Dustyrobe: childhood dreams

Magic The Gathering x Final Fantasy event at Suntec City

I remember when I was still in primary school, when me and my friends would be eating in Long John Silvers, we would often see a bunch of older teens playing a card game that was not Yu-Gi-Oh or Duel Masters. The only name I remembered seeing from that card game was Swamp, and I remember it so clearly because the art on the Swamps were so beautiful to me. But we never played the game, I just thought it was a card game for uncles at the time.

Then in 2017, Randell brought me to attend the Amonkhet (or Hour of Devastation) pre-release in Dueller's Point. That was my first real introduction to Magic the Gathering. We got steamrolled pretty quickly, and I didn't pick it back up for another 7 years.

In 2024, I woke up one day and texted Randell, I wanted to learn Magic proper. Naturally, he asked me why the sudden interest. My genuine answer was, I think I'm an uncle now. So he taught me to play the Commander format, introduced me to some Youtube channels, and started bringing me to every pre-release event for each set. I was drawn to the art on Magic cards, how every card felt like a piece of artwork by themselves, and I quickly fell down the rabbit hole, and the rest is history.

I think there is something so beautiful about being able to afford the hobby that I never could over the first twenty years of my life. Randell and I often hoped that Avatar: The Last Airbender could come to Magic, and true enough, it really did come to us. And being able to go all in on the collab like we did really felt so satisfying and touching to me, given how big of a fan I was of the Avatar series.

Other than photography, this is how I have been occupying my time the past 2 years, and it has been beautiful.