My second post will be about what probably takes up most of my time outside school, at least mentally: Magic: The Gathering (MTG). And yes I know, it is incredibly nerdy. Also, I suspect that a lot of you are somewhat surprised to learn that a grown man with somewhat acceptable social skills (or that’s at least I tell myself) spends so much of his time thinking about and playing with expensive pieces of cardboard with pictures of Dragons and other mythical creatures.
Before I start blogging about Magic: The Gathering (yes, there will be additional posts about it), I thought I would give a brief introduction to what it is about MTG that captivates me and how I got into it. However, I won’t touch on how to learn to play magic or go into specifics about the game in this post. If you wan’t to know more about that, Wizards of the Coast (creators of MTG) did a good job describing the basics of the game here, here AND here. And then there is this beautiful thing:
As many others I got introduced to MTG when I was a kid (we are talking mid-late 90s here). Back then it was everything you could want as a kid with a vivid imagination. Dragons, Wizards, Magic and much much more, what’s was not to like? Well, as any other fad it faded as I got older and I soon lost interest.
Fast-forward to 2010. I had just started studying at Copenhagen Business School and was hanging out with a friend I met during my studies (Shoutout to Henrik Farbøl – thanks for reintroducing me to this wonderful game). We were hanging out at his place when I noticed a box full of magiccards on his table. I was instantly hit by the warm feeling of nostalgia and asked if I could see them. Soon we were playing and from that moment I was hooked and my addiction grew by the week. And the rest is history as you say.
This brings us to why I find it so captivating. MTG as a strategic game that rewards players for putting in hours in practicing and repetitions like any other sport/game. You can draw parallels to MTG from a lot of different things. As a former handball player I was missing the rewarding feeling of a win, a victory, a clever play, outsmarting your opponent. Components present in most games and sports. So after I quit handball MTG quickly became my new way to get this fix.
However, for me, MTG offers a lot more that just a game to play. I appreciate almost everything about magic, its lore, its artwork, trading and collecting and much much more. Actually, one of the things that appeals most to me is deckbuilding. I can’t tell you how many nights I have spent finetuning a deck, obsessing about a new interactions between cards or trying to ‘break’ formats. MTG lets me be creative in a way nothing else have been able to and it rewards me for my good ideas and I learn from my bad ones.
Finally, it has been a great way for me to meet new people. I have met a lot of amazing people – people I now consider my friends – through magic. There is a lot of stigmata about MTG and especially about the people who enjoy this game, but the game has experienced massive growth in popularity in recent years, even Hollywood have become aware of its growing popularity, and I hope and believe that in a few years most af this stigmata is gone.
Let me know what you think in the comments
J
Delirious Obsessions 