Back to Magic in 2022?
I might be getting back into Magic The Gathering after all.
After playing a lot of Magic The Gathering in 2019, including some live events, I pretty much stopped playing Magic when the pandemic hit in 2020. This was because, at the time, Magic for me was driven very much by live events. Even though I was playing almost all of my games online via MTG Arena, my enthusiasm for the game was being driven by the stellar coverage of live, in-person championships. But with the pandemic, this went away, to be replaced by a lacklustre new online tournament structure. Because of this, I lost interest in Magic and the need to work a lot to try and keep me afloat during the lean pandemic times did the rest: I completely stopped watching and playing MTG. I tried to get back into it a year ago, but the monetary squeeze due to the pandemic was still in full swing and the backstory of the sets at the time didn’t capture me either.
While the Harry Potter set Strixhaven and the two Innistrad sets Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow didn’t particularly appeal to me, Magic’s line-up for 2022 seems to be explicitly targeted at my taste. The next set in line, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, is Magic’s first sci-fi set and it’s cyberpunk-themed to boot! And later in the year, Streets of New Capenna will be a 1920’s-gangster-movie-themed expansion that is set in an Art Déco / noir city. I love both noir stories and the Art Déco look! What better time could there possibly be for me to get back into MTG?
Well, the downside is that I’ll have to catch up to almost two years and half a dozen sets worth of cards. In the time I haven’t looked at it, the game has changed completely – as Magic is wont to be. But that is kind of the point of the game, isn’t it? Still, it is a bit daunting to try to get back into it. But I feel the upcoming to sets, at least concept-wise, are worth it. Well, I am trying. I built a new mono-red deck and will be trying it out in Arena as soon as possible. At least the iOS version of MTGA has finally been released in the time while I was away from the game, so now I can practice on the toilet, too. If that isn’t exciting, I don’t know what is.
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