Old School Mtg

When I first started thinking about #MtgForLife, I was actually a little worried. Worried that it would make people feel aliened, or that I brought up problems in the world people didn't want to hear about. Two days ago, before posting, I braced myself for haters, and hoped that the people who would see the importance of the issue would be able to raise at least a few hundred dollars in the 40 days. I've clearly been underestimating just how awesome this community is. Today, two days later, we have already raised god damn $3,461. People of the mtgunderground The response has simply been fantastic. It feels great to see how the community can gather to support people in an abysmal situation. And the plans are growing. People have started auctioning duals, 93/94, and pimp cards at the market place at svenskamagic.com - auctions like this one , this one , this one and this one - donating the future proceeds to the campaign. The guys running svenskamagic has not only donated ...

It was a shock to learn that Daniel didn't play with his Island Fishes. Daniel was "the local mister suitcase", and had the strongest collection of all of us. Among his gems where two Lord of the Pit, Force of Nature, Keldon Warlord, and even a Colossus of Sardia. My older sister had opened a Gaea's Liege in her first Revised starter, and Daniel had offered her a choice of two Island Fish Jasconious, or a misprinted fish with a big red ink-dot on the card. After some deliberation she decided to trade her Liege for the misprinted one. We hence knew that Daniel owned two more, which for some reason wasn't in his deck. It was a huge 6/8, and few cards could compare to it in size. Daniel argued that he simply had too many of the great creatures, and it wasn't good enough to get a spot. It was around this time we started wondering what the actual best card in magic was. We couldn't deny that Force of Nature was better than the Island Fish, but there could aft...

The best thing with owning full power, is that you own full power. Last week I got the Emerald, which was my final piece of the nine-part puzzle. It was Alex, one of the players I met in Regensburg a year and a half ago, who first told me about the best part of completing the nine. Now that it's finally done, 20 years after I first heard about the cards, I must say his statement rings true. Strange as it may sound, it's actually pretty much of a relief to finally have them. Since I got my first Mox 5 years ago, I knew that I wanted to complete the set. I didn't know if I would be able to though, as my life could easily have taken turns that would have made me unable to afford the luxury of these cards.  So what is Power anyway? Is it the first nine restricted cards? The nine best cards? The most expensive cards today, or the most expensive cards from ABU that didn't get reprinted in 1994? There are lots of different explanations of why these particular c...

Sometimes, I need to take a step back. Most of us know that playing an expensive deck in competitive formats is a luxury, and not a right. Even in casual formats, not all cards are accessible unless you make a conscious prioritization and decide that owning these cards are more valuable to you than using that money on something else. It could be due to the joy of the game, the joy of owning a piece of history, or simply the joy of luxury. " Luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends ", to quote Coco Chanel. Sometimes you need to ask yourself 'why?' though. A week ago I got one of the very last cards for my Project M deck, and the question was more present than ever. The card on the left is my old Mox Sapphire, which I obtained just after last New Years Eve. The card on the right is my new one, a moderately played Alpha version of the card. The nice thing is that I'm now up to seven of nine in black bordered power cards, and that I have all the c...

At BSK I finalized a trade for a particular card that I'd had my eyes on for over six months. I've wanted the card for as long as I've played, but this specific copy was the one I'd been trying to get since n00bcon. I only know about 4 or 5 copies of alpha Black Lotus in Sweden, and I've only seen two of them IRL, but this was my favorite copy of the few I know to exist :) Roland bizing moxes, lotuses and duals (it was obviously more to the trade than the cards on the table here). I know around 15 years of the card's history. It was acquired by a guy in Texas around 97/98, and then sold to Roland Johansson in 2005. Among it's sightings in Gothenburg, Roland played the card to the finals of the Gothcon Vintage tournament in 2007, and won that tournament again with the card in 2008. There is actually a previous picture of the card at this blog as well, from my short deck tech about Roland's machine head ponza from n00bcon 5 . I wonder who opened the ...

That's an obscure title. About 18 years ago, I remember a guy at TV-spelsbörsen pointing at a card on their "Wall of Magic". Tv-spelsbörsen was one of the local gaming stores in Gothenburg in the 90's, and one of the walls in the store was completely covered in color proxies of every magic card ever printed at that point. I remember many days staring at the wall and trying to learn all the cards. I still didn't really know which cards were good, but I do remember this guy talking to a friend of his, and pointing at Time Walk, stating that it was the best Magic card ever printed. I knew he probably had a point, but I didn't really understand why. It felt like Polar Kraken would be a superior win condition. Two years later, I remember a guy approaching me at BSK 1997. He was looking to sell 7 cards, and asked me if I would give him 2000 kr (about $300) for two Moxes, four Underground Sea and a Time Walk; it was a pretty good deal even back then. 14-year old ...

Every collectible genre has a "Holy Grail", some item that will be the crown of the collection. These holy grails are often known by people that don't know about many other aspects of the hobby, and are such a part of pop culture that they all have sections on Wikipedia. These items are extremely rare, but obtainable if the buyer has a big enough wallet and enough time to search. Inverted Jenny, a Holy Grail of philately. It's cheaper than the single existing Treshilling Yellow, but on the other hand not unique.  For Comic Books, the Holy Grail is Action Comics #1 from 1938. This may not be the single rarest or most expensive to buy comic book ever (e.g. the insanely rare ashcan edition of Flash Comics #1 has an asking price of $5 million), but it is still the most coveted comic book of all time, and it would be the crown of any collection. 10 cents well invested in 1938 Video game collecting, like most other, also have some actual unique items, such as Ni...