After finding out what my old cards were worth, I stayed away from Magic for a little while, mostly because it bothered me too much to think about what I had traded away. But by the end of the 90s, the game started popping up around me again, and it didn’t take long before I got pulled back in.

Around 1998 going into 1999, I started seeing people play at school, at comic shops, and at bookstores. This time I wasn’t just collecting packs here and there. I actually wanted to learn how to play for real.

By the time I really got back into it around 2000, Magic the Gathering went from something I casually liked to something that completely took over my free time.

Friday Night Magic and Tournaments

Once I started playing seriously, I was going to Friday Night Magic almost every week. Back then it felt like every card shop had a regular group, and if you wanted to get better, that’s where you went.

I also started going to weekend tournaments whenever I could. Sometimes they were local, sometimes they were a bit of a drive, but it didn’t matter. If there was a tournament, I wanted to be there.

This was around the Mercadian Masques, Prophecy, and Invasion era, and I was buying cards constantly. Every paycheck, every bit of extra money, it all went into packs, singles, or building new decks.

Looking back now, I probably spent way more money than I should have, but at the time that was just what everyone did if you were really into the game.

The Play Group Years

Around that same time I had a regular group of friends I played with almost every week. Sometimes we played at the shop, sometimes at a bookstore, and sometimes at someone’s apartment. It was one of those groups where everyone had their own style, their own decks, and their own way of playing.

Those were honestly some of the most fun years I ever had with Magic.

We weren’t just playing the game, we were talking about it all the time, trading cards, building new decks, and trying to keep up with every new set that came out. It felt like Magic was everywhere for a while.

The problem was, I didn’t just play Magic.

Around the early 2000s I got into a lot of other games too. Dragon Ball Z, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, HeroClix, MechWarrior, and a few others. At the time it felt like there was a new game coming out every year, and I wanted to try all of them.

The problem with that is simple.

I couldn’t afford all of them.

Falling Out of the Game

Around 2003 to 2005 my life started changing, and Magic slowly stopped being the center of everything. I wasn’t working a normal full-time job at the time, I was helping take care of my mom, and I was spending more and more time online doing website work, coding, and forum moderation.

That was also around the time Majin Planet really started taking up my time, even if I didn’t realize it back then.

At the same time, my play group started falling apart. People moved away, people stopped playing, some people got busy with work, and some just lost interest. When the group started disappearing, the game didn’t feel the same anymore.

I also couldn’t keep up financially like some of the other guys could. Some people were buying boxes every set, chasing every card, and building multiple decks at once. I was trying to keep up, but I was also spending money on other games, and eventually it just got to the point where I couldn’t do it anymore.

Little by little, I stopped going to Friday Night Magic.

Then I stopped going to tournaments.

Then I stopped buying cards.

There wasn’t one moment where I quit. It just faded out.

Final Thoughts

By the time the mid 2000s rolled around, Magic the Gathering wasn’t really part of my life anymore. I still had cards, I still had decks, but the excitement wasn’t there like it used to be.

Between life changing, my friend group falling apart, and my focus shifting more toward websites and online projects, the game slowly became something I used to do instead of something I was still doing.

At the time I thought that was the end of my Magic story.

I had no idea I was going to end up starting over again later, and losing my collection all over again in a completely different way.