Growing and changing

I first started playing Magic about 7 years ago. I had known about it since high school (so yes, 1993) and had friends who were way into it then, but avoided the game due to the cost. In 2001, I had some free time and a couple people to play with so I bought a 6th ed starter and 4 precons*. I enjoyed it a lot, but again, the cost worried me and I didn't get in with a crowd of people to play with. MODO was just starting and was very much in the, "I have to pay full price? For fake cards? That I already own? You have got to be kidding!" phase. So no, I don't own invasion block cards in large numbers. I basically quit the game for a few years.

I got a real job with an actual income. When PvP did a series of comics promoting Star City, I checked out the site and headed from there to the mothership and found out 9th edition was just coming out. I didn't get up the gumption to go to the store that first time**, but kept reading the free articles at SCG and magicthegathering.com and decided to attend an FNM. I took a modified Kamigawa precon, which was terrible, but went 2-2. I lost to White Weenie (Jitte!) and Kuroda Red (Arc-Slogger!) and beat a monoblack discard homebrew (remember, 9th had just come out and people still thought Hyppie was good) and the friend I had dragged with, piloting my other terrible modified precon. People were hilarious. Apparently, there was a ptq the next day and they invited me. I still resent that behavior. It's nice to invite people into the community but ptqs are not for new players. I can't believe I need to reiterate that point. I think the format was Kami Block Constructed but still, honestly.

Ravnica was going to be my first large set release. Temple Garden was previewed and my reaction was, "What? What's the big deal?" This actually goes to a niggling peeve of mine about Magic writing on the internet. An enormous base of knowledge about the game is necessary to even make sense of a lot of writing. Magic Academy was a great intro, but they need to be promoting that stuff on the front page. Are reruns that bad? Anyway, I was really excited for Ravnica and even shelled out for a box, which I cracked. I didn't even know about booster drafting at all. All the FNMs at our store were Standard. Bought the Golgari Deathcreep precon and modified it for Standard. Bennie Smith was my hero for winning Virginia States with a Dredge deck (be4 Rizzo broke dredge, obv). I was super excited for Guildpact. I went to my very first prerelease and managed an 0-2, against (and this is not hyperbole) a 65-year old woman and a 20-something female science teacher. I was just happy to be there. I played Sky Swallower. No, not the good one (that was Dissension). I also got to watch the dude who owned our local store clean up at that prerelease***, ignoring the flights, to sweep 3 booster drafts instead. I picked up the habit of drafting for a couple months there, losing miserably and losing often.

Shortly after Dissension was released (as in, a week), we moved to the MKE and I started playing at Ye Olde Farte Magicke Nighte. There, I met a bunch of awesome casual and not-so-casual players and started getting much, much better. Late that summer, I attended GP:St. Louis**** with coyoeuglly and managed to add 60 points to my Limited rating while going 3-3. Yes, actually, it was that low. Since then, I have continually drafted with a ton of people who are better than me. It makes me a lot better and I am grateful for the opportunity. Nowadays, I don't buy boxes to crack them because I rarely play Standard anymore (UW Control, 0-5 in sanctioned matches). I get a totally different type of enjoyment out of the game. For me, getting together with a few close friends and drinking and gaming is just about the best time there is. It's fun to go to a big tournament together but for me, that's peripheral to the playgroup. I wasn't sure where I was going when I started this post, but now I guess I have a point. People always point to one thing or another (changes in the game, the DCI, crappy sets) and say they are going to quit. I'd never threaten that because I'm grateful to have the game and people to play it with. It's fun as hell and I am not giving it up.

--CBG

* Eruption, Breakdown, Blowout and Dismissal if you're curious. And I know you are.

** Something to remember when you see new players in the store. They are often intimidated and would like you to provide reasons to stay, not reasons to leave.

*** A very nice guy/ambassador of the game named Dusty Ochoa. He's the one guy who managed to go 7-0 in Standard last year at US Nats with R/G Gargadon (later know as Sadin Gargadon (thanks for pimping your friends, Mike)) and not get his name mentioned in any freaking articles! Seriously, I must have seen ten articles in the three weeks after nats, both on SCG and MTG.com that mentioned "The only deck to go 7-0 in Standard at Nats" without mentioning the words Dusty Ochoa. Ugh.

**** Not actually in St. Louis.