Magic The Gathering. The greatest game

by deepspawners_3j44sm | Sep 2, 2018 | Stories

Magic The Gathering is the greatest game.

Magic The Gathering all started for me in 1995. I was thirteen years old. At this point in my life, my spare time outside of school was filled with basketball and roller hockey. But even then, I would convince my mom to drive me to the local comic book shop. I dreamt of comics and collecting the books.

When my parents divorced, money was tight.  But my best friend Justin’s parents would often take us to the same comic shop, Collectors Assylum in Agoura Hills.

In 1995, Justin and I were at the shop. We noticed Magic card singles behind the glass display. There were people sitting across from each other playing a card game. In that split second, I had no idea that I would be hooked on Magic.

We convinced Justin’s mom to buy us each a Revised Starter pack.

We opened the decks and pretended like we knew how to play.  The decks were built around both a craw wurm and Mahamotti Djinn always winning. I got my first DCI card in the summer of 1996.  Then.. finally, I had an understanding of the magic mechanics.  That summer, I got an Icy Manipulator and a Forcefield.

I was the happiest kid.

Then Magic The Gathering went to hibernation for me during college. I stored all my cards and painted Warhammer figures at mu moms during college years. I took a 10 year break from the game. I would always daydream about playing
again.

In 2006, I started making good money and began buying singles off of Ebay. I would buy 5-10 cards a month, mainly Beta staples and cards I always wanted when I was younger.

Through Facebook I joined a Los Angeles magic group and began playing at UCLA on the weekends. I would rarely win… Mainly because I would create my own decks. I didn’t download them. I was never interested in the new prints or new formats.

I always wanted to play the at the time vintage, now known as old school.

In 2017, I sent a private message to alpha_lotus (clenet). Clenet and I decided to meet up and play. Ironically we both liked to play with old school magic. After only a couple of meet ups, we both headed up to Magic Grand Prix Santa Clara.

At GP Magic 2017, I first caught wind of a format called old school. And I met Jason Murray.

Old school Magic in my life

Having personally collecting older cards for many years and then finding out there is a format where these cards can actually be played was life changing.

And just recently, Clenet took me to the 2018 Deep Spawners Memorial Day Event. I met a group of friends and good players and I did really well at the gathering.

But most importantly I had a great time. I looked up to the people I met at the event and knew I was hooked on Old School MTG.

As of today, I plan on playing forever, and enjoy every match and every game I get to play.

-Nick A

Old School Magic Nostalgia

by deepspawners_3j44sm | Aug 30, 2018 | Stories

Old School Magic Nostalgia

Nostalgia. One of the things I experienced during the last old school magic event I’ve been to, hosted and made possible by Deep Spawners’ Chris, Brian and Damyan and well.. The rest of the SoCal Spawners.

I guess for you to understand why, I’d have to tell you a “brief” background of myself and my history with Magic The Gathering.

I emphasize the word brief as I don’t want to turn this into a 100+ page thesis.

Ready? Here we go. I started playing Magic I believe around when Revised was released, although at the time I didn’t really play “seriously”. Well, I couldn’t. I was 5.

Fast forward to Tempest.

I paid a little bit more attention to what each card really does. And with the help of my older brother who explained most of them, I let my imagination do the rest.

I fell in love with Magic The Gathering.

The art, the colors, how simple yet sophisticated they are, the way you play them, heck even the way they smelled. But it wasn’t the case all the time. Like most things when you’re too young, you tend to lose interest at one thing as you discover new things to do and new things to play with. Magic stayed with me all the time, but it wasn’t consistent. There were times I’d play every day, and then there were times I’d run out of friends to play with and just keep it locked in my drawer.

In 2007:

• I found new friends to play with during my college years.
• I played Standard, a lot.
• I competed at every tournament and GP events I could go to.
• I was so proud of my Boros Aggro main deck.
• I was so thrilled at how badass my deck was, beating even the famous, at the time, Dragonstorm deck.

As we approached the last year of college, 2009… Well, we got busier. All my decks were back in the drawer yet again, regardless of how “badass” I thought they were. Old School Magic was well below my list of priorities at the time.

This hiatus went on until 2012 when I got the “itch” again. I didn’t even have anyone to play with but I just really missed it. I guess you can say MTG always ran through my veins. Eventually, I gained new friends to play with.

This time, in Modern format.

I tried to revive my Red/White aggro — which turned out to be a fail. I experimented on other color combos until I landed with a Red/Black aggro. Yes, I love aggro decks in case you haven’t noticed yet by now.

After about a year and a half of playing most days of the week, especially on the weekends, yep you guessed it right. It finally died down once again as work and other “adulting” priorities got in the way. Or should I say, I felt that MTG was getting in the way of said priorities.

This year is a different story though

I can tell. With my older brother being back in the game, I watched him play the Magic cards I adored when I was 5. Playing with my brother is awesome and I’ve met some very chill people through this format.

I felt a sense of nostalgia. Nostalgia in the form of strong feelings I felt back then.

• All the memories.
• A reminder of what, how, and why I loved playing Magic in the first place.
• Card art, the colors, how simple yet sophisticated they are.
• The way you play, heck even the way they smelled.

Eventually, I met more people in this format. Way, way different than Standard and Modern. It’s so casual and such a fun environment, with everyone sharing the same passion for the game, how it started and what started it. I didn’t have to worry about being competitive or having to deal with exceptional douchebags. This past event at Barcito was proof of that.

I’m glad I went back not just into playing, but playing the old school magic cards I adored and loved 20+ years ago. I’m glad I went back because I finally found genuine, passionate, and cool people who play not because of the money or the prizes or the recognition, but because they just love to.

@jessethomas

Middle School to Old School Magic The Gathering

by deepspawners_3j44sm | Aug 30, 2018 | Stories

From Middle School to Old School Magic The Gathering

Where did it all start with Old School Magic? It was the start of a new middle school year in 1994, I was 13 years old and in 8th grade.  Prior to finding Magic I had been collecting baseball cards for years and was also into comics and other random collector cards (I still have a full set of X-Men cards from the time), so I was familiar with visiting the local comic/card shop.  The summer of 1994 I had dabbled in D&D with a group of friends and one of them had an older brother who introduced us to magic.

So by the time the school year started we were all starting our collections and playing magic everyday at lunch time and after school, just sitting in a shady area playing magic in the grass.  Our backpacks always had our school books and our magic cards so we can play and trade everyday.  At one point the school ended up even banning the cards as there were complaints of theft.

For me the game was awesome!

I not only got to play this game everyday after school but I got to search and collect cards I needed for the awful decks (still suck at making decks) I would come up with.  I remember riding my bike around to all the local card shops, bookstores, and comic book stores looking for the revised edition cards which were already scarce to find at MSRP prices (Fallen Empires were always super easy to find).

Finding “The Dark” for like $5 a pack back then was super exciting because I finally got to buy a pack of the older sets.   

At this time the old school magic power cards and older sets were already getting very expensive, especially for a kid with just a allowance.  I do remember NM Unlimited Black Lotus being sold for like $150 at the card shop back then and thinking who could ever afford that.

By the end of that 94/95 school year Magic was already banned from the middle school and the group seemed to have moved on to other things. 

I tried a few years later getting back into magic around the time Mirage came out but it wasn’t the same for me.

So my MTG Old School cards got packed into boxes and stored in closets and garages for the next 20+ years.

Roughly six or so years ago:

I would pull out the cards every so often, look at my old deck and trade binder and reminiscence about playing magic again.  I had heard about magic online and thought it would be fun to buy some pauper style decks and play online with people.  After the excitement of buying/collecting new cards and making new decks wore off and I played a few games online, I quickly got bored and gave up on magic online.

Fast Forward to around May this year:

I pulled out the cards again and knew the 8 or 9 dual lands were probably still worth something so I decided to start doing some research on the value of old cards.

I couldn’t believe what Old School Magic cards were selling for now…

At this point my interest was peaked, my nostalgia was coming back to me, and I had to learn more.  That led me to YouTube channels like Alpha Investments, Vintage Magic, and Edwin the Magic Engineer.  Upon seeing some of the budget deck content that was coming out from Edwin’s channel and later the Alltingsconsidered podcast, I was inspired to build some budget mono colored decks.

I thought at the time I would be able to build the majority of those decks with the cards I already had…

Well I was wrong and many TCG orders later covering most of the month of June and July I was able to build several budget mono color decks and even a black/white deck with the scrublands I already had.  At this point I was already hooked. I went looking for as much old school magic content as I could find. One thing lead to another where I found Old School Reddit, then Old School Facebook groups, then Old School Magic Discord.

And finally, after nearly 23 years, I started playing magic again. This time online using Skype with other random and equally excited people on the internet.

A couple weeks ago I made it to the GP LA and Deep Spawners LA  event were I finally experienced my first real magic tournaments.

I had a blast that entire day

Even though I went 0-3 with a budget Merfolk deck at GP LA, I was super happy to be given my 2nd beta card.

(Studio_Headz traded me a beta island for a revised island after I expressed how much I liked my only beta card a ‘Merfolk of the Pearl Trident’). 

Then later that night I played at the Deep Spawner event with a black and white deck which reminded me of the deck I used to primarily play back in middle school. I ended up winning 1 series of the 5 total.

It was a great night of meeting new people and playing magic and moving forward I am now super excited for the next event!

Ryan (Bonsai)

MTG Old School Allure

by deepspawners_3j44sm | Aug 25, 2018 | Stories

The Allure of MTG Old School

Old School MTG Revised

The words “Magic the Gathering” had been whispered to me.  Rumor.  Innuendo.  And although I often frequented comic stores and card shops I had never actually seen it for sale until one day in 1994. While shopping in Los Angeles I spotted, behind the counter of some long-forgotten store, few Starter Decks of MTG Old School Revised.  After convincing the friend I was visiting to try it out with me I bought one.

I’m sure you can picture it: two guys sitting on the floor, shuffling a Revised starter deck, reading through that ridiculous instruction booklet, learning how to play.  Drawing off the same five color deck, mana screwed throughout most games. The winner would be determined by either the one who drew (and was able to cast) the Serra Angel, or whoever ended up with the Royal Assassin if Serra didn’t come out.  The only other card I distinctly remember from that deck was a Scrubland, one which remains in my collection to this day.

My friend didn’t “get it”.

He wasn’t interested in playing magic after our initial six or seven games.

He’s never changed his mind on that.  I was fascinated with MTG but, with nobody to play with, my old school cards went into a drawer and were mostly forgotten.

At some point in 1995 I passed a comic/card store previously unknown to me.  I stopped in to check it out.  They had tables set up in the back of the store.  There sat a group of regulars who played Magic, mostly kids younger than myself.

They also had an advertisement for a release event that weekend: Ice Age.

I came in that weekend and actually learned how to play the game.  My collection grew and I became hooked, playing every weekend and many evenings after work.  Those older “mtg old school” cards went from mythical and into my personal collection, budgeting and saving and scraping together what I could to build a collection. I remember the day Chaos Orb was banned.  The forming of “Type II.”  The banning of Alpha from tournament play.

Playing on and off throughout the years, the last time I played Standard was around the time of Innistrad.

Life changes and Standard stagnation and I quit once again.

I never found an interest in Vintage, as the extreme power mix between the older and newer cards wasn’t interesting to me.

Sometime around the beginning of 2018 I found myself browsing through the Facebook “For Sale” section and somebody was selling a Collector’s Edition sealed set.  I’d always wanted one, but never found it at the right time at the right price.  Asking him about I expressed my surprise at the price jump to $3500.  He told me the price hike was due to this new format called MTG Old School.

That sounded like just the thing…

I joined a few MTG Old School Facebook groups

I read up on the format and eventually inquired if there were any groups in Southern California who played.  I was put in touch with Chris and the Spawner crew and have been hooked on MTG Old School ever since.

-SM-

Magic The Gathering – My Story

by deepspawners_3j44sm | Aug 23, 2018 | Stories

Mike and I were always into competitive games against each other.

We wore out his amiga games while the loser drank till the sun came up. We raced slot cars on a track we owned together and the loser drank. We bowled, and we played magic. (Loser drank).

Strangely, I decided to join the Marines in 1993

So Mike and I only got to play when I was home on leave. We kept in touch when I was in Italy and bought Italian legends. He came to visit and we played in various duty stations I was in through the years. I also played almost every day on the USS Theodore Roosevelt on a Mediterranean deployment in 1996.

By this time I was rocking a deck featuring 4 time vault

I would feel final fortune turns to untap the vault. I played on the USS Washington in 97-98. My daughter was born in 1996 so like many, I didn’t play much except when deployed.

Her time capsule of when she was born still has a box of alliances in it.

I went a solid 10 years only playing magic the gathering occasionally

But mostly it was old school with my buddy Mike when I went home on leave. In 2009 I got divorced and had time on my hands.

I was a little nerdy and a little lonely.

I walked into the local game store, bought 2 boxes of M10, built a deck and played it un-sleeved that night at their FNM. I went 2-3 and I was hooked. Jesse and Damyan owned the store at the time. I still play with them both.

I deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 where I got with the local USO and arranged a weekly draft. Damyan sent me boxes of cards and the USO provided prizes by buying extra boxes. They trusted me to be fair and prize out the free events. I ran unsanctioned drafts for 14 months through 2 deployments in Afghanistan. It was a total blast seeing army rangers, Marine special forces, Navy, British Royal Marines, all kinds of people show up for the weekly event. Everyone was heavily armed and we had no judge nor any conflicts. Even better the sets we drafted were Zendikar, Innistrad, world wake, and rise of Eldrazi.

All great sets.

During this time, I return home on leave and Mike would get the old gang back together (his brothers and friends) to play.

• But I was way too competitive.
• My decks were finely tuned legacy decks and they were casual.
• Mike had all the old cards but it felt like cheating using power.

One day in 2015 I was in Damyan’s MTG shop.

We were talking legacy and a guy was there that was interested In Legacy. He was also a bit more mature than the rest and the 3 of us made plans to play legacy on occasion. We would later refer to him as “Savage”.

Our Thursday night vintage and old school game had started. Soon we had Shrek, Savage, Damyan, me, Senai, and usually a random player. Twice Jaco made the trek from LA.

That year, me, Savage, and Mike went to eternal weekend in Columbus. I even managed to begin the vintage tourney 5-0 that year but the real fun was the old school tournament Jaco had organized. I had the prestige of not only having the most fun, but also placing dead last out of 87 with a sweet black white abyss deck.

After the tourney, mike and I crashed Dan Bocks hotel room, got all his employees hammered and played till 4 AM.