Having recently become a Vintage Adept, I have been afforded the privilege of keeping a Magic blog on TheManaDrain. While I do not know that I have any strategic pearls of wisdom to give out at this precise moment, I was trying to come up with something at least interesting to write about that would not otherwise be an article over on MTGSalvation, which I currently write for. Ultimately, I concluded that the story of how I came to be a Vintage player would probably be the best thing I could write at the moment, as I have never actually written down how I came to the game. I believe this story is worth telling because, as far as I know, I am the only Vintage player from the State of West Virginia (with apologies to any lesser known West Virginia Vintage players who may be out there). Future entries will not be on this topic, but it seemed to be as good a place to start as any. I am going to write this as it comes to me, so I apologize for any inconsistencies or errors that may be created with respect to chronology or factual information. For some perspective, I’m 22 years old today and recently graduated from Duke University with a BS in Economics and Sociology. I will be attending law school this coming fall.
The story begins during the summer of 1996, in West Virginia (where I still reside today), when I was 11 years old. I was over at my next door neighbors’ house, where they had children approximately of ages 9, 12, and 14, at the time. A friend of theirs from California, Eric Drach, was in town this week, visiting his grandmother who lived about two houses down. We were trying to come up with something to do when the youngest child suggested that we play Magic. Now, I thought magicians were pretty cool, so I was wondering what sort of tricks we would be doing. After running back to his grandmother’s house, Eric came back with some “Magic cards.” He explained the rules to me (well, as best as an 11 year old could), and we sat down to play a game. The first spell I played was a Revised Nevinyrral’s Disk. I would later trade with Eric for that exact card and it is still in my collection today, though not as cherished as a card to be mentioned soon. I would end up losing my first game, although I do not recall precisely how Eric won. The deck he was running involved cards like Hypnotic Specter, Icy Manipulator, Kormus Bell, and Hecatomb. I had no chance.
This game, however, was so much fun that I wanted to buy some cards of my own. In order to convey to mom what I wanted, I was given a card, Kjeldoran Escort (version 1), the very first card of my collection, which I have to this day in a hard case. An interesting footnote is that the other candidate to show mom that day was Disintegrate, one of the most graphic cards printed at the time or since. Perhaps it was fortunate that it was not chosen. Additionally, my first is also of importance because it allowed me to figure out, years later, whether I had started playing Magic during the summer of 1995 or 1996. Because Alliances, Kjeldoran Escort’s expansion, was not printed until 1996, there is no way that Eric could have given me the card in 1995.
In any case, mom agreed to allow me to go buy some cards. I believe we went to Waldenbooks at the mall (although I am not certain) to acquire a 60 card booster (I suppose that’s what it was) of cards from Ice Age, although the importance of sets was completely lost to me at the time. I do actually a recall a few cards I pulled from that pack, including Norritt, Maddening Wind, Illusions of Grandeur (which I still have today), and only two islands. Two islands! Truly, I deduced that day that Islands and blue cards must be rarer and better than other cards since I was able to get so few Islands when I got so many of the other lands. I would later buy a ton of islands at 10 cents a piece from a shop in Charleston (a store of great importance later on). And so, my Magic career began.
Eric would return to West Virginia every year for a number of years and I would play Magic on and off. Being the young Magic player that I was, I had many love affairs with certain cards, like Goblins in general, Hammer of Bogardan (I traded a Taiga, among other things, at one point to get a playset), Coat of Arms, and Cursed Scroll. Oh, Cursed Scroll. If ever there was a cool card that just completely owned, it was Cursed Scroll. Unfortunately, there were no stores in my hometown to buy Cursed Scrolls from, and they were much to expensive ($12-$15 each) for me to justify buying myself.
Needing Islands and to replace a Minion of Leshrac I had traded away, mom took me to a card shop in Charleston by the name of Eva’s Cards (I don’t believe the store is still there). They had cards like you could not believe. Cards in stacks and stacks. While I would not be impressed by such today, it was something back then. I believe that I went to this shop in 1998 because Unglued had just come out around that time. I was able to acquire a number of lands and a new Minion of Leshrac in my trip there. However, there was one card there that I wanted which I did not get. That card was a Beta Black Lotus. I was so surprised to actually see such a storied card! It was in a hard case with kind of a wavy design. The case was sealed shut with four golden screws, one in each corner. I would guess the card was in “fine” condition, though I would not have picked up on that subtlety at the time. Suffice it to say, I did not notice that it was “played” so it could not have been that bad. Comically, I did not even know what the card did (and, honestly, probably did not know what it did when I left the store that day, either). However, I knew that it was the best card. It was the must-have card out of all of them. I asked if mom would get it for me for Christmas. Mom said it would cost roughly the same as all my gifts that year and I wouldn’t get anything else. I said I didn’t care. Mom opted not to buy the Black Lotus. What was the price you ask? Two hundred fifty American dollars. I know. I know. It pains me to this very day that mom did not buy the card, even more so because the card was Beta (though I didn’t appreciate the meaning of the black border at the time). While I understand why she didn’t buy it, I still get on her case about it now and then. To this day, I do not own a Black Lotus; I only have Mox Emerald, Mox Pearl, Timetwister, and Ancestral Recall, all Unlimited. I do, however, have a promise from my former college roommate of three years (who now works for Goldman Sachs in New York City) that if/when I pass the bar exam, he will buy me a Beta Black Lotus. While I do not know if he will make good on this promise, it is an interesting thing to note nonetheless.
In any case, I would gain a cursory knowledge of the formats over time and at one point dubbed myself an Extended player. The reason for this, I think, was because Eric would eventually bring an Oath of Druids deck to town. Needless to say, Goblins did not fare very well against Oath. I came to HATE Oath of Druids. I just could not beat it, even if I got a first turn Goblin Lackey. I would later gain a similar odium for Morphling, which I hated so much that I actually
made a poll on MTGNews.com asking if Morphling should be restricted. Apparently, the populace believed that Morphling should not have been restricted. I will now formally concede the point, four and a half years after the poll was originally posted. The other reason I dubbed myself an Extended player was because all the cards I owned were Extended legal (this was before Extended rotation had even been imagined yet). So, it seemed like the logical choice.
Through these years, I never actually found or acquired a play group. InQuest magazine and the Internet were my only connections to what was going on out in the “real world” with Magic. Honestly, these are what would ultimately sustain my interest in the game (which did wane from time to time, though I never sold my cards). I continued to play without a playgroup and without opponents, as my neighbors had since given up playing the game for the most part. I must now admit, however, that I did in fact steal one card from my neighbors at one point. Though they did have the coveted Royal Assassin, which was a great way to get rid of an Illusionary Wall that was beating you down (yes, you read that right), there was one other card that I just had to have. Baton of Morale. So, to my neighbors, I apologize for stealing your Baton of Morale and I hope you will forgive me.
One year, Eric came to town and he wanted to play in an actual tournament, something I had never done before. We got online and managed to find an event at “Alonzo’s Sportscards,” (a place I had bought a Soldevi Digger from for a ridiculous sum, I’m sure, years ago) just across the river in Marietta, Ohio, a drive of about 15 to 20 minutes away. I am not 100% certain what year this was or what the format of the event was. I also do not remember how I did. I do know that I won my first match, but that is all I can say. I actually remember shaking hands with my opponent after the first GAME by mistake. Oh well.
Now whether this was my first event (in any format) or not, I cannot recall for certain. Alonzo’s was advertising a mega tournament of sorts where half of the event would be Type II and half of the event would be (sanctioned) Type I (the terms “Standard” and “Vintage” had not come into vogue yet). I didn’t have a Type II deck (a problem that has been ubiquitous in my Magic career), so Eric and I were forced to enter the Vintage event. I was packing a goblin deck of my own creation running Cursed Scroll (which I had finally gotten for Christmas that past year), Lightning Bolt, Goblin Lackey, Mogg Flunkies, Mogg Fanatic, Mogg Raider, and Fireblast, among other amazing cards. I ran two Pillage maindeck as an answer to Masticore and opposing Cursed Scrolls (which would be huge, ultimately). I played Keeper at one point and my opponent had Serendib Efreet in play, a 3/4 creature. I had one card in hand and a Goblin Lackey in play. I swung. My opponent said “holding Lightning Bolt huh?” and let the Lackey go. I smiled at the Fireblast in my hand. While that may seem like a very small play today, that was a pretty big moment for me, as I thought I had just made a great play. It’s stuck with me over the years, in any case. I played Stasis.dec at some point and ended up losing that match. I remember doing well enough in this event to survive to the “final rounds.” The format was decided randomly (and arbitrarily) and Type II was selected. Obviously, I did not have a deck, so I had to borrow one. I ended up losing in three games to who may have been the amateur champion at the time (I am not certain at all about this, though I do know there was a magazine picture on the wall with his mug on it having something to do with amateurs). I remember he said all I needed to do was get Ensnaring Bridge in play to win (I believed him). I never had two lands in hand and Ensnaring Bridge in my opening hand game 3, but never saw the third land. A disappointment, to be sure.
In any case, my Vintage career had begun. In an attempt to build a better deck, I decided I would try to build an Elf deck and
sought help on MTGNews.com in building it. Heh, I didn’t get much help at all. While I ended up buying an overpriced stack of Elves at Alonzo’s, I never did play or build the deck. It was around this time that I stumbled upon a site called TheManaDrain.com.
What interested me the most were the primers on the front page. I was especially enthralled by some deck called “Nether Void” by some guy named Steve “Zherbus” O’Connell, who at the time I think was fighting off harassment from some trolls concerning how he isn’t a loser because he had a girlfriend and a car at the time (and posted pictures of the same). I would end up building Nether Void (minus the power) and had a lot of success with it. I loved the green variant that added Pernicious Deed and Naturalize, as those cards just allowed me to blow people out of the water. Thanks, Steve, for making such a great primer and a great website so I could get into this format! I ended up trading via mail my two Nether Voids and a few other cards for a Timetwister with an older gentleman from Colorado. I recently sold that card (having won another cleaner Timetwister at an event) and put that money toward Ancestral Recall.
The rest is history, as they say. There are plenty of other stories that have been omitted here (which I could recount if there is interest), but I wanted this entry to be about my earlier years rather than my later ones. Eric ended up being lured away from Magic to play poker, although I do not know if he still has his cards. I think deep down he still likes the game, even if he doesn’t play. Eric’s grandmother passed away three years ago. Consequently, Eric has only visited one time since, having to travel from another relative’s house in Athens, Ohio (about 45 minutes away) in order to see me. Since he still lives in California (and attends school there), it hasn’t been easy for him to get over this way lately. Alonzo, the owner of the card shop, died three or four years ago of colon cancer. Fortunately, his long time partner and confidant, George, purchased the shop and keeps it open six days a week, though tournaments are never held there anymore. Because there are no Vintage events in West Virginia, I have played in events at many different places during my career, including Marietta, OH; Columbus, OH; Washington, PA; Durham, NC; Cary, NC; Richmond, VA; and Roanoke, VA.
I have continued to remain an unaffiliated player to this day, though I was offered a spot on Arsenal, a team from the South, at one point. I declined, not because I did not appreciate the offer or because I did not think they were good enough for me or something like that, but because I historically have valued my own independence. In the future, I might consider an offer from a team, but who knows. That being said, my former roommate I mentioned above was absolutely invaluable in helping me perfect Fish for local tournaments and September 2005 Richmond P9, where I placed sixth. Without his help, I would never have been as successful as I was. He does not own any cards (except the Tinker I bought him, as a joking gift) nor has he ever played in a Vintage event.
This, then, is the story of how there came to be a Vintage Adept from West Virginia. Beyond winning a Vintage event here and there, I have become a writer on MTGSalvation.com, become a Rules Guru on that site, and become a Magic Rules Advisor. I am glad that I have been able to stick with this game over the years and meet so many intelligent and interesting people, literally, from across the country and around the world, in my pursuit of this format. Because of its unique form, I think Vintage offers a community that other games and formats simply cannot. I hope I will be able to stay with the game and the community for many years to come.
Feedback is welcome and encouraged. Thanks for reading.
