So, I recently quit playing Magic: The Gathering. For about a month before jumping right back in. I don't know what it is about that game that keeps drawing me back in. Maybe it's something deep-seated and all together nerdy inside of me. That part of me that wants to beat people with math while girded about with the trappings of fantasy, like some kind of LARPer re-enacting the final scene of Flight of Dragons. Maybe I just love the art.
The funny thing about it is, I've only been playing Magic off and on for a couple of years. My beautiful fiancee has been playing the game for well over a decade, and those of my other friends who play have, by and large, been playing longer than I have. But none of them seem to be infected by the same drive to build new decks, try unique combos, and challenge friends, strangers, basically anyone who will play to a match.
Maybe it's because of the fact that I'm more recently introduced to the game that I can't seem to break away from it just yet. I know many of the reasons my friends have given as to their disillusionment with the game; the primary one being that, like many games that combine collectibility with competition, the person who throws the most money at the hobby tends to have a powerful edge. I think I'm still in a rose-tinted haze where somewhere inside I've convinced myself that the "true" challenge to the game is in taking the meager resources that an "average" player can afford and delving for that mystical synergy one occasionally finds in those overlooked commons and uncommons that somehow come together to forge a weapon a clever player can wield against even the most vicious of Devils or overpowering of Angels....
Maybe I just like playing with cards
