The Card Collab – Issue #11
For many of us, trading card games weren't something we consciously left behind.
Life simply moved faster.
School became college. College became careers. Weekends filled with responsibilities replaced afternoons spent opening booster packs or playing games at the kitchen table. Before long, the cards that once traveled everywhere with us found their way into closets, storage bins, and old binders tucked away on a shelf. For years, they stayed there.
Then one day, something unexpected happened.
Maybe a friend invited you to Friday Night Magic. Maybe you walked past a shelf of Pokémon packs at your local store. Maybe a new game caught your attention, or a crossover featuring one of your favorite franchises made you curious enough to buy "just one pack."
Before you knew it, you were back.
Not because you were chasing childhood, but because you remembered how the hobby made you feel.
Coming Back Feels Different
As I mentioned in a previous issue, The Strength of the Pod, my return to trading card games started during one of our regular poker nights.
For a while, I'd been thinking about getting back into a trading card game, but I never quite knew where to start. Then one evening, a friend in our group, who had been a longtime Magic: The Gathering player but hadn't played in years, suggested we trade our poker chips for decks of another kind. Instead of another night of poker, he offered to teach us how to play Magic.
The timing couldn't have been better.
That first game sparked something I hadn't realized I'd been missing. Before long, our poker nights slowly evolved into Commander nights. We started visiting local game stores, trying new formats like Draft, and eventually even built our own Cube so every game night felt like a brand-new experience.
As I was learning the game, I wanted to build a deck around something that already felt familiar. As a longtime fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and the world of The Lord of the Rings, it felt like the perfect place to start. Building a Commander deck inspired by Middle-earth gave me an immediate connection to the game before I fully understood all of its mechanics. I already knew the characters, the lore, and the stories, which made learning Magic feel much more approachable.