I started playing and got addicted to MtG around 1995. At the time I was still in school, and lack of money meant I couldn't buy the cards I wanted; I bought a bunch of bulk cards from my friend then and bought one intro deck (Mirage). Most of the cards were cr*p, but it was a good (bad) start for me.

Fast-forward to Odyssey: my friends and I were playing with MtG Apprentice (for the young 'uns: this was the MTGO of the time, but based on the honesty system) and one of the decks I built was UG Madness. My version was UGB Madness, with Putrid Imp and Chainer's Edicts. At the time I thought I was a genius (which I totally am but this doesn't prove it :) until I realized it was a deck everyone thought of because it was a budget linear deck. I went on to buy the deck. My friends and I would play MtG a lot; one had the Psychatog deck, another had MonoBlack Control, and still another had a Goblin deck. Between us we probably had majority of the tourney archetypes at the time. This was in college, and again money problems got in the way, so at some point we quit, except for one friend who didn't.

Another fast-forward to Avacyn Restored: I played pre-release and once again got hooked. You could say this is an on-again off-again relationship. I'm trying to build new budget decks similar to the UG deck, although the budget at this point can be higher. Sadly, WoTC isn't obliging, so I've shied away from Standard.

At present, I still play paper magic. Right now, I'm hooked on EDH 1v1; I also liked Tiny Leaders but the format didn't really take off. I also play pre-release events when I can, both to ensure that I have the cards from the new sets to update our EDH decks and because they're fun.