Filled with a mixture of sadness and anger I headed back to my hotel room; it was the day before I was to travel back out east possibly never stepping foot in the office of the game company whose products I adore. For nearly the hour and half drive back, I sat quietly contemplating how foolish I felt to have traveled all that way without knowing the office was closed and then begging to just set my eyes on cube walls and merchandise on shelves. But it would have been awesome. If for not this morning episode, I would not have experienced the wonderful time later in the day with a young man named Steven.

I brought two of my standard decks nearly 3000 miles to possibly pay to play at an FNM but as I pulled into my hotel, I remembered that a local MTG store held a free FNM from 2-6 in the afternoon where one can bring their decks and just play and have a great time. I decided to go to the free FNM even though I had no intention of doing anything MTG related that evening. As I entered the tiny store named humorously, Dragon’s Hoard, I saw a couple of tables and a few members of the military playing magic. I also saw a young man standing as if waiting for someone to ask him to play. I sat down and who I assume was his father asked if anyone wanted to play MTG with Steven who was deaf, had difficulty speaking, and was very new to the game. I instantly jumped at the opportunity to play MTG with Steven. In many regards we were very similar since we were new to the store, unfamiliar with the local players, and excited to play.

Steven was shy and his speech was difficult to understand at first. During the four hours of play Steven had grasped many of the intricacies of the MTG game and he was coming out of his shell. We laughed, we exchanged disgust as creatures were destroyed or cards were milled, but most of all we had a great time. And to top it all off, the owner of the store gave Steven a free playmat while I bought him sleeves for his cards. The time I had with Steven in that store made my pettiness of not seeing the MTG headquarters ridiculously sophomoric. Steven was a very novice MTG player, having a great time playing the game that he loved being treated so kindly by the playing community at that tiny little local store. He was a mirror image of me and many of us in the MTG community when we first started playing and it reminded me how terrific individuals can be and how wonderful the game is when it brings people together. In conclusion, Steven I am sorry I played Tome Scour so many times and always untap first on your turn.

All said, there was once a time where a kid looking to get a few games in at a tournament in a place far from his usual stomping grounds was a little intimidated by his surroundings, but after 19 years I guess I've seen more than most

.02,
Jesse

quote:

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Originally posted by JoshSherman:
The only thing I felt a little bad about was that I could tell I was boring him with my deck. I was playing curses and had no quick wincon. I had just enough removal to deal with his dudes. So he spent a lot of time holding 1 toughness dudes in his hand because of Curse of Death's Hold. I didn't really put the deck together with ten year old opponents in mind.

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This is from my child hood, I'm coming up on thirty.

I played right when 4th came out, as a kid. I loved the game, the challenge, trading, deck building, and the thrill of the win. I'd shovel driveways to save up for a dual land ($5-10 dollars). I remember my big purchase was a royal assassin $12. Then I got a Serra angel through ante, big win! No sleeves back then my friends older brothers had moxes and great cards, but I managed a deck to beat them. White blue, counter spells control magics, twiddles, unsummons, Serra angel, binding grasp, dance of many, a time elemental and some others. I'd counter while twiddling their shivans and various fatties of the day until control magic got online. Great deck, it worked so well that magic got boring for my friends. The cards eventually got retired.

A couple years later I'm building my first gaming computer, component by component as I make money doing odd jobs. I'm about 14, the guys I played quake online with are helping me out. Some older guy (probably early 20s at the time) actually would stay on the phone with me helping me build my computer. It's built but it won't boot!! Such a noob, I didn't have an operating system. I can't afford windows 2k, it's was $250 back them. Ridiculous. So the guy I played quake with asked me if I had magic cards, I lit up, he said he'd trade me windows 2k and Microsoft office 2k for 2x erhnam dijinn from Arabian nights. I did not have them, I didn't play green! They were worth 20+ or so dollars back then. So I have my mom drop me off at the the local magic shop, I bring all my cards. The owner did not have erhnam in black border, but one of the older (19-22 maybe?) boys did. I asked him if he would trade them, I had a Serra, duals, assassin, and others, but he refused. He said we could play for ante, he would ante up 1 dijinn per game. I remember being nervous but desperate for windows 2k operating system. I agree because my twiddle control deck is still intact in an ice age starter box. This guy had all his buddies smiling as he is about to steal cards off my young self.

The twiddle deck took him down game 1 easy, maybe he was drawing bad because the magic gods were punishing him for being a bastard. His friends were silent after that. I took the first erhnam. Game two he is berating me for playing twiddle as I counter spell his fatties while Serra beats him down. I won both cards to get me the windows 2k discs!! Out of pitty I gave the guy what I had up for ante, 2 ghost ships, I actually felt bad. I didn't care about the cards then, I would have gave all my cards for windows 2k. I sold my duals and serra for $20 and left. I put the two dijins in an envelope (PWE) with card board on each side, and he simil sent the windows discs after I told him the story.

I started selling custom computers for profit not long after.