A little box of magic

Since I bought the "Eldrazi Assault" MTG intro deck I've been enjoying it!

It is an immensely popular game at Athena where I work and even my son has hopped on board and bought himself a deck, so I've been able to get a few games in. Compared to my usual games involving dozens of models and rulebooks and dice, MTG is extremely portable I can easily keep a couple of decks in my bag so I'm always ready for action.

I've also discovered the joy of boosters! Buying one and opening it brings a certain (albeit small) rush of euphoria as I carefully tear it open to see what cards might be inside. I often say it's like a "mini christmas" every time you open one.

A Magic deck fits in this small box

From observing the many customers in-store I see varying levels of competition. There's casual players who are those that want to enjoy the game at its lower (easier?) levels. Then there is a sliding scale going on up to the serious (for want of a better word) players, who are constantly tweaking their decks with creatures, spells and lands ranging from a few pence up to and often exceeding £100 (per card).

I have myself begun to adjust my primary deck with a couple of cool cards I've found in boosters, I've yet to experience buying single magic cards (although I have got my eye on a couple) Athena Games have an absolutely huge collection available here.

Along side my primary deck I have also amassed quite a few colourless Eldrazi cards which I feel inexplicably drawn to, they favour mighty, slow, behemoths that take a perilously long time to summon - but - once they enter the battlefield they can often stomp your enemies into dust! This has inspired me to purchase a dual deck "Zendikar versus Eldrazi" (for the Eldrazi half at least) which actually helped me win not only my first victory (against another new player) but also a second win against a more established opponent! So this has greatly hyped the Eldrazi in my mind and I think they're going to be featuring much more in my future :)

I need to learn (and memorise) some of the newer cards I now have and hopefully get in a few more practice sessions at work, but I'm feeling more comfortable with the game and look forward to it and it's always available, in my backpack and easy to transport around!

So . . . . Magic

What is all this Magic the Gathering about then?

I'm looking to try my hand at MTG because since I began working at Athena I've realised how astonishingly popular (and portable) it is.

Historically I've never been into card games of any kind, "toy soldiers" have traditionally been more my thing, but I feel I could dip into MTG as it seems relatively cheap to start up and looks like I'd have a plethora of opportunities to play & learn at work.

My first instinct has been to go for an intro deck but after seeking advice from some local players I've been advised to go for either an event deck or a dual deck. Intro decks are your basic startup deck with rather run of mill cards for ease of learning. Event decks are better structured for competitive play (but I imagine a bit trickier to learn?) and finally, dual decks are designed for two players to begin their MTG journey side by side.

Also for my consideration is the five colours of magic, these are the different sources of power (and effect) available and are something like.

• White - Protection & order
• Green - Life & nature
• Black - Decay & death
• Red - Fury & chaos
• Blue - Deceit & intellect

So I need to pester my workmates for a little more info and take the plunge with some form of structured deck, stand by for more info :)

And after some more talking and pondering, I got myself an "Eldrazi Assault" (Red & Black) intro deck with two boosters included. It's given me a ton of cards to start with and try to figure out.