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By: Epic Play, John Andrews
Aug 30 2009 12:17pm
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I'd like to start off by thanking you for choosing to click on this article to read, when they're are probably several better ones merely a few clicks away. That being said, I hope you'll take away something good from this article.

To start, Magic the Gathering has been an influencing factor in most of my childhood in some way. It was that card game that opened my eyes to a genre of gaming and a culture of people I hadn't known before. It was the millions that people that took pride in their skills and mastery of the game, the time spent practicing to become better at something they had a passion in. It didn't take me long to get drawn in and want to become one of those people.

I first came in contact with MtG in the 3rd grade, in a little town called Basel, Switzerland. I had been and am currently still residing in New Jersey, but for whatever reason, we ended up moving to Switzerland for a year for my dad's work. Being a little 10 year old in a foreign land was a bit frightening. People around me didn't speak the same language, I had trouble keeping track of where I was, and the public transportation was full of really scary people (looking back, I'm sure they were lovely people, but like I said, I was 10, and I got scared at everything unfamiliar to me)

Thankfully, I was sent to an private school from grades 1st to 5th, where the primary language was English. This gave me the opportunity to communicate with the other kids there without too much trouble. However, there were a lot of different cultures that people were involved with, which did make meeting people somewhat harder, even without the language barrier. But the one thing every kid loved in the school was recess time. 30 minutes of free time for us to relax and play, and do whatever we wanted. It was during recess that I first found magic the gathering. 

As the average male there, if you weren't running around kicking around a soccer ball, or huddled up in a dark corner playing Poke'mon Red/Blue, you were playing magic. It was pretty amazing how almost half the boys in the school had magic decks available to play at a moment's notice. They would gather and bunch up at the lunch tables and play each other, trade cards, and argue over how good Masticore was. 

I was first attracted by the crowd (who isn't curious when seeing a crowd?)  of kids lively talking and yelling and generally having a good time. I remember seeing two people playing with like 20 cards on their side of the table and intensely focused on what they were doing. After spending some time talking to people and looking over the cards, I couldn't help but want to join in and play. There was a card store about 10 minutes away from where I lived that everyone from school went, so as soon as I got the chance, I went over and bought my very first preconstructed magic deck. I can't remember clearly what it was, but I remember it being a green-blue deck from Urza's block that used echo and untapping lands equal to the converted mana cost of cards played. 

I took it to school and spent a lot of time playing with it, and trading around. Seeing as how I was completely new and simply loved powerful creatures, I was infatuated with a Vizzerdrix my friend traded me. Obviously, a Vizzerdrix is not the greatest card to be used in a constructed deck, but I liked it (I also didn't know any better). I spent a lot of time talking about magic and started to learn about the professional players that got to play this awesome game as a living. That was how I came to learn of Kai Budde and his dominance over pro magic. I wanted to become the next Kai Budde, and completely dominate all the other players. Unfortunately, I had a huge obstacle in front of me. Simply put, I sucked at magic. I did fine against the other casual players that just threw shiny and cool looking cards together as decks, but got completely crushed by the players who knew how to play properly and competitively. I tried to learn how to play well, but I got discouraged and switched over to playing Poke'mon on my gameboy.

Vizzerdrix    <     Jokulhaups


Years later, I found myself surfing the internet in boredom, looking for something to spend time on. I stumbled upon magicthegathering.com, and the nostalgia came rushing back. I read the articles involving the sets I missed out on, the tournaments that players got together to accomplish, and the new cards that would bring excitement to the game. I then found MTGO, a convenient way to enjoy the game from the comfort of my house. I downloaded the program, set up my account, and proceeded to play for hours. It took some time, but after playing and practicing, I would find little things to change that impacted my game for the positive. I then start playing constructed and draft after being drawn into the game once again. 

    
I started off terribly, losing all the time and not understanding why. I spent lots of time reading strategy guides, trying to improve my skills. The articles written by people like Frank Karsten and Patrick Chapin helped immensely, teaching me how to understand the metagame formats, choosing when to keep or mull a hand, or even predicting the possible plays the opponent had for the combat phase. The time spent started to reflect on my results, winning a couple of constructed queues and finishing high on drafts. There's nothing like the feeling you get when you are able to defeat an opponent that seemed to outclass you in skill and cards. 


I want to be able to share that feeling with those of you reading, as it's a truly awesome feeling. That why I, and the many others that spend their time writing, create these articles in hopes that you are able to learn and play better. The other day, I read an article about how lucky topdecks aren't about luck, but was a reflection of skill because the player had set the field up to be able to win as soon as that one card was drawn. For example, look at Craig Jone's lightning helix win from the verge of defeat, when he played Oliver Ruel at Pro Tour-Honolulu game 5. Craig was at 6, and Oliver was at 7, with Oliver having 5 creatures and Craig having 3. Craig was facing enough damage from the creatures next turn to lose, so he decided instead of chump blocking and using the char in his hand to kill a creature, he threw the char at Oliver's head, bringing him down to 3. It set up a victory for when he drew a burn spell, which he did in lightning helix. It was something he was pushing for ever since turn 1.That little tip drastically changed the way I looked at every draw and affected the way I played for the better, showing positive results almost immediately.

Char + Lightning Helix = 7 Damage/ Game Over

The video can be found here -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t0pzLnSWw0

    
I play this game for the same reasons you guys reading do. I love the competition, the thrill of victory, the intricacies involved with out-maneuvering your opponent, and meeting all sorts of people with a strong passion with one thing in common;  playing Magic the Gathering. I hope to continue to write so that I may be able to expose the many parts of this game to more and more people.

    
    PS, feel free to comment on how you got to know of magic and how you first started.

 

11 Comments

interesting by Paul Leicht at Sun, 08/30/2009 - 21:36
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5

The irony is that New Jersey has a ton of great players and stores with active members. You probably could have been playing all along and learning this stuff earlier if you had just stuck with it. Articles are indeed a great way to learn about tactics and how to read your opponent etc but nothing else prepares you like constant play. Deck building too is a fine art best shared among many so that you can benefit from the group wisdom and then make your discrete decisions off in a corner later. First share then innovate then win and repeat.

I was already a hard core gamer and an adult when Magic first arrived on the scene so I didn't have the same interactions you did with it. For me it was being at roleplaying conventions that really drew me in after I first acquired cards.

Thanks for the first effort and keep coming back.

I started the same as you. by M4vcovic (not verified) at Mon, 08/31/2009 - 06:54
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I started the same as you. @school around 4th/5th edition and quiting around Urza's Block. Very funny the way I played the game in those days. Mono-green or Mono-red. The first thing I looked at was power en thoughness. I remember opening boosters/60 card packs and holding the cards upsidedown to read them faster. Also, one day a guy wanted to trade my City of Brass for 2 of his Craw Wurms, I thought he was crazy, and I didnt need multicolor lands so I was very proud of that deal :D. Now I'm a lot less proud :X.

Now I'm back @ Magic (Online) since Lorwyn. Mostly pauper and drafts.

One day a good friend of mine by Lord Erman at Mon, 08/31/2009 - 07:19
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One day a good friend of mine and me were looking for some comic books. There was that hobby shop we knew but never ever visited. We went there to ask for those comic books. We couldn't find what we were looking for but there we saw a bunch of people playing some colorful cards. I clearly remember seeing Shivan Dragon. We both were into Tolkien kind of stuff and we sat down and watched those guys play.

After they finished the game we asked them to teach us how to play. One of them said "don't start this game". I asked why. He said "it's too addictive". I didn't understand what he mean by that so I insisted and here I am after roughly 13 years.

LE

A loooooonnngg time ago... by Scartore at Mon, 08/31/2009 - 10:54
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I started playing D&D in 1979. So when MtG landed, I was right there in the game store (the long lost Wanna-Play, in Cincinnati). We called it "Gamer Crack" and my group at least was leery of the expense. Then Jyhad and On the Edge came along and we found those to be both cheaper, and imho better designed for multiplayer games. I guess the last physical magic cards I bought were Antiquities? I also played the Microprose magic games until the cd's died.
Fast forward to 2002. I'm now engaged, graduated from photography school, and willfully unemployed (living off an insurance settlement) and what to my wondering eyes should appear on my computer screen but an ad for MTGO. "Come baaaccckkkk it whispered seductively."
And here I am still.

Jyhad was definitely designed by Paul Leicht at Mon, 08/31/2009 - 14:37
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Jyhad was definitely designed exclusively for Multiplayer...one on one games were just brutal and not fun. The funny thing is Jyhad helped cement my addiction to tcgs because while I wasn't playing magic I spent a good deal of time playing Jyhad with my SCAdian friends. And of course Rage when that came out and not to mention L5R and Starwars. L5R was a great sealed deck for 2 people but it really was meant for more than that.

Jyhad... by Scartore at Tue, 09/01/2009 - 12:35
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I still have a ton of Jyhad cards. I've been kicking around the idea of putting together rules for playing from a common deck, almost boardgame style, to try and get my wife to play on boardgame nights.

Alas I sold my relatively by Paul Leicht at Wed, 09/02/2009 - 03:55
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Alas I sold my relatively huge collection (3k Jyhad cards + assorted V:TE cards) about 12 years ago. I had a decent collection across most of the Camarilla clans and could field almost any type of deck. But honestly after hundreds of games I started to be bored with it, partially because in multiplayer games politics plays such a crucial role that friendships really warp the game. There is no way around that without changing the rules and that doesn't seem a reasonable answer.

my addiction by Anonymous (not verified) at Mon, 08/31/2009 - 16:56
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i first played magic when my older brother brought a couple decks home and promptly proceeded to whoop me while pretending to "tech" me how to play. he beat me so bad I think I almost refused to ever play again, but something about it intrigued me. All I can really remember about those first few games was 1)royal assassin must be the best card EVER 2)Serra Angels were incredibly powerful 3)lord of the pit was brutal. hehe. how things have changed huh?

So I played on and off until mirage came out and then i just completed got out of the game entirely. fast forward wuite a while... about 3 months ago I heard about duel of the planeswalkers for xbox and wanted to see what MTGO was like. Honestly I hated it at first, but now I think i'm hopelessly addicted all over again.

plus I really enjoy the Pauper and Momir formats. All in all i like Magic. There's really not another game that I've found that can match all of the strategy that goes into deck building and playing.

Thank You for the Support by Epic Play at Tue, 09/01/2009 - 14:03
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I'd like to thank all those who read and even commented on my article. I was pretty nervous to see if my feedback (if I even got any, since people need to read it) would be any good. I was surprised from the amount of response, especially since people actually did tell the stories of how they started. Thank you so much for taking the time to write them down and being comfortable with posting them. I will continue to write as long as people keep reading.

I was sent a promotional CD by AJ_Impy at Tue, 09/01/2009 - 17:10
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I was sent a promotional CD with hundreds of game demos on it, one of which happened to be a two-deck demo of what would become Shandalar. I was intrigued, got the full game, imported all the add-ons at considerable expense, and switched to M:TG Interactive Encyclopedia when it came out. I effectively quit when support was withdrawn for MTGIE in favour of the beta for MTGO, but my interest resurged a couple of years later and I sought out Apprentice. It gave me enough momentum to tilt me back towards MTGO, and I joined at around the time of Legions, building up elf and dragon tribal decks and involving myself as a flanker in the old 1/1/all Emperor games. I persevered, tightened up my deckbuilding, and the rest is history.

I started with one of those by StealthBadger at Tue, 09/01/2009 - 17:40
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I started with one of those mini-booster-games they used to stick on the front of magazines. Does anybody remember them? There was one stuck on the front of Games-Master one month (which means it must've been ~PSX launch time), and my brother and I had a look at it. It was like 2 decks of ~10-15 cards, and a short rules insert. We quite liked it, and went out and bought starter decks. Mine was green, his red. For probably the first 2-3 years we played (with a couple of our friends), we just used to buy 1-2 precons every so often, halving the cost and taking the cards in our colours. i.e. we'd buy a R/G precon and dave would take the red stuff and i'd take the green.

There were 4 of us, and nobody wanted blue, so I noticed lots of my green stuff helped me with coloured mana and took up some blue stuff too. My deck was ~150 cards, featuring the "swoop" theme deck mashed into some odyssey U/G threshold theme deck.

Who has the daftest rules mistakes from early play? I remember we always though that spuitting earth could target players, and feared dave getting to 10 mountains, at which point he could just double spitting earth our faces....