What was it like playing Magic back in the early days when broken as hell shit was the norm?
>>43883272
Hard.
Some times an extra turn did jack shit for you.
I couldn't say for the 90's, but I started playing in 2002 when Onslaught block was released, and that was a good time. Great limited format, good standard, though I was young and not very bright. Then Mirrodin came out and pretty much shat the bed.
The price of singles seemed to skyrocket, my silly cleric tribal was being blown out of the water, the block and type 1 banlists threw everything out of whack. When Kamigawa came out I quit because it wasn't fun anymore, and I was being blown out by no-banlist affinity all the damn time.
I've played magic on and off, and while I would never shell out the cash to really get into it (I basically just play casual modern), I really love the mystique behind the older version of the game. Now, it just seems like tryhard insanity, I'd imagine back when one mana could net you a three card draw (or your opponent, what the fuck) the game itself was more lighthearted.
Used to have a box full of (mostly black) revised cards, sold them off but I'm kicking myself a bit for it. I never really played with them, but it was nice to be able to have a piece of history.
>>43883272
From what I understand, it was harder to get single cards because nobody was trading online and the game wasn't as hugely popular as it is now, so stores would have less singles. Plus, for a while nobody knew what all the cards were in a set. You could have a blue control deck and not even know about Ancestral Recall or some shit.
So basically, nowadays you can easily search out and acquire the most powerful and synergistic cards for a deck (or even just netdeck), but the cards are less powerful on average. Back then, you had powerful cards but you didn't have 4x of them and you might be missing something that would be awesome if you knew it existed.
I guess there was a period of time after the game got popular online and before the cards started getting more play testing before release. I've heard Standard in that era was okay until something stupid like Jitte or Jace showed up and ruined it for months and months.
>>43883272
>>43883349
>>43885919
These. Also, most people weren't cut-throat yet or even had a valid concept of metagame and deck construction like we do now.
>lots people running 10 land, or 30 land
>singles, singles everywhere
>no concept of aggro
But I'm talking like Homelands old.
>>43883272
people were a lot worse at the game (including those making it), and the internet wasn't popular enough to make netdecking much of a thing
Magic didn't really kick off until Mirage.
What's really interesting is that I have an old Magic strategy book from around Tempest block, and card evaluation really hasn't changed much.
Low mana costs and the curve was still a big deal. Creatures without good immediate benefits or game winning potential got passed over. Card advantage was still king.
I thought a lot of deck analysis came later on in the game's life, but it looks like a lot of it had roots pretty early on.
Shivan Dragon was OP as fuck.
I've been playing Magic since 95. My first set was technically Ice Age, though I had a lot of stuff from Legends forward. I remember the good old days of $10 dual lands that no one wanted to buy because "I could just play an Island and a Mountain, and have two mana!" (yes, that was a real thought people had).
I played through every terrible Standard: the Black Summer, Combo Winter, Affinity Hell. I remember the first Ravnica, Urza block, Mirage, the original combo deck (Mike Long was a beautiful man), the German Juggernaut, why Time Spiral is legit the best time in MtG, and trading a Necropotence for a Shivan Dragon.
Ask me anything (I'm at work and I'm bored out of my gourd).
>>43888051
A necropotence for a shiva? Dam talking about playing with giants.
>>43888051
Time Spiral was when I first started to really get into Magic. What did you main at that time?
>>43888063
It was a different time. I was young, Necro wasn't really acknowledged as good just yet, and everyone *knew* Shivan Dragon was the beast to beat. I could have this strange triple skull enchantment with lots of words... or a big angry dragon. Easy choice is easy.
>>43888074
During Mirrodin-Kamigawa standard, I ran Big Red (during Affinity's era, since it was the only deck that stood a real chance, Arc Slogger was so good) and Tron Tooth and Nail afterwards (remember when Mike Flores said it was shit, then it won a PT? I was playing it that weekend at a local event, good times).
Once Mirrodin rotated out and Ravnica rotated in, I switched to Selesnya. Loxodon Hierarch and Watchwolf were such a fucking beating. A 3/3 with no downsides for WG? Scatter the Seeds was great, Selesnya Evangel was surprisingly good, and the Hierarch covered the team if necessary.
Ravnica-Time Spiral standard was Solar Flare all the way, with occasional breaks to play Pickles (the last true lock deck in Standard, in my opinion). Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir was unfair as shit, as was Mystical Teachings once he was on the table. What'd you play?
>>43886640
If ti's the same book I'm thinking about, it was a really good read.
>>43883272
like playing modern YuGiOh
>>43883358
What the fuck, are you me? I also started when ONS came out, I also had a tribal cleric and I also quit after Kamishit. This shit is weird anon.
It was hellafun OP, but finding cards and card lists/descriptions was real work unless you could snag a copy of Duelist magazine.
Oh, and you got killed by Juzám Djinn a lot.
InQuest
>>43889947
>MFW they said Necro was shit
>MFW they said Dream halls was shit
>MFW they said Oath of Druids was shit
>>43883272
If you really want to get a sense of what the early days of Magic were like, play the Microprose computer game (you'll probably need DOS Box to get it running, but I dunno).
http://www.abandonwaredos.com/abandonware-game.php?gid=MTk2Nw==
In fact, I recommend playing it even if you don't care to know what Ye Olde Magicke was like, because it's a genuinely fun game.
I started playing around late 1994 (when my local gaming shop still had copies of Antiquities and The Dark on the shelves) and gave up around 1997, I think.
When I first started, nobody really seemed to give a fuck about deck composition or how much individual cards could be re-sold for. We just played with what we had; at best you could expect to be facing a single colour deck with some grasp of how many lands were needed to get a good mix. It could well be that was more to do with the fact I was 15 and only playing against my friends than what the magic scene was actually like though.
A couple of years later, there were multiple magazines being published for CCG players, almost everyone had some for of internet access and there was a much more competitive atmosphere. Not so competitive that you couldn't win games with a 'fluffy' theme deck based on a creature type or artist fairly often though, so long as you were playing with people who were fairly casual.
I do seem to recall that blue decks had a considerable advantage for the kind of player who knew what they were doing and green was pretty brutal as well, with black and red being the whipping boys. Possibly that was just my prejudice as a mostly black/white player or maybe the mix of players in my local scene.
>>43888145
>Pickles
Mai boi.
I used to play Extended myself. Fondest memories of which were Eternal Slide. Oh god was that deck ever fun, especially when Akroma, Angel of Fury was in the same format with Astral Slide. I really wish they'd print Astral Slide and the better cycle of Cycling lands into Modern so I could use it until the fucking end of time.
>>43890628
I started going to playing events around that time too. I remember having the most fun during Time Spiral's Extended. From Invasion to Time Spiral, those were good times... ack, the feels.
>>43883272
So, the thing you have to realize is that >>43885919 was the intent. Richard KNEW that Ancestral Recall and Time Walk were busted. Stupid good. But he figured that most people would buy a starter deck and a few boosters, so maybe in an entire playgroup there'd be one piece of power. And it would move around the group because of ante.
That's part of why rarity and card number weren't marked on cards until Exodus--the idea was that you wouldn't know which of your cards were rarer, nor would you know how many cards you hadn't seen. In fact, they put an Island on the rare sheet in Alpha just to throw people off in trying to map out the set.
Richard didn't anticipate boxes selling out day one as people spent more and more on the game. He never dreamed that people would fight tooth and nail to get copies of cards from outside their playgroups. While he did say, tongue in cheek, that it would be "a good problem to have" if they sold out their stock too quickly or people bought up enough to make backbreakingly powerful decks, he didn't seriously think those things would happen.
That said, before the internet proper, we had usenets...and, if you think /tg/ is bad at Magic, hoo boy. We've at least had over two decades of watching people be good at Magic, and have absorbed some of the basics. But you had things like Maro's father trading him a Mox Emerald for a Fungusaur, and both parties KNOWING that his father was getting the better end of the deal. After all, Fungusaur is great, and Mox Emerald...well, it's basically just a Forest that can be hit with artifact destruction, right? Pretty bad card, really.
So, I'd say that the biggest hallmark of the "early days" wasn't that broken shit was the norm, so much as it was that people had no clue what the fuck they were doing.
>>43890628
I played the Slide deck in standard. Remember Lightning Rift+Astral Slide decks? Cycle a Slice and Dice, pay a little extra, draw a card, shoot some stuff, flicker a guy for value, GG, do it again next turn. Eternal Slide was a beating too, since you just couldn't stop Eternal Dragon. People today don't respect Eternal Dragon anymore, he was such a beating. And that original art? Mm-hmm.
>>43890715
TS Extended was a great era. I made an amusing Extended deck around Scion of the Ur-Dragon, actually. It used 1 of several of the Invasion and TS Primordial Dragons for their on-hit effects (Crosis, Rith, Teneb to get them into play). It was a great time to play Magic. That deck was a lot of fun actually. It wasn't good, but it was really fun.
Or playing Madness in Extended. Dr. Teeth, I miss you so much. No one remembers Psychatog's reign of terror anymore.
>>43888051
>(Mike Long was a beautiful man)
Fucking this. He deserves that slot in the hall of fame.
>>43891579
You're damn right he does. He invented fucking combo, by the gods, he deserves to join the Hall of Fame more than most players, who are merely good at Magic and haven't had the impact he had.
>>43892020
>He invented fucking combo
and halo invented FPS
and asscreed invented sitting down
and channel-fireball was never a thing
>>43892078
Not simple synergy, but true "I can't win doing anything else" mechanical multi-part combo. ProsBloom. While Channel-Fireball existed since the early days, obviously, it is in a different category of interactive deckbuilding than ProsBloom and its descendants. If you think disagree, play both decks and tell me they're the same. Spoiler: they aren't.
It was alot like this.
"hey want to watch me play you a game of magic?"
>>43890813
Speaking of Richard Garfield's original intent, how many people here remember that the original deck size was 40, not 60? Look at any of the rule booklets from Alpha to at least 4th Edition (I don't remember precisely when it was changed), and there's not even a mention of the 60 card limit - it says, plain as day, "to play, you need a deck with at least 40 cards".
>>43888051
>>43888145
>trading a Necropotence for a Shivan Dragon
It was a Crimson Hellkite for me. I was so dumb.
>>43890813
>In fact, they put an Island on the rare sheet in Alpha just to throw people off in trying to map out the set.
you heard it here first, islands are so powerful they were printed at rare in alpha
>>43890127
This OP, came here to recommend the micropose game, but saw somebody has already done so.
Its really a fun game, that mixes magic with rpg elements/territory control.
Evil wizards are trying to take over shandalaar, you walk around shandalaar, complete quests and fight of the evil wizards trying to conquer towns by playing magic for ante.
>>43885919
Yup
>>43883358
I started playing during odyssey and ended in mirrodin, and cleric decks were shit. Fun, but shit.
