About 15 years ago, myself and a friend of mine named JR decided that we would grab a starter deck and a few booster packs of a game that we had seen people playing on in a comic book shop we visited 2 or 3 times a week.  This new game, Magic the Gathering , had just been graduated from the "beta" release to the full release of the game. 

I remember the game being almost a viral phenomenon at the time,  comic book store's could not keep the booster packs in stock and Wizards of the Coast was pretty much printing money.  They were brilliant in the fact that they used rarity as a money maker and stuck to their guns by not overproducing the cards.   People's appetites for the cards were voracious and I remember tons and tons of tables in the back of Galactic Quest (comic shop I used to frequent) go from tables full of 2nd edition AD&D players to massive M:TG trade and play sessions in a matter of weeks.

It was in these first few weeks of the normal release that I started hearing the rumors about the P9 or Power 9.  These where 9 cards that (at the time) were still allowed in play for tournaments, but that Magic players as a whole thought were greatly overpowering (see Power 9 wikipedia entry):

The game had originally gone through an Alpha and Beta phase, both of these phases combined together were called the Limited Beta and these cards were part of both sets.  Both sets could be discerned by the lack of a set image on the actual cards. 

At the height of the craze a lot of comic book stores (and some baseball card stores) started selling the single cards by, I assume, opening up packs.  These could also be obtained at comic book conventions and even a few card playing conventions that were starting to pop up.  The P9 were going for up to $100 a card at the time, it was insane.  Today I popped over to eBay to see what the Black Lotus (the most revered of the Power 9) was going for today on eBay:

$1000+ on average.  I also went back and looked up the rules as of today and it still states that you are allowed to have 1 (limit of 1) of any of these Power 9 cards in a tournament deck.  The tournaments of today include a "pro tour" and all different dimensions of competition

The game is amazing because it has since taken off from the old paper game JR and I used to play and manifested itself into a digital online card game, where players pay the same amount for a virtual card booster pack as they would for a tangible booster pack they would find in a store.  Wizards of the Coast has gone from having an overhead of printing cards to even eliminating that overhead with a digital delivery mechanism.  Literally, cash from a few lines of code.  It is amazing.

Most people that have never played a digital card game are taken aback that people would pay money for virtual cards that don't physically exist, but it is very similar to the MMO virtual currency market, and almost a bit more safer of an investment.  Magic The Gathering (M:TG) Online affords you certain rights to your cards including, but not up to, the ability to resell your cards under their terms of service for cash, just as you would physical cards, except it is just under their system (and their data).

There have been three instances in my life that I have played M:TG.  As I described previously, during the release of the game's initial 1st set.   I ended up spending probably about $200 in cards at that time and then slowly faded away from playing, I think I ended up selling those cards at previously said comic book shop.   

The second time I got into Magic again was my freshman/sophomore year of college with Andy and Richard and the guy who always wore a Green Lantern shirt that lived above them.  I don't remember his name but I remember his play style (Red/Black deck), and the fact that I believe he played magic all day long, smoked up, and never went to class.  If he worked as a pizza delivery boy he would have had the quadrafecta.  Those are the people that are now in the pro league.  I think I might have invested about $100 in cards at that time.  I don't remember a comic book shop or shop that sold cards in Athens, so we were probably limited in what cards we had, which financially was probably a good thing.  I think UGA had a club of M:TG players, but we really all just sat around and drank beer in Andy's apartment.

The third time was about 2 weeks ago.  The nice thing about this time around though is that I only paid $10 for the game on the Xbox 360 and I don't ever had to buy any more cards. In fact I can't.   The card set that all 360 player built into the game.  There will be expansions I am sure, but for 1 expansion charge (probably under $10) you have the ability to win all the cards in the set if you play long enough.  The game has certainly been dumbed down some since the deck customization is lacking with this change, but it does give older players like me a great time to play a game I loved, but not having to dish out any of the mulah to get decent cards.  It is also quick to go find someone around the world to play. 

The game play is a lot quicker, but the graphics are fantastic:

The games move very quickly and the head to head is a blast.  Andy and I have played the last couple of nights and had a great time, no bugs, no glitches, just some fun head to head matches.  You start off with either a green or white deck, and as you progress in the single player campaign you can open up new decks (and colors) and also new cards, dependent upon which color deck you played with.

I do think that the game will need expansions and soon.  The card selection generally is slow moving because of the fact that you only gain one card per win AND you can and will sometimes gain 4 of the same cards in a row to fill out your deck (max of 4 cards of the same type).  As with most 360 games, there are rankings and ladders for the top players.  

The game is great and I have a really fun nostalgic time playing it.  Certainly worth the 800 points ($10) to pick up.

Magic: The Gathering - Duel of the Planeswalkers (Official Site)

Xbox.com - magic: The Gathering Duel of the Planeswalkers

Destructoid - Review: Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers

Gaming, Headline magic: the gathering, m:tg, planeswalkers, xbox360