Old School Mtg

I'm on a plane. If all goes well, and that is a big if, I'll meet up with my girlfriend in Ethiopia in about 24 hours. I'm going to the middle of Africa to spend a weekend with Netflix in a hotel room. If all goes well. She's in South Sudan. It's not place one simply goes to. A month back I looked into to it at length. Even if one should manage to get a ticket and a visa, and all the clearances and vaccinations, actually landing is no piece of cake. The airport in Juba got closed yesterday due to political turmoil. It's never open during weekends. A majority of the planes that flies there are forbidden to enter European airspace due to the high risk of accidents. And if all that would work out, the country is a serious danger zone. The tribal wars isn't exactly a game of Elves vs. Goblins. Travelling in the country without soldiers looked like a bad idea. And I probably needed to to learn how to bribe. So if I was going, I wanted to get gold. No insuran...

How about this for a start: 100 000 NOK. Well, actually 99,287, but I added a few hundred more to get a rounder number. The #MtgForLife campaign gathered well over $12,000 in a little over a month. That is awesome, and it will make a difference. And players from around the world keep the mindset going; just a few days ago Chris Cooper and players in the UK held a charity evening for MSF raising nearly £250. It makes me happy to be a part of the community. All the "thank you"-cards have been shipped btw, so hopefully you have them in the mail by now. Rotary Pub in Gothenburg. I think I've said this every year, but 2015 saw some big growth for mages interested in the origins of the game. Last year I stated that I thought that this blog and the format had grown about as much as was possible, and showed a graph of growth over the last few years. But it's been doubling season yet again, and we're looking at about about twice the number of visitors compared to ...

Last weekend I attended the first Gothenburg Invitational 93/94 tournament in Gothenburg. It was a smashing event, hosted by the Master of enchantments and fine beer that is Kenneth Mossberg. Åland builds his Moat with open containers. The lions are at bay. I'm showing up to battle with flying 2/2s and the old fashion four-eyes look. Kalle lucks his way to yet another final win. He has now won three of the last four big tournaments he has played. Soon I can't attribute it to just luck anymore. Mid-nineties Swedish champion Nikolai "Now" Weibull beating down with goblins. Not Dead Guy Ale, but Undead Party Crasher Porter maybe? Made it to top4 at least :) The event was streamed live at twitch, and there might be some videos coming up in the future. The commentator had gotten a cold though, so instead of doing his job he sleeved up The Gun and drank cinnamon whisky. It might still be watchable if you are deep in the 93/94 mire :) And this is g...

"Yo mama plays 40 creatures and 20 land" BSK! In the middle of it right now. 55 players at the main 93/94 tournament, over a hundred at the Legacy Championships which supports #MtgForLife , and another 93/94 tournament coming up tonight. I'll be posting pictures, tech and trashtalk after the weekend. And I've gotten my hands on this one from a guy in Norway: That's pretty cool. They are, as always, not that easy to come by. I have a strong urge to add it to my TaxEdge deck, have it as a priced possession in my binder, or just build a casual circa 1995 Goblin deck and play it without sleeves in my local gaming store. Though I managed to complete my Nine last year, owning this tenth power card still feels precious. What if my girlfriend would start playing old school? With this, we could build an Electric Eel Aggro without having to fight over the Mox. Wouldn't it be cool to have two sets of power? Then we could build anything. But that's n...

I have a plan. Bear with me, and I might give you a Mox. At the very least, I'll give you the chance to pimp a Magic card for a good cause. We hear the news. We feel some kind of empathy for whatever war-torn country is the "flavor of the week", eventually shut down the tv, and go readily to sleep at night. But god damn. Fuck people shooting tear gas at boat refugees trying to find harbor, and fuck people who thinks owning a cell phone makes your home bomb proof. The amount of refugees today can only be compared to the time of the Holocaust and WW2. Nearly 60 million people were forcibly displaced in 2014. That's one out of every 122 on the planet. Of these, the confilict in Syria is the single biggest one. 250 000 dead in the civil war so far, and Doctors without borders has reported that suppliers in Syria refuse to sell essential medical supplies such as gauze and surgical threads to doctors due to government intimidation. Stay with me, duals and curses ahead...

Elitist? Yeah, I guess. You're not entitled to play with any card you want. Some people will have more expensive cards than you. Though it's like saying that the roads are exclusive and only for the rich just because some people drive a Tesla while others have a Ford. It's not the roads' fault. You are not entitled to a Tesla just because someone else saved up for one. 93/94 were never meant to be something like the next EDH, or to be mainstream. If you feel that you must get first to the destination and drive the best car, this is not the road for you. It was never meant for you. If you're driving for the leisure, enjoy the view and like the company of the other drivers, come join! Some players may have spent years and thousands of dollars on their equipment. If you want to, you can do that to. If you don't want to, accept that some cars will probably run faster than yours. If you're a skillful driver, you might get ahead anyway. Exclusive? Hm. Anyone who...

Those last two posts with Danish tech are hard to follow up! Very entertaining and innovative decks. It's nice to see how other local groups approach the format. I think that Hans and his playgroup are the only ones who actually puts even more constraints on legal sets and cards than us, with their ban on P9 + LoA. The Norweigian players, who are hosting the first tournament in Moss in six weeks, go for the standard Swedish approach. A few other groups in Europe, including many of the Italian, French and German players, allow Revised and in some cases Renaissance and Chronicles. The main difference between the groups outside of the US is however if the allow Revised or not. E.g. the Russians stop at Unlimited like us, while e.g. the Australians have a very open reprint policy. Russian tech, UG aggro vs. Brw Control. Watch it!  Australian tech, Eel vs. Monoblack. Yep, there's a 93/94 scene in Australia :) They hosted their first tournament at their yearly Et...

Hm, writers block? That was a long time since last. It's a kind of odd experience. Now that the blog actually has lots and lots of readers, I feel some new sense of responsibility to actually write something. Lets look in the closet and see if we find something sweet to talk about. Khalsa Brain mats? Those are sweet indeed, but I already did it . An old school life counter perhaps? Yeah, that one is definitely coming. Not today though. Should do some more research before. Maybe the first Magic novella from 1994? I guess I should try to read it first. Also found a Shandalar game. Now that's something. Bought it back in 1997. Only works well on Windows though, and there's currently no computer in my possession running on anything less than Linux. I'll put that in the future-pile as well. A Legends-booster? Yeah, lets look at the Legends rule card. That could be a lark. Before we check out the rule card, lets take a quick look at the three uncommon...