Hoarding in Oslo

So, I think I've got an idea. It has been occupying my mind for the last week. It might fail spectacularly, but it might actually work. I need a few more days to work out the last few kinks, but I aim to post it here by the weekend. It is not by any means anything political, but it might be a way for the mtgunderground to make an impact. But that's a few days from now.

Anyway, last Friday Hardy and I got banished from the Joy Pad to skulk the streets of Oslo. Our apartment was gleefully squatted by a ragtag team of women soccer players, and our welcome could quickly get overstayed. So we packed our bags with the beer we could carry, a bottle of gin for good measure, and threw a pile of 93/94 decks on top.

Some light skulking later we arrived at the home of Jørgen, a local Eternal Viking with a collection to put the average GP to shame. We're talking full Alpha P9 and more black-bordered Volcanic Islands than Hawaii after a BP oil spill. I never met him before, but I've slowly come to realize over the last six months that the Eternal Mtg underground in Oslo goes deep. For a moderately sized city with no regular Vintage tournaments, the power per capita feels close to that of a tank crew. We were eventually joined by Geir Magne, one of the Norwegians who played at Eternal weekend, and the four of us went down the roads of Vintage and 93/94.

So we played, had some beers and laughs. Hardy had been building on a GB land-destruction / making-friends-into-haters deck. Demonic Hordes with Instill Energy, Sylvan Library with Mirror Universe; those kind of things. He got to playtest it a lot during the evening. Instill Energy would have been a much more intuitive card if it had the Fifth Edition errata. The fact that the creature can attack the first turn but not tap for activated abilities is kinda odd.

Still a good combo.

Speaking of odd cards in The Gathering, did you know that in parts of Eastern Europe, the monday after Easter is called Dyngus Day? Traditional activities are egg-related; like egg rolling and egg painting. I do not really get the reference in the rule text of Dingus Egg, but I assume that it is stingy. 1993-1994 Magic did after all give us cards like Stone Throwing Devils (sometimes used as a derogatory term for Palestinian protesters in Israel), Golgothian Sylex (named after the hill where Jesus were crucified) and quoted Job 40:25 on Segovian Leviathan, when Job 40 in fact ends on verse 24.

And don't get me started on mixing up Ecclesiates 3:19 with Ecclesiasticus 3:19.

I'll keep it short today. You should go and read Shaman Ben's latest post The Existentialism of Floral Spuzzem if you haven't already. Provides great insight, and the dude is a wordsmith. Also, the Russians have uploaded a bunch of new sweet videos at Youtube. Sweet matches and rad music. Oh, and a far less important but perhaps amusing plan may also be in the works. Maybe you'll find yourself back here for a hint sometime in 2018.