Admitting extreme possibilities is in fact...
...a stronger challenge to the ploppies than saying they don't exist.
Suppose Walter, DD, and SOTSOG are given a time machine somehow (see above Santa post). Walter achieves results 5 sigma in his favor, but only by setting his mind in a state, where he can only enter that altered state by playing his flawed basic strategy and his progressions. SOTSOG, stands on the shoulders of giants, and stays with a solid count game, that does not need Walter's psi effects to win, but admits that it is possible to take things further. He keeps his results somehow 2 sigma in his favor, by building a wierd contraption that is part radionics device and Palm Pilot 701. DD has nothing to do with this and just plays, and also keeps to a solid count game.
They travel back to 1962, where DD discovers a soft drink made in the People's Republic China, and sold in Hong Kong, that SOTSOG is adicted to somehow, "Red Dragon Cola," has a combination of Ginsing and Guranine that lengthens teleomeres. DD turns out to be secretly a biochemist. They discover an immortality elixer.
So by careful scheduling, other than an embarassing trip to the Sands to see the Rat Pack on a Thursday, where they are the entire audience in various disguises, they rack up 300 years of playing, in that single deck, all cards dealt era.
Despite all of the strange edge possibilities playing out--Walter is going to lose, DD is going to win, SOTSOG is going to win the most, but DD is going to show almost the same lifetime edge that SOTSOG is.
Conclusion:
Yes there can be Magick along with Magic.
Yes the physics of the universe say things CAN get pretty weird and conventionalism is often wrong.
But the math wins to the degree it can be applied without heat.