Author Archives: Casual Magicking

March 30, 2020 doom – noun : 1993 first-person shooter developed by …. wait …. how is this what initially comes up on Google? Have you ever become really (I mean REALLY really) invested in a single Magic deck? Not necessarily financially, mind you. I’m talking about a more emotional investment. It becomes a deckContinue reading “My New Favorite Pet is…Doom!”

March 24, 2020 redeeming – adjective : compensating for some fault or defect; bringing about salvation or redemption from sin I’ve argued (perhaps not eloquently) that only rares can be bobos – uncommons and mythics don’t qualify. I’m not going to alter that opinion today, but I am going to amend it slightly to sayContinue reading “Arlinn, Voice of the (Pathetic) Non-Pack Pull”

March 19, 2020 unqualified – adjective : (of a person) not officially recognized as a practitioner of a particular profession or activity through having satisfied the relevant conditions or requirements As someone with a degree in English, I’m naturally curious about numbers, data, trends, statistics, variables, and probabilities. OK, look, not every English major can,Continue reading “An English Major Learns You Some Statistics”

March 12, 2020 casu marzu – noun : a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese that contains live insect larvae (maggots) I’m not right very often, so you’d think I’d revel in those moments when I am. You’d be wrong (like I so often am.) About a week and a half ago my son claimed heContinue reading “The Colors of Amonkhet Described as Cheese”

March 6, 2020 nascent – adjective : coming into existence; emerging For perhaps the first time since rebooting my Magic experience at the start of the year, I’ve finally come close to feeling like a truly new player. I returned to Magic, after a fairly prolonged absence, in 2017. Amonkhet came out in 2017. GreatContinue reading “On the Benefits of Losing One’s Mind”

March 2, 2020 genuflect – verb : lower one’s body briefly by bending one knee to the ground, typically in worship or as a sign of respect So you opened a bobo rare in a Magic pack. Now what? If you’re like me, you might curse, or grumble, or close your eyes and ever-so-slightly shakeContinue reading “Winning With Only Your Wits…and Tortilla Chips”

February 18, 2020 inutile – adjective : useless; pointless Silent Submersible is a bobo rare. It may be the best example of one from the past several years. It’s a failure in every conceivable way. Not only is it a rotten card, but it’s a flavor disaster. A silence submarine that, within the gameplay itself,Continue reading “That’s a Clown Card, Bro”

February 12, 2020 unbidden – adjective : without having been commanded or invited I previously talked about beginning to understand the concept of a “bobo rare” before having a name for such cards. Now I’ll start actually trying to define what a bobo rare is. Note that I say “start” because the full explanation turnedContinue reading “Consider This the Opening Scroll”

February 3, 2020 bobo – noun : An imitation of something, particularly a well known product, usually lower in quality than the original Some years ago, I submitted an article to a well-known Magic website that published (and still publishes) content daily. I titled my article “The Curse of the Bobo Rare”, and it wasContinue reading “Tears In a Bottle”

#5 – January 24, 2020 perplexed – adjective : completely baffled; very puzzled I predicted that my Theros: Beyond Death prerelease foil promo card would be this bobo rare: I was wrong. Allure of the Unknown was, however, a foil rare in my first pack I opened from my prerelease kit. My prerelease foil promoContinue reading “The Unknown Hammers Home”