"Magic: The Addiction" -- my 20-year gaming journey. Book now available on Amazon.

[French Alters]

Still an awesome read. But by reading, I thought that you sounded kind of depresive, mostly about the game, like you didn't enjoy it that much anymore and just forced yourself to go to the GP to chase some thrills or something.
No offense intended by my words, it's just what I took out of it.

-French Alters

[Plague Sliver]

No offense taken. You're actually kind of right -- it wasn't a great time for me in Jersey. I feel much better about things now, but I tried to express what I genuinely felt back then. The tough part was going back to how I felt as I was writing it (hence the use of present tense).

There is a silver lining to all of this, as you'll read in Part 6. (Well, as silver as my cynical self will allow.)

[ironclad8690]

Just read all parts of this today, and wow. You have perfectly captured many of the feelings of competitive magic in writing. It is nice to know other people feel the same way about losing/entitlement, because those are usually silent dialogues that play out in your head and you don't really talk to other people about them. Great job man, looking forward to part 6

[Plague Sliver]

Part 6, the conclusion is complete:
https://medium.com/@james_hsu/on-mag...g-b5712dcd2906

It's been quite an experience writing the whole thing and I've really appreciated the community support. Writing 20,000 words on Magic is a great form of rehabilitative therapy :) On a serious note, though, I've come to realize how much this card game means to me, in multiple ways. And how hard it is to let something go, especially when that "thing" has existed on-and-off in my life for the better part of twenty years.

Now that the main narrative is done, I'm likely to build it into an e-book. To have something more entertaining, I'm in the process of writing additional chapters on Magic topics, particularly Legacy-related ones.

You can expect "gems" like:
- Influential Magic people in my life
- Brainstorm (the first rule of Fight Club is, never talk about Brainstorm)
- How I feel about speculators
- On being a sore loser
- The two Magic communities I grew up in (Vancouver and Beijing)
- On getting old
- Bans
- On pimping
- Epilogue (I *am* going to GP Seattle after all...)

If the e-book is something you're interested in, feel free to drop me a line on here or to my email address: decoy 6 6 6 AT gmail DOT com. (no spaces in the real email address, obv. And no, I'm not a Satanic devil worshipper, although Black is my favorite color in Magic.)

And it would be awesome if you could join the Facebook Page here:
https://www.facebook.com/OnMagic2015

I'm going to post regular updates on the Facebook Page as this thing gets to e-book format.

Thanks guys and please keep the feedback coming!
And keep playing Magic, of course.

Best,
James

[sdematt]

Excellent, as always. I want more.

[jrsthethird]

So good man. I can relate to a lot of this, having gone in and out of the game for 20 years.

[Plague Sliver]

Created a Tumblr blog which will serve as the web site for now, until I get my act together.

http://onmagic.tumblr.com/

Followers welcome :)

[Tylert]

Why do all your magic friends have a name in this article and your girlfriend doesn't?
What did you buy for her finally?

Also, I don't see why you could not play to win with a tier 1.5 deck... it's more a behavior question than a question of best deck...

[Plague Sliver]

Just read all parts of this today, and wow. You have perfectly captured many of the feelings of competitive magic in writing. It is nice to know other people feel the same way about losing/entitlement, because those are usually silent dialogues that play out in your head and you don't really talk to other people about them. Great job man, looking forward to part 6

Thanks man! I hope you will enjoy Part 6 now that it's out.

So good man. I can relate to a lot of this, having gone in and out of the game for 20 years.

Thanks! Would love to hear about your experiences as well.

Why do all your magic friends have a name in this article and your girlfriend doesn't?
What did you buy for her finally?

My Magic friends do not crave anonymity, while my girlfriend is a little bit different. Certain fellow Magic players specifically requested to be namedropped. It's a valid question, though :)

I should consider using her first name as well, just like I'm doing for the other people in the narrative. It comes down to the relationship being important to me, but not necessarily for the purposes of talking about Magic. She's a key reason I moved to China, but not a key reason in continuing to play vs. not play.

As for what I finally bought for her, nothing. I buy her stuff already!

Also, I don't see why you could not play to win with a tier 1.5 deck... it's more a behavior question than a question of best deck...

I see that your sig says "Death and Taxes," so I'll start off by saying that I don't mean to denigrate the deck whatsoever. To me it's tier 1. It's my deck of choice for multiple tournaments now. I've got a German foil pimped version of the deck...I love the deck.

Rather, my point is that when I decided to play Death & Taxes / deck X for a specific event, I have to consider (1) my level of practice with the deck and (2) the current meta. It's dangerous to be a one trick pony and I hate feeling like I'm forced into playing Deck X because I'm stubborn and/or I'm unwilling to change.

Because this is the Legacy forum I'll use some examples:
- playing Death and Taxes when treasure cruise is legal.
- playing Death and Taxes when dig through time is legal.
- playing doomsday.
- playing nic fit when Omnitell is big.
- playing storm when Omnitell is big.
- playing storm when format has multiple decks with dig through time, meddling Mage, discard, counters.

My point is, why make it tough on yourself? I never want to rule out playing dredge when I know nobody is running grave hate in a local 8-man.

There is no badge of honor in sticking to a specific deck, not adapting, and then complaining about it. IMO life is too short for that, especially when the objective is winning.

Having said all that, I formulated this philosophy because I know I don't play enough magic and my opponents are usually more skilled than me. To not be flexible won't work for me and your mileage may vary.

[Tylert]

Ok. To me play to win is more "play the best possible with the tools you have".
I only own D&T so I don't have the options to switch decks, but I still fight fiercely to win every match :)

[Purgatory]

As a newly-married gamer approaching 30, I can relate to a lot of the stuff and I found the entirety of the piece very well-written and enjoyable.

My hat's off to you, good sir!

[Plague Sliver]

Hey guys. I'm continuing to write more in my quest to turn this into a full-sized book.

Just wrote a chapter on how I named myself "Plague Sliver" and what that means to me:
https://medium.com/@james_hsu/black-...p-a74eeea11926

I've already written a few additional chapters, and also started revising the original parts 1-6. Really appreciate the community feedback so far.

Let me know what you guys think.

James

[sdematt]

James, this paragraph is cut off:

"In short, I loved Juzam Djinn and everything it stood for. But the market price of this card was way out of my league when my brother and I played Magic in the early nineties. Juzam was printed in a limited edition Magic set called Arabian Nights, and it commanded market prices upwards of $100 per card. I could only play my Sengir Vampires and Serra Angels instead, and look on in admiration at what the"

-Matt

[Plague Sliver]

Thanks for the catch! Fixed.

New article:
https://medium.com/@james_hsu/black-...p-a74eeea11926

Also updated opening post.

[jrsthethird]

James, this paragraph is cut off:

"In short, I loved Juzam Djinn and everything it stood for. But the market price of this card was way out of my league when my brother and I played Magic in the early nineties. Juzam was printed in a limited edition Magic set called Arabian Nights, and it commanded market prices upwards of $100 per card. I could only play my Sengir Vampires and Serra Angels instead, and look on in admiration at what the"

-Matt

I think it's rather complete. Well, save for a little punctuation:

Use your imagination as you're reading it, the thought of playing against Juzam Djinn for the first time.

"Whoa! A 5/5 for 4 mana, and it's deliciously evil. Look at that tiny man just hanging there in this giant demon's grasp. His life, flashing before his eyes before he meets the infernal abyss that lies just within the demon's mouth. That card must be worth like 10 bucks."

"I paid $150 for it."

"WHAT THE?!!?!!"1

[Plague Sliver]

Totally! You should consider taking up writing as well

Just released another small chapter. This one is about a hard lesson I learned when I was sixteen years old.

https://medium.com/@james_hsu/nick-t...c-d1cced16c7f6

Cheers,
James

[chlb]

Just read through parts 1-6, was well worth it. Made me think about my own approach to the game and what I really want to accomplish by playing it. Thanks for the good reads, James!

[Plague Sliver]

Just read through parts 1-6, was well worth it. Made me think about my own approach to the game and what I really want to accomplish by playing it. Thanks for the good reads, James!

Thanks!

I'll be going to GP SeaTac in a few days. If anybody wants to meet up, let me know. Happy to get more feedback.

[Plague Sliver]

So...I'm nearing the finish line. The 6-parter has been heavily revised, edited and expanded on to become a full-length book.

I started from the initial ~20K word count and now it's at 45K. As it stands, I have a draft of the book ready.

If anyone is interested in reading a draft of my upcoming "On Magic" book please message me or post here. Looking for constructive feedback -- tear it a new one if you have to. The goal is to make the final thing as good as possible.

Thanks,
James

[Dice_Box]

I would be interested.

To note, because I "Read" while working, I have a text to speech program that I use. If it does not flow right I will let you know right away.