Thoughts from an "Old Fart"
General forum
Posted on May 11, 2014, 11:10 p.m. by REV666
Let me start by saying 2 things: 1, Im not that old (31) and 2, this isnt actually complaints.
I started playing way back when, pretty sure I was in beta or shortly thereafter.
I remember when kids were playing with 300+ cards EASILY.
Remember when cards didnt have a rarity or TCG price?
Cant remember what happened to my cards, or why I got out of MTG, but I did. It was a hugely fun time when I was a kid trading, the excitement of opening new cards (and seeing the jealousy when you find that awesome card that someone else wanted....IN YOUR PACK!!!)
There was no FNM, it was Lunch Room Magic! Or in my case, AutoCad Magic....
When I got back in to playing, I did something that I figured would be the way to play. Bought a box and opened them all, segregated colors and went back to playing white/black (which used to be UNHEARD OF in my early days. You HAD to play neighboring colors or else MTG was broken....somehow...) with the best deck I could figure.
Boy, was that a mistake. Not only had I not known that there was 2 major play types, but that "rare" cards actually held monetary value and that people would damn near get into fights if you had a card that more than one person wanted. So I was put at a disadvantage since I technically could play modern with a standard deck, but the 11 year old across from me would proceed to hand me my ass....
FINALLY, some friends took pity on me and helped me get some decks together to play and not turn 4 loose. What happened after that? ROTATION! Now my Standard deck is useless, and modern just got more interesting.
I am absolutely, 100% happy that MTG has grown in such a way that there NEEDS to be different formats, that companies are actually giving product support (deck boxes, sleeves, playmats etc) and people are passing the game down to their kids.
When MTG first started, I never thought it would be more than a passing fad, and I am GLAD to be wrong.
I miss the old days, but I love the game just as much as before.
gnarlicide says... #3
I'm with you brother. I'm 28. I started playing when I was 9. I remember when tournaments were double elimination and single elimination. I hated getting scrubbed out in the first round. Just so I can take the bus home.
May 11, 2014 11:37 p.m.
aeonstoremyliver says... #4
I'm 33 and started playing as a freshman in high school in 1994. My friends and I played during lunch or our 'Role Players Club' after school. Good times. I avidly collected until around 1999 and, foolishly, sold off my collection. I collected hardcore during Revised, Ice Age, and the subsequent sets.
Speaking of the old sets, Fallen Empires and Homelands blew goats lol. I remember when the chase rare out of Alliances was Balduvian Horde and Force of Will was like $0.50 according to Scry. Black Lotus was $100. Wish I would've saved my paper route money for lots of those...
I got back into MTG during Zendikar and was enthralled once again, especially with the Eldrazi. The game took a different turn. The stack was totally different, mana burn no longer existed, and to echo what was said, the environment was much more competitive. And there were readily available organized events?!?!
Old Fogey s like us have the nostalgia of staring at an early print Serra Angel and remembering it being an awesome card. But I am pleased to see where the game has gone. Standard isn't my cup of tea, at the moment, thus I've opted to play more Modern and Legacy. Good stuff, Maynard.
In closing, there are cats I've played with that are well into their 50's. That's freaking awesome. And they have the cash to drop on really expensive Legacy cards, which isn't so awesome lol. I hope that Wizards continues to cater to old school players like us as well as tossing a Lure out to new players.
Cheers!
May 12, 2014 1:01 a.m.
megawurmple says... #5
I envy you guys. I started Magic a couple of years ago during Innistrad, so I never got to see what it was like before it was updated. I would have loved to have been around when people threw unsleeved Black Lotus around without a care, when Magic was strictly a casual game. It sounds like a lot of fun.
aeonstoremyliver I have never heard the phrase "good stuff, Maynard" before, but I must use it more often from now on given that my surname is Maynard.
May 12, 2014 4:50 a.m.
Chaos_Gopher says... #6
Gotta laugh at everything that has been said so far (Fallen Empires really did suck bad!). I am 39, and me and my friends started out during beta. There was no such thing as competitive play, and the cards were hard to get in my area. I remember the days when everyone thought that a Shivan Dragon was the utmost best creature, and there was always that guy running a Black Vise control deck... Oh ya, I was the guy.. I also made the mistake of getting rid of all my cards right around Exodus, but than got sucked back in at the end of the Zendikar block. At least this time around I have the money to go with the hobby.
May 12, 2014 7:08 a.m.
I'm 29 and started buying mtg cards when you could pull a Sol'kanar the Swamp King or a Nebuchadnezzar but I didn't actually start playing until the end of Tempest, right around when Urza's Saga dropped. We did have some local card shops at the time that did hold competitions, I still remember advancing to the finals against all of the older guys with my R/W/U Sneak Attack deck... when it wasn't that hard too get ahold of Sneak Attack s and Gamble s, lolol at the time Serra Avatar was the uber rare and vhtf card in my deck. Then around Nemesis my friends stopped playing and so I sold my collection :/ got back into here n there but never too seriously. Finally, around when AVR came out I picked it back up.. me and a few friends decided to hit up fnm and HATED it. Honestly, the only thing we liked was that mana burn was no longer a thing but the cocky douchers with smug nerd syndrome pretty much ran that place. Without getting into it, I'll just say it almost ruined the game for us. After that its been all kitchen table and private tournaments at peoples houses
May 12, 2014 7:30 a.m.
Dalektable says... #8
I'm right with TitansFTW. All these stories are incredibly interesting, I'm super jealous haha. I never really played on much of a casual level...within about six months of starting the game (around Avacyn Restored) I realized I had to get more competitive to play in tournaments. It makes me smile and cringe at the same time thinking about unsleeved Black Lotus 's haha.
May 12, 2014 8:29 a.m.
HAHA! I remember kids absolutely loosing their shit over Shivan Dragon in school.
Anyone else remember ante? damn I miss that.
Most of the time when we played, you'd see almost every kid pull up to the table with a shoebox of cards, pull out a row and be "ready" to play with 1000+ cards. Mana curve? pshhhhh. I think when played we ran 2 mana per other card. Sometimes 3 if you were ca-ra-zy.
Hell, in middle school my cards weighed more than my school supplies in my pack. Id complain all year about 20#'s of books, but happily put 50#s of damn MTG cards.
Anyone also remember when you didnt play with dice? As in, no counters, no spin down etc. Wrote your life total down on paper (I NEVER cheated by writing the wrong number down.... ;) ) and the one guy that HAD a D20 either got it from his older brother or was a D&D Nerd to be ridiculed.
And like just about everyone my age, I KNOW I had at least a playset of Black Lotus that I used, no sleeves and then tossed in the trash.
Good times.
May 12, 2014 2:46 p.m.
I can't even remember how old I was when I first started playing, but all my cards indicate that I was in about 4th grade? They were Urza block and Tempest cards. I was really into Pokemon at the time and I ended up growing out of it. My parents ended up selling the Pokemon cards but my Magic cards stayed safe in exile until about the release of Avacyn Restored when my roommate said he'd show me how to play. I still had a couple of crappy decks built and when we went to play and he flashed out his 8th edition bordered cards I was like "whaaat, those are beautiful! I want those!"
May 12, 2014 4:15 p.m.
aeonstoremyliver says... #11
@TitansFTW I don't recall if that came from an old commercial or from Ernest, a movie character. My dad says it a lot though lol.
Shivan Dragon was the bees knees! Force of Nature . Was my old school favorite.
Ante was fun! Amulet of Quoz , Demonic Attorney , and Bronze Tablet saw play back in the day.
actiontech says... #2
I'm 37 and I completely understand. I started playing in 1994 and this scenario happened to me during Zendikar. The casual game I loved as a youth turned into a serious competition. It's not bad, but it is different. Stick with it a while, learn the ropes, you'll catch up with the "new rules" and start having fun again.
May 11, 2014 11:27 p.m.