Review: Magic the Gathering is a fun game. However, it is a very complicated game and can get more so the more you play. Unless you just play a preconstructed deck right out of the box all the time and can resist the urge to tweak it, the game can easily consume your every waking hour as well as your paychecks. Constantly seeking new permutations for your deck, setting up the perfect sideboard, adjusting it every 6 months to account for new released sets and the fact that the old ones can’t be used in tournament play. . .the list goes on and on for how you can spend your time on Magic. It is a very efficient way to separate a geek and their money. I started playing Magic when Antiquities came out and have been playing off and on since then. In order to keep bringing out new stuff and making money, Wizards of the Coast has to constantly create new special abilities and powers for the cards. It just got too tough to keep track of all the special abilities and what they do as well as all of the DCI rulings on errata and such. I can’t seem to find people locally that like to play larger multiplayer formats for 3 or more players; everyone wants to play tournament 1 on 1 rules. I think they are missing out on some wondrous opportunities. There are also plenty of people that take this game WAY too seriously which can take all the fun out of it for the beginner. When the most common (standard) tournament rules banned all the cards I had spent hundreds of dollars on expecting to be able to use them for years to come I became very disenchanted with the game. Now I can only use them if I can find a Vintage or Legacy tournament group and I don’t want to mess with tournaments anyway.