Gift of the the States

Yesterday I came home to a letter I'd been looking forward to for a long time. I did not now exactly what to expect, but I'm truly amazed right now.

Some of you are probably familiar with Danny Friedman. He is a long time Vintage player and one of the real pioneers for old school magic in the US. He is also a pimp aficionado with an amazing collection and a very skilful artist. As a big fan of Alpha cards combined with his altering craftsmanship, he was the first (and so far only) person I've heard about who has attempted Alpha altering of his cards. I first saw some of his work at his Twitter account and was thoroughly impressed. About six weeks ago, I contacted him to see if he would be interested in altering three cards for me on commission. He did not do it on commission though, but instead did it for free as gift and a sign of friendship from the old school community across the ocean.

Apart from the three cards I sent to him for alters, he gave me some very cool extra gifts as well. As you might know, two cards were left of from the Alpha printsheet and first appeared in Beta (apart from additional art on the basic lands). One of those two cards was Circle of Protection: Black. That makes this alteration pretty unique as Circles go:

Alpha-cut CoP:Black.

The most coveted price in the largest 93/94 tournaments in Sweden is a Giant Shark from The Dark signed by all the competing players. It is the first price at the yearly n00bcon and BSK tournaments. If you win one of these, you are pretty much required to play it in your deck from that point on to show it off. This year for n00bcon, we'll have the first ever Alpha Giant Shark as the first price.

Double black borders and the white dots are present :)

This next card will have a permanent place in my Project M deck. I discussed the Eternal Weekend old school tournament with Danny, and stated that I would have loved to win one of those Fellwar Stones signed by the players. It is a very hard card to pimp, and the only card I play as 4-off in my deck. To my surprise, I now have an awesome Fellwar Stone with greetings from the US :D

Will always tap for red, white and blue.

And finally, the three cards I contacted him for altering in the first place. As stated, there were two cards in Beta that didn't appear in Alpha. One was the Black circle. The other was Volcanic Island. These are altered Unlimited versions, and pretty much the coolest U/R duals I've seen.

Thanks a lot Danny, this was truly awesome! Hope to see you and the other US players at Eternal Weekend in Philadelphia this year or the next!