BY MINI RACKER
POLITICS
WHEN MISSOURI SENATE CANDIDATE LUCAS KUNCE logs on to Zoom for our game of Magic: The Gathering, he isn’t messing around. He has what he calls his “streamer setup”— an extra computer monitor— and has opted for Standard, a dynamic version of the strategic trading-card game where we build decks ahead of time using cards from the most recent sets. I don’t often play Standard, so I’ve “netdecked”—built my deck based off an online list.
I soon see a problem: I don’t recognize Kunce’s deck at all. It’s one he’s built himself. He plays Field of Ruin, which destroys one of my nonbasic lands, then does it again by bringing Field back with Conduit of Worlds. He then plays Jace, the Perfected Mind to dump my entire deck into my graveyard, an uncommon strategy that wins him the game.
Few politicians advertise their interest in a hobby as nerdy as Magic: The Gathering. But for Kunce, a clean-cut, populist Marine vet, Magic has been such an integral part of his life for three decades that it’s seeped into his political identity. He draws a comparison between his campaign strategy and Magic: “I’m not meta-decking,” he says, a similar term to netdecking. “I want to do something different.”
This is Kunce’s second Senate bid. During his campaign for Missouri’s open seat last year, he got buzz in the national press as the sort of Democrat who might have a shot in a state turning darker red. He’s an antitrust advocate who supports abortion access and wants to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to regulate Big Tech. Kunce lost the primary to Anheuser-Busch heiress Trudy Busch Valentine, who went on to lose to Republican Eric Schmitt. Now Kunce seeks to challenge Republican incumbent Josh Hawley for the Senate seat that comes up in 2024.
Kunce continues the Magic metaphor: “Josh Hawley, corporate country-club Republican, completely netdecked . . . In that party, there’s two netdeck paths to winning: it’s big corporate money, or you’ve got to be a culture-crazy type.” Kunce’s long-shot campaign raised $1.1 million in the first quarter o
