What JD Vance's Favorite Card Game Tells Us About His Political Ambitions

JD Vance's wife, Usha Vance, recently outed him for being a major Magic: The Gathering player in his younger days during an interview with "Fox and Friends." On his laid back tour of interviews, Vance has been open to personal questions in addition to ones about his political stance, so his favorite Magic: The Gathering deck came up in an interview with Semafor, and there was no Oscar-worthy question dodge from him this time. Yawgmoth's Bargain was the card he built his deck around, a card that was banned in 2006 for how unfair it was in a competitive format.

A Magic: The Gathering player speaking with "The Daily Show" described Vance's favorite deck as being "a combo deck where you get to trade your life away for power." To simplify how it all works, once the card is on the field, the owner can draw cards, summon, and attack as long as they want. It essentially ends the game for the opponent and is a ruthless power play that takes complete control of the board.

It's no secret that Vance was not a fan when Donald Trump ventured into politics, making critical remarks of the former president during the 2016 Republican Primary. But like many other politicians critical of Trump at the beginning, Vance eventually turned it around to support Trump to the point of falling on the sword for him. Now he's Trump's pick for Vice President and has apologized for or walked back all of those statements, seemingly trading in his strong earlier stance for the chance to gain power.

One thing to note about the Magic community is that there's long-running jokes about being able to learn a lot about a player by the deck they choose to run. Different styles in the game tend to be a shallow reflection of the player's personality. The Independent reached out to Magic: The Gathering players to learn more about Vance's deck choices, with the consensus of the interviews being that it made sense for Vance to choose Yawgmoth's Bargain.

The Independent reached out to Democratic Senatorial hopeful Lucas Kunce from Missouri. On the card and Vance, he said: "The idea of it is a deal with the devil, right? You're selling your soul for power. And it's very fitting for the man whose favorite card it is. It's power at any cost, and that seems to be what he's into." It's certainly a bold strategy, and we'll see if it pays off for Vance in the long run.