Magical Mayhem: On First Gathering

There's this little game you can play with cards. It's called Magic: The Gathering. Maybe you've heard of it. If you're a 90s kid, think Pokemon or YuGiOh, but actually good.

My first ever experience with Magic was when my brother got a free booster pack in a magazine several years ago. And up until today, it was my only experience with the game. We never bought more cards, we never learned how to play.

Over the weekend, a friend of mine asked if I'd be interested in playing. Knowing that the game required an actual deck, some patience to learn the basics and money to buy even a cheap deck, I should have said, "It seems like too much work for me right now." But I thought back to the awesome artwork, and to my limited experience playing Dungeons and Dragons, and I agreed to play.

Today, I bought my first deck. Well, two. It was a duel deck pack, Vesner vs. Koth. Why? Because I was too shy to ask if they had any Carnival of Blood. Thankfully, Facebook means I don't have to ask sheepishly in person. I just messaged them, mid-writing this post, to ask.

My first reaction to playing the game: this is hard. Then I remembered my friend was a semi-experienced player, with three decks he knew how to use, and I had only just started. So when he beat me in two games, I wasn't too annoyed. Because another friend showed up, who had also played before, and I beat her. Quite viciously, too, I might add. Land cards don't like her.

I've only used Koth so far. It's not that I didn't like the look of Vesner, mind you. In fact, I preferred the look of him. But I recalled reading that blue cards are some of the hardest to use, and I wasn't about to get myself into that mess. So I used a good ol' red deck and got used to powering up creatures simply by having lands to play.

That was nerd talk for: I had lots of one type of card that made it so I could kick ass a little easier.

So, three matches in and I've already agreed to an idea posed by friend #1: we're going to have tournaments. Not big ones with lots of really experienced players, mind you. We're going to just have four players, a €1 entry fee and a booster pack as the prize. It's a simple way to get us all playing and to make it worth winning.

So, I'll probably be blogging about my experience with this, oh so wonderfully nerdy game, for a while. At least until that gets boring. (As if!)