where has the magic gone?

Into storage, that's where.

Once upon a time, I played Magic: The Gathering a lot, helping create a nice population of players in the Philippines. My little playgroup was pretty group (consisting of two National Champions, a National Finalist and much-awarded members who competed in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore and Seattle).

And so I had a lot of cards - which I lug around every time we move after culling the older ones (with 28 sets, you just can't bring everything).

Last night, as I sorted cards to put into storage, Nikki and I relived many fond memories of the 5 or so years we played (me as a some-time competitor, judge and organizer; she as the one-time highest ranked female in the world):

**Rickey's proposed strategy at the World Championships in Seattle (he'd slowly pick up a card and pretend to not fully understand it, in the hope of having his opponent underestimate him - which would really not work because he obviously made it to the Championships!)

**ESPN2 following Nikki around Hong Kong and making her lose her concentration

**Richard Adelfin faking a press badge and getting into all the events

**Horrible misuse of cards (without malice) creating shocking powerhouses in Davao and the Visayas

**Ordering food in Japan based on cost rather than what the food actually is (because none of us could read kanji)

**Dozens of tournaments in various halls, malls and ships

**Losing my temper, like clockwork - sigh

Though neither Nikki nor I play competitively anymore, we still like to make decks once in a while and have a go - reliving the good times when we were younger and had money to spend on cards.