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From the 90’s to today
Magic: The Gathering has been with me for most of my life, even if it hasn’t always been actively played. Like many people who grew up in the ’90s, it wasn’t just a game — it was part of the environment. It lived in backpacks, lunch breaks, classrooms, and the spaces where friends naturally gathered.
I can still remember playing in the local Del Taco. The workers there knew us well and let us stay as long as we kept ordering every now and then. Cards spread across sticky tables, drinks sweating onto playmats that didn’t exist yet. It was loud, casual, and completely ours.
Where the Game Lived
Magic showed up everywhere. High school hallways between classes. After math class, where our Algebra teacher played too — a detail that somehow made the game feel even more legitimate. Kitchen tables at various houses, where games stretched on far longer than planned and conversations drifted between strategy, life, and whatever else was happening at the time.
The game didn’t demand a specific space. It adapted. That flexibility was part of its charm. Wherever there was a flat surface and a little time, Magic could happen.
The Ritual of Opening a Pack
Cracking open a pack of cards carried its own kind of excitement. It felt like pulling the lever on a slot machine — anticipation, hope, and the brief moment before you saw what you got. Would there be something rare? Something powerful? Something you’d been hoping for?
At the time, the value wasn’t financial. It was social. It was about trading, showing friends what you pulled, and imagining how it might fit into a deck you were still building in your head. Each card felt like possibility.
More Than a Game
Looking back, Magic was about far more than rules and mechanics. It was a shared language. You didn’t need to explain everything — if someone played, they understood. The artwork, the lore, the colors, and the terminology all created a world that existed alongside everyday life.
It also taught patience, strategy, and adaptability. Games didn’t always go your way. Decks weren’t always balanced. Sometimes you lost quickly; sometimes you played for hours. That unpredictability was part of the appeal.
Growing Older, Holding On Differently
Today, my relationship with Magic is different. I’m not chasing new releases or building decks the way I once did. The thrill of opening packs has softened into something quieter. What remains strongest now are the memories.
Holding the cards brings back places, people, and moments that shaped who I was at the time. The smell of fast food, the sound of lockers, the feeling of sitting around a kitchen table with nowhere else to be. Magic becomes a doorway back to those years.
Collecting as Memory, Not Accumulation
At this stage, collecting Magic cards isn’t about completion or value. It’s about remembrance. The cards I keep are tied to experiences rather than rarity. Some are worn. Some are outdated. Some wouldn’t mean anything to someone else — but they mean something to me.
They represent a time when connection came easily, when gathering didn’t require planning apps or calendars. You just showed up.
A Cultural Snapshot of the ’90s
Magic: The Gathering also reflects a specific cultural moment. The ’90s were a time when games were physical, social, and shared in person. You traded face-to-face. You learned by playing. You argued about rules, then moved on.
The game existed before everything went online. That alone gives it a different weight now. It represents a slower, more tactile way of interacting — one that’s easy to miss in hindsight.
Why It Still Matters
Magic still matters to me because it’s tied to memory, community, and time. Not because of what the cards are worth, but because of what they remind me of. They hold pieces of adolescence, friendship, and shared curiosity.
Collecting them now feels like preserving a chapter rather than trying to relive it. It’s about honoring where I’ve been without needing to return there fully.
Carrying the Story Forward
One day, these cards may spark questions. Why did this matter? Where did you play? Who were you with? And those questions open doors to stories that might otherwise fade.
That’s the real value of collecting. Not what you own, but what it helps you remember — and what you can pass on.
Magic: The Gathering may have started as a game, but over time, it became something else entirely. A cultural artifact. A memory anchor. A reminder that sometimes the most meaningful things in life are the ones we shared across tables, between classes, and in places that welcomed us simply because we kept ordering another drink.
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Commander Decks (EDH)
All of my commander decks are non-CEDH level and more of Jank or Tribal (e.g., all squirrels, all pirates, etc.) is what I love. I don’t want to be competitive but want to have a few laughs. Although this is a new format in the long history of Magic, the singleton and 100-card (99 with 1 commander) seems to refresh the format.
Getting the First Sliver, Gravemother, and Queen was the started of my dive into Slivers. It’s the Alien of this MTG universe. I’m still brewing this deck but it’s a good thought exercise when I need a break. If you really want to start with the basic, you can buy the Sliver Swarm Commander Precon deck that gives you a good start if you don’t have any slivers.
If you need to edit the Slivered deck, here are the following suggestions:
- Swap in Hallowhead Sliver for Opaline Sliver.
The whole Brother’s War expansion led to the main storyline deep diving into the Phyrexian world (i.e., New Phyrexia). I was already interested in revisiting this since the Thran book series with how Yawgmoth created the first Phyrexians that led to the whole world-rending invasion of Dominaria and the battle between the two brothers. This deck focuses on the oil and uses a very rage-inducing mechanic of poison.
I originally had an artifact commander deck that was based around red and blue mana. This is the result of taking it apart and updating with newish cards. I think I’ll have to keep brewing on this deck until it’s to my liking (a little beyond precon but not CEDH level… just fun enough to be able to hold its own).
This commander deck was created when Liam said he started to love dinosaurs. I picked out as much Ixalan dinosaurs that I could mush into a cohesive deck. One day, I hope he may use it as a start to understanding the format or maybe he’ll brew one of his own.
This is one of my older decks. I was always a fan of multicolor and this one is the first five colored deck I thought that may work because of the release of Jared as commander. It was great to see a good based commander deck (aka precon) and then edit it to high heavens. I had the Ice Age comic book and it was cool to see the character come to life as a card.
Another old deck with the release of the academic-centric expansion of Strixhaven. I’m an academic myself and I loved blue and red commander decks, so I gave this one a shot. I got the Prismari commander deck and then edited to high heavens again. I still don’t’ know if it works well but it’s fun.
This was released with Edge of Eternities expansion that is more sci-fi than fantasy. This a precon deck called World Shaper that was modified. I wanted to try my hands on something a little more competitive than straight spell-casting or attacking. World Shaper is a graveyard-interacting and land recursion deck with a few twists. I really love the spaceship theme, it reminds me of the video games that I’ve played like No Man’s Sky and Astroneer.
Normal MTG Decks
I think most of my decks are aging out of Standard and Modern, so I guess I’m now a “Legacy” player. Just in case… Standard is only most recent sets in the rotation. Modern is only cards from standard-legal sets from 8th edition and after (will change with time). Legacy is every set and card printed. Each have their own ban list and whatnot. If you’re still confused try the Format Hub from Wizard of the Coast’s own words.
Stuffy Guilt is my Stuffy Doll deck. When I first saw this artifact card, I fell in love with it’s weird ability. You’re able to do damage to a player without directly doing damage and if you block with Stuffy Doll, the attacking player gets to feel the pain. It’s also indestructible and can tap to deal 1 damage to itself. Couple that with things like Pariah Shield (reassign all damage you take to the doll) and you’ve got a comedic set up. Phylactery Lich was also another favorite of mine when I first saw it. You get a 5/5 indestructible creature for 3 mana but you have to put a token on an artifact you control. This pairs nicely with Stuffy Doll. I threw in artifact lands and indestructible mana rocks (e.g., Darksteel Ingot), and you have a good set up.
Dragons. When we hear magic, dragons tend to be creatures that are thought about next. In the older Magic days, dragons tend to be big bads but they were slow to bring out. I had to wait over 15 years to create a deck that allowed dragons to come out faster than you can say “Atarka, World Render”
I’ve always had a special place for artifacts and the Brothers’ War saga. Back in 4th Edition and Ice Age, making a colorless artefact deck meant that you were the slowest at the table. Even with the Urza lands, you couldn’t catch up with even catch up with Blue. Plus, you’ve had things like 1/4 Yotian Soldier that can take damage but you pecked at them with 1 damage which didn’t do much. That brings us to 2025, you have a speedier deck with more Urza and Mishra lands along with assembly workers that had synergy with the mana producing lands. You can bring out bigger things or swing with the workers.
Being a child of the 80’s, you’ve had a soft spot for horror movies. I usually brew zombie and vampire deck during the spooky months. This one is a budget one that anyone can put together but keep in mind that it only swings to win rather than combo. You swing with everything and then decide which creatures (usually the blocked ones) to sacrifice to make the others that got through bigger. The only complete set back when I was in high school was Homelands (not a particularly good set) and it had the Sengir vampire family in it along with some great horror cards. This deck is a tribute to all the horror decks I tried to brew.
This is a version of a tournament deck I had back near the start of college. It was based off of the first Lackey Sligh deck that used small goblin and Viashon (lizard) people with haste to swing with the Flunkies. You really didn’t use your direct damage on the player but for removal of threat in the way. It’s an aggro deck in that the amount of combat damage you dealt each turn was very high. I believe I was able to win third place in the local tournament I entered and I typically won by turn 3 or 4. It doesn’t look like much but once you see it in action, you’ll find that it can hit pretty hard and fast.
This deck was a weird spawn-off of my love for red/blue and thopters artifacts. I had a commander deck with mechanized production and other things like that. The sixty-card version was paired down with only some counter spells and some fire. The rest is just thopter makers and buffing. The lands could use some rework but it’s just a casual deck.
I started Magic around 4th Edition and Ice Age, so snow-covered things amuses me. Fast-forward to today and I got a snow themed half deck from a JumpStart pack and had to dig into it. This one is about chilling your opponent’s stuff and then doing stuff.