[official] How long have you been playing?

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Raptorchan
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Post by Raptorchan » 4 years ago

My first game was in 2005 or maybe 2006 when both Ravnica and Kamigawa were in Standard. However, my first opponent was so harsh so I lost the interest immediately and returned only in 2012 with Return to Ravnica. Playing often since then.

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Lights_A5
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Post by Lights_A5 » 4 years ago

Started in Odyssey when I was like... 11? Lots of early cringey moments from then when I freaked out when I found someone who had all the atogs as well as Atogatog lol.
Played all the way until Conflux, stopped for 2 years, and came back right before New Phyrexia came out. Been playing steady since.

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5colorsrainbow
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Post by 5colorsrainbow » 4 years ago

Alara Reborn/M10 time frame so I recently hit my 10 year anniversary.
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motleyslayer
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Post by motleyslayer » 4 years ago

Kelzam wrote:
4 years ago
I started right around Urza's Saga, so it's been about 20 years. My middle school friend gave me this like 300-card pile that he called his deck that was Jund colors and I loved the art and aesthetic and it's all history from there :p

I love a lot of the art around that period, it really makes me wish I played back then. I used to build some 100 card piles when I started

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Post by Whiffypenguin » 4 years ago

I started playing when I was 13 in the summer of 96. After having played over power and wild storms for a year plus I moved to magic. My first real cards were fallen empires and I remember getting a box of mirage for Christmas that year.

I started playing tournament magic around the release of stronghold. My favorite type 2 was tempest/urza block. I love playing deranged hermit opposition simic.

Nowadays I booster draft and have a lot of commander cards. Because of arena I’m also “playing” standard for the first time since odyssey block.

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Post by ConstantMists » 4 years ago

I started playing during the summer of 1994, in between the releases of Legends and The Dark. I had a reasonable collection, but in 1998 I sold my collection off and give up the game until 2011.

In hindsight I can see that was a mistake, both in terms of fun and finances. I owned over 80 black bordered original dual lands and over 20 moxen. Today that amount of stuff would buy me a new car, not so in 1998. :\
Current Commander decks: Zurgo Helmsmasher - Borborgymos Enraged - Elenda, the Dusk Rose - Doran, the Seige Tower - Sliver Overlord - Yarok, the Desecrated - Scion of the Ur-Dragon - Hazoret the Fervent - Purphoros, God of the Forge - Gisela, Blade of Goldnight - Marath, Will of the Wild - Ramos, Dragon Engine - Ruhan of the Fomori - Narset, Enlightened Master - Kokusho, the Evening Star - Mizzix of the Izmagnus - Dragonsoul Knight (Pauper) - Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas (Precon)

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Subject16
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Post by Subject16 » 4 years ago

I started around the time of Legions in 2003, which means I was about seven years old. My brother who was a good deal older than me was really the one who got into it, as he and his friend had bought some of the preconstructed decks and were playing with them. I had an Elf deck, my brother had Slivers and his friend had a Zombie one. Needless to say I had no idea how to play all that well and was more often than not pubstomped, but it was always a lot of fun. After a while my brother and I stopped playing the actual game and instead created fantasy worlds using the card arts to represent characters and attacks.

Some of our cousins also ended up getting into Magic later down the line, they were about a decade older than us and were also heavily invested in 40k. At one point they committed to 40k and donated their Magic cards to us - it was a large amount of Mirrodin and Kamigawa block cards, and so we were a little more interested in them for a year or so but we didn't expand our collection in any way - we were also spending a lot of time on Pokémon and sometimes Yu-Gi-Oh.

Fast-forward to 2008 when I started secondary school in the town over. On my route to the train station home I notice an LGS and some people playing Magic, and so I pop in, have a little chat, and in the evening I dig up some cards and build a small white weenies deck lead by Myojin of Cleaning Fire. I bring it to the LGS the next day and learn about the different formats and that there was a Prerelease for Shards of Alara over the weekend. I remember pulling a Hellkite Tyrant and being ecstatic about it -in fact it's still in my precious memories page of my binder. I was introduced to EDH quite early on by friends as a way to keep using my nonstandard cards, and haven't stopped playing since.

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SquirrelToken
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Post by SquirrelToken » 4 years ago

I love this thread - great idea. All the stories are great.

I started playing in the summer of 1994. Revised was on the shelves, and everyone was hoping to open a Shivan Dragon. I took a couple financial-based hiatuses, but I never lost interest in the game. I'm sort of on a break now in that I'm not playing weekly anymore, except that I mod a Magic website, I still buy cards and hold drafts at my house, and I top-16ed my last GP earlier this year.

Not much of a hiatus, come to think of it.

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motleyslayer
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Post by motleyslayer » 4 years ago

I've been enjoying reading the stories of when people started. I also read enjoy reading/hearing of people who took breaks in the game and game back due to what caused them to come back

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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 4 years ago

Started playing casually back in Innistrad block, but didn't really get into the game until a little later. The first cards I owned were from Avacyn Restored drafts. I'll probably never know exactly how many problems I have can be attributed to learning to play from AVR limited.... On the other hand, that format gave me a healthy respect for graveyard strategies, so I suppose it worked out?

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Post by SquirrelToken » 4 years ago

motleyslayer wrote:
4 years ago
I've been enjoying reading the stories of when people started. I also read enjoy reading/hearing of people who took breaks in the game and game back due to what caused them to come back
My biggest hiatus was after I graduated high school. My LGS had closed a bit earlier, so it was getting harder to play, and then I graduated and moved away. New town didn't have a store within walking distance, and I had no car (and didn't know anyone). Then I found myself paired up with this guy for our freshman seminar final presentation, and he told the professor "Can we change the date? I have to go to Rome for work." As we were walking back to his dorm after class, I asked what he did for work. He said "Have you ever heard of a game called Magic the Gathering? I'm on something called the Pro Tour."

And that's how I got sucked back into the game full-tilt.

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Jae
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Post by Jae » 4 years ago

Started playing in March 1995. Haven't stopped. As for the what, why and details, I did a piece a couple of years ago on my blog - https://thesilentjudge.wordpress.com/20 ... rom-alpha/

Spent 12 years as a L1 Judge, gave up when the finer points of the rules became non-intuitive to me.

I'm a hardcore 60-card deck casual player who loathes Commander, and I have no interest in online play. I think single-stack Planechase is the finest multiplayer option ever invented, and highly rate Explorers of Ixalan with own decks for duelling or multiplay.

Like every player, I traded cards as I went along, but trading in MTG cards has kept food on the table through the leaner parts of the last 13 years.

Love the game, not a fan of the changes invoked by profiteering, but regard it as inevitable.

My night job is an author of science fiction, fantasy and horror with over 20 books published. I'm nocturnal unless I have to interact with people during business hours for some reason.
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Arborea
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Post by Arborea » 4 years ago

I've been playing since 1995. This was around the time of Ice Age, though my group mostly used Fourth Edition to start. I didn't own a significant number of cards, though, until I had a reasonably-paying job many years later; that was around the time of Mirrodin.
Last edited by Arborea 4 years ago, edited 3 times in total.

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Atraxian
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Post by Atraxian » 4 years ago

Was introduced to cardboard magic on 4th edition, but it was mostly my brother who started collecting them (I made decks with the duplicates, but had really no one to play cardboard with). Mostly at the time I played with the Shandalar pc game.

We stopped collecting cards at Exodus then I returned to the collection and to the game itself during Onslaught. At that point I had various friends who where into MtG and we regularly played tabletop with our homebrews full of proxies (oh, the good old times when I tried various combinations to make a decent reanimator deck that sported lots of angels).
At the time I managed to get a full collection of both Legions and Scourge.

Continued to collect and play up to the first Kamigawa set, then stopped collecting and just played for fun with my friends, but mostly lost occasions to play with them when we left hi-school and all went on to different universities.

I kept myself out of the collecting part and the game until Innistrad hit the shelves (with a small exception with the first alara set, which intrigued me). At that point I both wanted to return back to the game with angels and finally decided to start collecting all of them (all permutations of art, frame and flavour text, including all promos), but at the end of my university days I lost all occasions to play paper magic (the only LGS that is at less that 1 hour by car closed).

Now I only play on Arena, but I'm keeping on with my flying-ladies collection.
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Post by Legend » 4 years ago

I first encountered Magic was early 1994 when Arabian nights was still brand new in a Waldenbooks near you. But I didn't buy any or play the game because I thought my money was better spent on Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition and my time better spent playing AD&D 2nd Ed. instead.

My second encounter with Magic was mid 1995 when Ice Age was cold on the shelves of game stores everywhere. This time, though I didn't spend any money on the game, I did play it. And I even enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the fellow that taught me the game started sexually harassing me, which quickly drove me away from the game. I'm extremely attractive though, so I guess I can't blame him.

My third encounter with Magic was late 1997 the day after Tempest was released and could be found at your local card store. This time I was hooked, and much to my wife's chagrin, haven't stopped playing since.
Last edited by Legend 4 years ago, edited 2 times in total.
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Kajaxis
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Post by Kajaxis » 4 years ago

Back in 2003, my brother brought me his old box of cards that sat in the garage for years filled with Revised cards and onward till about Mirage. At this time I was deeply entrenched in Yugioh, but he taught me how to play Magic and I taught my friend. We played a few hands but ultimately continued with YGO.

Summer of 2005 when Yugioh had banned the Butterfly Dagger, I switched full time to MTG. I started adding my own collection to my brother's with Kamigawa. I started doing tournaments with a Wildfire deck up until its rotation. I took a break from buying sets from about Timespiral to Lorwyn but continued to play casually.

During Shadowmoor I came back to the game with full interest. After Alara hit I built a Cruel Control deck and went to the local tournament only to find out I was the only person to show up. (After Zendikar's release the store closed down.)

I don't do competitive anymore, I most prefer playing 60 Card Casual, Oathbreaker, Cube, EDH, and I'm looking to dip my feet into Pauper.

So, to wrap this all up, I've been playing MTG for 16 years, but for the past few years, I've really taken to the deckbuilding aspect of it.

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motleyslayer
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Post by motleyslayer » 4 years ago

I feel that Planar Chaos/Future Sight-around Zendikar block was pretty slow time in my area too. Most people I know who played locally before then kind of stopped playing around the same time until stores just couldn't fire as many events or sell cards either

Looking back I don't feel I missed much during that time period but is there anything written on sales during that time period or tournament attendance?

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Post by Amalek0 » 4 years ago

2001, although my introduction to limited was with Onslaught. I was introduced to T1.5 and T1 and then gradually introduced to T2 and various flavors of drafting, so the opposite of what most people experience. I had the pleasure of playing at the shop where the Gerhardt brothers played when they were iterating on breaking the format with solidarity. It wasn't until later that I realized the games and decks I was being exposed to were more complicated than most magic players were used to at the time.

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Post by VikingV » 4 years ago

I have been in and out since 5th Edition

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DanzBorin
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Post by DanzBorin » 4 years ago

I started playing in 1998. I played with a buddy's cards and made up white flier decks and such. I finally started buying with a pack of Masques. First pull ever was a foil Bribery. I then started buying Urza's Desitny trying to pull a Masticore and Saga trying to find a Morphling. It was pretty much then I realized packs were the worst way to get cards. I played casual for a little while, but started playing Standard with a Black Bargain/Will deck when standard was Urza's/Masques' block. Such crazy combo play back then! I started getting into Extended and Legacy, but by 2002 I had gotten into cars and sold off my collection for car parts. Wish I hadn't have done that now... lol

I randomly got back in when they did those small intro decks in 2008. I really started getting back in with Zendikar. I noticed pretty quickly that drafting got me lots of fetch lands and fetch lands got me what I needed to play in trade. I continued to mostly draft and play a bit of standard through Mirrodin block when I got sick of Standard and learned of EDH. Until 2017 I pretty much only played EDH. I even abandoned draft as it got boring to me really quickly. In 2017 I picked up Legacy and have been trying to get dual lands ever since. I had enough to play EDH, but stopped at 1 of each because you didn't need any more. Wish I had gotten more when they were $30-$80 back in 2010.

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Post by Cow31337Killer » 4 years ago

Been playing since Lorwyn block in 2007. I learned about the game at summer camp and made lots of tribal decks, but I didn't actually know about stuff like the stack until I got to college some ten years later haha.

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Post by Serpent_Steve » 4 years ago

Started in 2003 when me and a friend split the 2-player starter set for Core 8th edition back in 2003. We managed to survive (being 12 and not being the best deckmakers of the age!) both original Mirrodin and Kamigawa blocks. Enjoyed original Ravnica but we kinda fell off because being teen magic players wasn't cool back then before Coldsnap.

He has never returned but I got interested around Kaladesh block (I liked the imagery) and solidly came back when Amonkhet was released (I'll love anything ancient Egyptian themed!) and I've remained ever since. Although my biggest change is that I mostly play Commander now and occasionally limited as formats now rather than standard.

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motleyslayer
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Post by motleyslayer » 4 years ago

ah the days of not wanting to be seen as a nerd in high school.

Here's a random question for people who have taken over 5 year long breaks, what made you decide to get back into the game after such an extended period of time?

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DanzBorin
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Post by DanzBorin » 4 years ago

motleyslayer wrote:
4 years ago
ah the days of not wanting to be seen as a nerd in high school.

Here's a random question for people who have taken over 5 year long breaks, what made you decide to get back into the game after such an extended period of time?
Someone gave me some of those intro deck things they would give away at stores. I made a deck and started playing with a friend again. Slowly started buying in for fun which lead to standard again. Forgot how much I hated the hassle of standard and decided to go with non-rotating formats.

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Alice
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Post by Alice » 4 years ago

I first picked up a Magic precon in 2006 (it was one of the Time Spiral theme decks, Fun with Fungus). Back then I had nobody to play TCGs with, even though I also collected Pokémon, so my interest in Magic quickly fell by the wayside.

Over the years I developed an interest in the story and game design again, but money was a real problem, so even though I was talking and even writing about Magic, I never played. I finally played my first game at some point during RNA on Arena. I think I've been playing (daily) for six or seven months now! And I still like Saprolings and Thallids.

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