Dana Fischer is a 6-year-old superstar who plays Magic: The Gathering at the pro level. More than that: she's competitive.

In the three years since Dana learned Magic, she's participated in four Grand Prix events, with a fifth, in Minneapolis, happening this August. She left for the most recent trip, to GP Las Vegas in June, with one goal: win five games. She reached that goal, and fell just one win short of reaching Day 2.

(For the Magic noobs out there: Grand Prix tournaments award everything from cash prizes to Pro Tour invitations. They are the game's biggest competitions, but they're also a gateway into the larger world of professional Magic play.)

"I started out when I was three and a half," Dana told me during a recent phone call with her and her father, Adam.

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"My dad gave me a 30-card deck and then there were a lot of duplicates. There were only six different cards so that I could memorize them better. And then once I started to read, it went a lot faster."

"I started out when I was three and a half."

Yep, that's right: Dana's been playing since before she could read. She has the perfect teacher in Adam, a former pro himself.

"It was admittedly slow-going for a little over a year, but we went over the cards and what they did. Luckily, she has a good memory — better than mine — she was able to memorize it," he said.

For Adam, the process of teaching his daughter before she could read was similar to what non-English speakers do when they learn Magic: they study the cards.

"A lot of people I played with did [that], and they just memorized the art to know what [each card] did," he said. "So I used that as a model. That's how we had to start, basically. She wanted to play but she wasn't going to be able to read for a while."

Dana got really into it. Magic has a lot of moving parts, but Adam helped to break things down in a way that her pre-school self could absorb. As much as she enjoys the game, Dana also knows that the learning process has been valuable, above and beyond just learning the rules of a game.

"Yeah, very," she said, accepting the educational value of her time with Magic. "Especially because it's way ahead of my grade."

She admits that it's "hard" to sit down across the table from a full-grown adult player, but it's also "fun at the same time." Her trick to getting out of her head and into the game? "I just grow up and be myself and play," she said.

Dana's near-miss with Day 2 at GP Las Vegas gave her a new idea: "My goal is to be the youngest player ever to make Day 2 of a Grand Prix."

"My goal is to be the youngest player ever to make Day 2 of a Grand Prix."

She's got plenty of time. The youngest player to reach that stage in recent memory was Cole Swannack, age 12, who finished 25th at GP Brisbane in 2001. That gives Dana roughly six more years to go only a little bit further than she already has.

You can't help but root for this kid. Even if you know nothing about Magic, it's hard to look away when you see her in her element at a tournament. Adam is at her side, obviously, but there's no question that Dana's doing all the work.

"I want to keep playing Magic because it's so educational," she said. "One of the reasons why I wanted to go to Las Vegas Grand Prix was because it was more educational than the last two days of school."

"It was more educational than the last two days of school."

That drew a chuckle from Adam. The Las Vegas event happened in mid-June, during the last days of Dana's school year. And yes, she was only able to attend by missing the last couple days of school.

"As long as she wants to [play] I'm happy to support it, and as long as it doesn't create any issues," Adam said.

"I'm very comfortable with it resulting in her missing a little bit of school here and there because I know she's getting so much out of it. It's really helped her along with reading and math and strategic thinking, as well as with social skills. So it's good on a lot of levels."

While Adam has helped Dana lock down the basics, he readily admits that he can only take her so far. He hasn't been on the Magic professional circuit himself in more than a decade, after all.

"One day she will be better than me if she keeps this up. And then she'll be helping me," he said with a laugh. "I really enjoy playing but I really enjoy supporting her even more. And it's also something fun that we can do together."

The newest Magic: The Gathering card set, Hour of Devastation, is in stores on July 14.