Pox22

I'm a 24-year old youth director for my church in central IL and I recently went to a campus ministry conference in Atlanta, GA. There, I connected with a faculty member from Boston University. Maybe because we were the only people not drinking the kool-aid (the key note speakers were insane and hyper-conservative) or maybe the Rev. Dr. just found me witty and brilliant--because by the end of the week she was giving me contact info for her and other faculty, giving me scholarship and stipend info, and detailed academic advisement for getting into my dream program (ThD in theology and ethics) and how to network for my dream job (teaching at a seminary or university). In a year or so, I could be strolling the halls of BU.

I haven't thought about much else in the week that followed--It's all incredibly sudden and I'm not one for impulse. But if someone was offering you bags of cash to pull up your stakes and move across to country to a place where you don't know anyone, hundreds of miles from everything you've known...would you?

1) Try not to feel overwhelmed. There are over 13k individual cards, so just roll with the punches as you wade into the game. Most people are generally pretty patient with new players and don't mind explaining or letting you read the cards they play.

2) Focus on board position and card advantage. Think about effects in terms of tempo and cards. For example, if you enchant your creature with something and your opponent kills your dude--you lost 2 cards for your opponent's 1.

3) Find a strategy, theme, or deck type that appeals to you and learn its ins and outs. I've been playing since 1995 and can play anything, but I'm proficient with control strategies--so that's generally what I play in competitive settings.

Welcome to the CCG that started it all!

@newhaap: http://www.audionetwork.com/production-music/steam-engine_39245.aspx

Just searched for "whistling" and went through them until I found it. This site is quite wonderful!

I live 2 hours south in Bloomington and have been WAITING for a GB Meet-up in Chicago. Sucks that it's on a day when I'm in St. Louis for work. :(

I would be so down to make this a quarterly event! I hope this goes well and can be made into a regular thing. Would love to drink and game with you guys (and gals?).

As far as obscure goes (still love Redwall and great to see others talking about it), I remember this odd book called Welcome to the Ark that I thought was pretty great and deep as a 7th grader.

Read a summary. It sounds dumb when I type it out, haha. But it was interesting.

So happy someone else mentioned Ready to Rumble.

Pay off student loans, help out friends and family, travel a bit more, build my own castle, open up a bar with an arcade and table space for board and card games. Maybe specifically hire college grads who can't find full-time work because that's where I'm at and it BLOWS.

Would also throw a ton of money at various charities, scientific projects and research.

There has in the course of history been presidents who continued to have active political careers after their terms--Taft even became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after his presidency. He was much better judge than president.

So excited, even though I'll be out of town this weekend. Can't wait to catch the archive.

I said $300. Even at $300, I could buy an SSD and a better video card for my PC--which already handles today's games on high settings. If new consoles are more than $300, they'll be a hard sell for me.