Grog Plays MTG 1

OK, this is my first "hub", blog, public comment, or what-have-you.  So off the bat: SORRY!  To whomever I have offended (and I'm sure there's someone), I'm sorry.  If you don't like my content, read something else!

Now, YEARS ago, I played Magic: The Gathering.  I liked it a lot, had a lot of fun, met some good friends, and enjoyed myself.  I never had "enough" cards, never had as much money as I wanted to buy the cards I wanted, but still had fun.  The game was...well not in it's infancy, but close to it.  Someone gave me a pack-thing (do NOT ask me what it was called) and that had two seperately-wrapped packs of cards in it.  These cards were RANDOM, not playable decks, and I hadn't the SLIGHTEST clue what I was doing.  Even so, a buddy of mine and I had fun building two decks out of the cards, and playing against each other.  We'd "ante" (one randomly picked card from each deck) and play like that back and forth, until one of us didn't have enough cards to effectively play.  Then we'd split them up again, and start over.  So we knew how to play...but didn't know how to play, if you catch my meaning.  Well, I didn't catch the bug then, but I kept the cards.

Now, fast forward about a year, and I hear about games every Wednesday night at the local game shop.  I'm bored most of the time, so I dig out those cards, and go to the shop.  One deck, with all the cards I have.  Now, if you know MTG at all, you can imagine what people thought about me.  I didn't know jack about "deck-building" (I learned) and I didn't want to spend lots of money.  Well, a high-school associate of mine (we never liked each other well enough to use "friend") took my cards, and built me a Black-Green-Red deck out of what I had.  "Three colors" you say?  Well I had crap cards, so it took three to make a deck worth playing.  Well, that night I actually WON a duel (not sure how) and I was hooked.  I started going every week, and LOVED it.

I started buying cards as I could, re-built my deck (and that turned into decks) and had a lot of fun.  When the "Ice Age" expansion came out (think that's the name, there was "snow" covered lands that you needed for the best cards) I had three decks, one tournament-worthy (well, I won third place at a local tournament, one place shy of getting a prize...only top 2 got anything from that one...but it didn't cost anything to enter, either!)

Well, of course the unthinkable happened...my cards were STOLEN!!!!  Now, they were in the front seat of my unlocked truck, and everyone who played at the store knew that the Whitman Chocolates box was where I kept them...but I didn't think anyone would be so low as to steal my cards!  I went to the store the next two weeks, and the store owners kept a watch for anyone using "my" box for "their" cards, but no luck.  Disgusted...I quit the game.  Forever, I thought.  Hundreds of dollars down the drain, and I was BITTER about it.

Now fast-forward to the present.  My three kids (2 high-school age, one Junior High) start playing MTG...and not just PLAYING it, they've got the BUG!  They play over and over and over....all night, and all the time on weekends.  So I answer a few questions, dig out the few cards I have left (the "culls" I never used in decks, plus a few I'd picked up over the years one way of other...can't even remember now how I got them) and give them to the older boy (the first to get the bug) and try to forget the game.  Forget how I played, and dominated...*sigh*

Well, as you can guess, that DIDN'T work.  So, now I'm getting hooked again...sadly.  Tonight, I got the brilliant idea of taking the youngest's cards and building him a deck out of it.  Well it turns out he had a black-red deck, and a blue-white deck he was going to give to his sister. Oh, and "a few green cards".  First, I took all his red cards and artifacts, and built a deck out of them (Not enough red to go strictly red, and by  "artifact" I mean artifacts and 2 eldrazi (colorless)).  I learned that his "black-red" deck was a "vampire deck with red cards in it". So he re-tolled that, with some other black cards he had, and claimed he would "destroy" me.  His cards, I don't remember MOST of what's changed (heck, until tonight when I read a wiki about the rules, I thought Mana-burn was still in effect!  My green deck was BUILT on making people take mana-burn) anyhow, I DRUB him.  I mean, I beat the living SNOT outta him!  Now, I'm not bragging about beating a 13 year old, but after his comments about "destroying" me, I took some satisfaction from it.  Of course, we've gotta go best out of 3 to see if that was a fluke or not, but still, I'm proud of myself.  Oh, and the "market value" of his deck?  about $4.50

So, I take ALL of his cards, and now he's got a green-blue deck, a black deck (I'm keeping the red deck) and some white cards that I'd suggest he trade for black, green, or blue cards for his re-built decks.  Well, ONE card I had in the red deck, Mimic Vat, is going back to him, it's a $3.00 card afterall, lol.  

Anyhow, I figured I'd offer the same "service" to the oldest, but before I can help her, I need to know WTF was going through her mind when she built that deck!  It's a white-red...KINDA.  Now, she's got 2 holy strength's she DIDN'T include, but almost every white creature she owns.  And the red is...disjointed.  I need to talk to her first.

So tomorrow, I get to go to the NEW local gamestore (the one I used to play at changed hands and names, then shut down all-together) and see if the guy there will give ME free cards like he did to the other kids (yeah, kids can get free cards, why not an old man?).  Oh, and while I'm there, I'll see if he'll give me cards for these The Last Crusade CCG cards I have.  I have two decks, one axis and one allied, so I'm hoping to get SOMETHING for them, lol.

So, yeah, that's it for now.  Tomorrow I'll probably ramble on some more.  Maybe.