Excuse the blurry picture (and the bad hair) but this photo, circa winter 2007, documents Patrick Holder and myself in the midst of an epic 3 way game of Magic: The Gathering. While Patrick's current whereabouts and status in the band (last time I heard he started all lady-boy Fishbone tribute act in Thailand called Chumhard), I wanted to write a few words on my longest running recreational activity.
I started playing Magic with Revised, released in 1994. My best friend and I didn't quite comprehend the rules, but we mutually sensed the inherent badassery in "summoning" unicorns to fight off vampires and hurling lightning at treefolk. This predates my first strum of a guitar by a good two years, although I've never put the instrument down and did stop shuffling cards between the release of Odyssey (2001) and Lorwyn (2007). Little did I know that copious amounts of my free time after school turning cards sideways would result in my first meeting with Country Dave.
Dave and I went to different middle schools, but we shared a mutual friend in Mr. Douglass X. Carter, Esq. Doug ended funding my first playstation with his purchase of some of my more powerful cards in the 7th grade, but before he cashed me out (it's occurred twice in the course of the past 16 years) he got six of his cardboard flopping friends to "gather" at his house for a draft. My memory of 1998 is fuzzy and while I consider the biggest achievement of that year to be the release of Refused's The Shape of Punk To Come, the second is my meeting of Country Dave. It's too bad that I can't remember the set we drafted but I can, however, remember that I won the makeshift tournament and the first prize was an out of print pack of "Legends." Hails to victory!
Truth be told, I might not have even played Country Dave that day - or talked to him for that matter. Doug has since moved on to better things (he is currently in pursuit of reducing his waste output and carbon footprint as much as humanly possible) but, one of the other participants, Dane and I play to this day.
Fast forward to two years later and Country Dave (he had a shorter epithet in high school, drop the first vowel, the second consonant and the last two letters to get a better idea) were properly introduced whilst playing bumper pool and somehow that begot Free Jeff, which begot all sorts of other bastardizations of "the ska band."
If (and I'm not taking a very big risk here, this is the blog of a SKA band) you too have shared a love for magical cards at any point in the past two decades, please introduce yourself at the next HP2 show and I will feed you your own underwear...while riding a unicorn to victory.
Better yet, if you are actively playing and will be attending this Saturday's Rise of the Eldrazi prerelease at the LAX Radisson on April 17, be sure to let me know and we'll compare our pulls. And once we look at how much more awesome mine are, I'll feed you your underwear.
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7 comments:
We didn't do a real draft. I took a bunch of my own cards and made makeshift booster packs (with 15 cards and the same rarity ratio).
That was fun. I can only kind of remember who was there. I didn't remember that Dane came until you said so. I remember my friend Alan putting tape on his head to clean his skin or something. Hahaha. I think even David Greenbaum came, despite his not really knowing how to play.
I spent a couple hours a few nights ago reading what was going to be in the 2010 core set. I'd get back into it if it weren't so damn expensive. Towards the end, I always felt like I was buying a pack of cigarettes when I'd buy a booster. 'Where is all this money going...?'
That's why I couldn't remember the draft set! I have no recollection of an "Alan," but I have a vague memory of David Greenbaum sitting on a couch bored.
2010 has been out since last summer and 2011 is coming out in June or July (one base set every year, wasn't super happy the day I heard that announcement). It succeeded in providing a strong "fantasy" element that was the intent of the original game (vampires, soldiers, merfolk, elves, goblins kind of vibe) while feeling less "dumbed down" in terms of card power. There is now a new rarity level, mythic, which hasn't done much to help with the prices of the second hand market. On the upside, you can buy a 3.99 pack of an in-print set and walk away with a $60 card, but without playsets (4 of a card) of those certain cards some decks are at a severe disadvantage in tournament settings.
There are some alternative formats such as pauper, where you are limited to cards that have been printed at the common rarity in some shape or form since the game's inception, and Elder Dragon Highlander where you can only use one of each card but play with decks of 100. EDH decks must select a "general" or a legendary creature and the deck may not contain cards outside of the general's color or cards containing mana symbols outside of the general's color. The general basically starts the game exiled (removed from the game) and you can play him or her as if it was in your hand. If something causes the general to go to the graveyard, you can instead exile it and play it again at the normal cost PLUS two more colorless mana.
It's a fun format, and very flavorful since everyone is using legends with somewhat themed decks.
Anyways, Dane, Patrick Holder, Jimmy Finch, Charlie Kerr, Daniel Harwood and I play fairly consistently and for >$10 you could put together a competitive pauper deck. We mainly play multiplayer, so it's not super cut throat.
Cool. I will definitely join you everntually. I'm not sure when, but that sounds way fun and cheap.
Wait, if I remember correctly wasn't there some big uproar at the Doug Carter party because David Greenbaum made it to finals, but only because Doug was helping him? I remember something like that. Maybe I'm wrong.
Can I be in this conversation too please?
Doug Carter, master of puppets...puppets being David Greenbaum.
Country Dave should also build a pauper deck. And yes, you will be disqualified if you try to bring Babylon5 cards to the table.
hahahaha. I do remember that uproar. I think the deal was that I wanted to play, but I had an even number of friends I wanted to invite, so I helped David since he didn't know what the hell he was doing. Also, I think my mom didn't want me to possibly win at my own birthday party...
This is fun having conversations on a blog. We should remember other things in writing. Like the sinking of the Maine.
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