On how magic can save YOUR social life!!

Yup, Magic the Gathering, a game that could define nerdiness all on its own.

That's right, a game that involves collecting, trading and playing in rooms full of guys struggling to showcase their wits can actually be a tool to get closer, not only to people in general but (gasp!) people from the opposite sex!!!!

So, this was my little dillema, I really needed a way to talk with a girl I really like (if you are completely new to this, scroll down to the next post). But there was the problem of someone being there always, "Mario, I need this" "Mario I need that" or calling her or whatever. So I had to find a way to actually be completely alone with her without scaring both of us to death in the process.

In the meantime I had been thinking about teaching her and my best friend the mysteries of Booster Draft, a very fun way to play magic. I had figured that by saving some boosters from my national winning prize (if you are completely new to this, scroll down 2 posts!) we could run a little draft and get into the mechanics. While I really didn't know when to do this, I wanted to give it a try.

And so the big day came: My b-day BBQ was held today, and I was trying to find a way to sneak on her and tell her what I needed. After running out of ideas, I decided that there wasn't a better time to try the draft than there. So I took another friend and my two students to the living room and started running the draft.

It was halfway through that the idea dawned on me. After drafting your cards, you need a time to build your deck. Usually about 20 or 30 minutes.

Time that is usually spent better away from other competitors, to avoid scouting.

Spent alone.

BINGO!!

I found the plan pretty sound and I decided to try it after we had lunch. So then I checked that it all was set and proceeded to tell a couple of my friends to make sure that no one else approached us while we were talking. At this point most of the house knew what was going on anyways (except for a dude that is never into the move, you know) so they were pretty cooperative.

I genially asked the players to take their cards pool and go to their own places to build their decks, so I took her to the isolation of my room, I carefully closed the door, then sat down with her and separated the cards by colors and mana cost....

...Then I cast them aside and started talking.

To make it short, it all worked out fine, half an hour later we came out of the room with a kick-ass White Black deck and big grins on our faces -completely unjustified by the quality of the deck, may I say- and the Impossible had been accomplished: a moment of perfect peace where we could talk and set things straight.

So you see my dear reader? Who says that Magic is isolating or alienating? Isn't it a game of chance, strategy and willpower anyway?

Just like life?

Think about it, I can safely say that I own a lot to this dorky cardboard game.