[official] How long have you been playing?

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motleyslayer
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Post by motleyslayer » 4 years ago

I decided I would do a thread on how long you've been playing/what was your first set thread, mostly as a way for everyone to see how long others have been playing. I'd also like to see what kind of discussion we can get going on this topic.

I'll start: I started playing just after Darksteel. TL;DR, traded Pokemon and Yugioh for Magic cards and haven't looked back since. I was 12 going on 13 later that year and saw most of my friends had been playing for a bit longer, so I decided to join them.

I took a few year break around Planar Chaos/Future Sight due to dwindling event numbers then got back into the game in 2009/around Magic 2010 (right before I started university) and played the odd FNM and a lot of commander (especially commander later on).

Once I finished university in 2013, I played almost every local event I could find for about 2 years and got really into the game from there. Went to my first GP, GP Ottawa in 2014. In 2015, with the advent of the PPTQ/RPTQ system I down right into competitive events for several years. I still love comp level events but don't make it out to them as much anymore

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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 4 years ago

Since Nemesis, when I was 8 years old. Inauspicious set and block to start on, I know, but that does mean that pretty soon I'll have been playing Magic for 20 years.
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motleyslayer
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Post by motleyslayer » 4 years ago

void_nothing wrote:
4 years ago
Since Nemesis, when I was 8 years old. Inauspicious set and block to start on, I know, but that does mean that pretty soon I'll have been playing Magic for 20 years.

It's crazy how long some of us have been playing, lately I've come to realize I've been playing almost as long/longer than some of my opponents have been alive. Now I feel old

A lot of the sets from the first 10 years really fascinate me though

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CybertronsMostWanted
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Post by CybertronsMostWanted » 4 years ago

I started playing during Revised (1995). I was a participating member of the "Black Summer". As a result, Necropotence is still one of my fav magic cards ever printed.

The first "standard" (called Type 2 in its day) as best I can recall, required all decks to contain at least 5 cards from every legal set in the format

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Candlemane
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Post by Candlemane » 4 years ago

I started just before Betrayers of Kamigawa with some cards a friend gave me. My first intro deck was Spiritbane. I remember being fasninated early on by the Japanese inspired plane, and completely in the dark about the sets prior, Mirrodin block.

I went to my first local "tournament" with that Spiritbane deck, and I like to think I did well considering. XD I made every effort from then to prove to myself I could play with the "pros", such as they were around here at the time.

When I eventually reached that goal, I went casual, and when I found out about EDH, I never went back.
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Vessiliana
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Post by Vessiliana » 4 years ago

I came in with Worldwake. A friend of my husband's brought over some cards, and I was hooked.

I taught my kids to play, too. Now four of them play, to varying degrees. Two don't play at all, and two are not able to read yet, being four and one years old, respectively.

We have EDH once or twice a week.

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Hyrkh
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Post by Hyrkh » 4 years ago

I started getting back into Magic during Return to Ravnica block (after playing once or twice with a childhood friend years earlier). I've been hooked on it ever since and really enjoy playing EDH with my friends.
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Post by Bookstooge » 4 years ago

I started playing with 4th edition, Stopped after 6th, due to college/life/etc and dove back in around '13 or so.

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Gaea's Regent
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Post by Gaea's Regent » 4 years ago

I started in 1998, but I never got into competitive play. Here's an old post of mine telling the story:
Gaea's Regent wrote:A friend of mine, who used to be my neighbor, visited and brought a couple decks with him. I was 18 or so at the time. He told me to drop by his place, since he lived near the store (the only one in the country at the time, I believe) and he would tell me what to buy and stuff. So, a week or two later, I went to his house, and he showed me a poster in his room: an over-sized Child of Gaea! He didn't own the card though. At the store, when I cracked my first Urza's Saga Tournament Pack, guess who was in it? My friend made such a hype about it that I absolutely fell in love with the card and its color. You can see it in my avatar.

The store I mentioned was a bit far from where I lived, so for a long time I only played casually with my brother with the cards we got that time, from Urza's Saga and Fifth Edition. Some time later, another neighbor showed with a bin full of cards (I don't remember how he got them, but he didn't play Magic. This guy used to pull all sorts of weird deals with his pals from school, lol ) and he just gave it to us. So we now had cards from Urza's Legacy to Odyssey. A few years later, due to college, girlfriend, first jobs, etc., I entered a hiatus. After a while, I went to that store (the only one I knew of) but it had closed, and since I had lost track of my friend, I didn't know where to get Magic cards.

Around 2006, I finally found a store in Google, since it was affiliated to the DCI, and I went to buy some Ravnica cards. I really loved it, but that year I got married, and between the wedding plans and the fact that I didn't have a playgroup and saw my brother less often, I didn't play much. Three years later, Alara block was already in Standard and I went back to the strore, and got some product. I got my wife to play (kinda') and we started getting together with my brother, and after some time with his girlfriend, to play, and still do.

In the mean time, my planeswalker spark had ignited 😁 so I started following spoilers here on Sally (I found the forums through the Cranial Insertion links in MagicCards.info). A couple of months later, I got an MTGO account, and I've been playing actively since; Casual, that is. ;)
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Post by RabidVacin » 4 years ago

I started in 1994 when the sets available in stores were Revised and Fallen Empires. I did go on hiatus for about 7 years during my UO phase. So instead of saying that I've played for 25 years, I say 18 years. My biggest regret is that the Kamigawa block happened while I was on hiatus.
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Post by Odin_ » 4 years ago

Started with Ice age, continued until Mercadian masques, hiatus until Kamigawa, continued until Zendikar, hiatus until Return to Ravnica, since then only a pre-release player on paper and occasional player in Arena since open beta. I like game but since second return I am mostly Vorthos.

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Post by The Fluff » 4 years ago

started with Invasion. Quit in Judgment.

went back and became active in Zendikar. Quit standard after zen rotated out.

now playing modern.
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Post by Mohan » 4 years ago

I've been playing Magic since Unlimited. My first game took place on Thanksgiving. Friends of my from Rochester, NY came down to visit and we all got together and they taught me how to play. I was given a red/blue/green deck, and by the third game, I was hooked!

What I really liked about the "good old days" was the excitement of a new set coming out. Buying Arabian Night packs and having no clue what cards were in the set. Or going to a comic store and people getting together to make a handmade list of the Legends set (back then there were no lists online of the sets in advance).

When I was in graduate school, we'd go to a diner and play Magic until the sun rose. We'd have one on one games or free for all games with up to 15 people. It didn't matter. We had a lot of fun.

One of my favorite memories was playing Richard Garfield in Magic. Thankfully, a friend of mine took video of it:



The backstory is that the owner of the shop required that we made Magic decks with certain restrictions (X amount of cards from this or that set, etc.), so that's why my deck sucks so much in the video. Meanwhile, Richard is dropping cards that just crushed me! :)

These days I play Magic every now and again with my son (we'll play Commander or Pauper) and I just started playing MTG Arena.

Through it all, I've a lifetime of memories of going to tournaments (I didn't do any big events--my biggest victory was winning the Nemesis pre-release. Back then there were several hundred people who would play against each other, so I was really happy about winning with a black/green deck).

I hope that Magic has a long, long life yet to go. Looking forward to future sets!

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Post by clariwench » 4 years ago

I started playing a little before Gatecrash was released! It was during my sophomore year of college. I just played casually until the summer after my junior year, when I got into Modern... I had just been borrowing a friend's BW Tokens deck and then one night at FNM, I played against Burn and it was love at first sight. Oh, how I miss the golden days of Modern.

I was immediately into the lore of the game when I started. That's probably what's kept me around for so long, honestly... that and my undying love for Ral. :P

Most of the time, I'm just playing on Arena now. My LGS closed back in 2016. Sometimes I play with friends, but it's infrequent. I've gone to one event (SCG Con) in the last three years. :\
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Post by Snappy » 4 years ago

Started at return to ravenica. I remember almost buying the cards when I was younger but the game looked so intimidating lol. To be fair I was right, but it was also super worth it.

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Post by Algernone25 » 4 years ago

I first heard about magic and saw people playing at scout camp in 2005 - I was still really into YGO at the time, but figured that another CCG would be cool to branch into after watching them go at it. Thankfully dodged all of the mess that was mirrodin and kamigawa, started playing casually around time spiral block. Went to my first FNM the week that Future Sight became standard-legal. Played Naya slivers and went 3-1, kept at it ever since.

A bit over 12 years later I have two standard decks, three modern decks, two legacy decks (one with proxies as our locals allows), three finished commander decks and working on a fourth, and a collection that's probably valued around $10k. And I still get just as excited going into a tournament as I did back in 2007.
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Post by Kelzam » 4 years ago

I started right around Urza's Saga, so it's been about 20 years. My middle school friend gave me this like 300-card pile that he called his deck that was Jund colors and I loved the art and aesthetic and it's all history from there :p
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Post by DrSeaMonster » 4 years ago

Let's see...I remember hearing about Magic in a magazine when I was pretty young, and running across it a few times, but it never really interested me until 2003 when I joined a playgroup at a bookstore near my house. I started about two weeks after 8th Edition released.

I still remember the first Magic card that really caught my attention, Faceless Butcher, such an evocative name and distinct art. With an ability that I, not knowing the rules, was totally unable to comprehend. I was fascinated.

Taken a couple breaks since then, missed the Shadowmoor block to study for my GED and took a longer break after Magic Origins because I got involved with some other stuff...came back with Amonkhet. I couldn't resist the ancient Egyptian inspired flavor.

I've been pretty consistently actively playing since then, though. Especially since a new store opened up 15 minutes from my house.
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ProphetJJ
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Post by ProphetJJ » 4 years ago

Started to play kitchen table magic with my friends during the Onslaught block up until the release of Saviors of Kamigawa. After that I "grew" too cool to play cards games until some time during college. A friend of mine was going to Pre-releases and convinced me to join him in Innistrad's pre-release.
Played Standard from that point on until the Return to Ravnica block rotated out and began playing Modern since then.

To sum it up, I play MTG since ~2002 , but I'm only taking it more seriously for the past 8 years.
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Post by nobody » 4 years ago

I started playing in the dark, and fell in love with the color black.
i took some brakes after Urza Saga and Zendikar though.

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Post by Hawk » 4 years ago

I started learning back when Urza's Destiny and 6th edition were the New Hotness; my first ever purchase was a Urza's Saga Tournament Pack. I was purely kitchen table for a while - I didn't even understand the full rules for my first year and it was all about slamming Bravado-enhanced Rathi Dragons into enemies who would crack back with Hunted Wumpus, Great Whale, and Urza's Armor (animated courtesy of mah boi Karn, Silver Golem).

I started playing a bit more seriously around Prophecy (my first prerelease); I went 0-4 and learned that trying to ramp to Denying Wind was a good way of denying myself any wins. I started reading Duelists and other magazines and made an account on MTGNews. I played "netdecks" like a budget Fires of Yavimaya list and a budget Machine Head list at FNMs. By Apocalypse I was a bit better and actually won a few matches on the back of Spiritmonger, but it would take 5th Dawn to give me a win for prizes with the help of Razormane Masticore and the tools to reliably draw off of Etched Oracle.

Instead of going pro though, things turned towards casual - I went to college and sort of lapsed out of the game, playing more sporadically. During college I did get my only major win - playing Type 1 Suicide Black and wielding Umezawa's Jitte and Hypnotic Specter to take 1st in a "Mox or Box" tournament (prize: a beatup white border Mox Jet or $300 store credit. I of course stupidly took the store credit and spent it on preording two boxes of Shadowmoor and giving my teammates random D&D junk).

I mostly just prerelease and play Commander with my playgroup nowadays - adulting has made it hard to feel motivated to play tournies and I don't want to get sucked into Arena. I'm fortunate my wife plays too as it was a great bonding experience - a story for another time.

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CalebLost
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Post by CalebLost » 4 years ago

started playing with the first/second Italian edition (FBB/FWB) in '94 (i was 11) due to my brother and cousins started playing, it was EXTREMELY kitchen table level and we continued until Weatherlight when they quit and I didn't have anyone to play with.

Long pause until Judgement/Onslaught when I got back due to a group of friends, this time I got in a more serious way: constructed play, I played a bit of T2 (actual Standard) and Extended, and a lot of T1 (Vintage, I was a Stax player). This continued until Llorwyn era when the LGS we used to go closed.

Another hiatus until 2015 when my best friend started working in an LGS that had a minimal community. Thanks to his hard work he was able to bring back a lot of people, me included. This time the major format was (and still is) Duel Commander, with some Pauper and Brawl thrown in. No more big tournament but our local community is quite active :)

Every time I think about the time I started and look at some of my opponent (a lot of young kids are present) I feel really old, but in a "Old and Wise" way, as many people look to me for rulings, hints or help with deck building
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Exares
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Post by Exares » 4 years ago

I started just some months after Magic was first published in Spanish, in January 1996. My cousins bought some Fourth Edition tournament packs, I joined them and we started playing and buying booster packs. Back there we only had 4th and Homelands available, but soon we got Chronicles, Ice Age was translated to Spanish, we started going to different LGS in the city and... well, you know the story. We mainly played Vintage (Type 1), then we shifted to Extended and when Duals were removed from the legal card list, we put ourselves to play Standard (Type 2).

We had all stopped playing just before the release of Judgment, and while they never came back to play Magic, I always kept my interest and eventually started playing again with Magic Origins. I bought some packs a couple of years earlier, with Innistrad and Return to Ravnica, but I'm really playing again since 2015.

The funny thing is, while I was one of the youngest in my cousin's group of players, I really was the only one in our city interested in lore. You can't imagine how happy I was when I started playing again and I realized lore was popular and I wasn't the only Vorthos in the multiverse!
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Post by The N82O Molecule » 4 years ago

hello
ive been in magic for some time - revised to weatherlight and then a hiatus and then back since mirrodin.

my collection is basically modern. I love nostalgia and throwback cards.

I look forward to aiding in the development of this sight since mtgsalvation has been my go to for sometime.

reading intro stories are awesome. . .I cant remember mine persay cause that was a long time ago and ive done things that negate my ability to remember clearly. though if I had to guess it was probably the exposed skin of the og serra angel and the exotic figure of the og fire elemental. . .hahahaha

ive been phyrexian since my compleation and I feel great. I look forward to the rebirth of Venser as lord of machines and the advancement all things phyrexian.

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KodiakCutpurse
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Post by KodiakCutpurse » 4 years ago

I started around April/May of 1995 when I was 11. Right around when 4th Edition and Ice Age were released. Most of my friends started the previous year, but I was too busy playing POGs to notice. Unfortunately, my parents were of the ilk that believed Magic was demonic, so they didn't allow me to collect it. In the fall of '95, when I started 6th grade, Overpower was released and became huge at my school, so I collected that instead but still played Magic in secret over at my friends' houses.

Then, in April of 1997, my friend got a booster box of Mirage for his birthday. I can't recall if we drafted or had a sealed tournament between the four of us, but I recall getting three Incinerates and building a GR deck containing those, Uktabi Wildcats, and a Canopy Dragon. I don't remember how well I did, but the next morning when my dad came to pick me up, my friend grabbed the deck, pulled out the dragon, handed it to me and said I could keep it. So, after two years of playing with other peoples cards, I finally had my own deck.

My parents didn't notice at first, until my other friend gave me a couple large stacks of Mirage and Visions cards (he bought boxes of both) for me to use to modify the deck. I remember my mom seeing them on my dresser and asking what they were doing in our house, so I explained to her how there was nothing wrong with them and she had been misinformed of their nature and that my friends gave them to me as gifts and I wasn't going to part with them. If I had know it would be that easy to convince her, I would have tried it two years earlier.

It was another year after that before I purchased my first cards and played in my first tournament at a LGS. The first booster pack I bought was from Stronghold and had a Mindwarper. I don't know what I was hoping for at the time, but I was super disappointed (enough that it seared into my memory - hell, I recall exactly where I was standing in the store). Later that year I attended my first prerelease, Urza's Saga, and got a Stroke of Genius which was worth about $15-20 at the time - the second most valuable card in the set after Time Spiral. Also, as event swag, they handed out VHS tapes with the coverage of the 1998 US Nationals, which I still view every so often (because Mirage-5th-Tempest is my favorite standard environment and Prosperous Bloom is my all-time favorite deck).

I continued playing until the fall of 2002 and the release of Onslaught, but I had started college and didn't have the time or money to continue, so decided to quit. I got the bug again in 2005 and joined MTGO around the release of Ravnica, but it didn't stick. Then a year later, I went to the Time Spiral prerelease with a couple friends. We played in the trios event and bombed hard. A couple months later I graduated college and moved away to a place with no LGS or community and I assumed I'd never play again.

However, in the fall of 2012, a LGS finally opened in my town and to my surprise a great many people made it their second home. I, now making lots of money and having recently stopped collecting video games (i.e. in search of a new hobby), decided to go all in and purchased a case of every set currently in standard. I've been back in the game ever since. That store has since closed, but I am part-owner of the store that replaced it and is flourishing, so I'm pot committed now.

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