Tag: cards

Current favorite game

Taylor BurianLeave a comment
Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why?
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I’ve brought it up a few times before, but the table top card game Magic: The Gathering is probably up there at the top of the list of my favorite games.

It’s easy to get into, although, in the long run, it’s also not exactly super affordable. I say that because you can buy a pre constructed deck (referred to as a precon) for a reasonable price, but if you want to expand your collection and have more than one deck or play multiple styles then you need to buy more and more cards.

All that being said, the main reason I enjoy the game so much is because of how many different ways there are to play. There are so many cards, with hundreds of new cards being added each year, which makes it possible to build and rebuild decks over and over again. The rules are relatively simple but there are a lot of different mechanics to choose from and play with/against. The simple approach is: draw cards, play lands/mana (kinda sorta like the Pokemon TCG, if you’re familiar), cast spells, and do things with those spells until you win. How you approach all of this can be determine by the cards you want to play. Some give you more draw power, others make it so you can reduce the random chance of draw what you need by just letting you search your deck for what you want (within reason), and some cards will activate effects or abilities that do a wide variety things to affect your opponents.

Through all of this, you can come up with very straightforward strategies to win, or you can develop convoluted plans that require several cards to even get your strategy off the ground. In that regard, it becomes almost like a puzzle. A puzzle against time and your opponents putting together their own puzzle. Get the right cards, do all the things. And yet, on top of the element of chance, there is also a certain amount of skill involved. Guessing what your opponent is planning, getting cards to offset their potential plans and protect yourself, remembering the cards in your deck versus what you think they might have in theirs. It can almost be like an incredibly complicated game of poker.

So many facets that can each make the game more interesting the more you choose to play. Unless you’re hyper competitive and build your deck for it, no game ever plays out the same as others.

Cardboard crack collection

Taylor BurianLeave a comment

Do you have any collections?

I’m not really a collector in the sense that I will go out of my way to have a complete set of something, but I have spent more than I should have on Magic: The Gathering cards.

To start in the simplest way, there are two methods of collecting those cards. Buying them individually, or buying packaged products. I’ve done both, but I LOVE opening booster packs. It’s the only form of “gambling” I frequently partake in because I still get something even if I don’t get what I want or something I really hope to get.

I don’t want to talk about specific dollar amounts spent on this hobby, but I do want to make it clear that my collection is not just for show. I have way too many cards, and while the vast majority of my cards sit in boxes waiting to maybe someday be sorted, I do have a lot sitting in easy to reach places ready for me to use.

Loss of interest in a hobby

Taylor BurianLeave a comment
Daily writing prompt
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
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Thankfully the prompt is automatically at the top of the post or else I would feel the need to start with “Nobody panic, I’m not losing interest in a CURRENT hobby.”

Now, to be honest, I don’t have an exact answer because I’m sure I’ve forgotten some things, but yes there are definitely activities I’ve grown out of over the years. As a kid, I used to love riding my bike all over the place, playing with LEGOs for hours, probably some other things that kids typically lose interest in as they get older. Moving the clock forward to college, there used to be more alcohol in my life. More parties with friends. Not anymore, though, because I had a great (negative) role model about alcohol and I came to realize that I didn’t like the way it made me feel. All of those things are activities or hobbies I outgrew or lost interest in, although I really should consider getting a bicycle again and just riding the bike trail that loops around my city.

Funny enough, there is one hobby that I “outgrew” that ended up coming back. Pokémon cards. Unfortunately, when you’re a kid you don’t have a disposable income, so I couldn’t feed that cardboard crack addiction of buying booster packs. I didn’t come back to the game until more than 20 years later when my niece and nephews started to get into it. I don’t actively buy packs for that game these days, so I guess I still sort of outgrew it, however I do collect and play Magic: The Gathering instead so I would say I came back to the hobby eventually. Just in a different way.

It’s interesting how life changes like that.