There and Back Again or How I got into MTG.

So,  Take 2.

Yesterday I saw a tweet from Gavin Verhey that stated he had been playing MTG more than half the time he has been alive.  That got me to thinking.

I've been playing MTG for a long time.  It's hard to remember at this point how old I was when I was introduced.  I know it was during high school and I know my life was forever changed by Long Time Friend Eric Sita (LTFES).  LTFES has introduced me to countless games.  He has what I like to refer to as GADD or Gaming Attention Deficit Disorder.  Basically, he tries tons of new games and hops from one to the next pretty quickly.

Oddly enough for those who know me.  I am the complete opposite.  In most situations in life I have a hard time focusing and bounce from thing to thing pretty quickly.  However in gaming,once I take a liking to a game I stick with it almost to the point of addiction.  A few examples would be my now 15 + year infatuation (of and on, mostly on) with MTG and the 5 or so years I sunk into playing World of Warcraft at a quasi-hardcore level.  
For those that don't know me so well, let's just put it this way.  A few years ago I was seeing a psychiatrist bi-weekly to help sort through some stuff and she said to me, "You have the most severe case of adult ADD I've ever seen".

aside 1: Oh WoW you so nearly almost had me back, and then... BAM started MTGOing instead.  Good try old chap, try again soon. I'm sure we've not seen the last of each other. /aside

Anyhow, back to my story.  Sometime in high school, LTFES and I were hanging out at his place with Fat Cat  (RIP) and probably resident evil on PS1 (itchy tasty), when he tells me about this new game he'd bought.  He told me it was kind of like D&D with cards.   Being a huge D&D fan since I was a young teen, my interest was piqued.  He pulled out his starter deck of what if I remember correctly was 4th edition.and started explaining the rules to me.  Mouth agape from confusion, I was instantly hooked.

Now, as people who played during MTG's early days can probably attest, the rules were pretty much up for interpretation.  I'm sure we made a mockery of actual magic with how we played at that time but the mix of the fantastic fantasy setting, the sweet names, the awesome art and Phantasmal Forces  I was hooked.  I just didn't know how hard I was hooked.

I pretty quickly latched onto playing "stupid green decks".  Llanowar elves and his comrade in arms  Fyndhorn Elves helped me to power out many a Craw Wurm and Force of Nature.  On top of that I had an unhealthy obsession with Legolas, ergh, uhmm I mean Elvish Archers.  That is until Orlando Bloom ruined that character for me forever.  GG Peter Jackson GG.

For a long time, MTG was a kitchen table thing for us. Then LTFES introduced me to something that changed my life forever.  Competitive MTG. That however is probably a story for another day.

Hugs and hand-pounds

Josh

PS.  A short list of games LTFES has gotten me into with vary degrees of success

MTG
Final Fantasy 2 (used to denote my to this day obsession with JRPGS)
D&D
Hero Quest
Warcraft
Warcraft 2
WoW
Diablo
Stratego
Risk
VS system
SWTOR

And probably countless ones I can't think of off the top of my head.