Old School Mtg

It is kinda hard to refer to this as "my blog" anymore. In the last few months stories from all over the world have poured in, and the content ownership these days have pretty much transferred to "the global old school community". Even so, this is a special day. Today we give the soap box to Florian von Bredow, a man based in Hannover but with a record of organizing 93/94 tournaments in both Berlin and Stuttgarten. This time, he not only set Rhine on fire but also shares his story of the first proper 93/94 Ante tournament in a couple of decades. Enjoy! /Mg out Hello and lots of Mana to all of you fellow Oldschool-players. For those of you who do not know me, and that may be the majority, I feel like giving a short introduction. As many others, I started playing back in 1994/1995 when MTG hyped the first time. I can remember buying an Arabian Nights Booster for roughly 2.50 DM back then and only buying one because they just contained 8 cards. From the little mo...

Less than half a year ago, Dyan de Rochemont gave us our first peek into the Dutch 93/94 community . Since then, it seems like the community has exploded. In just a few months, the Dutch mages are already reaching 20 players in their sweet and laid-back tournaments. The Knights of Thorn have truly become a band to reckon with in the world of old cardboard. Today I have the great pleasure to share the story from Erwin Demmer, organizer of and player in The Knight of Thorn tournament in Voorthuizen. Enjoy! /Mg out In the beginning of this year, I had a playset Unlimited Plateaus for sale and an interested buyer came to my place to see the cards. Normally a sale like this takes half an hour or so; but not this time! We started with coffee and small-talked about Magic and the buyer was talking enthusiastic about his Old School cards, which he played with a couple of buddies. The idea of Old School Magic was growing on me. After years of collecting, this was the time for me to create a ni...

June 1995 was the cruellest month. Breeding snow out of the dead lands. Mixing memory and desire. I was there when it happened. I never saw the snow as relics, it was always nostalgia from a distant present. 22 years has passed since I opened my first booster packs at Tradition in the lower levels of Nordstan in Gothenburg. Almost a quarter of a century. Maybe it's time to look back. Erik Sundberg has played the format for as long as most of us remember. He has a solid streak at n00bcon and started the first 93/94 Cap Magic community. He developed the idea of 93/94 Rotisserie drafting. He's one of those guys that don't make to much noise at social media but is a pillar in developing casual old school tech. He wanted to delve into the Ice Age. And if someone should break the 7-set limit we usually hold here, I guess Sundberg is the guy. This is a story of the black summer. This is old school. Enjoy! /Mg out An invitation; to the past, the present and the soon to be pr...

Today we have another glorious guest. Svante Landgraf is one of the most prolific The Deck players in the format. Fresh of a top8 in the Stockholm Ivory Cup, and that's just after picking up a trophy in the n00bcon 9 top8, the dude knows his way around old school control decks. He is also an old Pro Tour player with a few success stories from pretty much all sanctioned formats. Svante likes his control decks, and seriously considered the impact of a Jayemdae Tome restriction last month. The Tome got a stay this time, but that didn't stop him from graciously sharing his thoughts with us here. Let's take the ride. Enjoy! /Mg out I love books and libraries. I love books so much that I spent the last six years getting a Ph.D in what essentially amounts to Comparative Literature (technically, it’s something called "Culture and Society", but wtf does that even mean), to the dual benefits of now being unemployed and being able to call myself a Doctor of Science Fiction...

It has been a while since I updated the Decks to Beat page, but I've finally managed to find most of the lists from the last few months. Check 'em out if you want some inspiration. One thing about decks-to-beat though is that they are by definition decks with winning records at tournaments. The X-0 to X-2 decks of the meta. At the last gathering I played, the Jumping Jesus tournament in Oslo, I e.g. got the chance to battle against an awesome Elephant Tribal deck in the swiss. I also got my only loss in the tournament at the hands of a powerless Red/White deck with Granite Gargoyles. There are lots of cool things to build apart from the "high end piles"; just try to find something that you enjoy playing with. Speaking of the Jumping Jesus tournament, here are some pics from the gathering: Black Vise had a decent showing here, with many different decks trying to make it work. From my experience so far it mostly seem...