was 7 around Core 15
Speedy - Started about 3 years ago, she doesn’t know why she started, but it could be that she loves spending time with her brother.
Papa - Started with Beta
When did you first start creating Magic content, and what inspired you to make that jump?
We started 5 years ago. Rhino had learned how to play, but wanted to learn how to play better. We looked everywhere we could for content that he could understand, but all of the content was directed at people who were trying to go pro. How to optimize your deck for the pro tour. The Professor had a few videos out about some products but didn’t teach magic at the time. There was some finance content we found but that was it. So when you can’t find the content, you make it.
Starting a channel is easy to do, being consistent is very difficult. Especially when you have very few subscribers and very few views. After making content for a few months, Rhino was still committed to making Magic content. We had the first Young Mage business meeting. This lasted about an hour and a half and Rhino at the age of 9 was fully engaged in the meeting. What 9 year old will be part of a business meeting, especially one that long. This was going to become part of our everyday life.
What kind of Magic content do you create?
We make content directed at new and young players. People starting out that want to learn the basics and even compete at FNM (Friday Night Magic). From the beginning we envisioned the channel as “Reaching and teaching young mages of all ages.”
What was the first piece of content that you made?
Rhino - Magic Origins Deck Builder’s Tool Kit in September 2015:
Speedy first showed up on a Live Stream in August 2017:
What is the biggest obstacle that you have had to overcome while creating Magic content?
It’s been my age. Most people look at me and underestimate me. Just like Yoda. “Judge me by my size, do you?” We started making content in a community that didn’t know us. It took a year and a lot of videos to get noticed.
Along those same lines, what is the one piece of advice that you would give to aspiring content creators?
It would be a line from Galaxy Quest, “Never give up, never surrender.” People will make fun of you, they will hate on you, and they will try to bring you down. But they aren’t doing what you are doing and can’t offer what you can offer the world. Keep creating.
Focus on the people that do like your content. Imagine what content you would make if you had 10,000 - 100,000 or even a million viewers. Make that content and they will find you.
What is your favorite aspect of Magic?
Rhino - The strategy. I love building decks that do different things. I love finding synergies in the cards and create something surprising.
Speedy - The fantasy of it. I like the art, strange creatures and wild worlds.
If you had the keys to the castle (Wizards of the Coast HQ) for a day, what would you change about Magic?
Rhino - There needs to be some form of competitive play for kids under 18. I’ve been told that there once was a Junior Super League. Maybe something like that.
Speedy - Ahhh, uhhhh, I don’t know. Make other people play faster. I get bored when they play so slow. (So I think she would want a timer, maybe Speed Magic.)
Why did Rhino start playing Magic?
Now this is an interesting story. Rhino, like his sister, has epilepsy. They both have seizures on a daily basis that are nearly impossible to control. Because of the seizures they each have their challenges.
Rhino in particular has a huge problem with Dyslexia. At the age of 7, Rhino still couldn’t read. He understood the letters, knew the phonemes, and actually could spell, but reading anything over 2 letters long was impossible for him. He had learned to play Pokemon a year earlier by memorizing the cards.
One day he was looking for Pokemon cards in a card shop and picked up a Magic card he had never seen before and said, “Stormtide Leviathan.” Not something one would expect from one who couldn’t read. There’s something about the fonts used in Magic Cards that allowed him to read.
Since he could read Magic cards, that became part of his school work. He sold off his Pokemon Collection and started getting Magic Cards. Reading the Magic Cards gave him the ability to “decode” other types of text. He can read reasonably well now and writes scripts for his videos using the MTG font, which is much easier for him to read.
We hope that this has given you some insight in Rhino and his family team and we hope that you check him, Speedy, and Papa Mage out at some of the links below.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheYoungMage
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mtg_youngmage
YouTube: https://youtube.com/mtg_youngmage
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/mtg_youngmage
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mtg_youngmage
Discord: https://discord.gg/rw2NSm7 <- Invite link
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mtg_youngmage/
Website: https://youngmage.com