A TALE OF ANCIENT MAGIC for all you magic players out there!

3 months ago I started playing Magic again, after not having played Magic for more than 10 years, and for old school players as well as newcomers, here is a little tale of how it all began.

I left the Magic world of Dominaria more than 10 years ago only a short time after the Ice Age has ended (except for a short return in the Saga). Now, more than a decade has passed, and I am –well, one could say, if not Alara Reborn, then, at least REBORN- into this magic world. Into a new chaos of war, shards and floating diamond shaped stones. A world ruled by even more ferocious creatures, cunning mages struggling for power and eternal planeswalkers fighting by your side given that you earn their loyalty. And it all came back to me… The good old days of magic!

3 months ago I had about 160 duallands, or, like 4 playsets of each dualland. For all these years they have just been collecting dust in a 9-pocket folio on my shelf. Now I find myself left with 80 duallands, or, like 2 playsets, the rest has been traded away. And for what…? A whole bunch of new crap cards… But… How they SHINE! Shine for the long since gone and forgotten legends that once ruled the world of Dominaria!

Now… lets take a look at what I´ve gained in exchange for these 80 duallands:
1: A full foiled out red deck
2: A full foiled out white deck
3: A full foiled out green deck (not quite completed yet, but almost)
And of course a whole bunch of new powercards like 4 x Jitte, 4x Baneslayer, 4 x Vindicate, A playset of each fetchland etc etc. And now, a bit confused, I ask myself: How did I end up with 3 full foiled out decks, that in no way are tournament competitive and maybe wouldn’t even stand a chance in a standard tournament, in case they were standard legal? And for the sacrifice of high-valued duallands?

Analyzing it, I guess it’s all in the story of how it all began.

Back in my younger days I was introduced for Magic the Gathering by a friend. Little did I know, that was he was about to show me, would have such a big influence on my life. From the very second he showed me his cards, and taught me the rules, I was trapped in Dominaria. He gave me a deck of 60 cards for free. A pure black deck. With “powerful” cards like Drudge Skeletons and Wall of Bones… Uhhhh… They could regenerate! Very hard to kill! Unless they got disintegrated! You couldn’t even terrorize them, which would make them able to defeat even the Taliban. Something that George Bush and Obama since 10 years haven’t been able to accomplish yet. However, on a bad day, you could have those swords of your Drudge skeletons turned into plowshares. Which would send them into eternal exile, where they would be doomed to harvest crops forever. But the ultimate creature in my free black deck were the gloomy chilling ghost: The Frozen Shade! Which in spite of his floating body wasn’t able to fly though. But still you wouldn’t want to mess with him! With the poisoned lands spreading to more than eight lands, or maybe aided by a dark ritual, the Frozen Shade was able to overcome even the Force of Nature!

However it was rumoured that even more sinister creatures roamed the misty swamps of Dominaria! Powerful vampires, which would leech on their preys to grow ever stronger! After I was given my free deck, I bought my first boosterpack! A Fallen Empires booster! Whoah! I drew a Thrull Champion in my very first boosterpack ever! Not that I had much use of him, but another wizard was asking his alliance, in exchange for the loyalty of his… Vampire! And that is how the first Sengir Vampire was added to my deck.

The Vampire was a strong ally, but in the mountains of Shiv lurked fouler creatures, with skin hard as dragonscale, which was difficult for a vampire to leech upon, unless he was gifted with unholy strength. But even that would be at the cost of card-disadvantage. And that is how the ultimate quest began. How to tame the firebreathing, undisputed master of the mountains: The Shivan Dragon! After a year or so, roaming the mountains of Shiv, I finally succeeded at taming four Shivan Dragons. And from that very day, the Dragonmasters presence was feared throughout the most of Dominaria! Forget about Nicol Bolas, forget about Rasputin Dreamweaver and forget about Tetsuo Umezawa and his later uncovered relic, the Jitte. The undisputed master of Shiv simply won so many games, battles and tournaments, that the greatest legend of all times is: THE SHIVAN DRAGON. And it tears my heart to see this proud and mighty dragon, degraded to a cheap 1 dollar lizard. I oughtta grap one of my Revised Edition white bordered Shivan Dragons, bring her to the jewelry and have her gold-bordered in true 24-carat gold, cause she has fought, won and ensured countless victories on the battlefield.

And to honor the legendary Shivan Dragon, I simply had to have a full foiled out red deck with four foil Shivan Dragons, though she wouldn’t stand a chance in a tournament. How would she ever be able to match the evolved breed of a 5/5 flier with first strike, lifelink and protection from dragons, which even have a statistical chance to enter the battlefield a turn earlier? But to new comers this might be the new Shivan Dragon. Maybe 10 years from now, people who started Magic recently will be foiling out a deck with Baneslayer, to honor their Queen. To aid the Shivan Dragon, I have supplied the deck with other legendary creatures and spells. Among these, I shall mention the Covetous Dragon which was immortalized by winning the 1999 World Championship. And the legendary Hammer of Bogardan. What a revolutionary spell this was. A Lightning Bolt that would return to your hand like Mjolnir, to strike your enemies over and over, giving you huge board and card-advantage. And, of course, 4 Lightning Bolts itself. I have acquired 4 of the textless Lightning Bolts, those drawed by artist Veronique Meignaud.

With the Lightning Bolts and the new Zendikar Basic lands (particularly the Forest, Mountain and Island), I think that Veronique Meignaud starts tangering being one of my new favourite artists. In the past I had favourite artists like Melissa Benson (Shivan Dragon, Nightmare, Fire Elemental), Mark Tedin (Fireball, Timetwister, Time Vault, Sol Ring, City of Brass, Juzan Djinn, Necropotence, Chaos Orb, Leviathan etc.) and Amy Weber (Time Walk, Disenchant, High Tide, Concordant Crossroads). I know many will disagree with me, especially upon Amy Weber, but I just love the painting of Time Walk. It has this ancient aura upon it, which radiates extremely powerful magic. And powerful it is… I can’t think of much greater magic than being able to walk through time, except maybe for immortality. Well done Amy!

After the reign of Shivan Dragon, I started more advanced Magic. But this also included very expensive cards. Like the P9 which had the outrageous set-price of like 200 dollars. I did a lot of combo magic, and ended up inventing the Twist/ Wheel deck ( A powerful combo that was discovered by many others too though, we just hadn’t read the recipe on the internet, as with most powerdecks today). It goes like this: Draw cards, throw artifact, wheel or twist into a new hand, throw more artifacts, eat your lands with Zuran, Armageddon and Wrath your opponent with Balance, only to Timewist your lands into your library again or Fastbond them back to play with Yawgmoth, throw Atog, release it from sickness with a Timewalk and then finish off with an 80/20 forked double berserking Atog, and should that somehow fail, then put mind over matter with Academy to throw a 100+ dam Fireball. I really loved the Balance/ Zuran Orb/ Timetwister/ Fastbond-combo. Though it was a combo requiring four different cards, and all restricted cards, it was a combo that happened in 7 out of 10 games, and sometimes even multiple times in a single game. It really brought despair to the opponent, having all of their lands and creatures swept away with that Balance, while watching opponent gain 10-20 lifes and having all lands brought back to play again.

However, in spite of all these fancy cards and combos, a certain discount deck sometimes did catch me by surprise with its speed. A discount deck, which no deck could really feel safe about: The legendary White Weenie Deck. I really hated this deck, cause I knew, that every time I was facing it, there was a slight risk I might actually loose the game. And there, you had your 500 dollar deck defeated and humiliated by a cheap 50 dollar deck. At the same time I loved the White Weenie deck. It was the poor mans chance to defeat those dollar-pumped decks. Much like Bant vs Jund. Bant people hate Jund because it only cost 1/10 the price of a Bant deck. But I somehow like it, therefore I play both Bant and Jund. And every time you drew a Savannah Lion, White Knight, Armageddon, Disenchant or a Crusade in that boosterpack, you knew you could trade it away for something good. I have never really played that White Weenie deck myself, because I was more curious about the sophisticated combos primarily dominated by blue, but I’ve played against it countless of times. And I knew, that some day I wanted to have a White Weenie deck myself. I just didn’t know it would take more than 10 years. And now I have finally gotten my White Weenie Deck, all foiled out and with a slight change, turning it into a pure Knight deck.

Last, but not least, I have put together an all foil green deck. Why have I done this? In the old days of magic, green has always been an inferior race. They didn’t really have much to offer, in a world dominated by the huge control universe of blue, the furious and everburning fires from red, the faststriking hordes of white and the devastating magic of death and destruction from black. What did green have to offer? Actually I can only come up with 3 green cards from the old days of magic, worth mentioning. The rampant managgrowth of Fastbond and Birds of Paradise and lastly the Regrowth –or my german blackbordered “Neues Leben”- to bring back that Time Walk from your grave. Of course you could make small combos like the Birds / Instill Energy along with Stasis, and the popular Force of Nature / Spirit Link combo. But as a whole, green was an outmatched race. BUT… Deep in the woods… Lives a small people. A people I always found an unexplainable sympathy for. These are the elves of the mysterious forests. Often being the first ones to enter the battlefield, always standing proud in the frontline, ready to oppose the first waves of intruding armies, and later sacrifice their lifes, blocking a huge monstrosity for the greater cause. And I knew, that one day… I would build an all green Elvish deck. And it’s a joy to see, how the Elves have evolved through the ages, aiding their allies with more and more sophisticated abilities.

Thinking back in general, if there ever was a Hall of Fame, these are cards, that would all deserve a place in there:

1: Shivan Dragon
2: Balance
3: Birds of Paradise
4: Library of Alexandria
5: Crusade

(I could add in Millstone or LD to the list, but that is simply another chapter, so I’ll leave it out for now. And I’m also sure you guys out there has a lot of other cards to add to the list, but let’s stick to these for now).

But these are all cards that already has or are about to descend into nothingness. Abandoned and forgotten, but these are cards, that should always be rembered. Remembered for their huge impact and influence on Magic through a decade. Reflecting upon this article, the Shivan Dragon and Balance pretty much explains itself. The Birds of Paradise… What can I say? Which other creature has survived all the way from Alpha over Beta, Umlimited, Revised, six core sets and up to M2010, without ever rotating out, still being desired and played? Now they have finally come to rest, with the exalted Noble Hierarch claiming the throne of mana creeps. The Library of Alexandria are as legendary as the tales of a Thousand and One Arabian Nights itself. A Library in your opening hand in a control deck, was almost a sure victory. Now, as with the birds and Hierarch, the Library are put to rest by the Tabernacle. I remember paying just a dualland for my Tabernacle, and now I can trade my Tabernacle for a Library. Who would ever have thought that? Crusade, well, I might as well had put White Knight or Savannah Lions there, but to represent the White Weenie, I chose the Crusade, cause after all, it is the one that boosts the pack to deliver that final blow. As with the other legends, Crusade are now put to rest by Glorious Anthem, Divine Sacrament, Shared Triumph, Honor of the Pure etc.

So to the newcomers out there, if you ever face an opponent who prefer the Shivan Dragon above the Baneslayer or the Savannah Lions above the Hound of Kondra… You know you are facing a Wizard of the Old School, who has won countless battles with these loyal and legendary creatures fighting by their side.

I hope you all enjoyed this article, thanks for reading
-Carnac, Wizard of the Old School.