Magic.
That unknown entity that surrounds the world as we know it. Now to the everyday person magic normal conjures up images of what are actually known as ‘Illusions’. David Blaine whacking a dime through the bottom of a Corona bottle without breaking it, or Dynamo somehow seemingly managing to pass through a solid plane glass window without so much as a scratch to said glass. For the older generation we’re talking about David Copperfield making the Eiffel Tower or Statue Of Liberty disappear.
But to others with a little more imagination, those of us that have played a Zelda game or two or any of the Final Fantasy franchise, Magic is quite simply… Magical. Summoning the unthinkable to do the impossible in a far away universe where they are surrounded by houses dug into hill sides, lost cities at the bottom of the oceans, wizards riding bareback on white stallion horses and auras in the form of effervescent dust particles leaving the hands or body and performing incantations.
You with me? because right now my imagination is running wild – i’m quite literally on a magical high! I’m back to remembering my child hood dreams of riding Epona and visiting Zora’s fountain and taking down the Shinra corporation with Ifrit chucking fiery meteors at my side, with a company of elves shooting arrows at lighting speed past my ears as I control the elements with my hands.
I have to shout out to my friend Gunbuck here and say that had I not seen his Instagram hashtag #WishMyFriendsLikeThis on a picture of some playing cards I would never know the elation of being so purely addicted to something since Pokemon first did the rounds back in 1999. Me being me assured him that as his best mate i’d have a look into what ever it was that he was so keen about and if I liked it i’d take it up and then he wouldn’t be on his own.
After several hours on Google and Wiki I had read the full backstory to the creation, history and ethos of Magic:The Gathering.
Amazing.
In short in Magic: The Gathering, you are the Wizard or Mage (known as a Planeswalker) travelling the different Planes of the Multiverse, battling other planeswalkers you meet by way of a turn based card system summoning great creatures and casting spells. To even attempt to write the rules here would be a ridiculous ask; but I shall try and explain the process in ever so basic terms: You have a deck of cards called a library at the beginning of a game each player Planeswalker draws 7 cards. Summoning creatures and castings spells is not easy and everything comes at a price, and there is a currency (of sorts) in the form of Mana. Mana is what is needed to pay the price for what you want to do, mana comes in the form of Lands, and different colour mana entitles you to different abilities and creatures etc.
Each planeswalker starts a game with 20 life and the object of the game is to deplete your opponents life to zero by way of summoning creatures to attack and casting various sorceries. There are five colours of Mana in the multiverse – White, Blue, Black, Red and Green. Each colour having different meanings and representations. White for instance is the colour of Order and Protection, whilst Red is the colour of Chaos and Emotion, Black is Decay and Death, Blue being Deceit and Intellect and Green being Nature and Life. Because of the differing meanings of Mana the creatures and spells representing that particular mana act in different ways and have different abilites. Thus the game is one of Strategy. Summon your Green creatures too early and they may not be as powerful as they could be and Black or Blue creatures might be able to send them to graveyard early in the game or set them on themselves before they have done anything for you.
It was my anniversary on Thursday, 3 years with my soul mate, and I quite simply have the most amazing fiancée 
I could wish for. I had been conversing with Gunbuck for several days and hours about getting some cards of my own, and through his extensive knowledge of the game I have learnt a fair bit about it – Dannii knew this and on Thursday I was surprised with my own Deck Builders toolkit – 285 cards that would allow me to start the making of my libraries ready for battle. I have chosen Green and White mana to build around, with a main library of each and a mixed one – I chose these colours as Green is my favorite colour and their back-stories interested me the most; with my first expansion that I intend on trying to collect being Avacyn Restored. It sounds ridiculously geeky and you know what it probably is, but it is a reasonably inexpensive hobby.
To get my head around the rules I was informed by Gunbuck that there is a computer game – Magic: The Gathering Duals of the Planeswalkers 2013 – as part of this game there is a tutorial that will help teach the rules and how the turns work, playing this and then the game itself will set me in good stead for playing Gunbuck himself and others using my actual cards 🙂
In other news, i’ve been using NiQuitine patches in an attempt to kick the smokes and you know what, i’ve been 5 days smoke free! Not one single puff, secret cig, excused drag or stressed releaving cigarette in sight. It’s hard to explain, but the craving just isn’t there – believe me I still want one, at times i’m still thinking ‘i should go for a fag’ like now for instance, i’m sat here typing away thinking to myself
‘you’ve gone 5 days whats one gonna do, you know you want one’
And that’s where the willpower has to kick in, I can do this, I can beat this – well until i’m laid on a sun lounger under the glorious sunshine in some foreign country again drinking free beer…
I had my last day at work yesterday, off for a week to Centre Parcs then start my new job as Home Manager on my return. Gunbuck and his girlfriend are moving back to Sleaford. We have the last few games of the LBBA season and Dannii starts her new college course; so a few things to look forward to 🙂
See you in the next plane fellow walker…
Holla
Ell Himself
The Thoughts and Ideals of Ell Himself 