I am a casual player, having got into the game playing 5-player Free-for-All and then transitioning to Commander. I currently mostly play just 2-3 player games, both regular 60-card matches and Commander ones, but I also enjoy throwing in other flavorful variants, such as Archenemy and Horde.

I love deck building and getting creative with restrictions: Building decks strict to a block/plane theme or card type, building in colors I don't have as frequently represented, or with restrictions in the numbers of cards at each rarity or to only cards rated less than 3 out of 5 on Gatherer (which thanks to Gatherer’s ratings being disabled for years unfortunately also eliminates the possibility of any newer cards). I aim for decks that have the chance to be powerful but are also disruptable, as I don't want them to seem too daunting to the friends I play with. Comically in retrospect, but not in the moment, I constantly worry I have tipped the balance in my deck builds too much toward power and then often overcorrect and get woefully stomped when I try a deck out.

My first set was Zendikar, and so it holds a strong place in my heart. My first deck was the monoWhite Kor intro deck, which led me into a since-retired Kor equipment deck and an Angel deck that eventually evolved into Angel Ascension. As my first block, it is not surprising that it has spawned so many deck ideas: I hope to rebuild that Kor equipment deck one day and I have since built an Eldrazi deck, plus I have come close to building a green/white ally deck, white/blue level up deck, and a red/green defender deck with Vault Sentinel. After Zendikar, I love Ravnica, Shards of Alara, and Tarkir for their multicolored themes and flavor, and I love OG Kamigawa and Ixalan for their interesting tribes. I've had fun building quite a few decks from some of those blocks, including my paper decks Rafiq of the Many Enchantments, the Simic-inspired GU Load Letter, and my casual Kami spirits and Azorius Detain decks.

I used to run an exclusively MtG blog called Disciple of the Cards at sarroth.tumblr.com; I've mostly been too busy since graduate school, starting my career, and becoming a father in the last decade to blog any longer, but I’ve resumed perusing the MtG tags on there and will reblog the occasional Magic or Pokémon thought (the collapse of the Spellslingers app surprisingly lured me to Pokémon TCG Live rather than MtG Arena), political post, or animal post that interests me or gets a smile. Also, all of my posts should be archived there, including in-depth ones on Horde Magic and different horde ideas.