During my darkest grief filled days trying to make sense of life, my friends invited me out to a boardgame cafe to play Magic The Gathering.
Now, I’d played back in the mid 90’s, had some decks and unopened packs, but I’d been confident that the X-Files card game was the one horse to back… well.
My friends enticed me with a Baldurs Gate set, and then the Lord of The Rings set and now I’m on cardmarket every other day with long lists of wants!
We play about twice a month in real life and the same again online, I’m grinding for coins daily on Arena, all to the neglect of my other gaming habits.
Anyone else?
I also played in the 90s. Working in a game shop means that I am surrounded by magic cards and players but I can't afford to join in. :-)
Bloomburrow is fun - made me pick up a copy of Duncton Wood for more mole action.
I like the little animal theme, feels on point for my type of fantasy, less so the demon planes and dimensional beings.
Also the power level of some of the cards has made some fun themed decks possible. I’m building a spider deck as we speak!
I've played MTG for years. Mainly Limited (draft) which I think is the best version of the game as it's an entirely level playing field. I have, at times played Vintage, Standard and Pauper. Cube is also a good way of playing (curated card selection used for a draft). My son has a could of cubes which are good, and I have a friend with a fun redacted cube where he's manually inked out some cards to change their text (and flavour text) to make the cards do crazy stuff. If you win his cube you get a hand redacted card for posterity, and I am the very proud owner of a Ben Inspector (a rude version of a Thraben Inspector).
I don't go in for the multiplayer (above 2 player) versions that much. Competitive EDH I will play, but fucking about with durdley low power Commander decks is a horrendous waste of time. MTG is about outthinking your opponent, looking into their eyes and then fucking up their day with a masterful bluff.
I don't mind Arena, but I prefer playing for real in paper. Bloomburrow is a decent set, but I like ones with a bit more flexibility and ability to splash. I have to say though, they have done really well recently with set designs. Gone are the days from the early 2010s where each set was a massive lottery and often had totally broken balancing. And wow, the late 90s and early 00s was a wild time.
I'd recommend LSV/Paul Cheon as probably the best MTG content creators (they have the gift of explaining their thought processes as they go). It's a great game though - the best card game ever made. And while people moan about mana flood or screw determining games, the art of building decks to avoid that and the slight implicit variability means that newer players can occasionally beat experienced ones. Which is great for the game.
