on Magic the Gathering

Disclaimer: This is not meant to be an article promoting or bashing the game. Any views here are purely my own and should be taken with many grains of salt.

If you do not know what Magic the Gathering (to be abbreviated as MTG) is, it's the most popular collectible card game in the world, which has its own market and tons of tournaments. It was very popular with teenagers ever since the late eighties, and have been going strong till this day for its complexity yet appealing to beginners with its fantasy settings and gameplay that's easy to pick up.

I first started playing it when I was in Sec 3, and most of my friends are playing it too in one way or another, as the culture starts to spread around. As fast as it got to me, I drop it as soon as I could. There's a few reasons why i decided to stop playing, even though I'm intrigued by the game (and I love card games).

1) It's an expensive hobby. Cards are expensive, and I tend to spend a lot. Plus, I'm not good at trading (which has become a business to some) and I tend to lose money whether in the short or long run.

2) I'm bad at playing it. This can be seen when I formed decks that practically does nothing, haha. (the rest love to suan me for my Legend deck) It's actually quite bad on morale. I realise how bad I am at it when I played with Zhiye using one of Fred's, or rather SCP's, deck. However, I have to agree that the more you play this game, the better you will be at critical thinking, a skill I've not acquired. Sadly, I'm not ready for that yet.

When I play this game, it is a big brain drain on me, and especially when I failed to have good judgment. The rational thinking involved does not fit in with me, causing me to be hesitant thus missing any chances of winning.

Although I've quited this hobby, I do keep two albums worth of cards which are part of my Legends and Dragons collection. Maybe one day when I'm earning enough, I will go on to continue my hobby of collecting all those legends and dragons. I may be a bad player and trader, but I do consider myself as some sort of a collector, albeit one who is easily conned though. But with guys like Youming and Joseph around who are deeply associated with the game, I shouldn't have any problems relying on the both of them.