Magic: the Gathering has been around for 30 years now. I first heard about it back in 1994, a few months after its release; back then there was a games convention called Furrycon, which was held annually in Brighton at the Old Ship hotel. The upcoming con had a Magic: the Gathering tournament, so I figured I should find out about the game, in case I wanted to play. I found a friend who could teach me, and was instantly hooked. I scoured the London shops, and managed to get half a box of unlimited cards. I still have some of them.
… and that’s it. I’ve been playing off and on ever since. These days I play mostly:
- Oldschool magic (which uses cards only from 1993-1994); there’s a lot of nostalgia involved, and it’s a chance to play with my old cards which would be stuck in folders otherwise and Commander. You are also free from Wizards ever-accelerating release schedule. Living in London, there are regular Oldschool events organised by the Brothers of Fire. Despite the limited number of sets, there’s still room for innovation. I try not to play the same deck twice.
- Playground magic – another nostalgic format crossed with a little performance art, and somewhat lower powered than Oldschool. All cards are played unsleeved just like the good old days so it’s self-limiting in that you don’t tend to see people playing expensive cards like Moxes, and probably my favourite oldschool format. You also get to inflict psychic damage on any onlookers.
- Commander – the most popular magic format. I play a couple of times a week at a local pub. As a multiplayer format, I play more for fun than to win.
Apart from playing, I love the art – particularly the early cards, which were designed to be recognisable at a distance and have a much more diverse range of art styles than modern cards. That’s not to say that the art quality has decreased, but it’s much more uniform… and a lot of it is too busy for such a small area. I’ve spent some time building artist commander decks, where every card is by the same artist. These are usually super-weak, but beautiful. I’ve also written some tools to mine the Scryfall data feeds and make this kind of deckbuilding easier. A few useful pages follow:
A few of my artist Commander decks; several artists are missing from this list because they haven’t made basic lands, or a suitable commander. I’m watching closely, though!
- Seb McKinnon, Nils Hamm, Drew Tucker and Erin Vest collaborated on a playmat recently; all have distinctively otherworldly styles, so I decided to combine then into a single commander deck. It isn’t strong, but with Aminatou at the helm, it doesn’t need to be.
- Chris Rahn has a clean style which focuses on the subject and looks good from a distance. His art also has an old-mastery feel, probably because he paints in art. Anyhow, I like it. The deck as a whole isn’t coherent, but it does play some strong cards and can win games.
- Donato Giancola has been in my favourites list ever since he painted Spore Frog back in 2000 (Prophecy). I actually tried to get hold of the original art back in the day, but apparently it went to Wizards and never came back. Instead, I got Donato to paint out whole family as Spore Frogs – a piece that sits proudly in the living room to this day. Donato has produced a lot of illustrations for magic over the years, so this isn’t the weakest deck I’ve built – it does lack cohesion, though.
- Johannes Voss, on the other hand, is the strongest artist commander deck I’ve built. It has 11 shrines, including Sanctum of All. Once those get going, it can build up momentum quickly.
- John Avon is known for his lands; and while the deck isn’t strong due to a lack of good quality creatures, the mana base won’t let you down 🙂
- Lucas Graciano illustrated Shadowborn Apostle and Shadowborn Demon. I had to do it 🙂 From an artistic viewpoint, he has a very dramatic style which looks good on the table.
- Magali Villeneuve goes from strength to strength, but it’s her stained glass lands from Dominaria United that really make the deck. She’s illustrating a lot of cards these days, so the deck gets more candidates (and the potential to grow stronger) with each release.
- Rebecca Guay has an ethereal style which wizards used mostly for elves and lifegain. There are just enough cards to make a Selesnya deck with Asmira Holy Avenger at the helm. It’s a weak deck, but with an absolutely stunning table presence.