Category: Hooptedoodle

(Editor’s Note: Being a fiction writer, sometimes all that comes out of my fingers when I write is prose that just meanders for a while. Elmore Leonard explained that the term is called “hooptedoodle” and sprung from John Steinbeck’s book Sweet Thursday. It’s a non-sense word that doesn’t mean anything; the author is just going to write a while for fun. This is one of those times. Some of you might like this, others will think I’m wasting your time and for that I apologize. You may skip this post, and I wouldn’t be hurt. This isn’t required reading by any means, but I wanted to get this Magic-related story down. – MtGCP)

Editor’s Note 2: For explanation of the title, it’s based off a palandrome.

I’ve played Magic off and on for a long time. I started in playing in Revised at age 11 after watching some other kids in my 6th grade classes play the game during breaks and having fun. I don’t remember how I convinced my mom to get it for me for Christmas, but I ended up with a two-player starter pack in my stocking. For those of you who were wondering, I got a Royal Assassin and a Lord of the Pit. I taught myself the rules by reading the book, over and over again. No, it wasn’t easier to play pre-6th edition rules, and for the longest time played my lands above my creatures.

One of the stores that I would visit near my house was Games and Gizmos, which is now a computer repair center I believe. One time while I was in the store I saw that they had some posters for sale, and not just any posters, but Magic: the Gathering ones. I was able to talk my mom into buying me a poster, a replica of the one that is pictured above. She told me that I could hang it in my room if we got it framed (so the tape didn’t ruin the paint on the walls).

Continue reading “Hooptedoodle – A Man, a Plan, a Canvas, oh, So Close”

(Editor’s Note: Being a fiction writer, sometimes all that comes out of my fingers when I write is prose that just meanders for a while. Elmore Leonard explained that the term is called “hooptedoodle” and sprung from John Steinbeck’s book Sweet Thursday (fixed). It’s a non-sense word that doesn’t mean anything; the author is just going to write a while for fun. This is one of those times. Some of you might like this, others will think I’m wasting your time and for that I apologize. You may skip this post, and I wouldn’t be hurt. This isn’t required reading by any means, but I wanted to get this Magic-related story down. – MtGCP)

I was intrigued by the mid-20’s man lounging in the chair infront of me; his constantly smiling toothy grin, the wool-knit cap covering his matted hair, the eyes that lit up whenever he played a card. He came up in the middle of a game of EDH I was engaged with another player who he happened to know. Asking us if we wanted to buy any cards, he started to pull out his boxes. He had decks upon decks that he was proud to show us.

This was his Angel deck.

This was his Dragon deck.

This was his counterspell deck with unblockable creatures.

This was the deck his friends didn’t like him playing because it had the purple atog in it.

While the cards were worn from gameplay (most of them unsleeved), it wasn’t because they were just thrown around his room haphazardly; they were loved. They were shuffled over and over again from the kitchen table games he played with family and friends. Today, the cards were trying to get him a little extra money. While looking through them, nothing interested me but the other player bought a couple of older cards he couldn’t find for trade around here. The man was obviously a little sad to see the pieces of cardboard go, but it’s nothing that couldn’t be replaced.

As we continued to play our EDH game he took a look at my General: a Japanese Vorosh, the Hunter (Don’t worry 99EDH fans, you’ll get the sweet decklist soon enough. One word: Landfall). He examined it for a minute, he said he hadn’t see the card before; said it was pretty cool. A turn later, my opponent was facing 14 4/4 beast tokens with a +1/+1 counter on them and he couldn’t find any outs in his deck. We all laughed at how this happened (the link will be here when I write about the deck), and the man with the heavily shuffled cards started to put his stuff away. My original opponent had to leave after our game and the stranger asked if I wanted to play. Of course I did, it was Magic.

Continue reading “Hooptedoodle – It’s Your Upkeep, Battlemage”