Old School Mtg

*Rod Serling voice* There is another format beyond that which is known to the DCI. It is a format as vast as perception and as timeless as stone. It is the middle ground between competition and chivalry, between structure and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's wistfulness and the summit of his jubilation. This is the format of old. Scene: Stockholm. Summer’s day. Witness a man called Gordon Andersson, age thirtyish. Occupation: Jack of trades. Gordon Andersson, perhaps the sight of a rather minor component to a hot June, but in a moment he will venture a trail of invocation and revelry. For Gordon Andersson, this is just another step on a journey he began some twenty years ago. But for fellow mages, it is masonry of hidden paths in a city where the roads oft laid plain. If in any quest for Magic, in any search for sorcery, witchery, legerdemain, first check the human spirit. This is Gordon’s story. This is the story of the first Ivory Cup. /Mg out Two weeks ag...

It had been a long time since I last played. Life gets in the way, other things get prioritized, and suddenly you're looking at two months since you last touched a Magic card. That's a good thing with old school though. I don't need to play that often if I don't have the time. It's not like the format will rotate or drastically change with new additions to the card pool in a couple of months. Or a couple of years for that matter. I've played 93/94 for almost 10 years now, and I plan to do it for 10 more. But we all have the ups and downs in Magic activity. We never stop, we just take breaks of different lengths. It was time to relapse. As luck would have it, one of my good colleagues at work is Bjørn Einar Bjartnes, not only an excellent human being and brilliant developer, but also an old school afficionado. Yesterday we decided to play some lunch break Magic at work. First turn Land-Lotus-Bottle of Suleiman. Some Magic right there. With the help of so...

I can't remember how many weeks I've been thinking about posting something about Suicide Blue. Nine? Probably more. Let's go: Suicide Blue Back in the day someone decided that blue should have all of the color pie. Not just countering spells and drawing cards, but stuff like aggressive creatures and direct damage. The Suicide Blue deck is kinda like the Suicide Black decks of later eras in that it uses life as a resource and wield spells with significant drawbacks. The blue decks have slightly better evasion and more flexible sideboards (supporting e.g. four-of Energy Flux), but at the cost of a little less aggressive starts (no turn one Ritual into Phyrexian Negator or turn two Hatred for the win). If we have a high budget or lots of time, the Suicide Blue deck could also incorporate insanely powerful cards like Time Walk, Timetwister and Ancestral Recall. I don't play them here though. I dislike moving cards between decks, as it hinders easy switches betw...

Trickery, misdirection and riddles are tools for any conjurer worth their salt. History is riddled with examples of cunning characters using cryptic means to hide the real meaning of what's going on. In recent years, perhaps the most talked about example of a message hiding in plain sight is the letter from then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California State Assembly. Statistically, taking the first letter of all the sentences in an article and have them form a new sentence simply will not happen unless it was the writer's plan all along; it is almost impossible for this to happen by coincidence. Particularly if the sentence turns out to be something as poignant as this ;) Old Magic sets took the ideas of misdirection and trickery and ran with them. Sure, there are face-down creatures and some sense of hiding in plain sight in more modern sets as well, but the first face down cards were of a different caliber. Threading deep into the unknown with cards like Camouf...

Sweden is a pretty big country. E.g. the distance between Berlin (the German capital) and Paris is quite a bit shorter than the distance between Berlin (the current 93/94 World Champion, who lives in Stockholm) and the Northernmost parts of Sweden. As such, the Swedish 93/94 players are not exactly sitting at the same kitchen tables, and different cities have somewhat different metas and communities. What happens in Scania isn't necessarily what happens in Arvika or Växjö. The Scania 93/94 players are some sweet guys. Last weekend they had their third "official" tournament at Playoteket in Malmö. The tournament organizer Arkanon sent over a short report and some nice deck lists. Enjoy! /Mg out ---- Scania is situated in the southernmost part in Sweden. By convenience we have chosen Contract from below as the card all contestants sign as a price. We have approximately 12 active players and another 3-4 players who occasionally borrow decks and participate. Of the cor...