Wizards, Magic, and Dwarves

Rick has been a nerd all his life. I know this about him, and I love him in spite of the nerdiness. He has played D&D since he was in junior high, and various levels of nerdy games since then... Magic: The Gathering, Blood Bowl, Warhammer, Necromunda, Mordheim, Everquest, World of Warcraft... the list goes on and on. I am not even going to mention the ones that are based on comic book characters like City of Heroes! HAHA. I don't mind it cause it keeps him out of trouble. And really, for the most part, he has over the years grown out of all of them... that is, until his friends started playing Magic again just a few months ago, which conveniently coincided with a lull in Rick's nerd game playing. It was perfect. So the nerdy friends (who are not, inherently, nerdy on the outside...lol) get together every Tuesday and play with their Magic cards. Tiff, Rick's brother's wife, calls it "Mor-Dor Night" cause they guys get all Middle Earth. hahahaa.

So, when a new expansion pack was coming out for the cards, Rick decided to host nerd night over here at our house. Everyone was going to come over and they were doing this certain kind of game playing (that the nerds reading this will undoubtedly recognize) where each person around the table gets a pack of cards. Everyone opens up their pack of cards at once and they all have a minute to choose the ONE card they want from the deck, then pass the rest of the cards to their left. This is repeated till everyone has their 20 cards. Then They open another pack and do the same thing, only this time passing to player right. This goes on for however long that takes, and then everyone spends 30 minutes organizing their decks and building their decks so they can play their games. Everyone got card protectors to put their cards in to keep them in good condition... everyone except Ryan who isn't into the nerdiness as some others. He was just shuffling cards like a normal deck and Rick's brother Bob nearly had a heart attack at the thought of the cards getting bent like that. HAHAAHA. Nerd.

Finally game play begins with each person playing everyone else in the room, with wins and losses recorded on the whiteboard. Winner gets 5 decks, runner up 3 decks, and 2 consolation prizes (DFL gets one deck and "good sport" gets one deck).

And it all looks something like this:

First the setup. Bob brought his computer so he could look up card stats (since everything was so brand new no one really knew what to expect from the cards)...

Rick laid out the decks along the table...

And then they passed out a few decks (4, I think) to each person.

They rolled their 20-sided die to start...

And then tore open Pack #1 and started checking out the cool cards, looking for Rares, Ultra Rares, Special Named Creatures, and the like. I don't even know if that's what they are all called, but there were a lot of "OOOOO!!!" that came from the opening of the new decks.

This particular group of nerds is special in that they have a built-in dwarf. I mean, honestly - it isn't the same without an actual, living, little person sitting across the table pretending to cast "Rain of Fire" on you. So Little Chris is there to add an air of authenticity. ;)

There are even a couple of token nerd chicks who play, and do quite well!
And there's Rick. Who hates when I take pictures of him.
And Ryan. Innocent Ryan who just loves the game but doesn't get all comic book store owner on his cards. The shuffling nearly put Bob into cardiac arrest.
See?? hahahaha. poor Bob. It's going to be okay.
So a good time was had by all. The game went on well into the night (I think from 6pm till around 2am by the time everyone left!)... and even though there were only a couple of winners, everyone came away with new cards and new stories of wizards, magic, and even fighting actual dwarves. :)