[NewChief]

My experience with the cards is that kids that age don't actually play the game. They just get the cards and compare them and crap, basically like collecting matchbox/hot wheels cars. There is a game to be played, but my 6 year old cousin doesn't actually play it. He just wants cards, cards, and more cards.

Right when Magic: The Gathering came out, a bunch of friends and I played all the time in college. It was a lot of fun to sit around and play. Made for some interesting social circles as well, because we ended up having Magic parties with people we'd never normally hang out with. Anway, the fad eventually went away. On a tangent, I know one of the guys that invented Magic which then morphed into the company Wizards of the Coast, which then bought out TSR and was subsequently bought out by Hasbro. He and his buddies invented the game while attending a small liberal arts college in the Northwest. He's now a multi-millionairre and probably one of the more eccentric rich people you'd ever meet.