MTG: An Incident From My Younger Years

I used to play Magic The Gathering some years ago. When I was in elementary school, I used to play with my older brother and a bunch of kids who were 1 year older than me. We used most of our recess to play the game, and usually got at least one match done every day. We sat in groups of up to 6, playing and winning as best as we could, considering that we were about 11-12 years and it was kind of hard to come up with advanced strategies at that age. We weren't exactly good, but we had relatively good games for a bunch of kids, and we followed the rules most of the time.

Well, as you'd expect, a bunch of kids who all try to win will sometimes submit to cheating to get things done, Especially one guy who thought nobody knew he cheated, even though we all did. When we played, he used to win and beat anyone he played against. This wasn't because he was any better than us, on the contrary he was a rather bad player when he didn't get to use his own deck. This wasn't because he was unfamiliar with the decks or anything, it was because he had a set of cards that he needed to come into play the right order to beat us. Whenever he shuffled his own deck, he took the bottom, stuffed it in the middle and repeated, thus leaving the top unchanged. If someone else ever shuffled his deck, his order got screwed up and he usually lost. It was pretty obvious that he cheated, even to a bunch of kids.

He might as well have worn a shirt.

But that was, looking away from some misunderstanding of the rules, usually as far as the cheating went. But there was an incident that was a bit worse. Worse, as in bad by a kids standards, as the only thing that really happened was that someone (probably) took one/several cards from me without me knowing.

The story is as following: One of the tables we used to play on was situated on a sort of platform overlooking the rest of the school-yard. I had put some of my cards on top of one of one of the stone columns, when I looked away for some reason (most likely to look at the others play), I returned to find out that a card that had been in the bunch was missing. I don't know if many more were taken, but I remember that card because it was one of my best ones.

Since I didn't think anyone would steal from me at that time, so I thought it was the wind. I looked over the proximity of the playing table, before I grabbed my cards and ran down into the schoolyard to search for it, I searched for it until recess was over, and then some after school, but to no avail. After that I accepted that it was gone, taken by the wind. But when I look back at it, I've realized that it is extremely unlikely that it was the wind, due to several factors.

One is that the wind is kind of a nice guy, once you get to know him.

Firstly, the wind couldn't have blown it that easily. The cards I had put on the stone column weren't that many, so it would due to how aerodynamics work have been really hard for the wind to grab hold of the cards. Additionally, the bench was placed at an area that was covered by high walls on three sides (though one was a stretch away from the bench), making the only directions it could have been blown inwards, into a small area where it could easily have been spotted, as it had bright red colors on the front, and a brown color on the back that would've stood out in the gray concrete.

The second reason of why I find it improbable that the wind took the card(s) is that the rest of the pile lied almost just as it had before. It hadn't really moved, and only the good card lying on the top of the small pile was gone. Well, I say only, but I didn't notice if there were any other cards gone, as none of the others actually were so special that I'd notice if some were gone (and that's why I'm adding an uncertain plural (s) every time I type card, I don't know if any more were taken).

As a third reason, I want to point out that very few cards were gone. If it had been the wind who took it, all the cards would've been gone, pulled by the wind and dragged by the friction. But as only a flimsy bit of the pile was gone, we're speaking of wind speeds, directions, particle density in the air, air moisture levels, and some other factors that must have lined up perfectly, and been at each others corresponding levels to a pull of wind that would be able to pull one small pile of cards.

Furthermore, as a fourth reason, I'd like to remind you that the card was 1) valuable and attractive, and 2) put easily visible on top of an unsupervised pile of cards belonging to the kid who was one year younger than the entire rest of the group. Also as mentioned, we played to win, so all good cards were really attractive to anyone in the group, especially the aforementioned cheater, whom I believe is the one who took it.

Why would I suspect him over anyone else? We were just kids after all. You have probably gathered that everyone in the group wanted good cards, but he was known to be a bit dishonest and sly. He was known to both cheat in games, and swindle when it came to trading cards, trying to make his cards seem more valuable than they were and demand more and/or better cards for anything he traded. He ended up having a massive pile of cards at the end of seventh grade (which he later sold, card by card, for money).

He got rich. The elementary school kind of rich.

One time, at the start of my playing days, when I asked him to help me build a deck since he had played the game for a longer period of time than me and was sure to know more, he kept saying that he wanted this or that card, and wanted me to trade with him. I refused as I knew that I could easily be fooled being a newbie and all, and walked away rather unharmed from it. Well, I say unharmed, but I didn't really get anything out from spending time there, as he didn't actually help me build a deck. He just looked a the cards, said he wanted some I had, tried to get me to swap with him, and then haggled about why I should have traded with him until end of recess. He didn't help me build a deck after the incident either.

So he had both an incentive to steal the card, and a moral that allowed him to do just that. Most likely it was him who stole the card, but I'm never actually going to find that out. One reason is that it doesn't bother me today if he stole it or not, as it was just a card. Another reason is that we were kids, and neither he or I can really say anything about an incident that happened 6 or so years ago. Even more, I don't know where he is today, I didn't find out back then, and I got little reason to find out today, especially not for a single card that may or may not been stolen by him so long time ago.

And that is much of the experience I had with Magic The Gathering in my elementary school years. Sure it was competitive, and some people were a bit dishonest, but we were just kids back then, not really knowing what was right and what was wrong. When I look back at it, the most important thing is that it was (usually) fun, and that it helped shape me into the person that I am now.