Just to address an earlier statement, I'm working hard to ensure you won't go a year without an expansion again. I know how frustrating that was for me, and I only imagine it gets worse for people who don't get to build the cards for a living.
I think you've hit on two things that I've found in the past help me stay connected to games. First is having people locally. OCTGN is a wonderful thing, but there is something to be said for being able to play in person. I know this is also difficult. The second thing that was mentioned was to take a break. From what I'm reading you'd rather not do that, which I applaud. I just know that often if I have a little time away then I get reinvigorated when I finally have a chance to play a game.
End result, I'm trying to work my butt off so that you won't have a year of downtime again.
Thanks. The whole playing in person thing is a good point. After playing for about two years, I only managed to successfully start an irl playgroup, like, last Saturday. I've looked and looked everywhere all this time, and as far as I know I'm still the ONLY experienced mage wars player in the entirety of central ohio. I'm guessing that's probably why origins isn't having an actual mage wars tournament this year. It's partially my fault because I put off becoming an ambassador since neither of the nearby FLGS are both reachable by bus and have open game tables on weekends and at the time it didn't occur to me to ask if I could be an ambassador without having an FLGS as my "home base".
Of course I didn't realize that I was literally the only experienced mage wars player in the area. It seemed so ridiculously improbable to me. However, after searching all over the place the past couple years, on Facebook, boardgamegeek, at school, at tabletop gaming meetups, friendly local game stores, these forums, at conventions, at community events, and probably a few other places that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head, I have finally come to terms with the plain and simple fact that I really am the only experienced player here, and for a long time I was probably the only active player here. And as far as I know I am the only mage wars player in central Ohio who has progressed past apprentice mode.
Also, I'm not talking about northcentral Ohio. They sometimes refer to themselves as central Ohio even though they're not. And they're way too far away.