There's a Light at the End of the Tunnel

From Thursday to Sunday of next week, I will be making my first trip up to Boston since last June. I had always considered Boston (and by extension, Massachusetts as a whole) my home away from home. The family has had friends that live on the Cape for as long as I can remember. We've made at least one trip up there a year for as I can remember. It doesn't come as a surprise that come college time, both my brother and I ended up in the Greater Boston Area, with him at MIT and me at BU. I only lived in the city for three and a half years, and ever since I left, I've counted the days until my grand return. This trip will be enjoyable enough simply because I'll be in Boston the weekend of St. Patrick's Day, but at the same time, I have ulterior motives. While I'm there, I will finalize the details of my true grand return, when I move back to the city full time come September.

As with any giant life changing decision, there are good points and bad points. The good heavily outweighs the bad in this case, as I will be returning to the city I love and living in an apartment/house with my three best friends on Earth. We've already got plans to start a podcast once we all get settled. I'll be close to my beloved Boston Red Sox and Boston University Terriers. I'll once again be surrounded by colleges on all sides, which will give me ample opportunity to enroll part time in programs in order to earn M.A.s in English and Philosophy, as well as become a certified secondary school teacher. I'll be within walking/T distance of bars and clubs. Concerts. Baseball games. Walking the Common on a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon. Comicopia, one of the best comic shops I've ever been to, which is right down the street from Nuggets, my personal favorite used record store, which is in turn right down the street from the Boston University Pub, purveyor of all things yummy and beer flavored. All of these are good things.

What is a little bittersweet, however, is that most of the bad has a direct impact on my ability to play VS System. World's will pretty much be an impossibility on my budget if it is anywhere beyond driving distance. Not on the Northeast Corridor? Not going to happen. I'm still going to MegaWeekend New York, but it may turn out to be a farewell of sorts from competitive VS play for at least a while. Considering how expensive Boston as a city is, I'll be operating on a vastly reduced disposable income budget. I wouldn't expect myself to be getting more than two boxes of Marvel Universe, if I buy any at all, and considering the size of the set, it's doubtful two boxes is going to cut it. I'll also lose touch with the handful of people I actually get to play the game with on a semi-regular basis.

Does this mean I'm quitting the game, throwing my hands up to the sky and selling off all my money rares? Hell no! I named this blog VS System is LEGION for a reason. You can't just walk away. I can't get all the cards? I'll make proxies or use Magic Workstation. No one I know in the area that plays? Boston's a pretty big city chock full of college kids and graduates in the 18-30 age bracket. I'm sure there's a whole bunch of VS players out there. I just have to find them. Plus, I'll be living with (at least) three bright, like minded guys who I can personally run VS experiments on. I expect that between bar nights and Rock Band nights, I'll have us drafting old boxes of Marvel Knights on the cheap within two months.



I kinda view this game like Kudzu. It looks harmless at first, but once things start spreading and you can't see your shoes anymore, you realize that maybe your little bottle of spray on weed killer isn't going to do too much damage against that botanical juggernaut. Hell, it's probably more accurate to think of this game as the antagonist from the 1971 Genesis song "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" (yes, I'm under 40 years old): "They are invincible. They seem immune to our herbicidal battery." I can't really explain the plant references. There are some places my brain goes when I'm not fully paying attention that defy all rational means of logical thinking. Still, oddly enough, the reference seems apt. Many people, some of which are very vocal, seem to think that UDE considers VS System to be a neglected weed that's popping up from between the two slab of sheet rock known as "World of Warcraft" and "YuGiOh" in the sidewalk of life. I personally do not believe these sentiments, but I do like the idea that we as a group and an ideology refuse to die. We're stubborn. They take away our PCQ's and Sneak Previews? Whatever. They cut out the money and the Pro Circuit, watch the high profile pros leave for other games and expect us to die on the vine? Screw that. We've only gotten stronger. I suddenly have this picture in my head of this giant, spreading, lush foliage completely taking over the WoW piece of sheet rock (because let's face it here, that YuGiOh slab is made of fucking Kryptonite) and spreading onwards and outwards. If such an undeniable OP upheaval didn't kill this game for us as a community, why the hell would moving 350 miles up the coast kill the game for me? It doesn't make sense, so it won't happen.

As I said earlier, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. And it's shaped like the Citgo Sign. Rock on.