You might notice that I write a lot of reviews and opinions on gaming. Hell, gaming is my life. If I could make a living at it, you damn well know that I would. Which, brings me to this days last article.
I was surfing the web yesterday and went to Ebay, where I looked up Magic: the Gathering and related auctions. Wow, there are a lot of them.
I was blessed to have attended the comic convention in Seattle where this game was released. Most people didn't seem too interested, so me and my friend Kyle bought most of the sealed and opened packs for about $1 each. By the end of the comicon, we had a heafty little pile. That night, on our way back to Canada, we started putting decks together. Soon, big 7/7 monsters started flying around and trying to eat the other person. Hey, D&D on cards was a good idea.
During the retail release, I was in grade 6. I had just bought a bunch, and liked what I found. These were the days when the Black Lotus and the Time Walk were common like dirt, nevermind the $300 for a time Walk and almost $1000 for a Beta Black Lotus. Hell, we took it for granted.
Around Unlimited, we found the expansion pack, Arabian Nights. The cards were a excellent addition to the 300 ish set of the core collection. The strategies floated back and forth. I was never a good tactician, but I adapted. Some of my best High School and University memories is hanging out and playing Magic. It was a small set of cards, could virtually play a game whenever you wanted. Generally the games would be ten minutes, basically because you were relying on the card draw. Card Mechanics were no harder than finding out which creature you should ban with your Shivan Dragon. Then, the day came when 3rd addition, Revised, came and started a disturbing trend; taking out cards of the core set.
Goodbye Black Lotus, Time Walk, Mox Emerald through Jet, and all the rest. Too powerful. The lust of these cards drove the price up. Now, in the day, I never really cared. I had quite of few of these Power cards and didn't care of these values that people were putting on them. I once took a Unlimited Black Lotus and colored around the boarders to show a collective of comic store people that I didn't care. I got banished from the comic store until they closed.
So, I eventually sold cards when I was broke, or during the many periods that I had quit magic. Now I see their value and cringe. How did they get so expensive. I loved those cards, and now that I play again, I would love them back. Not to sell at high prices, but because those cards are a part of me.
As I enter the 6th time that I have picked up the Magic cards, I go back through the cards from previous sets and wince. What the hell? I can see how free mana can give a opponent a advantage, but some of the cards now a-days are much more deadly to the game then some. Broken cards are more and more common as the series gets on in years.They release three expansions a year, about every three months, and got to be running out of ideas. The mechanics for a certain play block ( Those three expansions released are part of a story block) end up getting more and more powerful. Take on my old school fast man deck and have it blown away by the new decks. Now, the mechanics like Cycling ( Discard the card ,but pay to look through the deck) means that you do not wait for the randomness of the cards any longer. There are abilities that bring back creatures, create creatures, ect, ect.
I played with some kids at the comic book store and got my ass handed to me quickly. For a old guy like me *24* with my hodge-podge of cards, I had no chance. But that doesn't mean I will stop trying. After all, gaming is what I do. It is still a fun thing to do with friends on a Tuesday night.