Origins - Part 3 - Card Gaming

Welcome to Part 3 of my Origins Series, Card Games!

 

There are many aspects to being a Nerd, but in my mind, the collecting and playing of card games ranks pretty high up there. As such, it is only right to dedicate some time and blog space to my own experinces as such.

 

As a kid growing up, card games were a huge part of how my family taught me various skills, particularly in regard to winning and losing. A sore loser or a bad winner do not get invited to play many games, where as a gracious winner or loser will consistantly be a part of the group. Beyond that, the types of games I grew up on fostered strong addition skills, as well as developing particular strategies for the order in which cards were played.

 

I started simple, with the basic Go Fish, Slap Jack, and Solitaire, moving eventually into Poker for pennies, though I had a hard time understanding that. As time went by, I moved into more complex games, Cribbage, Pinochle, and Hearts. Cribbage in particular had quite a bit to do with my ability to do relitively simple math quickly. Pinochle and Hearts are both games that are guided by team play, so understanding when and how to play the cards you are dealt is particularly important.

 

Moving into College, I got into a game called Euchre, a very fast paced game, team based, with a concentration in short hands, where mistakes cost you... a lot.

 

But enough about generic, regular card games. Lets get down to the real meat of this post, the real why it is important to understand about me. Trading card games.

 

When I was around 8 years old, Pokemon took off like a rocket. I was young, impressionable, everyone was doing it... so I was too. I remember, my very first pack of cards, I pull a Kangaskhan... I remember being so excited... then realizing that... kangaskhan really is not good. Now, remember, 8 years old, i knew next to nothing about the game.I had no idea how to deck build, so my decks were... everything I had. I tried to play the game itself with my Father, my sister... but we usually devolved down to making up rules because neither of us understood them. Pokemon cards, for me anyway, were my true Icarus. They rose fast, flew high, and crashed and burned. I bought way more boosters than I knew what to do with, and ended up giving most of my cards away. I actually went looking for them the other day, and all i found where the commons I had. I realized, as I was exiting the hobby, I gave away all my rare cards to one of my friends... and sadly, those cards would have been worth quite a bit of money now. Well, live and learn.

The only problem was, I didnt learn well enough. From Pokemon, I moved into Yu-Gi-Oh. it was probably 2-3 years later when Yu-Gi-Oh got going, and I remember, again, everyone around me had cards. Gotta fit in! So, once again, I purchased cards. There is a pretty difinitate difference between my pokemon collecting and my Yu-Gi-Oh collecting... with Pokemon, most of the boosters were bought for me. Family, Grandparents, even friends... they bought Pokemon boosters for me. With Yu-Gi-Oh, that changed. It was me, spending my allowance to by boosters. Needless to say, once the hype started to die down, I stopped cold turkey. I did not enjoy the mechanics, I didnt understand the nuances to the game, so i did not have fun with Yu-Gi-Oh. So again, I gave my cards away. The only real good thing about my experiance with Yu-Gi-Oh was that i was about to bring my Pokemon experiance back..., and buy very few boosters. I primerally bought full starters because I knew I had a deck I could play with out of the box.

 

But now I have to move on to the mother of all card games... Magic the Gathering. I went into Magic the Gathering kicking and screaming... I remembered my experiances with Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh, and knew that card games were not my style. The only problem is... card games ARE my style. I was approched about Magic the Gathering a few times in College... members of my Fraternaty played quite often. I resisted. I couldn't bring myself to even try. I knew my addictive personality would take over, and I would buy way too much. So I held off. But not for long. The year I graduated College, I was working with a very awesome dude named Jared... Jared was all sorts of into Magic, and he convinced me to give it a try. He let me play with one of his decks... and I was hooked. Perhaps the next day, I purchased the M14 Deckbuilder's toolkit. From it, I built my very first deck... a black green Festering Newt/Bubbling Cauldron/Bogbrew Witch Lifesteal deck. It was pretty terrible, but it was my own. Since that day, 2+ years ago, I have aquired a stupid collection of cards, built around 20 different decks, and played many casual games. Magic holds a much greater appeal to me for a few different reasons, the first of which being I am old enough to understand the true nuances and mechanics to the game. Secondly, the art one the cards themselves seem so... mature. Developed. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Magic is fairly easy to teach. It is easy to learn, but hard to master.

Thus is my Background for Card games, I hope you enjoyed reading about it!

How did you get into Card gaming? What got you started?

-Rob-