wow... this brings me back. '98... i was 13 at the time and MtG was one of the big pillars of my childhood, along with anything Square brought out (at the time i swear they were spinning gold from hay) and D&D (which my group discovered earlier that year).
This MC hits waaaaay too close to home (in a good way) from the dorky doing good in school but never acheiving the top position and still having an inflated ego about it, but also going so far as to bike to the nearby town to check out a game store (i grew up in the middle of Bumblefuck, Nowhere and the nearest store was a 30min car drive away. my friends and i would make a day of it on weekends, pack our kitbags with lunch and our decks and head out in the early morning and return late at night).