"Alara Reborn" Launch Party

I went to the Magic: the Gathering "Alara Reborn" release event today. Highlights were getting a bunch of new cards, getting to play a few games, and scoring my first non-loss (a 1-1-1 tie), and my first win (2-1). Yay! There's hope for me yet.

The main event was a "sealed" thingy. Everyone gets 6 booster packs (3 "Shards of Alara" and 3 of the newst expansion, "Alara Reborn"), and a half an hour to throw together a 40+ card deck. Nothing in my packs really jumped out at me as being super duper "I gotta play this!" awesome, so I grabbed a few cards that looked interesting and put together a deck. I proceeded to get my butt kicked the first two matches, extending my perfect losing record to 0-7.

My two more experienced opponents gave me some pointers, and I scaled my deck back significantly, going from 4 colors to 3. The result was a much more consistent mana base, and I was actually able to play some of my cards!

The result being, I eked out my first non-loss. He won one, I won one, and we ran out of time before he could finish me off in Game 3. So we tied. Yay! Then in the last match, my opponent had consistent mana problems, and I was able to win 2-1 pretty easily. Cool! So I went 1-2-1 for the day, bringing me to 1-5-1 overall. Not bad. :)

Yeah, it was fun. I was a nervous wreck emotionally, but the mental workout was worth it. I found that the strategy of building and tweaking a deck is very intellectually stimulating. Studying all the different cards, learning each color's "personality," thinking about how it all works together. And the game itself is a lot of fun, even though I spent much of the time reading all the cards as they were played (since I'm not familiar with what they do). Good stuff.

I played more often around 1994-95, and I had a good time, but then all my Magic-playing friends scattered to the four winds. As I mentioned earlier, I became interested again, and I've been enjoying it. I just wish I could find a group to play with where I don't have to pay $15 to play a small number of matches at a store. And that's where the weight of social awkwardness drags me down. Sigh...

Oh well, it's still fun. :)