Card of the Week Contest #441: A Trip Down Memory Lane

 

Firefly populations have been dropping in my area which is very sad, they're beautiful and I remember seeing hundreds of them on summer nights when I was a kid.

The first time I encountered a magic card was one time when I was between 5 and 7, and I happened to catch my uncle putting some magic cards into a closet. He's always been a carefree guy and I've always been pretty curious, so when he saw me interested in the cards, he offered some to me (it was random stuff he didn't put away yet, but kid me's mind was blown). That first card I saw was Fangren Hunter.

I would go on to start "playing magic" with my siblings as we grew. Of course I was the only one who could read at the time and just barely, certainly nothing in English or italian, and we had barely a faint idea of what the rules were supposed to be. So we kind of just made up what seemed to make sense based on the art. We had fun, though we also often argued. The card I'm bringing today is kind of trying to capture that more kiddy way of playing:



PS: But if you insist on seeing this through grown-up eyes, it is an ATM technically.

A potential alternative wording for the bugs would be “ , Exert this creature: Add one mana of any color.”

So, this all ties together very nicely, I promise.

I was lucky enough to watch Batman: the Animated Series when it first aired on TV.  (I feed on your jealosy.)  I was prolly 8 years old, a few days or weeks away from turning 9 at the time.  So, I want you all to put yourselves in your nearly-nine-year-old selves, watching one particular episode.  Fast forward almost exactly 30 years to the day, and I see the entire boxed set of BTAS at my local Target.  Something so monumentally impactful to my childhood, there's no fucking way I'monna let it slip through my fingers.  Unfortunately, I had no money at the time.  Fortunately, it was very near the end of the month, so all I had to do was wait for the 1st, and my SSI payment, go back to Target, and hope the boxed set was still there.  It was, I snapped up a copy, and just a few days ago, I finally got through everything it had to offer.  Show still holds up as one of the greatest shows ever.

But I'm getting a little sidetracked.  I know, I know, "You?  Never!"  While Teferi's in the hospital recovering from a massive stroke, and Ral's keeping a constant vigil, I'monnahafta provide my own self-snark.  Anyway, when I rewatched that one particular episode, especially when it got to that one particular scene (and those of you who've seen it know exactly what I'm talking about...), I was both young Bruce, adult Bruce, young me, AND adult me.  It was a fractal of nostalgia², and it felt like how a Hitchcock zoom looks.  I was even eating popcorn at the time!

Just imagine yourselves, 8, almost 9, watching this for the first time, loving it, but not really getting the full impact of the episode's deeper themes.  Then, 30 years later, you rewatch it, and suddenly, you know.



And now, with the death of Kevin Conroy, my Bat is forever silenced.

Anyway, sorry for the mood whiplash, have a card:



Arkham Asylum
Legendary Land
As Arkham Asylum enters the battlefield, you may discard a card. If you don’t, it enters the battlefield tapped.
, Discard a card: Add two mana in any combination of colors.



Madness enabler, let's gooooo!!!

sdfkjgh

a) Arcade follows the rule of Saga, where you advance to the next level upon activation, as is explained in the first reminder text. Since it simulates the different levels of the game, it's not cumulative. By the way, the coin counter is supposed to be represented by a unique symbol like  or the new tickets if it will be officially printed, so the Coin part can be easier to comprehend.

b) I tried to make it more like "for each level, complete a quest for a reward" which included the famous rescue mission featured in MS series, but I encountered a problem that happens in Magic card which is text space. In my original draft, I designed an ability where each opponent creates a 0/2 hostage with a tagged-on ability that gives you some bonus, but it's too wordy. Of course, if there are suggestions of simpler realization of such abilities, I welcome any useful recommendations for improvements.

Daij_Djan, Lady: Let's be honest here, Lego always wins, no matter the contest.  Case in point.

ZephyrPhantom :Whoops! I knew I was missing something major. Let me fix that.

In my 7th-grade class, there were 6 guys in my class (out of a total of 28 kids in the class). One was a cool kid (so he was hanging out with the other cool kids from other classes), and another lived farther aways (so he always went home right after school). The rest of us 4 always stuck around after school and hung out by the city park next to our school, usually playing handball, or Magic next to the old guys playing chess, dominoes, or poker. Three of us still keep in touch (after 20+ years!), and visit each other from time-to-time, even having moved to opposite parts of the country.