well like the title said I spent most of this evening playing a trading card game. Magic the gathering is a fairly complex game based on the use of "mana" to "summon" creatures, cast spells and defeat opponents, I enjoy it, the trick is for me, to not take it too seriously and enjoy the social side.
I apologise in advance because this may get a bit technical, a new set comes into "standard" on Friday so my current standard legal deck well kind of isn't, standard is basically a competitive format based on a cycle of "sets" being legal for play. there are a few others, Vintage - anything is legal, well mostly there are a few cards banned, like the joke "unhinged cards" Standard, Extended and modern. It can be as expensive as you make it from buying an intro deck or 2 and playing with friends to buying booster boxes or hell full blown decks card by card online, all options have merits and all can be done.
I spent most of the night honing my Modern deck which is a single colour mana deck, the five colours are red, blue, green, black and white. I run a Red deck for modern that is in the slang referred to as a Burn deck. this means it is a fast paced direct damage spell deck using red or fire.
most newer decks especially in standard with the new Return to Ravnika set are dual colour decks and in fact I think I may buy something different as a challenge, I play a white artifact deck themed around a single mechanic called metalcraft. mainly because robots and weapons are cool and that is what that deck does, equipping monsters with weapons, armour and other toys to get big and gribbly.
So I think I may pick up the blue/white starter for this new set for a very different style of play. all the colours play differently and have very different ethos's. if you are interested read up on it by googling magic the gathering or checking out this link the mtg official site
but moving to the real point of this post, the reason I enjoy magic of mtg is the social side, the wide range of people, from the young 12-13 year old just trying it to the uni students who play socially down the pub right up to the guys who have been playing since the game started, its a great atmosphere, every player is different and each game is new and interesting because no person or deck plays the same. it is as cutthroat or as serious as you want it to be and there are so many formats to try, group games, team events, blind deck build drafting where you enter an event build a deck from cards selected from packs passed round a group whilst they do the same right the way to serious heavy tournament play.
there are events everywhere and you are part of some larger community, with my DCI number I can go to any FNM event around the world and with the right deck, be it standard, modern, vintage or just casual can be relatively sure of finding a game. its something that can be social, friendly or deadly cutthroat your choice, so maybe check it out, grab a booster, find a local retailer and come play?
