Magic

I love Magic: The Gathering, this should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me at all, I don't play often anymore but I still collect the cards. I love everything about it, the art, playing, reading the lore, even the business aspect of buying, selling, and trading, it is fun, all of it.

My old addiction

There is a new set coming soon, there always is so that isn't really new, Wizards of the Coast has the set release schedule down pretty solidly these days. As is tradition, cards from the new sets are being spoiled ahead of time so that hype can be built up for some of them, as is usual there is commentary on them, and as is usual I see something along the lines of "Save your money and don't buy packs, just purchase singles of what you want and ignore the rest."

This guy is rad, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise

  This is sad to me, see, I always feel like opening packs is one of the best parts of the game, and can be a fun social aspect too. I would crack open boxes at my store to stock my rare case and if I had a regular in there with me I'd have them join in if they wanted to, and they almost always wanted to, sharing the experience of treasure hunting, gloating when you open something cool, commiserating when your friend doesn't, and applauding when they get lucky, is a lot of fun and it seems to me that a lot of people lose track of fun as they rush to build their tournament ready power decks.

I started playing in late 1993, these were formative years for me and I have distinct memories and hard to parse emotions from those years, there was something about that time, and my age, that I have never been able to replicate since, this is before the internet, I barely knew how to play and had no idea what was valuable, or even what was rare, but there was a sense of wonder when opening packs combined with the smell of the new cards and the outlandish art that kept me coming back to the game over and over again.

Seriously, look at it.

I almost never buy singles these days, never really have, mostly because of that feeling, yes there is an element of gambling addiction to it as well, I won't lie, but recapturing the feeling of discovery from those days is really the primary goal I think. It's impossible to do, printing techniques have changed, the art style is dramatically different, and the internet makes it possible to know almost everything about it before you even open a pack, but every once in a while, a hint of a smell or the feel of sorting through a pack give just a little reminder of it, and that is enough for me. Call me a victim of marketing and you won't be wrong, but it's fun, and it makes me happy.

This one is my favorite, I made a replica once out of clay.