Confessions of a Magic n00b 1.5

So after reflecting a bit on my first Magic: The Gathering experience, here are my observations about both the game, and my gut reactions.

I can see how it's so popular: it's base mechanics are simple. In fact, the reason why it seemed daunting to begin with is just that Wizards of the Coast just kept growing the darn thing with new keywords, card types, new rules and banning unbalanced cards. In fact, one could say WotC was a victim of its success. They just keep churning out cards with reckless abandon. Which means... well not every card is going to be particularly user-friendly. That is, more than one card in my collection is "up for debate" when it hits the table... heated arguments ensue...

Next up... I picked a horrible jumping-on point. Shards of Alara is not particularly newbie-friendly. The intro-packs come in 3-colour decks. That's 3 colours of Mana to keep track of - plus the "colourless" variety from certain special Lands. Maybe I should have looked for a Core set after all.

Anyway, I wonder if seasoned vets get this: in both games I squeezed into my lunch break today, I felt as though I wasn't drawing good cards. The first game I was dreadfully short on Lands for Mana. But I had plenty of good Creatures I couldn't play. Second game was the opposite with plenty of Mana to play every turn but nothing particularly good to play to the table. In all my experience with CCGs, this is a common thing that frequently happens to me despite my attempts at smart deck-building. How do other players test their decks just once and then start tweaking it again? I sure can't - the odds are simply against playing a great game the first time!

Anyway, can't wait to try it again soon.