Popular posts

There are over five hundred of articles and pages on this blag, most without any real tagging, structure or guiding links. For your convenience, here are a handful of the, in my opinion, more interesting posts from a few different categories.

 

Tournament reports

• You only live twice
  I crash the tournament scene in Stockholm while simultaneously trying to complete a 21-bar pubcrawl in Gothenburg.
  

• Arvika Festival 2 
  An attack on the Protection of Civilians camp in South Sudan threatens my partner who works there with Doctors without Borders. 10,000 km north, I meet up with old friends in Oslo and travel to Arvika to battle at the yearly Festival.

• Joypad Open: A study in Soot
  Angst, hangover and the darkest of decks guides me through the first non-proxy tournament in Norway.
  

• Borås is Disorderly and Depraved
  At the outskirts of the BSK gaming convention, we gather at All Hallow's Eve for an impromptu 93/94 tournament. (This was written as a guest post for the mtgunderground blog.)
  

• Blind Notes from Fishliver Oil Cup 3
  After a legendary weekend in Genoa with over a hundred OS brethren, my infant-parenting state causes me to lose my phone with notes and pictures. That's no excuse to not write 6,000 words of course, but we have to go a bit less details and a bit more gonzo.
  

• A Ringer's Report of BSK 2014
  Hall of Famer Olle Råde recants his memories of BSK 1994. He returns to the roots twenty years later to battle at the 93/94 Shark Tournament, showing that he is still the Master of Magic cards old and new. (By Olle Råde)

• Knights and Dwarves in the Nether Lands
  I travel alone to the Netherlands for the first time for a double feature; Dwarven Warriors 1 and Knights of Thorn 4.
  

• Got there! A report from Kingvitational
  After a long night, Honka and I return to Varberg to take down Kungens annual gathering and rant about the Golden Age of Hollywood.

• Arvika Festival 6
  As strong winds rages across the land, KungMarkus - armed with a fresh toddler - gathers scrying wizards for the sixth annual Arvika Festival. This was the last major in-person event in Scandinavia before the pandemic hit.

• Tomato Tomato: Three Styles of Oldschool in Three Weeks
  American wizard Marty brings us along on a three week pilgrimage across continents and different styles of Oldschool. Starting at Eternal Weekend in Pittsburgh, via the Fishliver Oil Cup in Genoa, eventually ending up in an apartment in Gothenburg. (By Marty Silenus)
  

Chronicles and annals

• Ethiopian Gold
  A tumultuous trip to the core of Africa, when a gold coin and a trio of beggars help me realize how greed and sloth will make my cards worthless.

• The One Ring of Ma'ruf
  An unexpected gift from the Brothers of Fire leads me down a rabbit hole of memories of one of my favorite cards in the game.
  

• Old School of Thought
  On the train to Wexio Gaming Convention, I ponder why we play old school. How would I describe the format to a rookie? (This post was written as a guest article for eternalcentral.com.)
  

• Matt's Story
  Matt Shields shares his story of how his hobby has influenced the last 20 years, and how it feels going back to the roots today. (By Matt Shields) 
  

• Priorities and Luxury
  An apologia of why we spend thousands of dollars on simple cardboard instead of clothes, trinkets or charity.
  

• Argivian Excavations
  A deep delve into Argivian Archaeologist tech while clearing out the last boxes of childhood memories from my parents' house.

• Moxen and Timon of Athens 4:2:30
  We have seen better days. A personal history of the five moxen are intertwined by my feelings after a long-term relationship had ended.
  

• 2016 Retrospective
  My 4th annual retrospective post, where I realize that the Oldschool Magic has grown so much and with so many new content creators that I don't really need to keep up the weekly updates here anymore.

 

Rarities and oddities

• Garfield Alters
  We take a look at a real oddity of the mid 90s; cards with their text altered by Richard Garfield.
  

• Summer Time
  We delve down in the world of Summer Magic, perhaps the most infamous and obscure printed set in Magic history.
  

• The Gamma Orb
  We're going pre-Alpha and look at the legendary pieces of paper most commonly referred to as 'Gamma'. The first 1992 iteration of Chaos Orb leads the way.
  

• Menagerie and the Orange Orb
  Starting with the second Chaos Orb playtest card, we follow the history of Menagerie from its 1992 conception to its eventual release as the Mirage set in 1996.
  

• Power Lunch and the 4-mana Sphere
  The third and last pre-Alpha Chaos Orb playtest card pushes us down the rabbit hole of the unreleased Power Lunch set.

• Magic: The Puzzling
  When Ultra Pro first started selling sleeves for playing cards, they hid rare puzzle pieces of Black Lotus and Chaos Orb in the packs as a promotion. Completing one of these puzzles today is very hard. We give it a try.

• Worzel's Rules
  I get my hands on an Alpha rule book and read the story of Worzel. 
  

• The 3rd Party Magic Set
  Once, in 1996, a small group of people lead by Donald X. Vaccarino and Japji Khalsa created a full 3rd party Magic set, got it acknowledged by WotC, and even held a release event for the expansion.

• Garfield Signatures
  A history of Richard Garfield signed cards, and his signature's evolution from 1993 until today. Also some really spicy Chaos Orbs, if I may say so.
  

• Extra Pulled and Magazine Cards
  Before Secret Lairs and official Dungeons and Dragons sets, there were alt-art and pop-culture referencing Magic cards in printed media. Some of these have not aged that well.
  

• Event Cards
  Over the years, Richard Garfield has created four personal cards to celebrate various life events of his. This post is about Proposal, Splendid Genesis, Fraternal Exaltation, and Phoenix Heart. 
  

• Franky and Stuff
  We're talking ante, and we're talking rare 5-Color Invitational Cards.  
  

• Artist Proofs
  We crunch the numbers on the card proofs given to the original Magic artists for sets released in 1993 and 1994. (This post is a bit dry, but as it contains some potentially hard-to-find information on proofs, we'll keep it here for reference)

• Crimps and Maildays
  It's May 2020, and a crimped Beta Chaos Orb has just arrived safely after a dramatic two-month journey back and forth across the ocean. We take the opportunity to go deep on crimps; what they are and how they occur.

• Miscuts, Misalignments, and NFCs
  Sometimes people make actual mistakes while aligning or cutting sheets of Magic cards, and sometimes mistakes are made on purpose to create unique-looking cards. This post is about both those things. 
  

Old gear and trinkets

• The First Magic Sleeves
  We're unboxing and testing out the first sleeves created specifically to protect Magic cards. Even finding some rad puzzle pieces while we're at it.
  

• Cut from a different cloth
  Japji Khalsa and Jeff Brain created the legendary first play mats in the days before sleeves existed. With some thoughts from Khalsa himself (and Brain in the comments section!) 
  

• Swagic and Denimwalk 
  Among the most iconic and rare swag WotC created in the mid 90s we have the Hurloon Minotaur denim jackets. We try to clear up some of the mist.
  

• Binders 101
  Seven or so lessons for getting a new (or a quarter century old) binder.
  

• The Six-player Playmat
  For the second year of ManaFest (the world's first Magic convention), Khalsa-Brain created two six-player playmats. One of them was stolen and presumably cut up around 1995. We found the other one.

 

Rules and tech

• RTFC
  Power level errata and ambiguous wording was a common part of the rules two decades back. We take a look at a few cards that would have a very different power level had they been played as written.
  

• Mastering Magic Cards
  A review and some history of the first printed Magic strategy book, Mastering Magic Cards by George Baxter.
  

• Legendary rules
  Writer's block makes me look through my closet to find the old Legends rule card.
  

• All in good timing
  A history of timing from 1993-1999, before the creation of the stack.
  

• The flip side
  Old magazines and Magic rules manager Matt Tabak helps us clear the smoke and find official rules on dexterity cards.
  

• Hammers and Nails
  Maybe you just need a Shivan Dragon or Mahamothi Djinn.
  

• A Question of Answers
  Does your deck consider the right questions? Do we as players?

• The most playable creatures in Oldschool
  So you want to crush n00bs and win matches during the combat step, eh? Then these creatures should be on your radar.

Format and community

• Old School Commander
  Dyan de Rochemont guides us through an intriguing multi-player variant of 93/94 and shares stories from the Netherlands community. (By Dyan de Rochemont)
  

• Announcing Scryings
  Scryings is a player-curated expansion set to the traditional oldschool card pool, for those who want to spice things up every now and then.

• Brothers' Highlander and the casual consistency
  An introduction to the sweetest point-based 100-card singleton old school format.
  

• Oldschool Team Rochester Draft
  Looking at one of the most enjoyable ways to approach oldschool team limited.
  

• The Oldest School: A Wizards' Tournament Primer
  If you think "expansions" are unnecessary to enjoy a perfectly good base game, and that the traditional Swedish reprint policy is far too lenient, we have the Wizards' Tournament for you. These days many people refer to it as "Alpha 40", but we just used to call it "Magic".
  

• 93/94 by any other name
  A short recap of how the format started, and why we allow Unlimited but not Revised in the original incarnation of Old School. 
  

• From Scratch
  What to think about if you want to get into the format with a limited budget and a negligible card pool. (This post may be a bit dated)
  

• Brews, Casualties, and Scanners
  In the spring of 2015, the format got a big following in Southern Europe and expanded on more social media sites and facebook groups.
  

• Skype magic - or playing magic with people from all over the world when you have toddlers
  An introduction on how to play 93/94 on Skype, where to find opponents and how to get a good setup. (By Bjørn Einar Bjartnes) 
  

Single-card rants

• Granite Gargoyle
  Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, we sauté you.
  

• Merfolk Assassin
  Danny Trejo never looked better.
  

• North Star
  North Star: Terrible card, or the worst card?
  

• Time is Out of Joint
  Time Vault. Where to begin?
  

• Witch Hunter
  The white Goblin Wizard, or the white Underworld Dreams?
  

• Flippin' Stars
  Let's throw some Falling Stars and see where they land.
  

• The Serendipity of Sindbad
  We set sail with the seafarer and find Sri Lanka.
  

• Day 10: Stasis
  A brief history of casual fan favorite Stasis. 
  

• Bottled Up
  City in a Bottle and the other expansion hosers.
  

• Time Walk and Hamlet 1:5:190
  A nostalgic post from when I got my first Time Walk.
  

• The Fire of Sri Lanka
  A post about the card Serendib Efreet. It's a sweet card.  

 

Other and random

• #MtgForLife
  The start of the 2015 #MtgForLife campaign. The community gathered almost $13,000 for Doctors without Borders in 40 days. 
  

• Tribelander
  93/94 is not the only format in the MtG underground. We take a short break from the oldest of cards and look at the casual multiplayer Tribelander format.
  

• A Matter of Some Proportions
  Power and toughness made a whole lot of flavorful sense back in 1993. We tip our hats to the fantastic attention to detail in The Gathering.
  

• Beware of Magic: the Gathering, part II
  Some years after our first Beware, we go back to find unsettling references and coincidences still live at the WotC homepage. Tinfoil hats on, here be nazis, and possibly NSFW. (WotC has updated both their website and their policies on particular cards since this post was written btw)
  

• Maze's End
  We get the opportunity to chat with Anson Maddocks, and he tells us stories of Maze of Ith. I'll never look at Cyclopean Tomb or Combat Medic the same way again.
  

• 4th Edition is a Strange Set
  We were just hit by a pandemic and life is strange. So is 4th Edition. 
  

• Typesetting Troubles in Alpha
  Typesetting is hard, as evidenced by a few endearing mistakes in Alpha.
  

• To the Nines
  What's the deal with Power, and why do these particular nine cards have a special status?
  

 

The Deep End

• The Endowment Effect
  Lets talk #MtgFinance. Or at least #MtgEconomics. 
  

• Deconstructing Print Runs
  We dig through old Usenet archives, printed media, and ftp servers to challenge the conventional wisdom on early print runs.

• Continuous Deckbuilding
  We build a Sligh deck using software development processes and theory. A post that should be reasonably enjoyable for the minuscule intersection of humanity interested in both agile processes and old Magic cards.
  

• The distribution of the binomial coefficients modulo p (a layman's review)
  We go full nerd and try to get a grasp of Richard Garfield's PhD thesis. 

• Every Freddy and Jason Movie Rated as Magic Cards
  Twenty old school movies you probably don't want to see, represented by twenty old school Magic cards you probably don't want to play.
  

• The Tale of the CrippledBeggar
  A short story based on 14th century Syrian manuscripts of Arabian Nights.