Where does the phrase "MTG is not a game about reflexes" come from?

Question

I recently got talking to a long term payer who when I asked him why he got into MTG told me that he was heavy into the FPS shooters of the 90's but as a teenager developed a tremor in his hands that made dexterity-based FPS games impossible for him to play competitively.

He told me that he read somewhere that MTG is not a game based on dexterity and he got curious as to what that meant and got into the game from there.

I'm curious as to where this phrase originates from. I have heard rules experts quote it before. It seems rather famous.

Answer 1

When people say "Magic is not a game about reflexes", they mean that you never have to react quickly to anything in the game. Beginners have frequent misunderstandings of the rules such has "Whoever announces that they're casting a spell first gets to have it resolve first.", which is incorrect because spells and abilities use the stack, and there is a turn-based priority system to ensure that only one player has the opportunity to take action at any one time. Similarly, people commonly believe some variation of "If you don't respond within five seconds, the spell resolves unopposed", which is simply incorrect: you have as much time as you need to respond to anything.

Brandon Burton has cerebral palsy. Brandon has competed at Worlds and the Pro Tour (two of the highest levels of competition in Magic). That goes to show that dexterity and reflexes are not a requirement to play competitively.