User:LegacymtgsalvationUser21293

Castle (real name James) is an Australian member of MTG Salvation, and is one of the longest-standing members of The Pack.

MTG History

Early Days

James began playing MTG in 1994 (aged 13), just before the Australian release of The Dark, and was immediately drawn to the rich flavour of the game and made a red/green deck which still exists, albeit in a highly-modified form.

Shortly after the release of the Homelands expansion, James and his playing group began to lose interest in the game, although James continued to buy at least one booster pack from each expansion until the release of Urza's Saga saw his group resume regular play, at least until the release of Mercadian Masques.

James continued to play and develop his red/green deck against a friend's mono-blue deck for the next few years.

Recent Years

Early in 2004, one of James' playgroup convinced him to attend the Darksteel prerelease, and for the first time he begain building decks other than his trusty red/green.

James began attending regular sanctioned booster drafts at his local card store, as well as the prerelease for each set from then until the release of Morningtide. The only constructed tournaments that James ever attended were a series of Standard tournaments at a local store in 2006/2007 (highest result was 3rd with a green/black Thallid deck), and Vintage Highlander (with a white/black deck, and no great success).

Recently, James has had little time for playing MTG, but remains very active on MTG Salvation and avidly follows the release of new sets and continues to create new decklists.

Online Activity

James adopted the username Castle when he joined a local Australian MTG community forum in May 2005, then used the same name to join MTG Salvation in May 2007.

Originally, the majority of Castle's activity on MTG Salvation was in the Rumour Mill, Magic General and Custom Card Creation fora.

In 2008, when The Pack clan was being formed, Castle quickly joined up. The clan has since become Castle's primary focus on the forum. In July 2009, Castle became the clan representative, and took over as clan leader from Zaph in June 2010.

Other Interests

Besides MTG, James' main interests are music, cars and football.

Music

James' musical preference is best summed up by his bio on the Sountrack clan page, where he is listed as a friend: "Ultimately I'm a rocker at heart, the more traditional (by which I mean "old school values" rather than "mainstream") the better. I was raised on a healthy diet of 70's rock, jazz, classical and folk music, so anything encompassing (or, even better, combining) these elements it bound to appeal to me on some level. Also, I've been playing piano since age 8, so I tend towards piano-heavy music. Electronic music (even over-use of synthesised music in traditional bands) is a bit of a hangup of mine, but I'm trying very hard to learn to adapt to this one, if for no other reason than I don't want to turn into a grumpy old man before I hit 30."

Some of James' favourite bands/artists are: The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Muse, JS Bach, Ben Folds, Billy Joel, Queen, The Eagles, Cold Chisel and AC/DC.

Cars

James' favourite auto marque is Holden, the Australian subsidiary of General Motors. James' first car was a Holden Commodore, and his current avatar on MTG Salvation is a picture of the Holden Efijy concept car. James also follows the Australian Touring Car Championship, known as V8 Supercars.

Football

James is an avid follower of the Australian Football League, and barracks for the Essendon Bombers.