So, I haven’t written in a while. I’ve sort of been taking a break from playing Magic. Sure, I’ve been keeping up with the latest goings-on and whatnot (can you say Battle of Wits!?), but until M13 comes out on Magic Online, I’m going to be writing about something a little bit more personal. This article is going to be about why I play Magic. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but everyone that plays Magic has a reason for doing so; something that drives them to play. Be it for the fame, money, or just for fun, everyone has their own reasons. What are my reasons? Well, let’s get started, shall we?

Hello there, friends. You might remember me from such places such as "work," "school," or "the Internet." I’m sure some of you have noticed my absence from these various locales, especially during the weekends. Where do I go? What am I doing all weekend? Well, my dear friends and anonymous readers, I’m playing Magic: The Gathering. Now, I’m not going to explain the whole premise of the game or the complexities of it. No, instead of I’m just going to tell you the basics.

It’s a card game that has each player trying to whittle down their opponent’s life, usually from 20 to zero. Each player has a deck of cards, typically at least 60 in the type of Magic I like to play. You can have zero to four of each specific card in your deck. For the format I enjoy playing, there are currently four legal sets. Two of the sets are considered "core" sets. These sets use simpler cards and are half reprints from older sets. The other two sets are rather large and are broken into three smaller sets. But enough about Magic; let’s talk about what’s important. Me!

Disappearing Act

It’s the weekend. Suddenly, I’m not at work anymore. I’m not answering your phone calls. Where am I? Off traveling the world and playing Magic, obviously. And by traveling the world, I mean mostly just driving around the New England area and playing in tournaments around there. Sometimes I even fly out to some far away, exotic location such as Philadelphia or Indianapolis. But why do I do it?  Because I love this game.

There, I said it. I love playing Magic. I like being able to outplay and outthink my opponents. I like having to make a multitude of different decisions, each one becoming increasingly harder and constantly being impacted by other various factors from the game. I want to know that I did my absolute best at a game and won because of it. I enjoy meeting new people and getting to know them. Hell, I don’t even mind losing a lot of the time because I get to play Magic while doing it.

Aside from loving the game, are there any other reasons I disappear for weekends at a time? Hell yeah, there are! A huge reason is that I get to see my friends who I only get to see at these tournaments. These are the friends that live in exotic locales such as Michigan and Illinois. Without going to these tournaments, I would never get to see my friends who live halfway across the country. It’s because we go to these big tournaments that we actually get to see each other, have dinner, swap stories, hang out, and cause all sorts of hijinks.

I’ve made a lot of friends at these tournaments, and I can only imagine that I will continue to make more over the course of more tournaments. So if I love the game and meeting new people, is there any other possible reason for me to disappear over the weekends? Why yes, yes there is.

Profit!

Magic tournaments offer some seriously sweet prizes. In fact, the StarCityGames.com Open Series offers a ton of prizes for their tournaments. Remember that time I came home with over $1,000? You can thank StarCityGames.com for that one. And remember how I was trying to win a flight to Barcelona? That was yet another potential prize of winning a tournament. No, the prizes aren’t my sole motivation when I go to these tournaments, but it definitely doesn’t hurt if the prizes available are pretty awesome.

Let’s not forget that by playing Magic, I was also able to land this sweet gig. Writing for this very website may not seem like it’s a super big deal, but I’m extremely grateful for the chance to prove myself to the Magic community through writing and providing decklists. Secretly, it’s also not so bad being able to say, "Hey, look! I’m on the Internet!"

Magic, The Game I Love

Ok, sure, so this article was kind of cheesy and not meant for everyone, but not every article is meant for everyone. During this lag time of M13 being released in real life but not yet on Magic Online, I wanted to share my thoughts on Magic and shed some light on where I disappear to during the weekends. Everyone plays for different reasons; now you know mine. Next time I suddenly disappear from work, just remember that it’s so I can do something I love: play Magic.

krazykirby AT gmail DOT com

@krazykirby4 on Twitter

krazykirby4 on Magic Online