Magic: The Gathering, Part Four

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

My first PTQ top eight unveiled my eyes to the world of competitive magic. I learned about Magic Online, I made a friend purely based around our magic gaming, and felt the adrenaline and excitement brought by competitive magic. After the PTQ, I joined the magic online community. Magic Online, or MTGO, is a software developed by the creators of Magic: The Gathering that allows players to play magic on the web. The rules between paper and online gameplay are the same, allowing for real-time practicing, being especially helpful when getting ready for events. Like in the real world, players must buy cards or packs for their deck, creating a very real entry cost. Magic online works on a ticket basis, where one ticket equals approximately one dollar. I slowly bought my way into Magic Online, buying my modern affinity deck. I loved playing affinity, and Magic Online is what allowed for me to rise to the pinnacle of my affinity playing. I would practice for hours on Magic Online, playing modern Dailies, which were four round tournaments, to great success. I learned the most from playing online, because of the sheer volume of games I could play quickly. Eventually, with success in tournaments, I gained enough tickets to be "infinite". Being "infinite" is essentially being able to play online without having to invest more money into the game. I was able to play modern, standard, or limited whenever I wanted. Both the modern and standard format I have talked about before, but limited is an entirely different beast. Limited is a magic format where players open up packs of magic cards to make decks. There is draft and sealed, draft being where players each open a pack, take a card and then pass the pack down until all the cards have been taken: repeated three times. Sealed is where players have six packs and can use any cards they open in those six packs to make a deck. Players can use as much land cards as they want in limited, with them being given for free. Due to becoming "infinite" I was able to not only practice modern but now the other formats too. In the end, I largely stuck with playing modern, with a bit of limited intertwined. By being able to play limited on a fairly regular basis, it brought me to a new destination in my magic career. Excelsior games held a Friday Night Magic every week. Excelsior Games is a local comic and games store in Maynard, Massachusetts. The people who own this store are some of the nicest people in the world. They are a family run store, and do many free events, like a potluck Thanksgiving dinner, at the store, for anyone who wants to come. I was welcomed into this store, joining them each Friday night to play a draft. I met many a friend there, including the greatest friend I ever made in magic. This friend was around my age and had the same amount of passion for the game as I did. He mainly played standard, while I played modern, allowing for both of us to introduce our respective format to the other. We lent each other cards, I helped him create his first modern deck, and he helped me with standard. At the height of our gaming together I would skype with him as I played Magic Online, screen sharing with him so that we could make decisions together. It was an utter blast each night with him, and he even had his own Magic Online account, and so we would sometimes play drafts together too. My friendship with him was not alone, as I made connections with almost all of the people who regularly played at Excelsior games. I loved going each Friday and would look forward to being able to play in paper. Being able to play in paper by myself was something I had missed for a long time. My brother Robert was almost always up at college, and so all my past competition was gone with him. I had finally found a place where I could play with my friends.