I stated playing trading card games back in the late 90s. First starting with Pokémon and then Traveling to yugioh till I finally gave up the stuff. I have no memory from this time of even hearing about Magic. I must have seen a booster packat least some point. I remeber going and trying to find pack at our local Walmart. I was a good ol amercian boy so obvisuly i was obsessed with tv shows and comics, toys, etc. Magic didn’t have any of that, or at least it wasnt shoved into my age range. I could play my gameboy of pokemon in the morning, slam a few episodes of the show before I shove the binder in my bag to to go Pokémon club. I remember it too. That feeling during school when you have yourbinder fill of cards it in your bag. You could feel the power of it. Just waiting there for you. The cards calling from behind a thin layer of backpack.While I was never lucky enough to stumble inot magic in the first two decades of my life, I did buy pokemon cards as any good millennial boy should. Okay hot take on pokemon, don’t get me wrong I love it. BUT Thete is something about pokemon that never caught my complete attention. Maybe its deep down I have always been a wandering wizard. I would arrive in the pokemon club at St. Edwards Catholic School after school Wednesdays in the library. The library was a big curving open room, full of natural light and the best place to be during a rainstorm. With sunlight and joy and we would all meet and sit on the steps and show off the different cards, and discuss the show. But no one played. This wasn’t about the game. It was about cards. Collecting, holding in a binder to lovingly gawk at for you own. I didn’t last long here. I was never a devout fan but can understand and see the love people have for it. From here the card journey is all somewhat vague.
Until one day in the local Kroger, which was always a treat cause while my mom would shop for groceries I got to go to the massive books and magazines sections. I’ve always been a book junkie- but as a kid video game magazines and comic books would be devoured at an ungodly speed. And one day I picked up the very first issue (possibly a reprinting of the first issues it was in?) Shonen Jump, featuruing a little manga called Yu-gi-oh about a world of wonder and cards and monsters. All things little me ate up. This lead to me beg my mother to buy it, she would usually have zero problems buying the books I asked for so it was a win win cause she got me sitting in my room quiet AND reading. And soon after it was all things Yu-gi-oh. It was more sophisticated, not as childish I thought. Even the manga is dark as hell! They show spearheaded its potential to be a bit of an edgier game. And that’s the most important part, it was a game. People around me played it. Next thing you know it’s the fun new game across the school and there is a small club of people playing the game.
I most likely buying a blue eyes white dragon starter.Feeling excited and fueled by anime rose tinted glasses of beating my toughest opponents with the "heart of the cards" ready for anything that comes my way... Buuut that isn’t what happened. All I remember is sitting across from the 45 year old computer teacher as he completely houses me. And I mean a throughouh whooping. Not only was he winning he’s also calling out things I did wrong, because i thought I was going to be able to win, I thought I could beat him, I thought I was waaaay better than I was. I liked the show, the manga was good, but i realized after being completely humilated in front of the club, this wasn’t for me. And I stood above my garbage can in my kitchen and I threw away every single card I owned. It felt good at the time, I think it was my way of keeping mysel safe from that humilation. -Side note- I have no idea where the pokemon cards went but I hope we sold them. I was cracking the good good.
I remember trying to design my own cards. In a game that never was but ultimately a 1-1 clone of yugioh called Whoopie, so called for there was a component somewhat like Uno where you verbally had to call something out. I know, I was like 12 and this is why I’m not in game design. And that was trashed too.
The year is 2020. I recieve in the mail a package. A late birthday gift of, It’s a kaldhein booster bundle- 10 premium booster packs of a game called magic the gathering. I was very intrigued. It was something that inside I knew what complicated but what treasures did it hold what wonder. On it was high fantasy artwork something I feel warm and close to. I already play dungeons and dragon this feels right.
I crack open these boosters and have absoluety no clue what the hell was going on. The art was all like death metal viking, very little information from someone who neehonestly wow what incredible art but I have no idea what’s happening with these things and then they sat. I thanked my friend Mathew for this lovely gift and he told me to download arena to learn to play magic the gathering and it was when I saw it was a game, that I have access to now as an adult. It was truly the most wonderful thing to come out of the pandemic.
So all in all I adore card games. I always have. But I do feel that they come and go in my life. And the relevance and importance we put to them is different for all of us. Why we play, how we play it makes us who we are. Cause at the core we are all spellslingers wandering from duel to duel reading for some magic.