The Big Box

This week I unlocked an achievement for a fandom that is close to my heart.  Let me explain…

I love to play Magic: The Gathering. I have ever since I was first introduced to the game by a close friend, Matt, at the age of ten or eleven. The two of us, and sometimes his brother Daniel, would spend long afternoons unleashing massive armies of fungal thallids, goblins, zombies, or angels culled from decks more akin to Jenga towers than the creatures they represented. I spent a very satisfying part of my childhood participating in leagues, tournaments, or pickup games; a satisfaction I was pleased to rediscover as an adult. There was only one thing, at least until early this week, that was missing: tearing into box of booster packs.

When I first started playing, booster packs were randomized injections of fifteen new cards that supplemented your growing collection. Opening them was part of the fun, since they were truly random.  The best way to describe opening a pack is combining the excitement of a slot machine with the tactile sensation of opening a pack of cigarettes or a candy bar. I couldn’t wait to see the contents which could be a pack full of crap up to that a mythical stack of rare powerful cards that could blow away your opponents. It didn’t take players long to imagine the Halloween’s bounty that a whole box represented. It was a particular rite of passage that I finally indulged when I brought home my first box of Shadows Over Innistrad, the current set.

Setting the box on the coffee table, I could feel the grin spread across my face as I tore gleefully into the shrink-wrapped display box, immediately smelling the acidic toner used on the front and back of each card. A smell that builds with every one of the individually wrapped booster packs I open. The mylar pouches were slick and crackled, but I was careful not to bend the cards. Just like I did as a kid, I sorted the contents by color, setting the land aside for later use. It took me over an hour to open twenty nine of the packs and fully sort them (I set aside seven for a type of game play called sealed, which required sealed packs). At the end I was left with an odd feeling, a small part of me somehow imagined the box to be bigger.

I didn’t buy a box to build a complete set, (I am not really that into collecting) or to increase my chances of get the mythic rares. I am also not super competitive; I enjoy playing but I don’t really care if I win or lose. Don’t get me wrong I am dedicated to building a good solid deck, but it’s a moving target.  New sets are released every couple of months, so there is an ever evolving assortment of threats that must be accounted for when building or maintaining a deck. This shifting ground is one of the reasons why many people get out of the game; it is simply too expensive. 

I managed to work three trim decks out of the massive pile of cards I unwrapped, which I will add to the dozen or so constructed and pre-constructed decks that don’t get nearly enough play. They are far different then the thousand card monstrosities from my childhood.  These sleek 60 or 100 card decks are better for the formats I play now. I have no idea how they will do, I haven’t had a chance to sit with the friends I play Magic with in a while.  What I do know is that the inner me, that kid who played so many hours of Magic, is well and truly indulged.