I had an anthropology professor that was describing the base principles of behind M:TG on day in class... the base theory is apparently a real belief system. Drawing mana from different types of land and casting spells with it... so logically Harry could pull it off if the info was presented properly.
The cards are just focuses... reminders of spells and places. Also, with my sister having a sand collection at this I realized that taking soil samples of places you have been to as keepsakes happens frequently enough.
Young mages getting ideas in their heads tend to do things that aren't possible after schooling. Half of magic is believing it will work and half is willing it to work. Accidental magic is all about things happening that because you willed it to happen without 'knowing' it wouldn't work.
All you'd have to do is have to do is move the series up 5-6 years so its happening in the late '90's. Dudly has been using Harry as a M:TG sparring partner... he gets to mock Harry endlessly when he wins and if he loses he loses to someone he can intimidate to not telling people about it. Better to discover the holes in your defense in private then in front of a class.
Harry would play the opposing decks, all decks involved are Dudly's except the ones Harry has made out of commons and the occasional uncommon that has been gifted to Harry. That or cards declared useless. Spoiled rotton kids with rich parents do buy the brats endless cards. Covered under the hand me down rules.
This would make Harry and Dudly get along better... set around ice age/Fallen Empires you can have Harry feeling really guilty or vindicated (depending on how much the goblins have annoyed him) after using 'goblin grenade' so often. Also, this would prevent him from encountering Yugi Oh without having a need to kill people.
Keeping it to Harry can cast M:TG cards with a mana cost equal to his current year would help. No jumping the shark with first year Shivan Dragons or 'Wrath of God'ing Privet Drive. Be funny to have Harry make an offhand comment about how he gets that Dark Magic is dangerous (he has seen players eaten by their own Lords of the Pit after all and seen Necropotence decks go bad on players), but Good magic can be just as bad (Wrath of God kills all. Armageddon destroys large tracks of lands. Balance is a killing spree). Also, starting second year... Harry demonstrates the wonder of the universal generic counter spell. For added fun, Harry makes a reflecting mirror... just have him summon simulacrums of things he has actually seen for creatures and peoples. In person or on TV.
As for Washu involved in raising Harry... Ministry of Magic meet Mihoshi... Mihoshi meet MoM. Fudge gets arrested for ordering an assualt on an officer of the law. Mihoshi panics when near Dementors and shoots them to death in panic. Mihoshi teleports into Hogwarts by accident or into a group meeting of Death Eaters who manage to discover she has turned on a deflection shield by mistake (Return spells to sender). Having her keep beaming in and not even notice them (she knows this cave isn't where she was aiming for) would be amusing. You wouldn't even need Tenchi really. Just have Harry accidentally free Washu from imprisonment on a trip or Yosho imprison Ryoko in England instead.
The cards are just focuses... reminders of spells and places. Also, with my sister having a sand collection at this I realized that taking soil samples of places you have been to as keepsakes happens frequently enough.
Young mages getting ideas in their heads tend to do things that aren't possible after schooling. Half of magic is believing it will work and half is willing it to work. Accidental magic is all about things happening that because you willed it to happen without 'knowing' it wouldn't work.
All you'd have to do is have to do is move the series up 5-6 years so its happening in the late '90's. Dudly has been using Harry as a M:TG sparring partner... he gets to mock Harry endlessly when he wins and if he loses he loses to someone he can intimidate to not telling people about it. Better to discover the holes in your defense in private then in front of a class.
Harry would play the opposing decks, all decks involved are Dudly's except the ones Harry has made out of commons and the occasional uncommon that has been gifted to Harry. That or cards declared useless. Spoiled rotton kids with rich parents do buy the brats endless cards. Covered under the hand me down rules.
This would make Harry and Dudly get along better... set around ice age/Fallen Empires you can have Harry feeling really guilty or vindicated (depending on how much the goblins have annoyed him) after using 'goblin grenade' so often. Also, this would prevent him from encountering Yugi Oh without having a need to kill people.
Keeping it to Harry can cast M:TG cards with a mana cost equal to his current year would help. No jumping the shark with first year Shivan Dragons or 'Wrath of God'ing Privet Drive. Be funny to have Harry make an offhand comment about how he gets that Dark Magic is dangerous (he has seen players eaten by their own Lords of the Pit after all and seen Necropotence decks go bad on players), but Good magic can be just as bad (Wrath of God kills all. Armageddon destroys large tracks of lands. Balance is a killing spree). Also, starting second year... Harry demonstrates the wonder of the universal generic counter spell. For added fun, Harry makes a reflecting mirror... just have him summon simulacrums of things he has actually seen for creatures and peoples. In person or on TV.
As for Washu involved in raising Harry... Ministry of Magic meet Mihoshi... Mihoshi meet MoM. Fudge gets arrested for ordering an assualt on an officer of the law. Mihoshi panics when near Dementors and shoots them to death in panic. Mihoshi teleports into Hogwarts by accident or into a group meeting of Death Eaters who manage to discover she has turned on a deflection shield by mistake (Return spells to sender). Having her keep beaming in and not even notice them (she knows this cave isn't where she was aiming for) would be amusing. You wouldn't even need Tenchi really. Just have Harry accidentally free Washu from imprisonment on a trip or Yosho imprison Ryoko in England instead.