My first cards were from Revised Edition, released less than a year after Alpha, where it all began. I was 9, and I loved Serra Angel. My friend wanted me to trade it to him and I wouldn't. My only strategy was to get her on the table, because he couldn't stop her. I'm fairly sure my first deck contained one Serra Angel, 5 Plains (because that's all she cost, right?) and whatever other white cards I had to fill in the gaps. Needless to say I quickly learned that even though your best and most expensive card is a five-drop, you really need more than 5 lands in your deck most of the time.
| This was my only win condition. Those were the days... |
I wish I'd managed to hang onto those cards, but I stopped playing after my friend's older brother smashed me with a deck combo-ing Breeding Pit with Lord of the Pit, which I found be really unfair in my 9 year old mind. I've hated black ever since, and always felt kinda dirty whenever I played it. Like there's a certain way the game is supposed to work, and black doesn't care and breaks those rules just to win. Anyway, I never opened an Ice Age pack, and put down my cards for 17 years.
I didn't stop playing cards though, or even other TCGs. I have Decipher Star Wars cards, Pokemon cards and Yugioh cards from my junior high era, and I even sat down and watched a few friends dueling with Magic cards in high school, but I never picked it back up until a fantasy author named Brandon Sanderson announced on his blog that he would be appearing at a local game store and drafting Innistrad, a new gothic horror set of Magic.
So I decided that maybe I should look into this game that I had put aside as a teenager and I picked up a couple of M12 Intro Packs at a card shop near where I worked in downtown Salt Lake City and brought them home to my wife, who was thoroughly unimpressed. In her defense, I am a little addicted to games of all kinds and we had just been exposed to Ticket to Ride and her attention was diverted elsewhere at the game table. But I was surprised at how quickly I was able to pick up right where I had left off, and even more blown away by the card I found in my Mystical Might Intro Pack, Serra Angel! I was home!
| My favorite printing. Gorgeous art by Greg Staples, clean and concise with no reminder text, and fantastic flavor text. I know it's not as good as it once was, but still my favorite card. |
Now Serra Angel, while objectively a decent card, nowadays is nothing to get excited about putting into a top tier constructed deck. But the fact that it can still be relevant in a set released 18 years after its original printing stands as an example of the longevity that Wizards of the Coast has obtained with Magic: the Gathering. I still love big, swingy angels that blow out the lights of my opponents and never tap. But I discovered that this game I enjoyed as a kid wasn't just for kids, and the last two years that I've been playing again have not only allowed me to meet new players and enjoy tournaments at my local game stores, but also to bring my existing friends closer together, one of whom I played with when I was nine so long ago.
So welcome to my ramblings and views on the wonderful game we all play, and I hope you enjoy them as I much as I enjoy slinging spells and burning creatures. Stick around, this is going to be fun!
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