...About How Busy I Am (Part IV)?

IV. Magic: the Gathering

Getting in to competitive Magic is simply the best thing I've ever done. I've grown as a person, enjoyed an incredibly deep and satisfying game, and met the best humans on the planet. To go on and on about how strongly I feel about Magic would be an exercise in utilizing positive adjectives without repeating myself. Suffice it to say, I quite like the game.

And yet, I've spent less and less time playing it lately. I still watch coverage of and hang out at events, keep current with new cards and news, and play casually with friends once or twice a week. I maintain a Cube (a curated collection of cards from which events and games can be played), and am seemingly always working on something tangentially related to competitive Magic. But I gave up maintaining any sort of collection, or playing in events regularly, several years ago. Other things seemed like better or more important uses of my time and money. I don't really enjoy traveling, and almost never practiced for events even when I was playing, so making a real run at the professional scene didn't strike me as a good idea.

I've played in the occasional PTQ (an event which awards the winner with an invitation and plane ticket to the next professional event) or cash event, to varying success since having 'quit', but largely interact with game now only as a spectator. The reason I'm including this post in a series about why I'm so busy is because I'd like to change that. I want to help the people I care about succeed.

I think competitive Magic is a subject about which I'm both passionate and knowledgeable, and also something in which I can really help younger players excel. I'm friends with some of the best players in the state; they certainly don't need any help from me (but are obviously welcome to it if they like!). But there are some people that I know that have the potential to be truly excellent, and if I can help that process along in any way, I'd be more than thrilled. And yeah, if you're reading this and think you might be one of those people, you probably are.

So, while Magic isn't taking up a large portion of my time currently, that is one of the things I'd like to change. More details on that in tomorrow's post, wrapping up this series. Thanks for sticking with me so far!