Web Video / Presidents Play Magic The Gathering

What does it mean to be a leader? For some, it is to obtain power through their followers, and conquer their goals with force and resilience. For others, it is to band together with your followers, and lead them to an era of peace and happiness. However, what does it mean to be this country's leader? Perhaps the answer to this question could reside in a very humble, yet very well known trading card game, of which its name is- Magic: The Gathering. It is unknown whether or not this card game has some mystical powers, or it's just for one's entertainment. The only thing I know for sure is that... it can bring people together.

— Series Intro

''Presidents Play Magic The Gathering'' is a YouTube series created by Sjbninja that portrays the presidents of the United States, as well as other celebrities and well-known figures, playing the card game Magic: The Gathering together using AI voices from Eleven Labs.

The series follows the main group of Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Ben Shapiro. Starting out with them simply playing in Obama's basement with some guests joining it at times, it soon progresses into a more overarching story with multiple important characters and storylines, all centered around playing games of Magic.

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This series provides examples of:

• Adaptational Heroism: When Dagoth Ur is first seen, he is more in line with his persona of being the Mad God he's known as, originally wanting to bring the worship of Akulakhan to America. However, once he's beaten by Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Ben Shapiro, he grows a newfound respect and friendship for them, saves Barack Obama, and offers to help them in the future.
  • This pays off in the second season especially during his duel with Brandon, in which he reveals that he's come to value his new friends immensely, and will do anything he can to help them if they need it.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Bernie Sanders is able to beat several of the main characters by analyzing their play patterns and bringing in decks designed to counter their preferred playstyles.
• Bad Ass: No other than the premier Memetic Badass himself, Chuck Norris. He may be soft-spoken and easy-going most of the time, but he is not one to be trifled with and can even rewrite the rules of Magic on the fly if he feels like it.
• The Baroness: Hillary Clinton. She is a cold-hearted, no-nonsense woman who wants the boys out of the way by any means necessary, and it is also strongly implied that she is a Dominatrix who uses Andrew Tate as a sex slave.
• Big Bad:
  • The first season has Bush, although he gets Hijacked By Dagoth Ur in the climax.
  • The second season has Hillary Clinton, who has an axe to grind against Trump and Biden. Though in the finale, it is revealed that Nancy Pelosi is largely responsible for setting everything in motion during the season.
• Character-Driven Strategy: Bill Clinton often plays a Snake-themed deck, which Trump comments is incredibly fitting for him.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Alex Jones is a recurring character, and often brings up a vast array of conspiracies regarding the plot.
• Crash in Through the Ceiling: Various characters do this from time to time. Notably, John F. Kennedy crashes up through the ground.
• Crossover: With The Elder Scrolls, of all things. Dagoth Ur shows up in the season 1 finale as the final opponent that Trump, Biden and Ben have to face.
• The Dragon: Bernie Sanders has a habit of serving as one, playing top enforcer to both Bush and Clinton.
• Duels Decide Everything: Every problem can usually be solved with a game of Magic the Gathering. Naturally, this gets lampshaded more than a few times. Even Dagoth Ur of all people has a Magic deck. He's not even from our universe!
  • This is even funnier in the second season when Dagoth Ur returns after Brandon, the Nerevar, takes over Joe Biden's body, and the two pick up their battle from when they last saw one another. Shapiro at first is worried that they'll be dueling with actual spells and magic, before the two of them are seen bickering over the Magic decks they run.
    Dagoth Ur: Really, N'wah?! CEDH Eldrazi?! You're running that against me?!
    Brandon: Don't make me laugh, you fool. Who runs Dragons anymore? Printed to hell, I say.
    Dagoth Ur: On what Dagoth-damned plane?
• Dynamic Entry: Andrew Tate drives a car through Barack Obama's wall after Hilary Clinton sends him to get the boys, resulting in the destruction of Obama's house. This greatly upsets Obama, who seeks compensation from Hillary for the act. Later on, when they're about to confront Hillary, Tate drives the car through her wall instead, much to Obama's amusement.
• Flanderization: Intentionally. Everyone's real life traits are exaggerated and Played for Laughs, such as Biden being quick to fall asleep, forget what he's doing or devolve into a weird rant about the past. This also plays into their deck construction.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • Sanguine: Biden
  • Choleric: Trump
  • Melancholic: Ben
  • Phlegmatic: Obama
• Gamer Chick: Kamala Harris plays Xbox, and is heavily into Fortnite. So much so, that when she plays Magic, she tends to describe her turns using Fortnite terminology.
• Hearing Voices: When Joe Biden is asleep, he can hear voices communicating with him.
• Hopeless Boss Fight:
  • Chuck Norris. He was soundly crushing the boys, but luckily had to leave before he could finish them off.
  • Joe Biden's duel against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
• Human Disguise: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is revealed to be a Phyrexian.
• Immortality Hurts: Squee, the Immortal is as his name suggests. He's rather boastful about being Immortal, but is shown to still feel pain. When Donald Trump duels him in the movie, he uses this weakness to force Squee to give up when he takes control of Squee's infinite mana burn combo.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Alex Jones protects his true identity and typically goes by Maurice, though he's also referred to himself as Robert and James.^note  It is implied that his true identity is known, but refrained from being said to reduce the risk of losing YouTube monetization.
• Running Gag:
  • Joe repeatedly bringing up "playing Among Us with the boys" and them touching his legs while he's sitting in a pool.
  • Trump's infatuation with walls. It gets to a point where people who don't understand meme culture will ask him what his deal with walls is. Those who are more familiar with him simply say that Wall-Tribal in Magic is garbage.
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • Andrew Tate. He talks a big game, but his deck barely works, as it is built for flavor over function, and absolutely everyone, even the person employing him, treats him like an absolute joke.
  • Trump has shades of this too. While he is far more competent than Tate, if you only went by his own words, you'd think he is the greatest Magic player in the universe.
• Stone Wall: Trump's go-to strategy is employing Defender creatures, including many very literal walls. He tries to win by either turning them into viable combat threats with Arcades the Strategist or simply stalling out the game until he can pull off a noncombat win condition, such as Azor's Elocutors.
• The Reveal: When Brandon takes over Joe Biden as the Nerevar.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: All of the main four constantly bicker with and trash talk each other during their games, Trump especially, but greatly care for each other despite this.
• Willfully Weak: Barack Obama is shown to be incredibly skilled at the game, but doesn't like to play super serious, and goes easy on his opponents unless absolutely needed. When Bernie Sanders challenged him in season 2, Obama ended up defeating him before Sanders even got a turn.
  Barck Obama: You're going to see why they call me "O-bomb-ba."
  • This is further shown in the prequel series, 0bama, where we see Obama employed as an enforcer for Wizards of the Coast.
• Woman Scorned: It is revealed in the second season that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump used to be lovers, and that she still holds a grudge against him for their separation.
• Zerg Rush: Biden's preferred strategy is to flood the board with token creatures and sacrifice them for value.