If you have ever heard of "Magic: the Gathering," the first thought that comes to mind is, most likely, a bunch of sweaty "nerdbros" savagely trading and collecting and hoarding over-priced slips of cardboard in basement hobby shops. You think of tournaments, you think of fantasy characters, but, here's the thing, do you ever think of women?

I've been playing "Magic: the Gathering," consistently for about a year now. I have been to two pre-releases in my career: Oath of the Gatewatch (Two Headed Giant tournament), and Shadows Over Innistrad. Both times, I've had minimal help from my friends who got me into the game in the first place.

I've been collecting the cards since around 2013, but never really knew how to use them properly. I mainly bought them to impress a boy I met at summer camp, since he and all of his friends learned how to play and loved the game. I wanted to be a "cool" girl, and "not like other girls" and decided to pick up a Deckbuilder's Toolkit. Which, in layman's terms, is a big box with lots of common cards to help you get started with building a deck. I didn't really know what the cards meant, I just know that my lover-boy built me a blue/black Voltron deck, I buffed up a Welkin Tern, and won a game.

When he stopped talking to me, I became disinterested for a very long time, only picking it back up when I discovered my friends and boyfriend were really into it. I built more decks, (mostly Commander, for those who actually play,) and I was having fun just being a casual Magic player.

Finally, it was time for my first pre-release, which is a tournament where they premier new cards before they're available to the general public. This was several months after I started playing again, and I was definitely beginning to hold my own. We went to Oath of the Gatewatch's pre-release, since it was a collaborative tournament and my very close friend didn't want me to be all on my own.

This is where I ran into trouble.

Nearly every guy there completely underestimated my ability to play. I was playing a fairly well-constructed deck, based on our card pool (thanks, Tyler!), and we were doing really well. We tied for 2nd place in the tournament, but not without an afternoon of interesting looks and off-handed comments about me being a girl.

I had hoped that by my second pre-release, (Shadows Over Innistrad,) and hanging around the card shop enough, some of the regulars would at least back up my legitimacy. Unfortunately I was met with exactly the same problem, but intensified. I was on my own for this tournament, and got some very... interesting cards from my pack. I did what I could to build a halfway decent deck, and it held it's own, at least for a bit. The entire tournament, I had some of the guys attempting to walk me through the game, as if I had never played before. Not only that, but a 16-year-old boy approached me, asked me how long I'd been playing, and told me it gets easier, even though I was winning the current match I was playing. After several hours, and doing poorly in the tournament because of my card pool, I had sworn off Magic for a while. I loved the lore, I loved the game, I loved building and tweaking decks, but I had had enough of the fanbase of gatekeeping nerd boys, or boys that are convinced that they should be the only ones to play.

The thing about "Magic: The Gathering," is that the lore is full of really kick-butt ladies who hold their own, some with disabilities that they overcome with a beautiful and triumphant story. Magic is very progressive in lore and which characters they make into cards. Wizards of the Coast, the people who make Magic, cannot stress enough just how important it is to have good representation. They have women, POC, LGBT, people with disabilities, and everyone and everything in between, represented somewhere in their lore. There are very few people that would ever feel as though Wizards of the Coast hasn't done something to help represent them. With a company that is so progressive, with writers and artists and game designers that do so much to have a wide fanbase, why is it that the gatekeepers prevail?

Well, my friends, its because the gatekeepers win if they keep you out. So, this is my battle cry to all the ladies of the Magic world. Grab your Teysa decks, your Avacyn decks, your Nissas, Narsets, Chandras, Anafenzas, Aleshas, and Nahiris. Let the gatekeepers know that we will not stand for this, we will come together, we will play "Magic: The Gathering," and their casual misogyny is not going to keep us out. Love your game, your fellow sisters in game, and never stop playing, trading, and winning, no matter what these guys have to say.