I've been on and off Magic again and again. This is about my fifth time being "on." Of course I'm referring to playing, and then not playing, etc.
I first played in '94-'95 when Magic: The Gathering was just picking up pace. Unlimited Packs were being sold. There was a guy in McMinnville (my town) who was trading for and eating Lord of the Pits. I played in a tournament at the way too green (as opposed to ripe, oh, that's why they call it green!) age of 8. My older brother Eldon had built me a RG fireball deck with the Channel+Fireball combo, along with a bunch of Lightning Bolts, Kird Apes, and Llanowar Elves. I assume he kept his Birds of Paradise for his deck. David, the younger of my two older brothers, was playing White/Black with White/Black Knights, Serra Angel/Sengir Vampire, Veteran Bodyguard, Hypnotic Specter, and maybe even some COPs. For some reason I have no idea what Donny (that's what we call Eldon, since Eldon is my dad's name too) was playing. I lost two matches in a row, and it was double elimination. I don't even remember what happened, exactly. I had never seen most of the cards before. I was locked down, tapped out, and thrown to the side. I didn't get to fireball for 20 damage even once. But what can you expect, I was 8.
I played again in high school (2001-2002). This almost ten years later, in the Odyssey block. (Actually came after playing Star Wars CCG for the first couple sets.) I picked up a bunch of pre-built Seventh Edition decks, some boxes of Odyssey, Torment, and one too many of Judgement (how do I have so many copies of Book Burning?). I tried really hard to make a deck with Lone Wolf, Pride of Lions, and Thorn Elemental. I just gave up on it at some point, but for casual play it was fun, especially after I discovered Might of Oaks. I played some mono red madness with Patchwork Gnomes and Barbarian Bully, Fiery Temper, Violent Eruption, etc, but finally settled on blue/green (UG) madness once Judgment came out. Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla, Wonder, Arrogant Wurm, Roar of the Wurm. Its fun playing 6/6 flying wurms from your graveyard for 4 after swinging with your pumped Wild Mongrel and Arrogant Wurm on turn 4. Plus having the drawing and Counterspells of blue for card advantage and protection.
I played a little again during Onslaught, but not even enough to build a new Type 2 deck. I just bought a few cards, and played my UG deck. Played some more in Mirrodin, although I don't even remember playing, I just have the cards that I assume I bought with Ryan, because he was playing at that time (2003-2004).
I actually played a little during the Ravnica block in 2005-2006. I built a nice red/green (RG) aggro deck that rivals my madness deck in speed. Kird Ape was back again, I finally bought myself a playset (4) of Birds of Paradise. Nostalgia can bring a lot of value to a game. I just feel happy when I play with those cards. Weird, huh? I know that's not really what's important in the world, and I may very easily criticize someone else for their wasteful habits, but I shouldn't, because I understand that life is this funny kind of enigma. Before I quit again I built a Magnavore land destruction deck with Stone Rain and Cryoclasm.
So then I took a few years off, and now I'm back in the 2010-2011 Scars of Mirrodin block. I'm having a lot of fun. I haven't done too much, I'm building a few decks. Ryan and I have played a few 1-pack booster drafts, where you lay out land and can draw the land of your choice, or a card from your pack each turn, and you don't die from decking (running out of cards). That's a fun way to enjoy opening packs, and making sure you can at least get some play time out of all the cards. I also went to the pre-release event for the New Phyrexia set. Ryan and I built mono colored decks from commons of the core set. There are only 20 commons to choose from, so building a deck with 40 cards + 20 basic lands means choosing 10 out of those 20, and playing 4 each (roughly speaking). It's a fun little thing we made up that really gets you into the flavor of magic.
Anyways, I just wanted to say some stuff, get this blog rolling, and bleed my brain of some thoughts. I had fun writing this, I hope you had fun reading it. If not, I'm sorry, I know it is quite technical. If you haven't played Magic, most of this is Greek to you, and I apologize profusely.
