Way back in September, for the 42nd and 1/3rd time, I lost interest in MTG. Yes. Again. I know, I know, you guys most likely laugh at me and Noob when we proclaim that the game has gotten boring for us only to come back and say that a new set has relit the fire. Ia��d like to think thata��s part of the charm of our website, we are not afraid to share our honest feelings about a game with you guys. We are gamers after all and who hasna��t become bored with a game only to rediscover it at a later point?

I had just bought 10 packs of Ixalan on a whim and joylessly opened them. I kept thinking about what cards in the set I *actually* could use in my various decks and couldna��t name one. Why did I just drop $40 on these packs? I couldna��t answer either question. There was no answer, I was basically on autopilot when I walked into the LGS and threw down my hard earned money. At that point, I realized that there was no point in buying cards anymore. All of my decks were formidable the way they were currently constructed. As I gazed on my boxes of singles stacked up in my closet, I decided that I would pursue a side gig selling on eBay. This worked to a certain extent. I felt like my cards had a purpose again and that purpose was to recoup some of the money I had poured into the hobby.

To my surprise, this actually worked, I easily made a good amount of money back, and quickly to boot. Starting a business only served to increase the sense of apathy towards the MTG. I didn’t see it as a game, but as product. I basically bombed out my entire collection with no regrets. I saved two decks, my green ramp and my storm, (both of which Ia��ve shared the decklist with you guys), and sold everything else. Why keep those decks? Well, if on the off-chance that someone wanted to play a game or two I wanted to have a couple of the decks that were actually fun to play. More on that later. I didna��t need the rest of my Modern decks because, to a certain extent, my gaming group dissolved. One of the members had a baby so that obviously takes priority over cards and his free time/free money dried up. Two of the other guys had a bit of a falling out so they stopped, and then one of the members, who takes the game very seriously, tried to insinuate that I was cheating during a game we played via Skype. To me, that was a complete turn-off from the game. Cheat? At MTG? During a friendly game no less? Or any game for that matter?! Ita��s just a game. At that point, the last guy I had to compete with was Shawn, and his free time was at a premium since he teaches and has 3 boys to take care of with his wife, so our nerd nights were few and far in between. The last one we had, we didna��t do any gaming. Instead, we watched Logan and Deadpool and ate calzones, which was just as fun as any other nerd night we had. My decks started to collect dust and I stopped thinking of the game entirely, besides a few texts here or there with Shawn. For me, the game was dead in the water and that was okay to me. It had been a good run and I had made a couple of good friends, as well as had some really fun times.

Fun, therea��s that word again. Because thata��s the key; I wasna��t having fun playing the game anymore. I hadna��t in a long time. I didna��t know how to put it into words until I was chatting with Shawn yesterday. He used a phrase that summed it up perfectly. a�?Keeping up with the Jonesa��sa�?. Thata��s been the problem for the last couple of years. Everything I was doing, everything I was buying was to remain competitive in the group. Since they all had Tier 1 Modern decks (Jund, Burn, Deatha��s Shadow, Elda-Tron,..Etc.), I couldna��t just show up with some wacky tribal deck because I would lose every game. Leta��s be honest, no one wants to lose every game, everyone wants to remain competitive to some extent and win as much as possible, the game wouldna��t be fun if you lost all the time. But ita��s also not fun when you are worried about building Tier 1 decks that you dona��t even really enjoy playing just to rack up a a�?Wa�? or two. I hated playing Tron, yes, it won quickly, but it just wasna��t fun. Same for Burn. Shawn and I always played really great, evenly matched games. We always had time to hatch our strategies and really enjoy the game without worrying about mistakes. This is because we didna��t play Tier 1 Modern decks. We were strictly kitchen table only..essentially anything goes, we didna��t care about banned/restricted cards. We just played the game. Thinking about it now, I miss those games. I would play with my buddy Phil (re: from the very first article I wrote for this site), and those games were fun too. Somewhere along the way, I had lost the fun. Opening packs. Not fun. Playing Modern games. Not fun. Going to Modern nights. Not fun. It just was something that I was doing just to do it.

I think Ghalta, Primal Hunger from Rivals of Ixalan did it. It got me at least thinking about the game again, and not in a negative way. I had mentioned it to Shawn about a month ago after one of the guys in the old group texted me a pic of it after it was spoiled, but then I forgot about it until Shawn texted me about it a couple of weeks ago. I instantly found myself wanting to add it to my green ramp. The same green ramp that had spent the last few months sitting on a book shelf in my game room. I felt reinvigorated in a way, not as in a�?I want to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on booster boxesa�?, but in a a�?I wouldna��t mind playing a game or twoa�? way. After chatting with Shawn and talking about just playing kitchen table, (he had mentioned that his boys enjoy Two Headed Giant), I spent some time with the few cards I have left and put together a 3 color Jund energy deck. Hardly the most competitive deck right? Maybe, maybe not, but I think ita��s going to be fun to play and finally, after a couple of years, Ia��ve learned thata��s what matters.

P.S Everyone is different and has a different philosophy of the game. I know that some of our loyal readers do enjoy Modern and as thata��s the case, I will still be posting budget friendly Modern deck lists for you guys to check out.