Favorite Vintage Memories...

[LotusHead]

What is your favorite Vintage memory? Not necessarily favorite game win, just memory via Vintage Magic?

Mine is Worlds 2004 San Francisco.  I was broke, and couldn't make it.  Then a friend of mine gave me $40 to go and live the dream.

That paid for gas, toll and entry fee.

I sucked ass at the event, but stayed until the (if I recall) 3:00am conclusion featuring the finals being fought by the two most uber-villified by TMD players, TheLegendOfMagic and Random-Miser. Classic. Keeper vs ICT.

It was there that I found out who the truly hardcore members of the NorCal Vintage scene were.  Also got to meet several (then) TMDrs from SoCal and elsewhere, and really felt part of the community for the first time.

This was also the first time that I took pics of a Vintage Tourney, but didn't know how to post them on this site.

[evouga]

What is ICT? Probably not Counter-Top, in 2004...

[diopter]

Still making my favourite memories. Vintage keeps getting better, more nuanced, evolving both forwards and backwards.
- never thought creatures would ever really compete, now Lightning Bolt is a staple
- never thought they'd print anything on the level of Cruise or DTT. The envelope continues to be pushed in exciting and scary ways
- never dreamed that Vintage would get serious exposure, the VSL and EW coverage is amazing
- every time I leave the format, I always find a reason to come back

What is ICT? Probably not Counter-Top, in 2004...

Invincible Counter Troll, see http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/2220_You_CAN_Play_Type_I_16_Sucking_With_The_Power_Nine.html

[John Cox]

The two main ones that stick out are putting my 1995/96 weissman control deck with a mox jet and drains through the wash (by accident). The other is trading a summer mana vault, and sol ring and finding out what they were couple years later. I also gave away my commons at one point and there was probably some summer in there.

[serracollector]

My favorite moment of vintage was the first time I cast a turn one Swords to Plowshares on a turn one ritual hypnotic specter.

[LotusHead]

Invincible Counter Troll, see http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/2220_You_CAN_Play_Type_I_16_Sucking_With_The_Power_Nine.html

To be fair, that article was 3 years prior to this tourney. and I tracked Roy Spires to his hometown Interwebs to get decklist and tourney report.

His worlds 2004 deck was Drain Slaver w/Isocron Scepters. And luckily dodged Null Rods through the entire tournament.

[tito del monte]

Currently revising the manuscript to my book, so in a nostalgic mood. This thread landed at just the right moment!

My favourite Vintage memory comes from the 2001 UK Type I Championships, held alongside the London Grand Prix that year. In truth, it was my first Type I tournament proper. But I had been in and out the game at that point, and the notion of there being any other way of playing Magic had passed me by. I didn't have any power, hadn't even discovered Beyond Dominia at that point, but knew there was only one way that I wanted to play the game. I trekked down from Glasgow where I was living at the time, had fun in the main event playing Invasion block constructed, but ultimately scrubbed out (while I think Kai Budde blasted his way to victory). In the meantime, I had gotten to know a few people and learned more about Type I than I had in al my previous time playing very casual Magic. I was completely blown away by seeing their cards - at this time, not only just power in their decks, but god, so many people had it stuffed in their binders, too - it really was a mind-blowing sight. After thinking about my deck (and playing an awesome sealed deck event with a German revised starter, Italian Legends, the Dark and Ice Age boosters), I was ready. Someone kindly lent me four moxen, which I stuffed into my deck as my only power, and I swung into battle with a clunky Underworld Dreams/Draw 7 deck. It was, at that point in my life, the most fun I had had with my clothes on.

I seem to remember finishing something like 9th out of around 25-30 players, but alas, it was on an old DCI number I no longer have. I definitely remember winning a handful of boosters for my trouble. And pretty much straight afterwards, still high on how much fun it was play proper Magic, with proper power, I went and bought my two first moxen, a sapphire and pearl, for I think £130 cash plus nearly the entire contents of my trade folder. I've had those two cards ever since and, all things being equal, will probably have them until I croak it. Overall, it was a bloody good weekend. And permanently converted me to the format of kings

[Piggyboy1]

playing dredge and hardcasting 2 serum powders in game 2 whilst my opponent had a 3sphere and multiple hate cards. only to cast stinkweed imps and other creatures for the beatdowns to win the game

[portland]

Replying to some type II players about how much better a type I deck can be. Faced down 2 ernham, burn 'em and 2 ernageddon decks and a counterpost thing that foolishly tapped out on his turn 2 to make an accelerant - (all at the same time) generated infinite mana on turn 3, drew my deck, decked 2 of them and killed the rest off all with a giant fireball (swapped from a torch.)

Another one was a UK gencon where I'd happened on the rumour that they were going to remove the rule requiring desleeving on request. This had kept poor condition cards (considered marked) out of play, so poor moxes were collectable only as they couldn't be played. I picked up a load of beat up spare power in trades and for cash for £20-50 each. Shortly afterwards, the rule was overturned and the lot shot up in value overnight.

[PDM]

I have a few:

Early 1995 - Opponent is playing a fully powered deck with chaos orb, i'm playing a 80+ card deck with Nicol Bolas, Lord of the Pit, Force of Nature, Shivan Dragon, Royal Assassin, Leviathan, and Colossus of Sardia. Its quite hot in the store so there is a fan by the table, Opponent activates his chaos orb, lifts it up, flips it, and it flies ten feet away. He's furious and wants a redo, I decline him the opportunity.

Early 1995 - I witness a famous future pro tour player pick his nose and eat the ensuing booger at a tournament in Edison NJ.

Mid 1995 - I'm playing 60 (and by 60 I mean 64) card decks by this point and enter a local tournament for a mox pearl. I don't remember what i'm on but it is probably millstones with serra angels. The store draws byes out of a hat. I get 3 byes over the five rounds and make it to the top 8. Through sheer luck I make it to game 3 of the finals and my opponent is playing dingus egg land destruction, I have nothing in play except for a felwar stone and my opponent is at 12 and I draw balance. He is attacking me with a single kurd ape every turn and i'm praying for a tundra, five or six turns later I slam it down, cast balance, and say "I win!". My opponent has no idea what is going on until i point to is double dingus eggs and the fact that he has a boat load of lands out and he gets furious, yelling "I didn't want that f-ing mox anyway I have three of them at home already". I guess he changed his tune because he offered me $80 for it about ten minutes later.

Mid 1996 - I discovered "The Deck" online and am playing that. No one else in my area is fully powered at this point and I win every single tournament for months on end. I think after 4-5 months I randomly lose to back to back mulligans into oblivion and quit the game out of boredom.

[jcb193]

Late 1990s.  Some guy throws a random tournament allowing every card. Two of us show up with chaos orbs. Him with mirror universe deck. Me with a drop of honey/deadly insect deck (why oh why have I always played the Timmy decks).  We end up getting paired together and by the end of our match, we are taking up the space of three seats, as we have to make sure not one of our cards is within another cards length of another.

1998/1999- I go out to Gencon in Ohio during college. I can't justify paying ~$25 to enter, but it's the heyday of the mirror-ritual-mono red trinity. A great time for vintage.  Randy Brucker wins with a necro deck. I end up crashing on the floor or a super cool guys hotels room that I met that day.  I remember thinking, "who in the world would pay $15-20 for an FBB dual land.......let along $40 for a beta underground sea.  We we're the only ones playing underground sea that weekend (for demonic tutor and some other sideboard card.  This was right before urza saga would ruin the format for years and almost kill vintage.

[Prospero]

June 2009, Dan Herd Memorial Lotus Tournament, finals vs. Paul Mastriano.  I rip Vampiric Tutor in game three, end of turn Vamp for Tinker, Tinker for Titan, blow up all his lands, ship the turn back to him with a Stack at two that removes his last two permanents and swing for the win the following turn.

My match against DeMars on Sunday was pretty fun too.  I didn't know about Mana Vault being able to untap under a Revoker, but I locked it down (which I wanted, to prevent an explosive turn).  I definitely should have Stripped the Academy before playing the Revoker, but am overall happy with how I played.  The last three turns of game three were nuts.

[Klep]

The Suicide Black forum and parties at SliverKing's house after SCG P9s.

[A.-1.]

Making the stupid long trek from State College, PA to Columbus, OH for a Meandeck Open (8 hours one way?). Hang out with the awesome Ohio crowd. Play one of the guys I came with in Swiss AND top 8 (slops for that). Split top 4.

Learn about Sandwich Punch. Watch a sandwich get obliterated. Experience a Thurman burger. Burger defeats me.

[Norm4eva]

So I'm playing Type 2 Goblins + Lightning Bolt at this 10-man tournament and my only loss was to this guy in the first round playing like 3-color 10-Land-Stompy. Everyone calls him Squeaky (despise his voice being fairly even and kind of a higher baritone) and his 'thing' is to supplement the Magic experience via his sarcastic commentary, in the hopes that it will put the other guy on tilt. He gets to me, but in retrospect my deck was losing to itself; apart from a few times where I comment about how Lightning Bolts suck against Nimble Mongoose, I just get bad draws that are super bad and he ribs me enough to get under my skin.

I still come in second after narrowly beating this dude playing Trix and sideboarding pretty well (something dumb like very timely resolving fucking Pillage on a single land and then forcing a fork with the player having to choose between "shoot stuff or regenerate" with Manticore, or some damn thing) I hear Squeaky and the Trix player off in the corner like "...blah blah some kid with a Type 2 Goblin deck... blah blah better lucky than good I guess, blah blah..."

For whatever reason it bugs me, probably because it was like my first Vintage tourney and for some reason it sucked to have it be so obvious that I still had training wheels on and so the next time I see some of the guys that learnt me the game I'm like "so this fucken guy, this Squeaky" and they go "ohhh maaaan, ugh" and I guess he's just not a popular dude, and he always pulls that shit, and just ignore/stonewall/whatever that guy, because he's a fishdick.

Fast forward a couple of years and I'm playing, like, Electric Avenue (again, + Lightning Bolts, why the hell not) and my first round pairing is this last minute entry from Omaha, lo and behold it's goddamn Squeaky again.

Now I dunno if he remembered me, or if he had just decided that today he was going to be extra shitty, or what - but he starts the game by cracking a fetch and announcing that he's going to have his graveyard be in the middle of the battlefield. "I'm just going to let my graveyard be right in the middle here, okay? Okay." and he puts his Windswept Heath right in the middle and drops a Nimble Mongoose. Oh good, same poopy deck.

I coulda called a judge probably, I guess, but instead I was like... "there's no way he's going to remember to have a graveyard in the stupid middle of the table, whatever I'll just let him hose himself a few times and be a rules dick about it"

So we play and he casts stuff, and he resolves it - and places it in the graveyard, you know the one behind his library like where most people usually do put their goddamn graveyard. I let it sit and let him pass priority, and then I say, "So, which graveyard are you putting it in again?"

"Oh oh oh right right silly me. Of course." and he puts it in the middle of the yet-to-be-named "the battlefield". We play a little more, I Daze and Force stuff and burn stuff and he eventually puts something in the graveyard behind his library again.

"Look, man," I say, with a smile but a little forcefully, "I'm gonna have to ask you to just have the one graveyard."

"Aaah geeeez" he says, and picks up his battlefield-graveyard and puts it in with the regular yard. It's clear that this particular attempt to troll failed, and from this point on his commentary shifts and he's quieter, less snarky, but still a little hubris-y; he sees Standstill come down over top of my Slith Firewalker and he's like, "...you're either really good at this game or really, really bad. But I'm losing anyway." I shrug it off and kick him around a bunch because he waffles on breaking the Standstill until the Slith Firewalker has like 4 counters on it, and of course I've got a grip of counters and burn for him. We shake on the game and I go on with the rest of the tourney.

[TheWhiteDragon]

My favorite memory was this one tourney where some guy was being shitty to me.  I kicked him in the nuts so hard his voice went up two octaves.  Now people call him "Squeaky".  I wonder what ever happened to him.  He's probably still a dick.

[thecrav]

My first constructed format was 10-proxy vintage around the time Shards of Alara came out. I played 5c staxx. A friend offered to playtest with me. I don't remember what deck he was playing but it was blue based. After a 55 minute game 1, he told me he would never play against Staxx again. He later built it.

[nedleeds]

being told i'd have to take a Mox Jet, 3 dingus eggs and 3 sol rings out of my 75 card black / white deck at my first 'Magic Tournament' ...

[LSV]

@Lotushead

I was in that Top 4! I lost to RandomMiser, and had to settle for a Mox Pearl instead of a Lotus. That was right when I started getting into Vintage, and the P9 series over the next few years was a big part of why I ended up getting so into Magic.

[LotusHead]

@Lotushead

I was in that Top 4! I lost to RandomMiser, and had to settle for a Mox Pearl instead of a Lotus. That was right when I started getting into Vintage, and the P9 series over the next few years was a big part of why I ended up getting so into Magic.

I know, this is basically why I made this thread. Magical times.  The first Eudo Power 9 tourney you missed was because you made Top 16 in London, if I recall.

Also, nice to know you check out TMD sometimes .

[Klep]

@Lotushead

I was in that Top 4! I lost to RandomMiser, and had to settle for a Mox Pearl instead of a Lotus. That was right when I started getting into Vintage, and the P9 series over the next few years was a big part of why I ended up getting so into Magic.

The P9 series was such a great thing, and it's crazy to think that's what eventually birthed the SCG Open series and all the positive changes that have come from it. 

[tribet]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIfAkOBMf5A

[John Cox]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIfAkOBMf5A

?

[nedleeds]

This Saturday @ the Vintage for a Trip to Gencon at GP Nashville. I finally got to Notion Thief a Jacestorm. Against Griseloath no less. #putthelotioninthebasket

[LotusHead]

@Lotushead

I was in that Top 4! I lost to RandomMiser, and had to settle for a Mox Pearl instead of a Lotus. That was right when I started getting into Vintage, and the P9 series over the next few years was a big part of why I ended up getting so into Magic.

The P9 series was such a great thing, and it's crazy to think that's what eventually birthed the SCG Open series and all the positive changes that have come from it. 

The Eudemonia Power 9 Series affected SCG tourneys?

[PDM]

He's referring to the SCG Power9 series.

[Will]

I'm sure I'll end up editing this and adding more but here are two of my favorite memories.

1) My first Top4 ever in 2007 I was playing ICBM Empty Gush against Dan Herd running GAT. I opened up the game with Volcanic Island go, he played an Island and Ancestral Recall targeting himself. I Misdirected it, he Forced, I Red Blasted his Force, he Forced again and I Forced back. This drew me into my Ancestral. Needless to say, he lost that game.

2) Beating Jimmy Hangley's in the Top8 of a Blue Bell Gameday in 2011. He played Underground Sea, Mana Crypt, Tinker -> Blightsteel. I responded with Shop Tangle Wire. He tapped down and passed. I tapped down, played an Ancient Tomb and a Thorn of Amethyst. He tapped down again and played a land. I tapped my Thorn and Wire, laid a Rishadan Port and cast Duplicant which went the distance. That play allowed me to win the tournament and my first piece of power, an Unlimited Mox Sapphire.

[rpf5029]

Some of my highlights:

1)  MILE RUN -- 1 MILE!  GO!!!!!!!!!!!

2)  Nothing gets you pumped for Vintage like Michael Jackson and Pokemon.

3)  Trolling A-1 for a year with a certain doll.

4)  Winning a Mox Ruby with Elves!

5)  Dual-Mulligan to 0 against Prospero at a random Blue Bell event in the scrub bracket.  I still lost that game.

6)  Having my Yawgmoth's Will countered by an opponent Twincasting it and casting a Force out of his yard.

7)  Pyroblasting a Daze.  (This is super embarrassing, but it makes a great story)

8)  State College --> Pen Argyl; Pen Argyl --> Long Island ---> Rochester; Rochester --> State College.  What a weekend! 

[Norm4eva]

He played Underground Sea, Mana Crypt, Tinker -> Blightsteel. I responded with Shop Tangle Wire. He tapped down and passed. I tapped down, played an Ancient Tomb and a Thorn of Amethyst. He tapped down again and played a land. I tapped my Thorn and Wire, laid a Rishadan Port and cast Duplicant which went the distance.

I like this story.