Gaming off the Beaten Path

  This one has been a long time coming, but I think I'm finally ready. It's finally time to talk about Magic the Gathering: Arena. I started playing, predominately on mobile, during the pandemic and I've always kind of toyed with the idea of reviewing it. It's sort of a video game, sort of not. It's modern and not super obscure and I feel like there is already a lot of content about it already. But I finally decided that I wanted to give my thoughts about it, even if it would be just another reviewer screaming into a void. I play a lot of MTGA and I have a lot of thoughts on it and besides, card gaming is still gaming. And while I am still relatively new to Arena, I am most certainly not new to MTG. I was eight years old when I first saw kids playing Magic in the lunchroom and I knew immediately that I had to get in on that. One of my friends taught me how to play and I started trying to get cards any way I could. Using my allowance, asking for them as gifts, beggin

  This week I'm going to do something a little different. Hey card gaming is still gaming, right? I know I've talked before about my love of Magic: The Gathering and I've always wanted to write a little more about it, but I've never really had a reason to here. I debated doing something last year when they announced their whole "realms beyond" thing, where they decided to bring a bunch of crossover IPs into the MTG universe. Honestly, I wasn't a fan. As someone who has played since 1996, I don't even like that they have a "multiverse" with "planes" other than Dominara. So when I first saw the "Walking Dead" Secret Lair, I was a bit thrown. "I will never buy one of those crossover things" I thought to myself. I mean, there was talk of mixing in IPs that at least made some sense, like Dungeons and Dragons or Lord of the Rings, but a show about zombies? Stranger Things? Wasn't a fan. Well, then MTGs longtime pub

It’s been a fun month, but I’m all Final Fantasy’d out. And how do I follow up and entire month of borderline obsessive coverage of a super nerdy RPG?  By covering something even nerdier!  After all, what’s nerdier than Magic: The Gathering? I have played MTG for a very, very long time.  There was a time in my life that I was ashamed of that, but that time has come and gone.  I may not have the time or resources to dedicate to the game that I used to, but I still like to play any way I can.  That usually means playing digitally and unfortunately, I have always found Magic video games to be lacking.  They usually fall into one of two situations, either they require too much of a financial commitment or they deviate too far from the actual game to be any fun.  But now, Thanks to the (pun intended) “magic” of the internet, I have finally found the game I was looking for.  And the best part?  It’s abandonware, so it can be downloaded for free. Actually call