Gathering the Magic

I'd have to say it was the summer after 5th grade when I first saw a Magic: The Gathering deck. That year was 1994, a full year after Wizards of the Coast released the game. A friend of mine had just come back from California where he was visiting his father and new step-mother and brought back with him a box full of monsters, demons, angels and wizards. What a wonderful concept instead of boring sports stars printed on playing card, which I had collected up to the year before, these cards had all the fantasy allure my 11 year old mind could handle. Even more amazing is that these cards when sorted and arranged could do more then sit in a shoebox (my baseball cards are still in the same shoebox) they could play a game. A game full of strategy and sorcery, a game I still don't completely grasp. When I would point out the packs at the store or ask for the cards for my birthday or Christmas my parents didn't see the same magical adventure I did, they saw a complete money sink and fad.

It wasn't until 14 years later did I come into my own possession of any Magic cards. By random coincidence, I was looking for a board game of substantial depth and strategy but was quick in set up and play, when the 10th edition was released. The Christmas before I had received "BattleLore", a board game with so many pieces and a manual so think I still haven't put the game nor the idea of how to play together. So, there I was with Risk, a game I love though it has no fantasy to it and finding more then one other person to play is a pain and "BattleLore" a game which I should love, though teaching someone how to play is an even more daunting task then teaching myself. Then, then I remembered how quickly I learned how to play "MTG" during my middle school days. Each birthday party I went to during those days focused around all the kids bringing their decks and battling it out. I would borrow a friend's deck and be quickly defeated. Now however, I had time and more importantly the disposable income to learn the game of Magic and a new starter set came to market.

It's been 2 years since, and I have only played a hand full of games and still don't have a strong competitive deck. I still have holes to fill with "common" cards to build a basic deck. This is why I'm now shopping around looking to purchase a few booster packs from the newly released "2010 Core Set". Unlike the booster packs that have come out between the "10th Edition" and now, the "Core Set" is filled with more basic cards that a new player like me can easily understand.
Combine the new "Core Set" and the new "Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Plainswalker" Xbox Live Arcade game and I am ready to jump into the magic again. The Xbox Live Arcade game is downloadable for 800 Xbox Live points (roughly $10) and is a good premier into MTG. Just playing through the tutorial gave me an overview on all the play mechanics. Plus, it allows anyone to pick up and play without delving time and money into developing decks. On the downside, the full library of card aren't available, since the game is played with pre-built decks.

Hopefully, I can convince a few of my friends to dust off their old decks and put up with my need to ask questions every round to play a few games again. Maybe this time I can stick with it longer then a month and learn how to play well enough to win. I doubt it.