Scription: Capybara and his Trading Cards

Chapter 1: Capybara Con 2020

Hello hello! Are we live? Yes we are, ok good, awesome.

Hey guys, I'm Mr Capybara and I love trading cards! Since I was young, I've always enjoyed the concept of stupid printed cardboard used as game pieces and collectibles.

This included Pokemon, Duel Masters, Yu-gi-oh... But for this story there will be a main focus on what I'm currently on: MTG and Flesh and Blood!

Although there are some references to gameplay mechanics, I will try my best to keep gameplay related stories to a minimum and focus more on the social aspects of the game. Aspects that involve trade, banter, drama and all that other nonsense. I do hope that these stories are entertaining enough for my readers and note that events in this series are based on real events that have happened in my local community from my perspective

With that said, let me talk about how I got started!

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I was a little upset that a week before my 23rd birthday, the prospects of a celebration with friends don't seem very feasible. I usually had a birthday party with some friends invited every year and called it "Capybara Con 20XX". Funnily enough, Capybara Con would happen twice a year because my younger brother would also invite the same friends over and we would enjoy a nice Indonesian cuisine usually with some casual multiplayer MTG or random board games.

A few days before the weekend of my birthday though, a friend who I will address as "Niktoh" wanted to organise a birthday draft for a particular friend group where they were essentially chipping in to buy me a booster box for a birthday present but we all got to play with the cards before the cards ended up with me. Another friend in the group who I will call Mr Gengar, offered that we try a new card game called Flesh and Blood. At the time, the second set known as "Arcane Rising" had this particular card that would cover the whole box's price if we pulled it. (For those in the know, it's a generic staple with the art of a familiar Chinese warlord doing a very domineering pose)

Holy shit nice! Cards for my birthday!! Isn't it nice to have the birthday boy be a card gamer? Just buy him a booster box for his birthday 100% foolproof strategy he will never complain.

Day of the draft, Mr Gengar brings in the box worth about 120 Singapore dollars and we sit around a table. For those not in the hobby, a draft is when we open up booster packs and take turns picking cards from each pack and make a deck to play against each other out of them. 

It's a very skill based format that is the most accessible monetary wise as you do not have to invest hundreds of dollars into a constructed deck. Ironically, it is also hard for new players to play the format as it involves a lot of deep intricacies that only regular players would be aware of.

Synergies, value, strength and more. All these are very important features of each card that you have to be able to determine when you see the card if you want to succeed in this format.

But who actually gives a fuck this is a free draft we just want to bust open the packs and see the money card!

Of course during the draft, Mr Gengar was passed a basically perfect deck since none of us could correctly identify what were good cards. I saw the words "Arcane Damage" and was told that it was damage that you couldn't block unless you had equipment with "Arcane Barrier".
Oh shit! What a busted mechanic, surely if I go wizard and just pick all the Arcane Damage cards I would steamroll everyone.

First round I was against Mr Gengar and the steam rolling of course, did happen although not to the person I would have liked it to. Well, to be fair I didn't really have a chance. The game's skill expression design made it so that the better player will usually win especially in a format like draft.

"Damn Capybara I'm sorry your deck is balls man haha!"

"No shit bro! How would I have figured that in my first draft??" as I reached out trying to give him a playful slap to the face.

Meanwhile the other match was happening. "Oh maa gaaawwwd Capybara this game sucks why is it so harddd". Niktoh and his opponent Vince were both laughing at the absurdity of having to figure out the game on the fly as they throw their extremely suboptimal decks at each other.

"Well, did we see anything worth money in the box"

"Uhhh....Nope, sorry Capybara" Gengar pat me on the back reassuringly.

 
"Ahh fuck... Oh well maybe next time, the game's kind of fun though. Fuck you Gengar you piece of shit."

"Git gud loser haha!!" remarked Gengar as he ate my dreams away.

That was my first interaction with FaB and I look at that day very fondly,  I was later taught the game by a much better teacher (who didn't make fun of me for being new cough cough) at another card store. Delaney as I called her, will prove to be a very important character in future stories. Gengar too is a very prominent figure in the current local environment of the  game and these two along with many others who I will introduce later will each play important roles in the story.