I used to be a Magic addict. I was into it several-levels-of-hell more deeply than your average player. Where most guys just knew deck types and play styles, I knew the names of all the top players in the world, what they were famous for, who their main rivals were, how well they placed in various tournaments, etc. I knew that Mike Long was reknowned for twisting game and tourney rules (sometimes referred to as “cheating”), that Jamie Wakefield always played with 62 cards in a deck, and that Jon Finkel was the guy currently wearing the “Best Magic Player in the World” cape and cowl*.
You know how most guys know which basketball player is being traded to which team and for what underlying purpose? I was like that with Magic. I used to be, anyway. Like, a billion years ago.
Our friend John was talking about Magic non-stop last night, which is what reminded me of that whole section of my life. I always feel a bit uncomfortable hearing somebody go on about the latest in card game news because it represents a time in my life that I’d rather forget. Or that I’m trying to, you know, not go back to. Just collecting those links above gave me this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, the stirrings of something voracious and embarassingly geeky.
The problem with me is, I’m terribly monogamous about these things. The reason why I stopped playing magic was because I had discovered web dev, and it pushed the card game out of the way rather soundly. (Well, there was also the fact that the game had gotten stale, and I found that I didn’t have the skill to get to the very top. At tournaments, I would always finish at the fringes, somewhere in the top 8 but rarely making it through to the final 2.)
If I got back into Magic, there’d be no stopping it. I can never commit myself to something half-heartedly. It’s always everything or nothing with me. My every waking moment would be devoted to learning and competing. My every sleeping moment would be devoted to dreaming about the next waking moment. I’d be that nuts about it.
Fortunately, there’s little chance that that will ever happen, because the other thing with me is, once I make the decision to drop something, I never look back. Every major addiction I’ve had has ended this way, including that of my two previous girlfriends (see, even card-game geeks have girlfriends sometimes!).
I still think Magic r0x though.
*I don’t mean a literal cape and cowl. We weren’t that crazy.