Question for the early MTG players: what was your local game scene like during the first few years of MTG?
I started playing in 1994 during revised. Back then my only opponents were some friends from school who I introduced the game to, and a kid who lived across the street who introduced the game to me. My LGS sold cards (starter decks, booster packs, and singles) but organized zero events. Were there actually LGS back then that ran FNM type events or tournaments? Did draft even exist as a format anywhere?
Same as you, I started in the summer of '94 with Revised. At that time, the only store in my city that sold Magic only did that. They didn't organize any competitive play. The only person whom I had to play against was the guy who taught me to play. I remember being so excited the following April when the local university game club started to advertise their first MTG tournament. There were 78 players that showed up! I couldn't believe that there were that many people who played! I made a lot of contacts that day, but it would still be another two years before a second shop opened locally and started to run weekly type 2 tourneys.
I also started in 1994. Growing up in Aberdeen, SD, we had exactly one store that sold Magic cards (Daddy K's - no longer there). The owner would organize events by putting up a poster that said "Magic Tournament this Saturday at 1pm!" and then when people showed up, he would ask what format everyone wanted to play (Type I or Type II). Then, we'd play. Prize support sucked, but it was fun. I think I won an Old Man of the Sea once.
No one drafted or played sealed. Didn't even occur to us. The vast majority of games were played at home with my brothers and friends.
I started playing local tournaments early in 1994 and did so through about 1997.
In 1994, none of the local shops hosted such things. One had a game room but it was used for RPGs or wargames. Magic was just played there on the side or between rounds. Events were usually held in pizza places back rooms and almost exclusively attended by college students. Nothing was sanctioned. I live in a major city, so there was a relatively large community.
Someone would put up a booster box or a handful of rare cards as prizes. Admission would be $5-10 to cover the price of the prizes. If you had a mox you wanted to unload, this was the preferred way. They were worth $50ish, but you could get 20 people paying $5 apiece to compete for one with a few boosters or something for second and third place. The rules and structure were decided by the donor, including arbitrary banned lists, and ante rules. Multiplayer games and single elimination ladders were the most common. You would see a lot of really random decks. In those days there were no official spoilers so sometimes you would see cards you'd never heard of too. At some early events I attended, if someone had a reputation as a net-decker, they would be kicked out. The same for anyone using card sleeves. This was the time in which I played the most competitively and I won half of my collection, including the sets I had missed buying.
Around the release of Ice Age, everyone started playing by the same rules. Events became either Type 1 or Type 2. Ante and multiplayer disappeared from competitive. Net-decking was still socially unacceptable but would only get you hated on instead of kicked and half of the people, including pretty much all of the winners were getting their deck lists from magazines, BBS's, or friends with access to these. Sealed deck became a thing because Ice Age was self-complete but it wasn't super popular.
Around Mirage, everything got even more formalized. A lot of events moved back into shops. The competitive crowd got younger as older players dropped out and were replaced by high-schoolers. I remember the tipping point when they got sick of the "kids" and their new janky cards. A lot of them cashed out. One guy I knew traded his deck for his first car, a Camaro.
Drafting became more of a thing with Tempest, but it still wasn't very popular. This was about when I completely stopped playing competitively. I had a lot of friends who did though. Arena drew in a lot of people and started the trend of places doing sanctioned tournaments. Sleeves were officially disallowed at sanctioned events at this time. Was there anything else you wanted to know specifically about?
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The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
I found Magic in 1994. In the beginning I was more of a collector then player. There was one store locally that sold packs/boxes. They had a room in back where people played. There was really no rules to constructed at the time. The players or house made the rules. By revised I started playing more but the main format was draft. A few players played a player made up format. Then I moved to another area and there were a few LGS all competing for a small player base. Played a lot of LGS made up formats. Mainly what has been mentioned (Ante and multiplayer). I personally played a lot of what was called cut throat limited. You got your cards and built a deck. If you won you got the persons cards you beat and could make a new deck. So the winner ended up with all the cards. Magic was a much cheap hobby back then. Then Wotc created formats and things changed. Different LGS tried different 'gimmicks' to draw larger crowds for different events. One LGS (that is no longer in business) use to charge $3 a head for FNM and would match the monies and pay out cash for top 3 for FNM. This is around Ice Age I think. The more popular Magic got, the more Wotc got involved with the LGS, the less of the variance there was when going to different areas.
How did you guys find booster boxes in 1994? I thought the game was very hard to find for the first four expansions.
I started in '99, so I have no memories of playing Magic in '93 or '94 other than seeing the game in my local comic book store and being too young for it.
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These days, some wizards are finding they have a little too much deck left at the end of their $$$.
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
In -94 it used to be almost impossible to find boosters before the last wave of Revised stayed on shelves for few weeks. Uusally a shipment of Legends was gone by the next day. I never saw any Arabian or Antiquities on sale, as I only visited one comic shop and didn't have a car so I could get to stores further away. The worst part was that there weren't almost any starters, so basic lands were really hard to get. People played without sleeves at school, as there were only penny sleeves availlable. New cards were scraped against concrete for a while, so the cards would not be marked.
But this was in Orange County, CA. When I got back to Finland, 4th ed was out and Ice Age was arriving. People played constructed. Draft didn't arrive until -96 to my corner of the planet. My first tournament was late 1995, 4th edition and Ice Age sealed tournament, not sanctioned and players were allowed to choose any combination of starter and 2 boosters from 4th and IA. Winner got a Ali from Cairo and second got Sandals of Abdallah and Island of Wak-Wak. We got over 50 players, some driving from few hours away.
Friends who lived in Finland 94-95 period, when I was away, told horror stories about how hard Unlimited and the old expansions were to find. Whole Finland got one box of Arabian Nights from the supplier. It was bought by two players, who happened to be in the store when it was bought in. We had some availlability issues. Revised boosters were slightly easier to get, but lot of bookstores had boosters availlable to handle, so players could scout the first uncommon. Sol Rings, Hippies and Demonic Tutors were bought out fast, but Iron Stars and Wall of Ices were left for the unlucky players who didn't know to check the packs.
We played in a cramped, damp basement under the local comic/game store - buying packs and singles up above, then trading like fiends down below. Tourneys there were necessarily small, with prizes being store credit.
The owner of the store organized a LARGE sealed deck tourney with an Alpha Mox Pearl as the prize. It filled the ballroom of a local large hotel. As players were eliminated, they were allowed to trade cards one-for-one with those still in, leading to some focused decks in the endgame. I recall it so well because my brother won with a BR deck: early Dark Rituals into Hypnotic Specters backed by Lightning Bolts makes for fast victories.
In-game trading like that would never fly today - cheating is to easy. It probably happened then, too.
Winning dual lands in ante duels was fun, though.
Cheers!
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If in the area, check out Gamers N Geeks and Mini War Games in Mobile, Alabama and Underhill's Games in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
It's cool to see so many people who started in 1994. I started at that time as well. When I moved to Northern California from Southern California after my 1st year in college, I lived with my mom and younger brother for a while. He played Magic and seeing him play with his friends all the time got me into the game. I also remember $15 Shivan Dragon, $6 Force of Nature, and $2.50 dual lands. There were a few stores that I knew of. One had boxes, but I don't remember the box of Legends, Antiquities, or Arabian Nights as being full. The packs cost more for those, so we usually just bought Revised. I think I bought 1 Legends pack and 1 Arabian Nights pack ever because at $8-10, I could have just gotten 3 Revised packs.
Our tournament scene consisted of a store called Castle Games. They actually had 30-60 people FNMs, although more than half of the people actually didn't play in them. They just played for fun while the tournament took place. I personally didn't enter a tournament for a few years. It was intimidating playing against players who had all of the Moxes, Black Lotus, and moved these level cards all the time. (buying more, selling some, etc.) It usually was the same players top 8ing. My friend's friend won 1st place most of the time at Castle Games. The Castle Games' owner actually was a former Dungeons and Dragons player who made a lot of money on Magic and opened his own shop. He was a well respected guy around the MTG community and was known for having a thousand Onulet around the ceiling of the shop. The shop was actually pretty large and I have rarely seen another store as big as that, even to this day.
The first tournament that I played in was a 2 vs. 2 (half of the tournaments were this). My brother and I actually got paired against a fairly casual player and his girlfriend. My first turn went like this. Black Lotus, land, double Black Vise on him, Lightning Bolt him. The two opponents took their turns, which were hardly anything. My brother did more damage to him and I did more damage to him with Lightning Bolts and he never got to play his 2nd land, leaving my brother and I vs. his girlfriend. I felt SO dirty doing this, but it was the competitive scene back then. I think we lost the next round to better players and it was single elimination, but I actually felt badly for that first round.
My brother and I decided early on to get all of the dual lands. We wanted to be able to play every color and be able to bluff that we were playing certain colors or cards. There was no downside to doing this at the time. We were very happy when duals spiked from $2.50 to $5, which was an amazing spike for the times (probably akin to a $10 card spiking to $100 nowadays). While my brother was fine with having a full set of duals, I decided to go pimp. Pimping back then was getting every card in their black border counterpart. I believe at one time, I was 70% of the full Beta play set of duals, although admittedly some were Alpha (you took what you could find; there was no Ebay). This brings me to one of my all time regrets of selling my cards in 1996. I also had an Unlimited Black Lotus that I probably could have graded today to be nearly PSA8-9. It was completely mint and it got a lot of looks at the time, being so damn mint, centered, and clean.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
How did you guys find booster boxes in 1994? I thought the game was very hard to find for the first four expansions.
I started in '99, so I have no memories of playing Magic in '93 or '94 other than seeing the game in my local comic book store and being too young for it.
I didn't start until the end of 1994. By that time, Revised boosters and starters were fairly easy to find. I remember seeing them at the checkout counter at the bookstore in the mall (B Dalton, now out of business). Fallen Empires was the current expansion and boosters were also easy to find, although I think that was the most overprinted set in MTG history. By the time I started playing, I never saw boosters of any of the previous expansions (Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, The Dark) for sale anywhere. Considering the last 3 of those were all released in 1994, the quantities must have been extremely limited relative to demand given that they were completely gone by the end of the year. I do remember seeing them for sale in the classifieds section of Scrye magazine, but at a very high markup for the time.
I was taught to play MTG in the summer of '94. I was living in the San Juan Islands(a little island chain between Washington and Canada in the Puget Sound). We were buying our cards from a sports card/comic book shop. I can remember him trying to sell me Arabian Night's boosters for $20, and was like "hell no" all I had was $20 and I was going to maximize my purchasing power. Got a bunch of The Dark for $2.50 a pack. There was no local scene other than about four of us playing bad kitchen table.
That fall I moved to Seattle and taught my D&D buddy the game. Since we missed the earlier sets we thought we'd be clever and buy a bunch of the latest release, Fallen Empires. We discovered this amazing place that had an awesome scene, a place called Cafe Paradiso. It was a two story coffee shop with the upstairs being the smoking section. There was, at the time, always some people throwing down there, day or night. There was this regular crew of @ 10 to 12 guys that played there plus groups of semi-regulars from around the city. We always played these large multiplayer games(somehow they never went more than @ an hour). Cafe Paradiso was open until 2:00am weekdays and 4:00am weekends, and we'd close the place out almost daily. At its peak you could go upstairs and find three tables of 6 to 8 player games with others dueling on the side. Some nights we'd close out the "Diso", then head to a 24hr cafe, play there until after breakfast only to head back to the "Diso" to keep going.
At that time in Seattle the MTG scene was divided into two groups, those who had power cards and played in tournaments, and the rest of us. Those with the old, fancy, and exotic cards that played the tournament scene usually were found in the University district, while the rest of us stayed in Capitol Hill. Then WOTC opened up the game center in the U. district. Most of my crowd never went in for the tournament thing but we'd still go to the game center to play Magic, D&D, or video games. Or, if you can actually believe it, to pick up girls. While the vast majority of folks at the game center were guys there was always this presence of gamer, nerd girls. Since most of the guys there were REALLY dorky, it was fairly easy for a suave dude to pick up those girls.
I played in my first draft when Mirage was released, did horrible. After that stayed away from drafts until @ 2006.
The Magic scene in Seattle in the '90's was so much awesome fun. There was something for everyone. Most of the games were to be found in coffee shops as opposed to game shops, and you'd find people from all over the city at the different venues, so you'd eventually get to know everyone. One day some "pros" came into one of the few card shops in my neighborhood. When they sat down to play with us one of them commented "I've forgotten how to play Magic for fun", to which I replied "that's kinda sad".
Oh and by the way, Pauper wasn't created to level the playing field, Pauper was created so that you could sit down across from some guy with all the power nine and stomp him into the ground with your $5 deck.
Started in Fall 94, and was only 11 so completely casual at the time. Got introduced to the game at school then played for a couple of years at home before venturing into the tourney scene (basically once I hit high school I finally had the cards/guts to step up and play in tourneys).
When I first started, in 94, the local tourney scene was actually relatively strong, regularly getting 20-30 players once a week. I didn't play in them but did watch and hang out at them some. I don't recall any drafts being played at that point, just constructed (and big emperor games for those who were out of the tourney). The comic store selling the cards at the time had virtually zero play space, so the tourneys were held next door at a sandwich shop, or a few more doors down at a bar. (Crazy to think back now and realize that all of those unsleeved duals/power/etc were getting shuffled and played across those unmatted sticky tables. So much different than it is now.)
I started at the tail-end of Unlimited/Beginning of revised. My play was solely with friends from school. We had three shops in town that sold MTG; One comic shop that just sold packs, a Hobby Town USA that also just sold packs of the most recent set, and a collectibles shop that actually had singles along with expansion sets. None of them organized events. You had to either go down to Portland, OR (about 40 minute drive) or up to Seattle (2 hours) for any kind of organized scene. Back then you just played with the cards you opened or traded for. There was no online market.
How did you guys find booster boxes in 1994? I thought the game was very hard to find for the first four expansions.
I started in '99, so I have no memories of playing Magic in '93 or '94 other than seeing the game in my local comic book store and being too young for it.
I didn't start until the end of 1994. By that time, Revised boosters and starters were fairly easy to find. I remember seeing them at the checkout counter at the bookstore in the mall (B Dalton, now out of business). Fallen Empires was the current expansion and boosters were also easy to find, although I think that was the most overprinted set in MTG history. By the time I started playing, I never saw boosters of any of the previous expansions (Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, The Dark) for sale anywhere. Considering the last 3 of those were all released in 1994, the quantities must have been extremely limited relative to demand given that they were completely gone by the end of the year. I do remember seeing them for sale in the classifieds section of Scrye magazine, but at a very high markup for the time.
Yea. I remember HobbyTown USA selling Fallen Empires for $1/pack because they couldn't get rid of it. The expansions were still pretty easy to find when I first started but they were at least twice as expensive as a 'normal' pack so I never bought them. The Dark/Fallen Empires/Ice Age were the the only early expansions I really bought into. I remember when I first started buying the core sets. The shop had Revised packs for $2.25 and Unlimited for $3.99. They LOOKED identical from the outside and with my budget I saw no good reason to spend the extra cash on Unlimited. To be fair, back then, if I would have opened a Mox or Black Lotus I would have been disappointing and probably traded it away quickly, especially for a mighty Shivan Dragon/Nightmare/Rock Hydra/Serra Angel. Why would I want some stupid artifact that produces mana anyway?!?! That's what land is for
Like many of you, I started playing during Revised as well. I don't think I started to attend any actual tournaments till 1996 though. Like many of you, I played with my friends who introduced me to the game. Usually in high school during lunch or after school.
When I did go to tournaments, it was at a local comic book/used music store. There weren't any tables and we played on that area above CD racks (i.e. not a ton of space) and played standing up. It was not the cleanest place, but to be able to play Extended and Type 1.5 every week for a $5 buy-in was nice. I'd usually do alright and at least get my money back and then some, which I'd use to buy singles. It was a nice arrangement to help me keep up with the singles I needed while on a tight budget.
Yea. I remember HobbyTown USA selling Fallen Empires for $1/pack because they couldn't get rid of it. The expansions were still pretty easy to find when I first started but they were at least twice as expensive as a 'normal' pack so I never bought them. The Dark/Fallen Empires/Ice Age were the the only early expansions I really bought into. I remember when I first started buying the core sets. The shop had Revised packs for $2.25 and Unlimited for $3.99. They LOOKED identical from the outside and with my budget I saw no good reason to spend the extra cash on Unlimited. To be fair, back then, if I would have opened a Mox or Black Lotus I would have been disappointing and probably traded it away quickly, especially for a mighty Shivan Dragon/Nightmare/Rock Hydra/Serra Angel. Why would I want some stupid artifact that produces mana anyway?!?! That's what land is for
I can really relate to this. First with Fallen Empires. They were $1 at all the stores and this was when you could still buy packs of Arabian Nights ($10) and Legends ($5). I remember thinking, why buy one pack of those when I can get 5 or 10 packs of this other set?!
Similarly, I remember being upset whenever I opened a Dual Land in my Revised packs thinking "I already have land. This is stupid." However, I'm really glad I kept all my duals now. Let me transition into Legacy a lot easier when I returned to the game after a 15 year hiatus.
Like many of you, I started playing during Revised as well.
You just reminded me of a part of my story I should have included. I actually started playing with Unlimited. But everyone warned me to not buy my own cards until the new Revised Edition came out. It would have the new rulebook with much clarified rules and be better balanced. I didn't want to be playing with outdated rules and cards. So I played with friends' decks and waited and waited and then bought my own cards the first day that Revised was available in my local shop.
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The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
Universities where the hotbed for MTG and a host of related arcana for the longest time. That is until this very recent phenomena of nerd being cool qand socially accepted.
Like many of you, I started playing during Revised as well.
You just reminded me of a part of my story I should have included. I actually started playing with Unlimited. But everyone warned me to not buy my own cards until the new Revised Edition came out. It would have the new rulebook with much clarified rules and be better balanced. I didn't want to be playing with outdated rules and cards. So I played with friends' decks and waited and waited and then bought my own cards the first day that Revised was available in my local shop.
Oh it gets worse for me. My friends started playing during Beta and I used to make fun of them. Now some of them still have (damaged) power and I'm sitting here with "only" dual lands. Then again, out of all of us, I'm the only one who still plays.
I remember trades of Shivan Dragon + basic lands for a bunch of dual lands, at the time it felt completly fair, everyone got what they wanted.
Took quite some time till some lists of card values where available, and even then they where mostly out-dated.
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Trading was so much more fun back in the days ... nostalgy overkill ...
I remember as a kid wanting nothing more than Shivan Dragon, Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire, and Royal Assassin and after opening dual after dual, being upset.
A part of me wonders if the internet and price guides took a lot of "fun" out of the trading side. I remember going to my first prerelease (Exodus) and not knowing a single card in the entire set and after opening my packs, reading every single card one-by-one and being excited. That never happens anymore.
I remember as a kid wanting nothing more than Shivan Dragon, Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire, and Royal Assassin and after opening dual after dual, being upset.
When Revised became hard to find late in the summer of 1994, I remember finding a few packs in a B Daltons for $5 apiece. I bought two and was so disappointed that they both had dual lands. I already had playsets of all 10. The only saving grace was that I also got a Hypnotic Specter. Every single player I knew already had a playset for every color combination they played which made them worthless as trade fodder even. Nobody would have ever guessed that they would go away and later become valuable.
What's funny is the stated reason that WotC removed duals in the first place.
"Multilands were removed because they were too good. They were rare cards that you had to have in order to play competitively, even in friendly play, and this is bad. Rare cards should be funky, and considered expendable, not cards you need in order to survive."
Tom Wylie - 4 May 1995
Oh how the times have changed...
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The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
A part of me wonders if the internet and price guides took a lot of "fun" out of the trading side. I remember going to my first prerelease (Exodus) and not knowing a single card in the entire set and after opening my packs, reading every single card one-by-one and being excited. That never happens anymore.
I can definitely relate to this. I remember the anticipation I and the two friends I played with felt when Ice Age was nearing release, which we learned about by talking to people at our LGS. When it was finally available, we went to our LGS to buy packs and spent the next few hours just studying the cards. Each new pack we opened was a discovery process to see what cards were in the set. Eventually the entire list was released along with card descriptions, but you had to buy a magazine or book to access that information. Even those didn't include the artwork, so there was still something to surprise you if you bought packs. If you didn't want to see any spoilers, it was pretty easy to avoid them.
Although it is still technically possible to avoid spoiler lists today and retain that element of surprise when a new set is released, it is much more difficult if you spend any amount of time on discussion boards such as this one. Even hanging out at your LGS will expose you to spoilers.
Obviously WotC couldn't have anticipated the growth of the internet and mobile devices way back in 1993, and they had the right idea in keeping card lists and rarities as secret as possible at that time. As much as I like technological progress, I do think a very enjoyable aspect of the game was lost due to the proliferation of the internet.
A part of me wonders if the internet and price guides took a lot of "fun" out of the trading side. I remember going to my first prerelease (Exodus) and not knowing a single card in the entire set and after opening my packs, reading every single card one-by-one and being excited. That never happens anymore.
I can definitely relate to this. I remember the anticipation I and the two friends I played with felt when Ice Age was nearing release, which we learned about by talking to people at our LGS. When it was finally available, we went to our LGS to buy packs and spent the next few hours just studying the cards. Each new pack we opened was a discovery process to see what cards were in the set. Eventually the entire list was released along with card descriptions, but you had to buy a magazine or book to access that information. Even those didn't include the artwork, so there was still something to surprise you if you bought packs. If you didn't want to see any spoilers, it was pretty easy to avoid them.
Although it is still technically possible to avoid spoiler lists today and retain that element of surprise when a new set is released, it is much more difficult if you spend any amount of time on discussion boards such as this one. Even hanging out at your LGS will expose you to spoilers.
Obviously WotC couldn't have anticipated the growth of the internet and mobile devices way back in 1993, and they had the right idea in keeping card lists and rarities as secret as possible at that time. As much as I like technological progress, I do think a very enjoyable aspect of the game was lost due to the proliferation of the internet.
Yeah, I think Internet took a little of that away from the game. But now it's easier to meet new people and places to play, and prices are easier to know too.
I lived in Spain when I started with Magic, and I did it a few months after 4th Edition had been released in Spanish. Homelands was something new too. I was introduced to the game by my cousins, after they decided to buy a starter deck in a comic shop. We bought more boosters little by little, of both 4th and Homelands. When the first print of Spanish 4th was finished, and so was the black bordered cards, we were very disappointed and almost swore never to buy those ugly white bordered cards. Then we discovered a couple of other stores that sold Magic, and saw Chronicles there. The cards were ugly (white border) and in English, so we said we would only play in Spanish. That promise lasted only for a few days, as we started buying Chronicles too. In the very beginning, as others told, we too loved Lord of the Pit, Hypnotic Specter and even Baron Sengir and Autumn Willow more than anything. Stasis was pure evil and Black Vise, the biggest threat out there. And then Ice Age was released in Spanish too, and we met many new players and...
When we discovered more about Magic, Revised could still be found in some stores, although at a higher booster price (maybe something like 15 USD each). I remember someone selling a few Arabian boosters at 50-60 USD each. Duals were about 6-8 USD each, and Black Lotus around 220. Ah, the old times! I really regret selling my 40 duals at that price, knowing the prices today.
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Before the glory of Yawgmoth, yes, even this makes sense.
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I started playing in 1994 during revised. Back then my only opponents were some friends from school who I introduced the game to, and a kid who lived across the street who introduced the game to me. My LGS sold cards (starter decks, booster packs, and singles) but organized zero events. Were there actually LGS back then that ran FNM type events or tournaments? Did draft even exist as a format anywhere?
No one drafted or played sealed. Didn't even occur to us. The vast majority of games were played at home with my brothers and friends.
In 1994, none of the local shops hosted such things. One had a game room but it was used for RPGs or wargames. Magic was just played there on the side or between rounds. Events were usually held in pizza places back rooms and almost exclusively attended by college students. Nothing was sanctioned. I live in a major city, so there was a relatively large community.
Someone would put up a booster box or a handful of rare cards as prizes. Admission would be $5-10 to cover the price of the prizes. If you had a mox you wanted to unload, this was the preferred way. They were worth $50ish, but you could get 20 people paying $5 apiece to compete for one with a few boosters or something for second and third place. The rules and structure were decided by the donor, including arbitrary banned lists, and ante rules. Multiplayer games and single elimination ladders were the most common. You would see a lot of really random decks. In those days there were no official spoilers so sometimes you would see cards you'd never heard of too. At some early events I attended, if someone had a reputation as a net-decker, they would be kicked out. The same for anyone using card sleeves. This was the time in which I played the most competitively and I won half of my collection, including the sets I had missed buying.
Around the release of Ice Age, everyone started playing by the same rules. Events became either Type 1 or Type 2. Ante and multiplayer disappeared from competitive. Net-decking was still socially unacceptable but would only get you hated on instead of kicked and half of the people, including pretty much all of the winners were getting their deck lists from magazines, BBS's, or friends with access to these. Sealed deck became a thing because Ice Age was self-complete but it wasn't super popular.
Around Mirage, everything got even more formalized. A lot of events moved back into shops. The competitive crowd got younger as older players dropped out and were replaced by high-schoolers. I remember the tipping point when they got sick of the "kids" and their new janky cards. A lot of them cashed out. One guy I knew traded his deck for his first car, a Camaro.
Drafting became more of a thing with Tempest, but it still wasn't very popular. This was about when I completely stopped playing competitively. I had a lot of friends who did though. Arena drew in a lot of people and started the trend of places doing sanctioned tournaments. Sleeves were officially disallowed at sanctioned events at this time. Was there anything else you wanted to know specifically about?
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
I started in '99, so I have no memories of playing Magic in '93 or '94 other than seeing the game in my local comic book store and being too young for it.
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
But this was in Orange County, CA. When I got back to Finland, 4th ed was out and Ice Age was arriving. People played constructed. Draft didn't arrive until -96 to my corner of the planet. My first tournament was late 1995, 4th edition and Ice Age sealed tournament, not sanctioned and players were allowed to choose any combination of starter and 2 boosters from 4th and IA. Winner got a Ali from Cairo and second got Sandals of Abdallah and Island of Wak-Wak. We got over 50 players, some driving from few hours away.
Friends who lived in Finland 94-95 period, when I was away, told horror stories about how hard Unlimited and the old expansions were to find. Whole Finland got one box of Arabian Nights from the supplier. It was bought by two players, who happened to be in the store when it was bought in. We had some availlability issues. Revised boosters were slightly easier to get, but lot of bookstores had boosters availlable to handle, so players could scout the first uncommon. Sol Rings, Hippies and Demonic Tutors were bought out fast, but Iron Stars and Wall of Ices were left for the unlucky players who didn't know to check the packs.
Set to default
Prices were wacky. $1-2 duals, $6 serpent generator and $4 blue mana battery, $12 Elder Dragons and Lord of the Pit.
Arabian Nights and Legends packs for sale, although even back then the transluscent packs were a thing so they never took off.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
The owner of the store organized a LARGE sealed deck tourney with an Alpha Mox Pearl as the prize. It filled the ballroom of a local large hotel. As players were eliminated, they were allowed to trade cards one-for-one with those still in, leading to some focused decks in the endgame. I recall it so well because my brother won with a BR deck: early Dark Rituals into Hypnotic Specters backed by Lightning Bolts makes for fast victories.
In-game trading like that would never fly today - cheating is to easy. It probably happened then, too.
Winning dual lands in ante duels was fun, though.
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
Our tournament scene consisted of a store called Castle Games. They actually had 30-60 people FNMs, although more than half of the people actually didn't play in them. They just played for fun while the tournament took place. I personally didn't enter a tournament for a few years. It was intimidating playing against players who had all of the Moxes, Black Lotus, and moved these level cards all the time. (buying more, selling some, etc.) It usually was the same players top 8ing. My friend's friend won 1st place most of the time at Castle Games. The Castle Games' owner actually was a former Dungeons and Dragons player who made a lot of money on Magic and opened his own shop. He was a well respected guy around the MTG community and was known for having a thousand Onulet around the ceiling of the shop. The shop was actually pretty large and I have rarely seen another store as big as that, even to this day.
The first tournament that I played in was a 2 vs. 2 (half of the tournaments were this). My brother and I actually got paired against a fairly casual player and his girlfriend. My first turn went like this. Black Lotus, land, double Black Vise on him, Lightning Bolt him. The two opponents took their turns, which were hardly anything. My brother did more damage to him and I did more damage to him with Lightning Bolts and he never got to play his 2nd land, leaving my brother and I vs. his girlfriend. I felt SO dirty doing this, but it was the competitive scene back then. I think we lost the next round to better players and it was single elimination, but I actually felt badly for that first round.
My brother and I decided early on to get all of the dual lands. We wanted to be able to play every color and be able to bluff that we were playing certain colors or cards. There was no downside to doing this at the time. We were very happy when duals spiked from $2.50 to $5, which was an amazing spike for the times (probably akin to a $10 card spiking to $100 nowadays). While my brother was fine with having a full set of duals, I decided to go pimp. Pimping back then was getting every card in their black border counterpart. I believe at one time, I was 70% of the full Beta play set of duals, although admittedly some were Alpha (you took what you could find; there was no Ebay). This brings me to one of my all time regrets of selling my cards in 1996. I also had an Unlimited Black Lotus that I probably could have graded today to be nearly PSA8-9. It was completely mint and it got a lot of looks at the time, being so damn mint, centered, and clean.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I didn't start until the end of 1994. By that time, Revised boosters and starters were fairly easy to find. I remember seeing them at the checkout counter at the bookstore in the mall (B Dalton, now out of business). Fallen Empires was the current expansion and boosters were also easy to find, although I think that was the most overprinted set in MTG history. By the time I started playing, I never saw boosters of any of the previous expansions (Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, The Dark) for sale anywhere. Considering the last 3 of those were all released in 1994, the quantities must have been extremely limited relative to demand given that they were completely gone by the end of the year. I do remember seeing them for sale in the classifieds section of Scrye magazine, but at a very high markup for the time.
That fall I moved to Seattle and taught my D&D buddy the game. Since we missed the earlier sets we thought we'd be clever and buy a bunch of the latest release, Fallen Empires. We discovered this amazing place that had an awesome scene, a place called Cafe Paradiso. It was a two story coffee shop with the upstairs being the smoking section. There was, at the time, always some people throwing down there, day or night. There was this regular crew of @ 10 to 12 guys that played there plus groups of semi-regulars from around the city. We always played these large multiplayer games(somehow they never went more than @ an hour). Cafe Paradiso was open until 2:00am weekdays and 4:00am weekends, and we'd close the place out almost daily. At its peak you could go upstairs and find three tables of 6 to 8 player games with others dueling on the side. Some nights we'd close out the "Diso", then head to a 24hr cafe, play there until after breakfast only to head back to the "Diso" to keep going.
At that time in Seattle the MTG scene was divided into two groups, those who had power cards and played in tournaments, and the rest of us. Those with the old, fancy, and exotic cards that played the tournament scene usually were found in the University district, while the rest of us stayed in Capitol Hill. Then WOTC opened up the game center in the U. district. Most of my crowd never went in for the tournament thing but we'd still go to the game center to play Magic, D&D, or video games. Or, if you can actually believe it, to pick up girls. While the vast majority of folks at the game center were guys there was always this presence of gamer, nerd girls. Since most of the guys there were REALLY dorky, it was fairly easy for a suave dude to pick up those girls.
I played in my first draft when Mirage was released, did horrible. After that stayed away from drafts until @ 2006.
The Magic scene in Seattle in the '90's was so much awesome fun. There was something for everyone. Most of the games were to be found in coffee shops as opposed to game shops, and you'd find people from all over the city at the different venues, so you'd eventually get to know everyone. One day some "pros" came into one of the few card shops in my neighborhood. When they sat down to play with us one of them commented "I've forgotten how to play Magic for fun", to which I replied "that's kinda sad".
Oh and by the way, Pauper wasn't created to level the playing field, Pauper was created so that you could sit down across from some guy with all the power nine and stomp him into the ground with your $5 deck.
When I first started, in 94, the local tourney scene was actually relatively strong, regularly getting 20-30 players once a week. I didn't play in them but did watch and hang out at them some. I don't recall any drafts being played at that point, just constructed (and big emperor games for those who were out of the tourney). The comic store selling the cards at the time had virtually zero play space, so the tourneys were held next door at a sandwich shop, or a few more doors down at a bar. (Crazy to think back now and realize that all of those unsleeved duals/power/etc were getting shuffled and played across those unmatted sticky tables. So much different than it is now.)
Yea. I remember HobbyTown USA selling Fallen Empires for $1/pack because they couldn't get rid of it. The expansions were still pretty easy to find when I first started but they were at least twice as expensive as a 'normal' pack so I never bought them. The Dark/Fallen Empires/Ice Age were the the only early expansions I really bought into. I remember when I first started buying the core sets. The shop had Revised packs for $2.25 and Unlimited for $3.99. They LOOKED identical from the outside and with my budget I saw no good reason to spend the extra cash on Unlimited. To be fair, back then, if I would have opened a Mox or Black Lotus I would have been disappointing and probably traded it away quickly, especially for a mighty Shivan Dragon/Nightmare/Rock Hydra/Serra Angel. Why would I want some stupid artifact that produces mana anyway?!?! That's what land is for
When I did go to tournaments, it was at a local comic book/used music store. There weren't any tables and we played on that area above CD racks (i.e. not a ton of space) and played standing up. It was not the cleanest place, but to be able to play Extended and Type 1.5 every week for a $5 buy-in was nice. I'd usually do alright and at least get my money back and then some, which I'd use to buy singles. It was a nice arrangement to help me keep up with the singles I needed while on a tight budget.
My Trade Thread
Current Decks:
Legacy:
GWR Punishing Maverick
UW Miracles
UR Sneak and Show
GWB Enchantress
I can really relate to this. First with Fallen Empires. They were $1 at all the stores and this was when you could still buy packs of Arabian Nights ($10) and Legends ($5). I remember thinking, why buy one pack of those when I can get 5 or 10 packs of this other set?!
Similarly, I remember being upset whenever I opened a Dual Land in my Revised packs thinking "I already have land. This is stupid." However, I'm really glad I kept all my duals now. Let me transition into Legacy a lot easier when I returned to the game after a 15 year hiatus.
My Trade Thread
Current Decks:
Legacy:
GWR Punishing Maverick
UW Miracles
UR Sneak and Show
GWB Enchantress
Took quite some time till some lists of card values where available, and even then they where mostly out-dated.
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Trading was so much more fun back in the days ... nostalgy overkill ...
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
You just reminded me of a part of my story I should have included. I actually started playing with Unlimited. But everyone warned me to not buy my own cards until the new Revised Edition came out. It would have the new rulebook with much clarified rules and be better balanced. I didn't want to be playing with outdated rules and cards. So I played with friends' decks and waited and waited and then bought my own cards the first day that Revised was available in my local shop.
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
Oh it gets worse for me. My friends started playing during Beta and I used to make fun of them. Now some of them still have (damaged) power and I'm sitting here with "only" dual lands. Then again, out of all of us, I'm the only one who still plays.
My Trade Thread
Current Decks:
Legacy:
GWR Punishing Maverick
UW Miracles
UR Sneak and Show
GWB Enchantress
I remember as a kid wanting nothing more than Shivan Dragon, Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire, and Royal Assassin and after opening dual after dual, being upset.
A part of me wonders if the internet and price guides took a lot of "fun" out of the trading side. I remember going to my first prerelease (Exodus) and not knowing a single card in the entire set and after opening my packs, reading every single card one-by-one and being excited. That never happens anymore.
My Trade Thread
Current Decks:
Legacy:
GWR Punishing Maverick
UW Miracles
UR Sneak and Show
GWB Enchantress
When Revised became hard to find late in the summer of 1994, I remember finding a few packs in a B Daltons for $5 apiece. I bought two and was so disappointed that they both had dual lands. I already had playsets of all 10. The only saving grace was that I also got a Hypnotic Specter. Every single player I knew already had a playset for every color combination they played which made them worthless as trade fodder even. Nobody would have ever guessed that they would go away and later become valuable.
What's funny is the stated reason that WotC removed duals in the first place.
"Multilands were removed because they were too good. They were rare cards that you had to have in order to play competitively, even in friendly play, and this is bad. Rare cards should be funky, and considered expendable, not cards you need in order to survive."
Tom Wylie - 4 May 1995
Oh how the times have changed...
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
I can definitely relate to this. I remember the anticipation I and the two friends I played with felt when Ice Age was nearing release, which we learned about by talking to people at our LGS. When it was finally available, we went to our LGS to buy packs and spent the next few hours just studying the cards. Each new pack we opened was a discovery process to see what cards were in the set. Eventually the entire list was released along with card descriptions, but you had to buy a magazine or book to access that information. Even those didn't include the artwork, so there was still something to surprise you if you bought packs. If you didn't want to see any spoilers, it was pretty easy to avoid them.
Although it is still technically possible to avoid spoiler lists today and retain that element of surprise when a new set is released, it is much more difficult if you spend any amount of time on discussion boards such as this one. Even hanging out at your LGS will expose you to spoilers.
Obviously WotC couldn't have anticipated the growth of the internet and mobile devices way back in 1993, and they had the right idea in keeping card lists and rarities as secret as possible at that time. As much as I like technological progress, I do think a very enjoyable aspect of the game was lost due to the proliferation of the internet.
Yeah, I think Internet took a little of that away from the game. But now it's easier to meet new people and places to play, and prices are easier to know too.
I lived in Spain when I started with Magic, and I did it a few months after 4th Edition had been released in Spanish. Homelands was something new too. I was introduced to the game by my cousins, after they decided to buy a starter deck in a comic shop. We bought more boosters little by little, of both 4th and Homelands. When the first print of Spanish 4th was finished, and so was the black bordered cards, we were very disappointed and almost swore never to buy those ugly white bordered cards. Then we discovered a couple of other stores that sold Magic, and saw Chronicles there. The cards were ugly (white border) and in English, so we said we would only play in Spanish. That promise lasted only for a few days, as we started buying Chronicles too. In the very beginning, as others told, we too loved Lord of the Pit, Hypnotic Specter and even Baron Sengir and Autumn Willow more than anything. Stasis was pure evil and Black Vise, the biggest threat out there. And then Ice Age was released in Spanish too, and we met many new players and...
When we discovered more about Magic, Revised could still be found in some stores, although at a higher booster price (maybe something like 15 USD each). I remember someone selling a few Arabian boosters at 50-60 USD each. Duals were about 6-8 USD each, and Black Lotus around 220. Ah, the old times! I really regret selling my 40 duals at that price, knowing the prices today.
Before the glory of Yawgmoth, yes, even this makes sense.