It's a kind of magic!

I wasted way too much time on Magic: The Gathering during a couple of years in the middle of my undergrad, and eventually swore off of it after I got fed up with the way they kept ratcheting up the power level. Recently, though, I got back into it, and I've dragged Kate with me. Bwaha.

I'd call it a guilty pleasure, were it not for the price, that being absolutely free. Every Wednesday we go play Magic in a pizza joint in Takadanobaba, and the Japanese rep for Wizards of the Coast provides the cards. He also pays for our food and drink, and invites us to pay "whatever we think is fair". Unfortunately we're Canadian, and cheating him wouldn't be polite. But that's OK, because this card, which I received for free, and now own, is being sold in local gaming stores for about C$30.

It's a closed deck "tournament", where your cards are limited to one starter and (up to) two boosters. Antes are exchanged after every match, but no trading is allowed, which makes it extremely difficult to put together a coherent deck, let alone an effective one. My deck was recently dubbed by a number of opponents as "annoying", which delights me to no end, as my highest priority when playing Magic is indeed to annoy my opponent, with the goal of actually winning coming in at a distant second. It's based on a small fleet of Moonfolk, Sakura-Tribe Scouts, and a few stompy cards like Okina Nightwatch and O-naginata. The vast majority of people who read this post will have no idea what that means, but one or two people I know, as well as maybe some random passersby, will detect a hint of decent synergy. 10 points of trample per turn by mid-game, with opposing creatures popping out of existence every turn, is usually enough to win the day. I recently picked this up in ante--Mirror Mage plus Scouts plus Freed From the Real equals a whole lot of bouncing going on! Excelsior!

OK, enough of that. Back to real life. Plans for the rest of the summer and the first bit of fall coming soon.