Ok, ok. We'll take a break from the math for a while, and move onto something arguably geekier.

Did you ever play that collectable Magic: The Gathering card game? My roommate recently unearthed his old cards, and we've been checking it out. Turns out they are alive and well. Not as much as a few years ago, but new series are still being released. We've even bought some cards from the new series to add a bit to our games. A bunch of friends of mine here used to be quite into it (they would enter the occasional tournament and such).

For those who don't know, you collect these cards to construct a deck to play the game. The deck contains lands (sources of magical power), creatures to fight for you, and spells. The players take turns, building up their reserves and casting spells at each other or on the creatures. The game is over when one player has been "hit" too many times by the other's spells and monsters.

The problem, though, was that the company would release a new series every few months (they still realease one a year), and the cards got progressively more powerful, so you had to keep buying to remain competitive. Some tournaments tried to counteract this by providing players with a random bunch of cards to form their decks, so that it was more about strategy than the biggest bankroll.

I also spent a whole bunch of time in high school playing Master of Magic, a Civilization-style game by Microprose that had a magic system based on Magic: The Gathering. Super fun.