Magic the Gathering place.

Here's a game I used to play far too much a long time ago. I started playing in the 11th grade, with Revised, just before Fallen Empires. Contrary to a lot of people, I loved Fallen Empires for the flavor that it introduced (Thrulls rule the world). It took me a lot of trading, but in my heyday I had 4 of the moxes (Ruby, Jet, Pearl and Emerald), 3 Juzams (one signed, which I was so happy to have), 2 Abysses, Tabernacle, Time Walk, Jihads, Alladin, Thunder Spirits, Berserks, all the Duallands, Mana Drains, Sinkholes, Icestorms, and tons of the harder to get utility cards. I also (for some insane reason) decided to collect Lords of the Pit. I ended up with around 80-90 ish of them (I still actually have them to this day).

I tapered off the game a lot after Urzas (if I'm remembering the order of the sets right, heh), and stopped completely a few sets after that. My main gripe with the game was that everything became geared towards Type II, which I hated, since I worked hard to collect the older stuff. I remember back in the Tempest age where people were saying that it made sense since it was cheaper. I called bullshit then, and I still call it. It's insanely more expensive to play Type II than Type I (I can't remember what they're called now...just going by the old names).

I also remember the starting of 3 new play mechanics every block, which I hated really only for one reason: They never really supported anything that any other block started, which is too bad really. I thought Ice Age was the single best set to come out, with Alliances a close second, and even up till now, they've never brought back anything to do with those sets as far as my knowledge goes.

One thing that peeved me to know end was the constant reprinting of older cards with an exaggerrated mana cost or other such sacrifice to it and printing it again as a "new" card. Time Walk, Demonic Tutor, Time Twister, Regrowth, and more all got reprinted in their own way, only they didn't bother to make them more interesting (barring Final Fortune, if I remember correctly), they just made them cost more.

I mainly played Black, as I thought it was the most interesting color. Kill your opponent before you kill yourself. It involved big risks, sacrifice and most of all: speed. Speed kills, and that was what I took with me into every serious game. I had quite a few different versions, running an evil speed black which evolved into a modified Hatred deck. I also ran Black/Red/Green quite often with Land Destruction. I did Hand Denial, Shallow Grave, Necropotence, you name it, I tried it out. Eventually the deck evolved into a mono-Black engine of death (barring a few artifacts thrown in for some board control) that basically revolved around Everything Denial. I would make you lose your hand, your land, your creatures, your life. It was very fast, and even when it stuttered off the draw, could pull off amazing comebacks with cards like Masticore, Thrashing Wumpus, Yawgmoth's Will, Nevinyrral's Disc, and a few others. I loved that deck...

I also had fun making my fun multi-player decks. Jokulhaups, which I ran either Red/Green with Whirling Dervishes and Orggs, coupled with Tinder Walls, Mana Crypts and Mana Vaults to run it, or a slower White/Red with Ruks/Pheonixes/Ivory Gargoyles, or Blue/Red with the Mighty Sandbar Crocodiles. I loved Jokulhaups.

My Chains of Mephistophales Deck was a lot of fun too, and when people saw the combo hit them for the first time, they were stunned. Same with my mighty Storm Cauldron/Anhk of Mishra/Mana Barbs/and a couple of other cards that only had 7 land in the deck (and it worked for some reason!). There was the fun to play Minotaur, Barbarians, and Thrulls decks when we got to races games.

There was the Underworld Dreams from Hell deck (back when it was still restricted), with Carnivorous Blooms, Howling Mines, Wheel of Fortune, all the fun. I ran a Highlander 5 color deck as well that was so great to play. My Richard Kane-Ferguson Deck, where I only used cards drawn by him (barring land of course). There was the Forsaken Wastes/Copper Tablet/Pox Fuck-you deck, that was designed to piss as many people off at once and see how long I could last.

Ah, good times.

I hardly play at all anymore (I think I've looked at my cards once in the past year...or two). I mainly play the Star Wars CCG, which I found superior to Magic in nearly every way, and still do actually. My game just isn't officially supported anymore, heh.

I wouldn't mind getting back into the game again, but I think if I did, it would be exclusively for tourney/Pro Tour play. I think that's why I don't...I really dislike the crappy attitudes that players get at these things. I had a guy cry because he lost to me once. It was terrible...I find people just seem to forget that this is a game, and take it way too seriously. They forget to have fun. The younger ones (sorry to be a bit judgemental here, but I'm going off my experiences) were probably the worst. They only would want to trade for the "powerful" cards, which were the cards that were valued the highest in Inquest at the time. I hated it. They never played for fun, and when their almighty dueling deck got trounced in a multiplayer game (which was what they traded to get cards for...and yet multiplayer is what we as an area would generally play), they always whined that people were picking on them, not realizing, despite what we were trying to always tell them, Dueling decks should never be played in multiplayer formats. They do not work. It was their general attitude that finally broke my final straw with the game. That and getting rid of Dark Ritual. That really sucked...

Fun ideas that we did:
A Conquest of Dominaria ongoing tournie, where we would pick a couple of races, start with a couple of "countries" and have to conquer the rest via games with our races. You could only use cards that were associated with that race, and I think you were allowed a token amount of non-race cards, something like 8 I think. Your decks would have to be drafted ahead of time, and all cards that were "questionable" as per race affiliation were judged on by the whole group. "Humans" was also not a race, but "Knights" were, as well as "Soldiers", Goblins had to say Goblin their name (not just in their summon text, as there were far too many goblins to choose from compared with any of the other races). I remember the Thrulls getting whumped badly in this, but if I remember correctly, the Minotaurs did really well. I know I didn't win, but I came close...

Emperor and Two-Headed Giant were both classic multiplayers we liked to play (I had a Land Equilibrium deck that I designed to play around my buddies Counter deck that was fun). We also played a ton of Sealed deck games (I won me my Mox Emerald with one of those!). Highlander, and 5 color tournies. Monochrome as well. We liked to mix it up a ton, to keep everything fresh. I think this helped keep interest in the game far beyond the "what's the necessary one card from this new set that I need to include in my tourney deck" mentality that was prevalent much later, after many of the core group moved away, and others came to take their place. It let people use cards that would otherwise sit and collect dust (I can say that I have used 4 Personal Incarnations in a deck, as well as things like the almighty Elder Land Wurm and Lord of the Pit. How about an all "Hero" deck or an all "Giant" deck...hard to pull of successfully, but definately fun to try).

If you want a deck to try that is a blast to play, make yourself a "Cantrip" deck. Use only cards that allow you to draw other cards. I've made a fun one that is around 80-90 cards big. The challenge is to kill the opponent, if you can, or survive long enough to deck yourself. Man, I've killed myself so many times with that deck, but it is definately a blast to play, and always draw cards, no matter what you do...having Underworld Dreams played on you kind of sucks though (especially if they knew before hand I was going to play that deck...it wasn't as if I was trying to win.

EDIT: Holy crap that was longer than I expected...

Jam it back in, in the dark.