Magic the Gathering place.

I began playing during the span between Beta and Unlimited. The game was remarkably different then, raw but filled with loads of potential. And the best part was that nobody knew how certain rules contradictions resolved - the internet wasn't widely in use in 1994 - so we all had "house rules". A lot of them were wrong, such as allowing the +7/+7 bonus from Righteousness to be permanent because the Unlimited text didn't make it clear that the effect was only until the end of turn.

I stopped on and off, depending upon how the winds of the game blew. Certain sets were very uninteresting and I could've cared less about the environment at those points. Fallen Empires, Mercadian Masques, Odyssey and Kamigawa blocks were all uninspirational.

I play mostly Casual, since my experiences with organized tournaments are mixed. It largely depends upon the types of people who show up. Most are cool and don't get bent out if the match doesn't go as planned but there have been a certain few meta-game zealots who've made the pairings an absolute disaster due to their anal retentive rulesmongering and melodramatic outrage whenever a rogue deck appears. I had one throw a hissyfit because I dropped a Megatog into play; "Who the hell plays with Megatog? Is that deck even legal? JUDGE! Make sure his deck is legal!". Seems frivolous, and it is, but he actually called for the judge to count my cards as a way of disrupting my momentum. Nobody really liked that guy but he didn't do anything technically wrong so the store's owner couldn't justify ejecting him. Instead, a lot of the regulars, like me stopped coming around.

As I said, I enjoy casual games the most. My decks are built on the slightly aggressive side for casual pairups but not so much so that it's an obvious imbalance. I fully expect others to come at me with their creative best. I honestly don't mind losing if it's done in style. With the people I usually play against, we know which decks are too good and they get retired quickly enough. Nobody wants to sit through the same Squirrel-Lock week in, week out.

Ravnica has been an interesting block, however. In my own opinion, it's probably the best block in the past eight years, beating out Urza's which was good but had its obvious flaws. This guild system is clever and very flavorful and I'm glad that no one, dominating deck has emerged yet.

I still don't get to play a lot between commitments to school and work but I've made a couple tournaments and had mixed results, everything from 3rd place to 23rd. I surprised a few players by using Razia's Purification in a "Boros Deck Wins" build and it was very, very effective the first time. But when I returned 2 weeks later, a lot of people had answers. The meta-game evolves that quickly in this area, I guess.

I am waiting for the Simic guild (Green/Blue). It's been one of my best color combos for a long time and I'm eager to see what is added. The Gruul cards were somewhat disappointing though. It's nice to have Savage Twister back but many of the others are unimpressive.

Originally Posted by Robo Jesus

Heh. Yeah, Crash sent them about half a year ago. He threw in some nice extras too.

Yes, and now I somewhat regret letting those Kokushos go. I didn't realize they'd become so useful.

Jam it back in, in the dark.