The Magic: The Crack Habit albatross is finally taken from around my neck.

Had a guy mail me on the other site, asking if I was interested in trading Magic for a 1st edition (sparkly water) Heroscape sans one piece (his dog ate it). I had a crap load of cards (two long boxes plus a HP accessories box) full of them. The gentleman wanted it for his son, who needed quantity over quality. Well, the boy's getting most crap (in my opinion) but with a lot of nicer card (Sol rings, Demonic Tutor(x6), Goblin grenades) so I think he'll be pleased. We're going to be trading the stuff this week. My wife's overjoyed that I'm getting rid of the crap. If this guy hadn't have come around, I was going to photograph me throwing lands into the fireplace to upload to my gallery.

Am I crazy for doing this??? Nah. I haven't played the stupid game in over 10 years. I saved five of my favorite decks and I'm good. I don't plan on getting sucked into the game ever again and I have no emotional attachment to the stuff. I figure we both win. His son gets cards that he can trade/sell to better ones and I get a game that I'll enjoy.

We both win.

Awesome.


I purged my collection for the third and final time two years ago. The first time I had a MEGA collection, with a couple of moxes, a Black Lotus, some Juzams...good stuff. Sold it for $1100 to a store because I thought the bottom was going to fall out thanks to reprints (Chronicles) + how terrible Fallen Empires, Homelands, and Ice Age were. Plus I didn't dig Type II at all.

Second time I got in was to play with some friends. Ended up trading what I'd collected to one of those friends for other CCG cards. Didn't get in too deeply that time.

I got in a third time and it was almost re-hooked--I started playing in some Type II events, collection Invasion, Prophecy, some other sets. Had a strong Type II Fires of Yavimaya deck that won a local event and stepped all over my friends who still played Magic casually. I came to my senses as soon as I realized again that the Type II steamroller was going to undo my hard work and force me to chase more rares and got out, this time for good.

Still had the cards 4 or 5 years later, then a store owner contacted me out of the blue on BGG asking if I'd like to trade away what I had. I ended up getting several games out of the deal I think...Game of Thrones, Amun Re, Detroit Cleveland Grand Prix, Dungeon Twister, Starship Catan (since traded), and Fury of Dracula. So in the end, collecting paid off for me each time, so I was lucky.


Can't say that for other CCGs...don't think I ever came out ahead or even when it came time to sell off. So in that regard, you can't complain too much about Magic--those cards do hold some value.


The last CCG bug to bite me was Marvel/DC VS., and when they started going toward Type II and having four expansions per year (OVERKILL), I quietly bowed out and never got into another one since. I sometimes miss opening the packs and building decks, but not often. I think I played CMGs/CCGs for 12 years or so, trying out 50 or more, and only Star Wars CCG was ever a rival for Magic in terms of gameplay and strength of the value of the cards.

Ken B. wrote:

Awesome.


I purged my collection for the third and final time two years ago. The first time I had a MEGA collection, with a couple of moxes, a Black Lotus, some Juzams...good stuff. Sold it for $1100 to a store because I thought the bottom was going to fall out thanks to reprints (Chronicles) + how terrible Fallen Empires, Homelands, and Ice Age were. Plus I didn't dig Type II at all.

Second time I got in was to play with some friends. Ended up trading what I'd collected to one of those friends for other CCG cards. Didn't get in too deeply that time.
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Dude, I LOVED Fallen Empires, primarily because of some of the cards were great. Hand of Justice, Breeding Pit, and Ebon Praetor, for example. I made my Sith deck nearly entirely from FE. Praetor=Vader. Hymn to Tourach: Vader smack talk: "You have controlled your fear, now release your anger..." Breeding Pit: Clone Factory.

Granted, a lot of the cards blew chunks, but with a little foresight they worked in certain decks. I loved the Deep Spawn and I used it in a blue denial deck (Counterspells, boomerangs, unsummon, undo, arcane denials, etc.) I had a few creatures to attack with "Reef pirates" to grind cards off the library, Braingeyser, Ray of erasure. Pirates + memory lapse = good thing. Wand of Tawnos to make the pirates unblockable.

Of course, those two decks are NOT for tournament play, just killing time with friends.

I did something similar. I gave away all of my cards except for my two favorite decks. That way, if someone ever did ask me to play, I'd have two really solid decks I could play with.

Feel free to 'give' away some cards to your good mate franky over here...

I'm going to offload a bunch of cards on the 'geek myself. I have some oldies, so it'll be satisfactory tradebait.

For you folks that want to make the game fun again, try 5-Color Magic. 250 card minimum, at least 20 of each color, PLAY FOR ANTE. Seriously. It changes everything.

Here I thought I Knowledge (Board games) of at least +12, and then I can't even comprehend every second or so sentence of this thread.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

Feel free to 'give' away some cards to your good mate franky over here...

Magic's off the table. So, if you're interested in Doom trooper, Jyhad, or Rage I'm willing to negotiate.