Making Up For Lost Time

My father bought me my first TCG starter deck. I was in 4th grade, it was a year before he passed, and we walked into this dingy comic book store in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. I remember seeing all the cards and booster packs behind a pane of glass and I felt like I was in a museum, about to pick out an artifact. He spoke to the man behind the counter for a while and he asked him the price for a Pokemon Starter deck. I clearly remember the man saying, "you don't want to know."

I was devestated as my father took me home, but I contented myself by playing Pokemon blue on my gameboy.

The next day, my father came home from work and followed his normal routine. My mother served him dinner, he ate at the table while talking to her as she cleaned the kitchen, and then he leafed through the "Daily News".

I came into the kitchen to say hi to him and he picked up a small, black plastic bag from next to him and handed it to me, nonchalantly. I took it and looked inside. 

He had bought me a Blastoise starter deck. 

I played Pokemon for the next 3 years, before then merging towards the Dragon Ball Z card game which I played wirh my little brother and my friend Joey. In 8th grade, when kids started choosing between Yugi-oh and Magic, I first played Yugi-oh, but it seemed too gimmicky to me and I finally started playing magic with the asians at my school. 

I used my saved up allowance for 3 starter decks and played the hell out of them. My allowance at the time was small and I couldn't afford buying cards, and of course, my mother refused to sink anything into my hobby, already considering it a waste of money. 

In high school, I picked up the habit of cigarette smoking and all my spare funds went towards that (I lived in NYC and would actually choose buying a pack rather than having dinner) and I kind of stopped playing because I became semi-cool and playing magic wasn't "cool". 

In 07, while I was in college, I bought two starter decks on a whim and soon forgot about them. 

Fast forward to now. I have disposable income, a decent job, a partner with whom I enjoy quiet nights at home with, no kids, no crazy debt (yet), etc. My extra money goes towards WoW, my gym membership and supplements. 

Remember those two starter decks I bought and forgot about? I found them a few days ago. 

I have decided to get back into magic this block. With core set 2014 being only recently released and the Theros block coming up, now is the perfect time for me to return and do somethig that has been my dream since I was in 8th grade...

Place in a Magic The Gathering tournament. 

This blog is my story.