You can go home again.

Jackalope here with a brief trip down memory lane for today’s post. I loved Magic: The Gathering, I played it casually for many years and have few regrets. I got my start with a starter of Beta or Unlimited (I can’t remember other than one of my rare cards was Personal Incarnation) and a pack of Arabian Nights.

[caption id="attachment_770" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Ah, sweet memories."][/caption]

I didn’t really get into Magic until Revised when the rest of the geek world caught on that this game was something amazing. I played at the local game shop’s tournaments for about a year and soon began working there; any competitive aspirations were quickly dashed as I always had to work during our tournaments. Time passed and I played less and less, until finally my last constructed deck was a fun little Sneak Attack Deck built at the end of the Urza block.

[caption id="attachment_776" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="I *still* miss this deck..."][/caption]

Jump forward some 12 years and here you have me, discussing current standard strategies and eagerly awaiting New Phyrexia spoilers so I can start plotting out my next deck.You see, jumping back into Magic wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. And as long as you don’t mind taking your lumps, let me tell you: It’s a great time to get back in the game. The current Standard format features several great sets and tons of playable cards both for tournament level play and for casuals.

[caption id="attachment_777" align="alignnone" width="279" caption="WotC Where are my spoilers!?)"][/caption]

Now how did I get back into Magic and why?

Why? Well I took on the challenge of revamping our Magic section on the site, something that was a long time coming as it hadn’t received much attention for a long time. So I do what I always do before tackling a project: I researched. I looked at all the many sites out there dedicated to Magic, including Wizards of the Coast’s own site and read a few of their articles including this one, “Rareless and Careless,”  by Jacob Van Lunen. In this article he talks about building a deck of common and uncommon cards based around the card Kiln Fiend. I was very impressed with the synergy of the deck and it reminded me of the explosive power of my ancient Sneak Attack deck. So I went and built it exactly as he had shown.

[caption id="attachment_778" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="It's pretty much like this all the time."][/caption]

With my 5 dollar deck I ventured forth to our retail location on Magic night and played my first games of Magic in a LONG time. It was a ton of fun, the deck performed well and I was hooked again. That was 2 weeks ago, and since then I’ve played some Sealed Deck, and tweaked my deck many, many times. It’s good to be back.

So to any of you old-timers out there who miss Magic but are intimidated about getting back into it; fear not! The time is right, the game is just as fun and the cards are so much better than the ones you used.

So head down to your local hobby store and enter a draft or sealed deck. Go out and find some articles to read so you aren’t running blind, or even better: grab all those friends you used to play with, and drag them back into the game with you! You won’t be sorry you did!

Exit, stage left!