Sorry for the rant. But I was looking around my office, and I see a fair amount of my Magic the Gathering collection. Looking at the collection in my office makes me think of a time when I was back when I was in high school gathering around my collection searching for just the right card trying to build the best deck I can. Though as high school went on, I eventually put my collection aside and went on to other things. Years after putting my collection aside a good friend of mine got pulled back into the game, and he started telling me about all the ways the game has changed and adapted since we last played. Despite my friend trying to pull me back into the game, I didn’t have the time or money for it.
In fact at the time, I could use a little extra money, so I pulled out my most valuable cards and went to a local game store entertaining the idea of selling them. Before I went to the store, I did some research into the what the cards were worth thankfully because the store was a little shady. So when the store gave me their insultingly low offer, I walked out my cards still in hand, and my collection continued to sit in my house untouched.
Shortly after my daughter and I moved into our new home in November of 2016, I bought a getting started pack of cards for my daughter and I. With a sense of nostalgia blooming as my daughter and I played our game, she was utterly uninterested in the game. While she liked the cards’ artwork, she was way too young to play the game. So again the new cards were added to the collection that sat collecting dust.
I don’t remember how the topic came up, but I was introduced to the cards that were inspired by Greek mythology, the Theros block. With my love of Greek Mythology, it was a powerful pull, but still, I kept the game at arm’s length. But as time went on, I pulled out the last deck that I had ever made, my sliver deck. I thumbed through the cards, and I felt the pull of the game, the desire to turn back the clock to a time when I was younger when I could embrace the sheer joy of collecting and playing Magic the Gathering, but I still kept the game at arm’s length.
It wasn’t until my birthday in 2017 that I finally broke down and got myself a booster box of Theros. While I like the idea of collecting again, what I wanted to be able to do was play the game again. And the idea of playing with cards, which drew upon the stories and characters from Greek mythology for inspiration, was too powerful a pull for me to ignore. Though I didn’t want to build a deck, I just wanted to play. Thankfully a friend introduced me to a format that doesn’t require deck building, pack wars. I had plenty of land and booster packs for the format, so all I needed was someone to play with.
Shortly after that purchase, I went to a different card store, just to see what cards they had, with my daughter. She enjoyed looking at all of the cards in the case and even the boxes that were on the wall, and I could see her interest grow. And the best part of that night was that the guy who was working there pulled out a booster pack of Hours of Devastation and handed it to my daughter for free. He wanted to encourage a new generation of Magic players.
And when we got home, she put her back down, and we pulled out two packs of Theros and played a game of pack wars. She instantly had a blast; it’s amazing what can change in a year’s time. And my love of the game was immediately revived, and I felt like I was back in high school. Even though I’ve had my love of the game renewed, I’m slowly returning to it merely because I need to ease back into it to make sure I don’t jump in too deeply. Magic the Gathering is a game that everyone should try at least once in their life, so find your local card/comic shop and explore the worlds that Magic the Gathering brings to life.