SpecialK and MTG

SpecialK came around last night for dinner. I have known SpecialK for around 15 years. We first met in university. On that first day, I turned up late to my first class, and the last seat in the room was next to SpecialK. It was a strange friendship that formed, but it did. In the 15 years that has passed, we have been in a situation where we have been in constant contact, and times we have not spoken much to each other. These days we do not see each other regularly, but when we do, it is very much appreciated.

After dinner, SpecialK and I played some Magic: The Gathering (MTG). I knew, from the days in university, that he played a little - so I was curious if he had any of the cards from when he did play. Fortunately he did. He brought them over, but we did not end up using them. SpecialK was more interested in what was currently happening in MTG. From what I have gathered, SpecialK had not played MTG for around 10 years, and was in the belief that MTG was no longer being played. He did not know about the current sets, or the resources on the web.

As the night progressed, we played the Phyrexia and Coalition decks, the Ajani and Nicol Bolas decks, and had a look at some of the other decks I have like the Slivers deck, as well as the Fire and Lightning deck. I showed him some of the cards I put together from the Innistrad set, and he showed me some of the cards he put together. Over the period of around 3 hours, we ended up playing 4 games, along with looking at a lot of the history of MTG in the form of its cards.

SpecialK remembered most of the tricks on playing MTG - like when to play cards, and how to generate resources (mana) to maximum efficiency. We also figured out that while introducing a Planeswalker (in this case - Ajani), while usually a game winning tactic, if played at the wrong time, would result it it being it being easily defeated. If you are going to introduce a Planeswalker into the game, you have to have ways of protecting it against an opponents established creatures. When I played these decks with Chewie, him bringing out Ajani would usually result in him being able to lock me out from doing anything else. Additionally, it is hard to bring out Nicol. His casting cost is very restrictive.

I look forward to playing SpecialK again soon, and hopefully I will find a time to play his older brother too.