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!)

Yay Nerd Stuff!

Inspired by a video by the amazingly lovely Charlie McDonnell, AKA charlieissocoollike, who I once interviewed, I'm going to more or less list all the amazingly nerdy things in my life. Be prepared for nerd-overload.

1. Doctor Who; it comes first on the list of nerdy things because
   a - I write (or at least wrote) a form of literature I dubbed Doctor Haik-Who; they are haiku about Doctor Who.
   b - I have a Doctor Who t-shirt
   c - I have a sonic screwdriver
   d - I have ten figurines based on the show, including the Face of Bo
   e - I dressed up as a Time Lord for my college Halloween party (right)
   f - I have a Doctor Who poster
   g - I have The Writer's Tale
   h - I listen to Trock
2. Books; I know they aren't specifically nerdy... but when you read, mostly, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and children's books... I think you see my point. Very nerdy indeed.
3. Writing; you might not think it's nerdy... but you don't also study it in your spare time. I have over a dozen books on writing - children's books, scripts, fiction, poetry - and on the book industry in general - that includes getting a job in publishing, marketing books, and a few editions of The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook. Also, I tend to write across genres; I have lots of poetry, a children's book (and ideas for more), a sci-fi novel, mainstream fiction, and books that pose as mainstream fiction with some metaphysics thrown in.
4. I study Religion... and like it. And not for the spiritual side of things either. It's actually just really interesting!
5. Every now and then I pick up a new subject and read about it, ranging from Snark; Business books - marketing and financing; psychology, specifically the science of personality in Rita Carter's Multiplicity. Why? Because I find learning to be an enjoyable experience.
6. I'm on the Internet... a lot! I use it for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, my blog (i.e. this), research (both for college and for a number of different things). Basically, I could spend a day on the Internet and not get bored. (note: I can still get lonely)
7. I don't do well with social interactions; people in college might disagree, saying I'm usually so happy etc etc... except I never know what to say to people and generally I don't make physical or eye contact with other people. And I don't know why!
8. I listen to music from DFTBA Records; don't know what that is? Exactly! They're incredibly indie. Not in the sense of being in that particular genre of music, really just in the sense that they're not mainstream and all their artists are from YouTube.
9. My clothing; I've touched on this already with the Doctor Who t-shirt, but did I mention I also have four Family Guy t-shirts, two Mighty Boosh t-shirts, a Muse t-shirt, a James Morrison t-shirt, a Pink Floyd t-shirt and a Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt? Basically, my wardrobe is filled with essences of pop culture.
10. YouTube; I can spend several hours a day looking through old videos, particularly those of nerds such as the vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green; nerimon, Alex Day; charlieissocoollike, Charlie McDonnell and communitychannel, Natalie...something. I always forget her surname.

Does that seem nerdy enough to you? It seems nerdy enough to me... and I didn't even mention the fact that I watch all manners of shows on the SyFy channel, and learned a couple of short phrases in Japanese through the Heroes Magazine! Among other things! So nerdy...