Happy belated new year to everyone the world over. It has become increasingly apparent to me that the little things are very important, and having a decade that is easy to say out loud for the first time since the '90's is a big deal. I wish everyone and their families and friends a happy, prosperous '20's! May they roar like a field of! My Christmas was totally bodacious and the wife and I spent New Years Eve with the rest of the Akron Legionnaires and much karaoke was sang. 2020 has been rough for me so far though as I got hit with a nasty case of Influenza B that had me down for a good week with a severe cough, a sore throat straight from the bowels of Hell, and a high fever. I am now back again, like Aerosmith I persevered through the hard times and am ready to conquer a new decade. Part of this good cheer comes from having acquired my 100th(!) card in my quest to complete a set of. What began about a year ago is starting to get really exciting.Like a lot of us who started playing back in early 1994, I never really saw any cards from the first edition of, regardless of whether one is discussing. Granted my play group consisted of me, Jimmy, my cousin John, my dad and my sister Kristin, but it is pretty much common knowledge that, andwere nearly impossible to find. It was not until I came out of mycoma last January that I ever even saw any cards from those sets in person. I of course knew of the famous ones from readingmagazine, but not seeing them up close gave them an almost mythical air. In a way even cooler that thewas cards likeand, cards that you never heard about that didn't make the cut. The coolest card of them all to young Billy however was the (in)famous, one of only two cards that you actually flipped onto the playing field! I remember reading the tale of the player who allegedly ripped his copy into tiny pieces and scattered them on all his opponents cards. There was also a story of a player who simply flipped it onto his opponent's library and declared victory. We are all familiar with these probably apocryphal stories but to a young lad they were accepted as fact. I have wanted anfor over 25 years. When Jimmy and Sean each got one at Eternal I was super stoked for my friends but also bummed that I was the only Legionnaire without a. It became my ultimate quest to finally get myself the mighty lava-vomitter.A few weeks ago Jimmy, Matt, Sean and I were having one of our regular game nights. Spirits were high as the Christmas holiday was approaching and we have all been really enjoying our group meta. Jimmy is our aggro player, piloting a fearsome, beautiful red/green creature deck that is a much more refined version of this childhood deck from the '90s. Matt is an expert deck-builder and player who somehow finds a way to make all kinds of wild creations work beautifully. Sean pilots a dreaded control deck that has locked me down many times, and I drift from deck type to deck type searching endlessly for one that is not only unique but also really good. We all have fun, everyone wins some games, and Matt and Sean are always patient about rules clarifications since Jimmy and I never saw a game from 1998 to 2019. Towards the end of the night Jimmy and I were playing a game with our ante decks (60 cards, only A/B/U but reprints OK, singleton, no more than 5 rares, unsleeved) when he cast a!!! I felt a sense of surreal confusion. It was after 10PM on a work night, I was a little sleepy, and it didn't register to me why he would risk that card in an ante deck! Also, he had 2 now!? He then looked at me and said "you have annow." Before you all think he is the most crazy generous brother of all time (he is quite generous and we buy each other surprise cards fairly often,) he had tasked himself with scouring game shops to find me a good HP to MP copy at a great price. I did not anticipate him getting one for many months so I was a little taken aback, but after about 20 minutes of digesting the shock of the acquisition I became utterly elated. It would be my precious, forever.I love all of my cards, from that gorgeousto the mightiest, but nothing beats my love for this card. I have loved it from afar since I was in grade school back in 1994. It has always been so mythical and unattainable. I love it every time I play it. It helps that the Legionnaires play originalrules (cards have to all fit on the playmat) but even with the new, soulless, less chaotic rules it is still a blast. As I come close to getting all of the common cards each acquisition will become more pricy and more special, but I don't think anything can top this, except for one day down the line if I am fortunate enough to get the point in my quest where I am looking at power. Even if I never complete my quest or get any power, at least I know I have the best friends in the world, the best brother in the world, and one mightily loved played. Thanks Jimmy for forcing me to pony up before 2020. Sometimes you gotta shove someone into the pool to make them swim.Stay tuned...