The world's irony meter inched just slightly to the right this week as hundreds of Magic players, forum users and columnists directed blatant schadenfreude toward veteran German player Kai Budde after a mistake he made in a tournament.

"All kinds of people have been coming up to me and saying, 'Oh, hey, Kai, you made a mistake, ha ha ha,' all week long," Budde said Thursday. "I just say, 'Yes, that's true,' and then they get this rather pleased look, as though they themselves had somehow personally triumphed in some way."

Schadenfreude, a word of German origin that is beginning to find more use in English, is defined as "shameful and repugnant joy obtained by the troubles of others."

Budde made the mistake at German Nationals of playing a Whipgrass Entangler, a creature that does not have Morph, face-down, thinking it was a Daru Sanctifier.

"There's nothing we like better at Sideboard Magazine Online than to see a respected and successful player make a mistake, have that mistake cost that player a victory, and then be able to write, 'Kai Budde gets Bad Play of the Week! Tee Hee!' in a refer line," said an anonymous source in a fey voice at the online magazine Thursday. "It's so delicious."

It was unclear Thursday what percentage of players were aware that the Germans themselves had affixed a name to the depraved emotion they were feeling toward a German player.

"Schada-what? All I know is, Kai messed up so nobody's perfect! Haw haw haw!" said one anonymous forum poster.

Alternate Art Voidmage Prodigy produced by: antihelei

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The world's irony meter inched just slightly to the right this week as hundreds of Magic players, forum users and columnists directed blatant schadenfreude toward veteran German player Kai Budde after a mistake he made in a tournament.

"All kinds of people have been coming up to me and saying, 'Oh, hey, Kai, you made a mistake, ha ha ha,' all week long," Budde said Thursday. "I just say, 'Yes, that's true,' and then they get this rather pleased look, as though they themselves had somehow personally triumphed in some way."

Schadenfreude, a word of German origin that is beginning to find more use in English, is defined as "shameful and repugnant joy obtained by the troubles of others."

Budde made the mistake at German Nationals of playing a Whipgrass Entangler, a creature that does not have Morph, face-down, thinking it was a Daru Sanctifier.

"There's nothing we like better at Sideboard Magazine Online than to see a respected and successful player make a mistake, have that mistake cost that player a victory, and then be able to write, 'Kai Budde gets Bad Play of the Week! Tee Hee!' in a refer line," said an anonymous source in a fey voice at the online magazine Thursday. "It's so delicious."

It was unclear Thursday what percentage of players were aware that the Germans themselves had affixed a name to the depraved emotion they were feeling toward a German player.

"Schada-what? All I know is, Kai messed up so nobody's perfect! Haw haw haw!" said one anonymous forum poster.

Alternate Art Voidmage Prodigy produced by: antihelei

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!