[official] How long have you been playing?

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The Fluff
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Post by The Fluff » 4 years ago

motleyslayer wrote:
4 years ago
ah the days of not wanting to be seen as a nerd in high school.

Here's a random question for people who have taken over 5 year long breaks, what made you decide to get back into the game after such an extended period of time?
not sure how to describe it. I think it's the "magic" of mtg. It just came back, and then I realize it's still there.

just some days ago. Played some old 7th edition mono color precon decks with my cousin.. it still feels the same as we played them 15 years ago. The enjoyment is still there, it's like taking a trip back in time.
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Post by erhnamdjinn » 4 years ago

Been playing since 95 Ice age was my first starter deck, played on and off with my most competitive during the Lorwyn to rise of Eldrazi. Right now I play maybe once or twice a year, and mainly just modern.

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Post by motleyslayer » 4 years ago

erhnamdjinn wrote:
4 years ago
Been playing since 95 Ice age was my first starter deck, played on and off with my most competitive during the Lorwyn to rise of Eldrazi. Right now I play maybe once or twice a year, and mainly just modern.
just out of curiosity, was there any reason behind the decline in play? I find it interesting to hear why people go from playing higher levels to barely playing

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Post by Western_Jackdaw » 4 years ago

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Last edited by Western_Jackdaw 3 years ago, edited 3 times in total.

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Post by erhnamdjinn » 4 years ago

motleyslayer wrote:
4 years ago
erhnamdjinn wrote:
4 years ago
Been playing since 95 Ice age was my first starter deck, played on and off with my most competitive during the Lorwyn to rise of Eldrazi. Right now I play maybe once or twice a year, and mainly just modern.
just out of curiosity, was there any reason behind the decline in play? I find it interesting to hear why people go from playing higher levels to barely playing
I got married, had 2 kids so I cant really spend as much time and cash wise on magic. Magic tourneys are usually only on weekends and I work monday to friday so I'm normally out with my family on weekends. Maybe when they are a little older ill get to play with them if they are interested in playing.

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Post by motleyslayer » 4 years ago

erhnamdjinn wrote:
4 years ago
motleyslayer wrote:
4 years ago
erhnamdjinn wrote:
4 years ago
Been playing since 95 Ice age was my first starter deck, played on and off with my most competitive during the Lorwyn to rise of Eldrazi. Right now I play maybe once or twice a year, and mainly just modern.
just out of curiosity, was there any reason behind the decline in play? I find it interesting to hear why people go from playing higher levels to barely playing
I got married, had 2 kids so I cant really spend as much time and cash wise on magic. Magic tourneys are usually only on weekends and I work monday to friday so I'm normally out with my family on weekends. Maybe when they are a little older ill get to play with them if they are interested in playing.
I have a buddy that is kind of similar, he'd like play more once his oldest kid is old enough to understand it. I guess as someone who has no family it's harder for me to completely grasp how much time it takes to have a family.

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Post by SquirrelToken » 4 years ago

motleyslayer wrote:
4 years ago
I have a buddy that is kind of similar, he'd like play more once his oldest kid is old enough to understand it. I guess as someone who has no family it's harder for me to completely grasp how much time it takes to have a family.
All the time. It costs all the time in the world.

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Post by erhnamdjinn » 4 years ago

SquirrelToken wrote:
4 years ago
motleyslayer wrote:
4 years ago
I have a buddy that is kind of similar, he'd like play more once his oldest kid is old enough to understand it. I guess as someone who has no family it's harder for me to completely grasp how much time it takes to have a family.
All the time. It costs all the time in the world.
But its all worth it, I guess I could play if I really wanted to but I just want to enjoy my kids now while they are still small, plus I do play MTG arena sometimes and am more into PS4 these days, its an easy way to relax 2-3 hrs unlike Magic Tournies which take a whole day.

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Post by mcckinney » 4 years ago

It's been almost 10 years, I guess.

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Post by motleyslayer » 4 years ago

erhnamdjinn wrote:
4 years ago
SquirrelToken wrote:
4 years ago
motleyslayer wrote:
4 years ago
I have a buddy that is kind of similar, he'd like play more once his oldest kid is old enough to understand it. I guess as someone who has no family it's harder for me to completely grasp how much time it takes to have a family.
All the time. It costs all the time in the world.
But its all worth it, I guess I could play if I really wanted to but I just want to enjoy my kids now while they are still small, plus I do play MTG arena sometimes and am more into PS4 these days, its an easy way to relax 2-3 hrs unlike Magic Tournies which take a whole day.
I can understand finding PS4 more relaxing than spending a whole day at an event. I finally hit the point where I realized how much spending a whole day at an event can drain you. That could be because a lot of stores that are close to me now don't run in store events as much anymore, so a lot of my options are MCQ (whatever they're called now)/Face to Face Open type events now

One of the parts that has helped me stick with Magic so long is how many different ways there are to enjoy it though, so I an relax with commander as well if I don't feel line playing in a larger event

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Post by Pip_Maxwell » 4 years ago

I started around 2007 with Lorwyn. I remember staying up late at night, watching some advertisement about the MTG game during Adult Swim when I wasn't supposed to as a kid still in school, and wrote it down on some paper. Mostly because it was so weird.



From there my first "deck" was basically this:
Image

However the only one available they had was in Russian at the comic book store. So I had a deck with 3 rares, 10 uncommons, 32 commons 30 lands. All of it in Russian and I understood jack of it. Me being a dumb kid, I didn't know the language was Russian, and assumed that was the weird fantasy language for Lorwyn. My three rares were a Incandescent Soulstoke, Nova Chaser, and Chandra Nalaar. I personally thought Chandra was just some elemental lady like Soulstoke and Chaser, I mean they have the same kinda hair.

Example:
Image

Slowly over time I pieced together what it was by asking my teacher what the cards meant, as she taught Russian. I remember asking one of the teachers if they knew what the cards meant and I got pointed in her direction. I learned bits and pieces of Russian from her all the while furiously taking notes down on each card. Mostly learning things like keywords, supertypes, subtypes, names, flavor text.

Now one may wonder "why didn't you use Gatherer for the Lorwyn Set". Simple: I didn't know it existed. Woulda been nice to know.

Next one would be "why didn't you ask anyone in the shop?" Simple: I didn't go their much. It was honestly too costly to play a game of limited (12$) or standard (5$) for a kid like me in 2007 with a monthly allowance of 20$ as a kid in a low-income household.

So once I figured out what the cards actually did, I played with the other kids who had better decks than mine that were mostly from Ravnica or Time Spiral, but I was happy that I could finally play with what I bought. Sometimes would win with Chandra ult or a Chaser.

We kids didn't play MTG proper. The most OP card we thought was a Golgari Rotwurm, this is because we thought you could sac a creature, regenerate it with Regeneration, then sac it again, over and over and over.

I didn't know until halfway through Morningtide that I should improve my deck with more cards, also that I needed to buy more cards. I thought buying the tournament pack was all I needed really.

Basically I went through the school of hard knocks when it came to MTG. Its also why Lorwyn still holds a special place in my heart after all these years and why I want them to revisit the plane.

I also haven't quit playing MTG once since 2007. Although I did enroll in the judge program later on. Currently level 1.

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Post by Card Slinger J » 4 years ago

I remember when I first heard about MTG back in the mid to late 90's from reading video game magazines that I used to collect before they went out of business (Electronic Gaming Monthly, Game Fan, Game Pro, etc.). I also ended up receiving some Portal cards from way back in the day with Cloud Pirates though I didn't have as much interest into the game at the time. Then Yu-Gi-Oh! got me into the world of Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games when it first launched in North America around 2001-2002 as me and my friends at High School used to get games in whenever we could. By the time we graduated one of my friends introduced me to a Comic Book Shop where they had people who play Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon TCG, and MTG. We had more table space back then before the 2008 Financial Crisis hit when they were forced to downsize in order to stay in business.

Not before long another friend of mine introduced me to MTG when I was looking to make a Psychatog deck with no clear strategy as to how to build around it. I was terrible at building decks at the time so I didn't understand card type ratios like I do now. So I ended up going with a Mono Red Goblin deck which felt too linear to me compared to the amount of fun I had playing Mono Green Elves since it was more open to so many ridiculous combos and synergies which got me into becoming a Johnny. I never was a fan of Standard rotation as I was more of a Kitchen Table Casual player dabbling with whatever new combo decks I tried to build for Extended which soon became Modern. By the time I realized that Wizards of the Coast was "phasing out" (no pun intended) turn 4 combo decks in both Standard and Modern I soon switched over to EDH / Commander which is now my favorite MTG format.
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Post by Krishnath » 4 years ago

Playing since '94, missed the Dark by about three weeks (underprinted as it was).
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Post by motleyslayer » 4 years ago

Card Slinger J wrote:
4 years ago
I remember when I first heard about MTG back in the mid to late 90's from reading video game magazines that I used to collect before they went out of business (Electronic Gaming Monthly, Game Fan, Game Pro, etc.). I also ended up receiving some Portal cards from way back in the day with Cloud Pirates though I didn't have as much interest into the game at the time. Then Yu-Gi-Oh! got me into the world of Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games when it first launched in North America around 2001-2002 as me and my friends at High School used to get games in whenever we could. By the time we graduated one of my friends introduced me to a Comic Book Shop where they had people who play Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon TCG, and MTG. We had more table space back then before the 2008 Financial Crisis hit when they were forced to downsize in order to stay in business.

Not before long another friend of mine introduced me to MTG when I was looking to make a Psychatog deck with no clear strategy as to how to build around it. I was terrible at building decks at the time so I didn't understand card type ratios like I do now. So I ended up going with a Mono Red Goblin deck which felt too linear to me compared to the amount of fun I had playing Mono Green Elves since it was more open to so many ridiculous combos and synergies which got me into becoming a Johnny. I never was a fan of Standard rotation as I was more of a Kitchen Table Casual player dabbling with whatever new combo decks I tried to build for Extended which soon became Modern. By the time I realized that Wizards of the Coast was "phasing out" (no pun intended) turn 4 combo decks in both Standard and Modern I soon switched over to EDH / Commander which is now my favorite MTG format.
I feel that a lot of the people I know who played when I started playing made the switch from other games to MTG.

I remember my first few decks were awful, used to play 20 lands, 20 creatures, 20 in some combo of enchantments and artifacts then 290 instants and sorceries. so 80 card decks, which were about as bad as that sounds

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Post by Card Slinger J » 4 years ago

motleyslayer wrote:
4 years ago
I feel that a lot of the people I know who played when I started playing made the switch from other games to MTG.

I remember my first few decks were awful, used to play 20 lands, 20 creatures, 20 in some combo of enchantments and artifacts then 290 instants and sorceries. so 80 card decks, which were about as bad as that sounds
I do remember my first few decks being 60 cards with 4 of playsets when my problem is that I didn't know what was legal and what format I'd specify my decks toward. So I based my Kitchen Table Casual decks based on whatever eternal format was the most balanced. Legacy and Vintage I didn't bother with due to how unfair advantages certain decks would have as I've learned the hard way with Stasis (which I eventually tore apart). Only time I did dabble into Vintage was when I tried to recreate Zvi Mowshowitz's famous Turboland deck and played it in a group game.

The version I ran revolved around the Crucible of Worlds, Zuran Orb, and Fastbond combo for infinite Landfall triggers and Lifegain. Horn of Greed I believe used to work with the combo before it got an errata to where it no longer worked with Landfall triggers. Couldn't remember If I also ran Azusa, Lost but Seeking though I did run Lotus Cobra for infinite mana. Years later someone at my locals managed to build an EDH / Commander deck off of this strategy with Tatyova, Benthic Druid as the Commander. I remember seeing it in action and it was dumb!
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Post by 3drinks » 4 years ago

I really should be posting more around the site than exclusively in the commander format, so I may as well start here.

I'm 3drinks, yes the same from @mtgsally, yes the same with the first expansive Kaalia primer. I've played since 4ED/ICE, with only breaks coming UL until InVasion and then straight through MRD. Quit @ CHK and came back @ CON, been going ever since.

I have an encyclopedic memory of cards, mostly old, which makes sense as this is one of my only hobbies for the past 20+ yrs. It's been intense play, discussion, watching, learning, and interacting. My best ptq finish was an extended event where I was 31st going into r8 with burn, and losing to Ravager Affinity to end at 48th. I've won a couple of sealed prerelease events (last being ISD). iirc, it was a 140 person event, but that's been years ago so I'm a bit hazy on the official count. Longest night of cards I ever played though ha.

Highlights are bringing a modern legal Zurgo Helmsmasher deck to modern fnm complete with 15 card singleton sideboard, and tilting a Fish player with a clutch AF blind rip Wildfire off the top to win a game, and match, that I had no business winning. That guy table flipped, threw his deck across the room and stormed out in rage lmaooooo. So, I'm kinda a local celebrity at the lgs. 😂

Oh, and I'm a [now former] DCI Rules Advisor. They discontinued that role and i just didn't bother trying to learn the floor rules for actual lv1 judge status. I just wanted a badge of sorts to be able to act as a sort of authority on rules for my friends.

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Post by BaronCappuccino » 3 years ago

I started in 1997 - a lot of my initial lands were snow-covered back then. I was mostly playing with people's hand-me-downs. The first booster pack I ever bought was from Tempest. I quit around 2002. I restarted during Avacyn block when my coffee shop started getting into MtG.

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Post by NGW » 3 years ago

I first started playing with the 7th edition starter set, the one with Thorn Elemental and the CD rom. I had bought some random packs and decks around the time as well, a few singles, but never really seriously got into the game and stopped playing entirely sometime after Fifth Dawn but before Kamigawa. I got back into the game during Scars block, which is when I really got into the game seriously and haven't looked back. I got into EDH around the time Innistrad released, my first EDH deck being a janky Grimgrin tribal deck, after almost a year of just kitchen table 60 card and starting to dabble in legacy. Some years back I also had a Modern werewolves deck that I put up decent results with locally, but nothing major. Played legacy manaless dredge at GP Vegas 2015, which was a ton of fun. Sold out of that deck after the Probe banning, I just wasn't big on where the deck was at that point and don't really regret it. It's a fun, cheap deck but it doesn't really teach you the format, it teaches you how to play manaless dredge. I had a proxied up ANT list, which I was decent with but never played seriously. Built Death and Taxes last year, which I'm excited to eventually play in events. Otherwise though I'm mostly just a big EDH player.

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Post by Beowolfe » 3 years ago

How long? Well let me count,today is Saturday I started on Thursday so um 3 days. I have only played 1 game on a borrowed deck but I'm hooked. Just bought my first deck yesterday.

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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

Beowolfe wrote:
3 years ago
How long? Well let me count,today is Saturday I started on Thursday so um 3 days. I have only played 1 game on a borrowed deck but I'm hooked. Just bought my first deck yesterday.
As a veteran from the early days of MTG, let me be among the first to welcome you to the community. :)
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Post by EonAon » 3 years ago

So I started in magic around Mercadian Masques in about 2000 got to Mirrodin. Saw what draft was like for Mirrodin (you could draft early affinity), stopped and came back right after Ravnica: City of Guilds/Guildpact came out and have played/dabbled ever since. I've had ups and downs and originally didn't like EDH/commander since I thought it was going to be one of those flash in the pan formats that can occasionally spring up. Apparently I was really mistaken :) .

My favorite sets were timespiral coldsnap to the end of the Lorwyn Shadowmoor blocks.

My least favorite was Rise of the Eldrazi rotation into second Mirrodin in the fact it made allies forever have no more related support and introduced Jace the Mindsculpter to a format with no relevant and consistant ways to deal with him. When they banned Jace and made cawblade gone, red decks actually had pretty good win percentages then for 6 months. Thats how oppressive that format was since I could consistently win by turn four or five in red with our toys after bans and before was mostly 50/50 or lower.

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Post by The Fluff » 3 years ago

Pip_Maxwell wrote:
4 years ago
However the only one available they had was in Russian at the comic book store. So I had a deck with 3 rares, 10 uncommons, 32 commons 30 lands. All of it in Russian and I understood jack of it. Me being a dumb kid, I didn't know the language was Russian, and assumed that was the weird fantasy language for Lorwyn.
that is quite an adventure on your journey through mtg. Russian does look like fantasy language. And it's a nice to experience playing with other newbies, having a bit of rules misunderstanding and such.

Lorwyn is considered one of the best set, so it's fortunate you started there. :)
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Post by AjaniVengeant » 2 years ago

I started playing around original Theros Block, I couldn't give you any time more exact than that. I remember some friends introduced me to the game on a campout and I was hooked ever since. I think I was around 13 or 14 at the time

What really got me hooked was when my dad took me to my first LGS these really nice military guys helped me build my first deck. It was just after M15 released, and I/they built mono-white kithkin lifegain, one of them even gave me an Ajani Steadfast to put into my deck! To this day Ajani as well as white will always hold a special place in my heart because of the kindness of those guys!

Every year I spend playing Magic I love it even more.
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Post by motleyslayer » 2 years ago

I'm not too sure what it's like among members of the American military, but I know a fair bit of Magic players who are members of the Canadian Armed Forces. A good thing about Magic is that it's something you can take with you when you get posted/get relocated and when you get deployed

I found I also loved magic more the more I learned

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Post by Androk » 2 years ago

I started during Revised, stopped around Mercadian Masques, took a 15 year break, then started playing again during original Theros block.

When I stopped playing, I sold a lot of my cards, including complete sets of Urza's Legacy and Unglued. Really regretting throwing all my extra Unglued Basics in with the full set at zero cost! There was a guy I bought cards from online during 90s internet days when I'd give my mom cash so she could mail a check, lol...so that's who I offered my collection too. Being the 90's and all, he was more interested in the Sengir Vampires and Serra Angels than some of the other stuff in my collection.

I started playing again when I moved in with a couple roommates who played and got me back into it. That was quite the experience...I still knew how to play the game as even during my 15 year break, I still played Shandalar. However, imagine my surprise the first time I saw a planeswalker...haha. And no more mana burn?

Once I started playing again, that's when I went into my parents basement and found the shoebox that hadn't been opened in 15 years....everything I still had that my online source didn't offer to buy. I figured it would be mostly worthless, but as I began to understand the variety of formats that emerged and how cards that were once not highly regarded had now become coveted....this shoebox was a treasure trove. Unfortunately, since at this point I was once again "new" to the game, I made the mistake of trading this stuff in for store credit and trading RL cards for standard cards, lol....but what can you do. Some of the stuff I remember finding are a couple Yawgmoth's Will, an Unlimited Raging Ravine, and a Blood Moon from The Dark, all in LP/NM condition. As I discovered that unique lands also had some value....that's when I realized I had some weird looking basics in the box. They were Guru lands....an Island, a Mountain, and a Swamp...each of which had never been played. Imagine trading those in for 50% store credit.....DOH.

Anyways, while my original collection is long gone now...I have a really nice Pioneer collection. Having started back up during Theros, I was thrilled to have this format come about, and I can build just about any deck I want. One thing I find interesting about coming back after such a large gap, is that I think I have that "little kid" intuition when it comes to playing the game. Like how playing a guitar is more natural for someone who learns as a kid than if they learn as an adult. I feel like there are certain gameplay decisions that just come natural to me where I see some opponents have to exert a lot of thought. Not to say I'm some sort of Magic savant, haha...I've just found that to be an interesting carryover from my younger playing days.

I went a long time without playing, especially going through my "establish a new identity" college phase...it's funny that in my 30's I've gravitated back to all the things I enjoyed before my 20s. I am very grateful to have gotten back into it, afterall it is the greatest game on the planet.

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