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Hello, folks!
Every year, folks around the land enjoy some holiday fun and cheer. I have had Magic-themed Christmas events, with Magic-card tree decorations and similar things going on. From Christmas stockings with Magic-themed décor to Magic-style food, there are a lot of fun ways to go and dress things up.
Now, to be fair, there are a lot of shallow resolutions out there, and very few are actually kept and made seriously. Someone wanting to lose weight may end up eschewing that diet plan by mid-January. So, to many out there, New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken, if you will.
I like to steer clear of such thinking. Reflection, change, and growth are hallmarks of things that distinguish us from animals. They are very valuable tools that we have to improve and better things at home and with others.
Since I play and write about Magic, it’s both a pastime and a part-time gig with me. Therefore, it’s an important part of who I am. For the last few years, I have publicly made and shared my Magic resolutions with you. Let’s do so again!
For 2015, I resolved to have four key Magic resolutions. How did I do? Let’s take a look!
So let’s assess my own resolutions from 2015.
Connect with a Local Gaming Group, Take 2
One of my first goals after arriving in Connecticut in 2014 was to identify and play with a local gaming group in Fairfield. After my failure to do so in 2014, I added this goal in 2015 as well. I need to play more than the occasional pickup games or online fare I was getting. And I am a very bad Abe, as that didn’t happen at all. And I’ve moved off this goal over the last few months, as I begin to job-search and perhaps move again. I am beginning another national job search, and who knows where I’ll wind up? So committing to a local scene and then just up and leaving shortly thereafter strikes me as unseemly.
Result: Abject failure
Push My Writing Even More
Well, I had the article on celebrity keywords, in which you combine two keywords to form another. That certainly qualifies. I also love “Are You a Format Breaker?” as a great way to ask if you are the sort of player who likes to break casual formats. I also have an article in which I predict the Angels for From the Vault: Angels. Meanwhile, I discuss the theory of Planeswalkers in multiplayer, wrote up a short “The Magic Writer’s Hall of Fame,” and an exploration of undead creature types in Magic from a flavor and mechanical standpoint. Shoot, I even reviewed the history and board game made from Magic. These occasional bursts of creatively outside of the normal budgets, commanders, sixty-card decks, and card evaluations creates a pretty solid set of useful pushing. And of them, my favorite are the keywords and format-breaker articles, by the way.
Result: Adequate
Remove Another Ten Cards From Abedraft
I have a huge set of cards to draft, and it involves at least one copy of every non-silver-bordered card in Magic. It includes every expansion set in the game as well as Portal and Unlimited Edition. (Cards from Portal and Unlimited can come from other sets.) You can draft it and literally pull any card from Magic’s history, from Hurloon Minotaur to Sorin Markov. It’s awesome!
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After building up Abedraft for more than a decade, I only needed around thirty cards coming into this year, and I wanted to cut it to twenty. I worked hard, and I pulled off thirteen cards from the set. I just need seventeen from here on out. What seventeen cards are missing from AbeDraft?
I also grabbed the judge promo of Ravages of War that hit the streets this year. After that, I focused on knocking off some Portal Three Kingdoms cards. I was worried that a judge promo or a reprint could render the prices on some of these cards virtually useless, but it’s still worth doing for now. That leaves the above seventeen cards. Now, of that list, I actually own Imperial Seal, Library, and the Power 9. They are in Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy. But I could pull them out if I wanted. That leaves me with Grim Tutor, Time Vault, Chains, Tabernacle, Capture, and Zodiac D. as my final six to pick up and my primary targets this year. But I doubt we’ll finish things off anytime soon. Those are just too pricey!
Result: Huge Success
Finish My Mono-Black Cube
For a while, I was slowly tinkering with a Mono-Black Cube. I wanted to finish building a real life Mono-Black Cube. I did! I shared it with you in two articles and uploaded to CubeTutor so you can enjoy it as well. All done, yay!
Result: Finished
Looking back, I hit two of my goals pretty well and failed one totally, and the last one was okay. So what’s shaking for 2016?
Magic Resolution #1 — Diversity, Take Two
Here’s a pair of articles that I think sum up what I’m looking for:
Reviewing my work here on Gathering Magic over the last year, I’m not sure that I have “Goodbye Michigan” or a Quest in there. I certainly could have. I want to push my writing into this vein a bit more. It’s hard, it takes longer, and it requires some creativity. But I want to do it.
Magic Resolution #2 — Organizing my Magic Collection
I have a large Magic collection that has just gone into crazy town. It’s disorganized, and when I want to build a deck or find something, it’s invariably in an odd box somewhere randomly. I need to really sit down and create a new set of boxes—and storage—so I can find stuff more commonly. For example, if I want to find a black common, such as Rend Flesh, will it be in the box labeled “Commons from Kamigawa Block”? Will it be in my “Good Commons” box instead? What about my “Former Commons from Decks” box? Or is my “Black Good Stuff” box? I don’t know anymore. There have been a few times when I’ve just grabbed a few commons from stores rather than search for them, and that’s stupid and needs to end.
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Magic Resolution #3 — More Online Play
Since I’m no longer looking for a local group due to my potential eminent departure, I should get in some more gaming online to make up for it. Yes, the Magic: The Electronic client is wonky and has poor AI. It always has. But I still need to play through it. It’s Magic! Let’s get in some games and have some fun.
I’ve found it increasingly difficult to get in any Acid Magic Games (my name for the real-life combo of PPS online—Pauper, Prismatic, and Singleton—two hundred fifty cards, five colors, all commons and singleton; my name of that real-life format, 5PH, is acidic on the PH chart, and thus, it’s the name of the format). Can I find a way to push it? I really miss playing that format.
Magic Resolution #4 — Knock Off Three More Cards from Abedraft
Considering how ambitious I was with the thirteen that came off this year, dropping below the seventeen I’m at is difficult. Most of the cards left are worth hundreds of dollars a pop. If I can massage this list to below fifteen and hit fourteen, I’d be okay with that. Anything else would be gravy. One of the ways I dropped the list this past year was to really prioritize their acquisition over other Magic expenditures. That needs to be my operative mode moving forward.
Magic Resolution #5 — Push Alternate Formats More
I want to push alternate formats, both of Commander and others, a bit more with my writings this next year. I’ve had readers come to me increasingly growing a little bored of Commander’s grip over casual Magic and want to be fed something else instead. I hear you.
And those are my five Magic-related resolutions for 2016!
What did you think? Do you have any resolutions for this year? What worked, and what didn’t?
