For those of you that caught my title pun, I didn’t actually play V:TES back in the day. Decipher Star Wars CCG ate up my disposable income once I moved on from Magic, and now that I think of it, I have a couple of pretty cool deck boxes that I am going to have to dig out to house 93/94 decks.

                                         (current deck boxes in use that I had kept from ‘back in the day’- 1996)

(classic Decipher Star Wars CCG deckboxes that I dug out of the dark recesses of a plastic storage bin, not coincidentally also full of boxes and binders of the old Star Wars cards! I think that Han frozen in carbonite will make a good home for my mono Blue artifact deck).

Last time I wrote, my 93/94 decks consisted of: mono Blue artifact ramp with Urza lands, R/G Kird Ape Berserk, Flying Men aggro blue (splashing green for Pendelhaven and pump) and mono Black. Since then, I have done some tuning and put some thought into how I might accomplish those upgrades (thanks to the Old School Discord server for being a great community!). In mono blue, I added a second Transmute Artifact to find what I need in a given situation and an Unlimited Nevinyrral’s Disk as a great answer to search up. Kird Ape Berserk now has a playset of the powerful green pump spell and 3/4 Taiga are Unlimited. Flying Men aggro has smoothed out its mana base with another Tropical Island, and mono black has found an Arabian Nights Sorceress Queen.

My most recent creation is a W/R fliers deck, with Rukh Eggs. All of my one- and two-drops are removal or are helping me get more mana to leverage the Land Tax, and then flying creatures can take over from there. If I get lucky, the Rukh Egg can block or be hatched from a timely Earthquake. Two Fellwar Stone are there in place of Mox Ruby and Mox Pearl, and with this many flying creatures it would be a luxury to have a Moat, but those are three cards that are currently out of my reach.

I don’t think that I’m taking enough advantage of cracking the eggs; perhaps adding the Preacher/City of Shadows combo would help accomplish that goal more consistently.

My nemesis:

This is the pride and joy of the friend who encouraged me to make my first 93/94 deck, and it’s pretty good at what it does- drawing cards, resetting hands and dealing damage one at a time from Black Vise and Underworld Dreams (often stacked together for double the fun!). I have been able to beat this beast of a deck on occasion (it’s weak to an early Blood Moon), but I really need to manage my removal and have early pressure in order to end the game before he can get his engine going.

The newest format that I was introduced to last month by my playgroup was one that I think would be a great way to introduce old/lapsed players to the world of 93/94- 60 card singleton, with restricted cards banned (sorry, Sol Ring and Chaos Orb), and further constricted to ABU cards (or same art/frame). I initially misunderstood the explanation, and built a G/W deck using EC rules. This left me with a nice curve and disruption, but I had used 17 cards from expansions that weren’t legal! Playing definitely hit the nostalgia notes for me, as when I first played the game having four of one card (especially a rare or a card from an older set) was not very common.  When you draw your powerful threat (or Lure a Thicket Basilisk) it feels like you’ve accomplished something!

My goal for next time is to have played more over the summer, and to have another deck to discuss. I’m hoping that it will be mono red, with Atog and artifacts.

Craig Simpson

Craig is a husband, and father of 4, living in the frozen north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Outside of collecting cards to build old school decks with, he has a love for merfolk in modern and occasionally drafting online.

I like to play my bombs, and I like to have answers and removal to deal with my opponents’ bombs, so Jace, Cunning Castaway jumped out at me first. However, other than Jace there weren’t many cards pulling me to play Blue. White and Black both looked to be pretty thin overall. The Red and Green dinosaurs and curve were both appealing, along with the Rootbound Crag and a few sideboard options like Plummet and Naturalize.

I always like to try out new mechanics with a new set, and the Tilonalli’s Summoner would be a huge threat if I could manage to Ascend and gain the City’s Blessing. Traveler’s Amulet to find a second land and the colorless flip Golden Guardian were going in any deck I built.

I attempted to put Jace in a U/G shell; the defensive nature of the blue creatures in this pool would hopefully be able to protect Jace when I drew him, allowing him to take over the game. Aside from Jace, however, it looked pretty mediocre. I also looked at U/R, with all the red dinosaurs. However, my original R/G deck looked to be the most consistent, with both a good curve and a solid plan – to cast big creatures and turn them sideways! Since my removal is pretty light, I would have to rely on my creatures to hit.

Match 1 was against B/W fliers, and lifelink was tough to beat in game 1 (although an active Tilonalli’s Summoner did make for an interesting last turn). Game 2 would have been mine if I could have hit a third land drop before turn 6, but once again lifelink coupled with a flying creature went over my head. 0-1.

Match 2 started off with a mulligan to 5, with 5 lands in each of the first two starting hands. My opponent was on R/G dinosaurs as well; his bit harder and had Bombard to help decimate my meagre forces. Arch of Orazca came out for my opponent to give them card advantage, and a well-timed Mutiny cleared the way for their Raging Swordtooth to finish me off. Game 2 was eerily similar to the previous round, except I was stuck on 3 mana with my 4-drops rotting in hand. 0-2.

Match 3 found me an opponent playing Grixis, and a flying vampire looked to suck me dry. Fortunately a misplay by my opponent (playing a Tilonalli’s Crown on a 2-toughness flier) allowed me to ping it with my Fanatical Firebrand and extend the game. I waited for the right moment to activate my Golden Guardian, but just couldn’t bring myself to kill my own creature to get the engine running. It ended up being a moot point as I drew more threats. In Game 2 I found more threats than they had answers, and tasted my first win of the league. (1-2)

After playing the first stage, here are the cards that I added to my pool. Should I stay with the original build, use one of the others, or scrap it all and start with something else?

Craig Simpson

Craig is a husband, and father of 4, living in the frozen north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Outside of collecting cards to build old school decks with, he has a love for merfolk in modern and occasionally drafting online.

I began playing when I was in grade ten, and Revised and The Dark were still in print. I would sometimes take my bus to the last stop in order to get off at the comics store to buy packs, and then walk home from there. I got sharked on occasion by the local scumbag trader at the store counter, but once Scrye was readily available I was able to avoid that fate. A good friend and I would even travel to the University Game Day on Saturdays once we had access to a car, and between the two of us were able to trade into a set of Arabian Nights and Antiquities.

Friends and I would play at lunch in the science room, and my brother and I built decks and played at home as well (he always played mono black). It was truly an innocent and casual way to play, and the exotic cards from Legends, Arabian Nights, and Antiquities and the elusive powerful and out of print cards from Unlimited and before were rarely seen at our tables. In fact, part of the reason I stopped playing Magic to start with Decipher’s Star Wars CCG was because those powerful, old cards were so hard to obtain.

Fast forward to winter of 2017, when time is precious and disposable income has a very different meaning supporting a family with four kids! I had stayed in touch with a couple of my Magic-playing friends from high school over the years, and got back into the game around Zendikar. It was this friend who introduced me to ‘Old School (93/94) Magic’ as a format, and it has changed my collection in a significant way. Outside of actual power 9, the power level of cards in this format is very different from new Magic sets (Serra Angel and Shivan Dragon are playable along with Swords to Plowshares and Lightning Bolt, and Thunder Spirit is a staple of many white decks). Since I don’t get to play very often, building a deck would be a labour of love and the chase for a single card is very real. I used Pucatrade, (promoted trades, reciprocal trades and use of their Discord server) to assemble a fat pack full of cards I could use to build my first deck.

I haven’t travelled to a far-off land to play in a tournament, but recently I had the chance to run my decks against a friend. I braved the -30 weather to get to his place, and he was kind enough to set up his dining room to record the gameplay! I ended up having 4 decks ready to play versus his 5, so each deck got its chance to play at least once. We played best of 3 and didn’t use a sideboard, and if you would like to see how the matches played out, you can view them here:

Match 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebXiKTHr1FE&t=28s

(Blue/Artifacts vs. Red) I felt like I drew a good mix of counters and threats, and having access to direct damage in blue sure feels good (thank you, Psionic Blast!). Jade Statue can be a good attacker if left unopposed, but once tron gets assembled and you have something to do with all that mana, look out! Even Rocket Launcher got to pull its weight, taking out a Ball Lightning in game 2.

Match 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deybVRXOadQ

(G/R Kird Ape pump vs. Mono Black control) Good thing I didn’t like having cards in hand or need more than 1 or 2 mana at a time against this deck- between the hand and land destruction and all of the other ways to get pinged, I was lucky that the first Kird Ape took me the distance in the first game. He had to be thinking it was a GG after his opener in game 2 (Mox, Sol ring, Tutor and Sinkhole my land), but my threats had to be answered since he doesn’t have many creatures. We agreed (rightly or wrongly?) that he could spend more mana on Drain Life to avoid mana burn, but that it just didn’t do anything beyond the toughness of the creature. After getting a Kird Ape in play I thought I would be able to finish the game, but was taught a lesson on the power of Mishra’s Factory being able to animate and turn itself into a 3/3 (I would use that in a later match to my advantage). The march of the Argothian Pixies made for an uneventful end to this match. I currently only have 1 Berserk and am looking forward to adding at least one more to this deck.

Match 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdof0zegpvw&t=6s

(Blue Aggro vs. Blue/White fliers) Unstable Mutation on a Serendib Efreet demands an immediate answer (which I did not have) in game 1, but Dandan was the one needing an answer in game 2. Recall takes a lot of work to get you back cards from the graveyard, and facing down 2 Old Man of the Sea is not going to end well for a deck that needs to attack (although I was a topdecked Psi Blast away from the win).

Match 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljxMy1nsrs0

(Mono black vs. Mono white) This match was nostalgia at its finest, with the two colour pie opposites facing off. Black Knight vs. White Knight, and whoever could come up with the better colourless way of dealing with the other would come out on top (game 1 showed off the speed that the white deck could hit with). I was not using EC rules and didn’t have access to Hymn to Tourach or Order of the Ebon Hand, but I think that Pestilence showed me that it deserves its place in the deck. My reason for having Icy Manipulator in the deck was to work with Royal Assassin, but it kept his Order of Leitbur locked down in game 2. I will chalk up beginner’s luck to my Orb flip at the end of game 3 (we were discussing technique before I 3-1’d him).

Match 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nopI3gy0oE&t=1775s

(Blue/Artifacts vs. G/R midrange): It took multiple tries to get rid of the Efreets, but a lucky Orb flip helped to seal the deal along with trusty Sindbad to dig for more lands. Luck really is required to get those Urza lands together, but they came at the right time to help assemble a pesky Triskelion. The lands were used again right away to take down the mighty Ernham Djinn with a Rocket Launcher, and Juggernaut brought home a win to end the evening.

This evenings achievements unlocked: Flipping an Orb (got lucky two out of three times)

Achievements still locked: Drawing an extra card from Library of Alexandria, looping Triskelion with Tawnos’ Coffin, lethal damage from a Berserk, using Icy Manipulator/Royal Assassin combo

Some cards I’m chasing to upgrade my decks are: Transmute Artifact, Nevinyrral’s Disk, Earthquakes and more unlimited Taiga and Plateau. My next deck is going to be R/W and try to use Rukh Egg, Preacher/City of Shadows, maybe Su-Chi/Ashnod’s Altar and some burn.

The most common rules in North America can be found at Eternal Central that includes Fallen Empires and allows for reprints as long as they have the correct are and frame: http://www.eternalcentral.com/9394rules/.  

An even more restrictive card pool is the goal of many Old School 93/94 players, including only ABU and the three original expansion sets: http://oldschool-mtg.blogspot.ca/p/historik.html.

Join us in the Discord ‘OldSchoolMTG’ server: https://discord.gg/GqQjGx

So what happened to those sets that my friend and I worked so hard to trade for, you might ask? He traded his Arabian Nights for 64mB of RAM for his computer (approx. $900 value at the time), which made it lightning fast, and I traded my Antiquities for a full set of Star Wars Premier (black border), which I still have to this day.

Craig Simpson

Craig is a husband, and father of 4, living in the frozen north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Outside of collecting cards to build old school decks with, he has a love for merfolk in modern and occasionally drafting online.

I downloaded the MTGO client shortly after getting back into the game in 2009, and discovered drafting through triple Zendikar queues. The draft itself was always fun, but time-consuming to complete a 3 round event, or disheartening to lose in round 1 of a single elimination queue. I enjoy seeing the different limited interactions, so swiss queues are what I prefer to enter. Over the years, I’ve only drafted occasionally (usually closer to set release when the best archetypes haven’t been decided on) and would not consider myself to be an expert by any means. Since I know that I am not an expert drafter, I like to keep a window open with MTGO bot prices and make sure that I don’t pass foil mythics that are unplayable but valuable to set redeemers (a free draft, is a free draft!).

Fast forward to Wizards bringing leagues to the client, which allow you to draft in an 8-person pod, build your deck, and then play the rounds on your own schedule. This changes the draft slightly: you don’t need to worry about hate-drafting cards you won’t play in your deck or would be good against you, as it is unlikely that you will be paired with anyone from your pod. The league structure allows you to take your time and play 1 match a day, or play 3 matches in a row very efficiently (since you don’t have to wait for the other matches in your pod to finish to move on to the next round).

With the abundance of video content available for Magic today, I fondly remember reading David Ochoa’s draft walkthroughs on ChannelFireball (ex: https://www.channelfireball.com/videos/according-to-webster-rtr-draft-1-with-videos/ ), and that is what I hope to leave you with today, a chance to look at my picks and decide what direction you would have taken (I am not posting the videos of the matches though, you’ll have to bear with my recaps).

On to the draft!

Pack 1, Pick 1:  I see a white rare that flies and can have a great late game impact. I like Puncturing Blow, but not over this Angel. Also of note, there are 3 other white playables in the pack, we’ll see if I wheel one. (Angel of Condemnation)

Pack 1, Pick 2 :  I thought about taking the life gain bird, but the upside to the blue enchantment is high, even if I am just scrying in the late game. (Riddleform)

Pack 1, Pick 3 : The Vizier looks like a strong card to help punch through defenders, and the Aerial Guide helps another attacker without the exert. (Aerial Guide)

Pack 1, Pick 4 :  I was really hoping to see some quality removal in either Black or Red to help steer me into one of those colors, but it wasn’t there so I continued to take good creatures. The rare doesn’t look great to me unless you draw it at exactly the right time, leaving the cycling angel, another Aerial Guide and Oketra’s Avenger. I decided on the 2-drop. (Oketra’s Avenger)

Pack 1, Pick 5 : Although I wouldn’t consider myself locked in, I am definitely leaning towards a W/U fliers deck. This pack really didn’t offer much, so I took the cycler/conditional counterspell, most likely for the sideboard. (Countervailing Winds)

Pack 1, Pick 6 :  I highlighted the 2-drop in my screenshot, which I like with the prowess as you can hold up mana during attacks to keep your opponent guessing. I have also noted that I passed a lot of solid green creatures, hopefully this will mean I see either white or blue passed to me in pack 2. Also on that note, I have also left playable white cards in many of the packs, so the payoff in pack 3 could be blue. (Spellweaver Eternal)

Pack 1, Pick 7 : Unsummon is an unspectacular playable, but the potential to get a second use out of the Cleric makes it the pick here. (Steadfast Sentinel)

Pack 1, Pick 8 : Being able to play on your opponents’ turn is always a useful tool to have, and flashing in a blocker to surprise an opponent or on their end step makes for efficient use of your mana. (Aven Reedstalker)

Pack 1, Pick 9 : The 1-drop doesn’t get me excited at all, whereas the chance to bring back the Naga Warrior at a discount does. (Sinuous Striker)

Pack 1, Pick 10 :  I took the aftermath card as a hedge in case I turn to black in pack 2. (Consign // Oblivion)

Pack 1, dregs: Razaketh’s Rite, Grave Abomination, Strategic Plan, full art Plains, red card

After pack 1, I have 7 creatures, looking like the start of a decent (if unexciting) deck.

Pack 2, Pick 1 : I could see the Dauntless Aven being great in a deck with lots of exert, but the card advantage that the Champion offers (bonus if I can toss another Eternalize card) is excellent. (Champion of Wits)

Pack 2, Pick 2 : The red cards aren’t strong enough to make me want to leave my plan of W/U, same goes for the green creatures. The zombie can beat down and sometimes trade up. (Mummy Paramount)

Pack 2, Pick 3 : Maybe I should take another Aerial Guide here, but I like to have a couple of good combat tricks, and it will also turn on my Riddleform. (Act of Heroism)

Pack 2, Pick 4 : I like the cycling on the serpent, and the life gain on the bird, but I like the aggression more. (Oketra’s Avenger)

Pack 2, Pick 5 : Finally, a piece of (conditional) removal! I’ll grab it. (Sandblast)

Pack 2, Pick 6 : Very similar looking pack, and the same pick. (Sandblast)

Pack 2, Pick 7 : If I was all in on spells and walls, maybe the swarm intelligence is playable? (Unsummon)

Pack 2, Pick 8 : Unexciting pick of the cycle/tapper. (Djeru’s Renunciation)

Pack 2, Pick 9 : Imaginary Threats looks interesting, but I haven’t played with it yet and think that I want to be attacking and not blocking. Even though I don’t have a desert yet, I took the wall. (Wall of Forgotten Pharoahs)

Pack 2, Pick 10 : Tragic Lesson is instant speed card draw, and I think the drawback will not hurt us much in this deck if we can toss a card with Eternalize. (Tragic Lesson)

Pack 2, Dregs: Magmaroth, full art Island, Fraying Sanity (playable?), full art Forest, full art Plains. Even if I don’t go 3-0, I will at least have some nice basics in front of me!

I am now at 10 creatures, and would like to get above 15 in pack 3. I have a good mana curve and only one card with double white, many creatures have evasion or built in recursion. A concern is that I only have 2 pieces of removal, so getting a good counterspell or removal will be priorities in the last pack. My fliers should give me a chance to close out games, but I could use another top-end sphinx or angel.

Pack 3, Pick 1 : This picked really hurt! Oketra and her monument side by side. I think the monument is a bomb all by itself in a deck with a high creature count, but I have a high enough creature count that I think Oketra will be able to attack and block without her activations. Would the exert bird have been the safe pick here? (Oketra the True)

Pack 3, Pick 2 : I like the upside of the combat trick over the cycling. (In Oketra’s Name)

Pack 3, Pick 3 : I already have a few zombies (Eternalize and normal), so this 2-drop may get multiple uses, especially in the late game. (Binding Mummy)

Pack 3, Pick 4 : With Eternalize cards already in the deck, the multicolored bird warrior is a perfect fit. (Aven Wind Guide)

Pack 3, Pick 5 : The blue Cartouche doesn’t excite me since many of my creatures already have flying, and getting 2 for 1’ed with a removal spell always feels bad. A 2-drop with Embalm it is. (Tah-Crop Skirmisher)

Pack 3, Pick 6 : The camel doesn’t do what I want to be doing with a 5-drop in this deck, the counterspell should help me deal with a bomb, maybe out of the sideboard. (Essence Scatter)

Pack 3, Pick 7 : Okay, I guess I should have at least one camel in this desert plane. Maybe I should have taken the cycle/disenchant card for the sideboard if I face a monument or Sandwurm Convergence. (Supply Caravan)

Pack 3, Pick 8 : I like the trick, more likely that I will play it than the other spells to choose from. Lots of blue coming my way this pack! (Mighty Leap)

Pack 3, Pick 9 : The exert bird wheeled! Yay! That might be a game-ending card to play. (Tah-Crop Elite)

Pack 3, Pick 10 : I took the nice land. (Plains)

Pack 3, Dregs: Plains, Failure // Comply, Shimmerscale Drake, red card, swamp

The blue cards certainly came in pack 3, and although they weren’t high quality in most cases, the Drake was a welcome inclusion to the main deck. The mana curve looks good, with six creatures at 2 and 4 mana, and a few tricks to buff them. Not a lot of situational sideboard cards, but there are at least a few options. I chose to run the Act of Heroism over Mighty Leap as I have some creatures that I will want to exert. My only regret is not opening any Unquenchable Thirst in the first two packs, which would have been an upgrade over my light removal package. Onto the 3 round friendly swiss league (2-1 will win me 2 packs)!

This was my 40-card main deck, I didn’t have many cycling cards so I went with 17 lands.

Round 1 I faced a RG big green creature deck, I had a great opener with both Oketra and Angel and my opponent was stuck on three lands, not a very exciting way to win but I’ll take it. Game 2 I kept a 2-lander with 4 cards costing 2, but was stuck on those two lands until turn four. My opponent started with an Exemplar of Strength and ramped into an early Sifter Wurm off an exerted Oasis Ritualist. I had no answer and was dispatched shortly after. Essence Scatter was brought in and Riddleform came out. Game 3 we both agreed to have no mana problems, and the race was on with his Exemplar and my small fries whittling down the life totals. The game got interesting when Oketra made an appearance to face off against the Wurm. Unfortunately for me, my opponent had enough removal to keep Oketra locked away when I needed her most and trampled over my feeble defenses.

Round 2 I faced a UG deck running Plains and Mountains, but I could not apply enough early pressure for my fliers to finish them off, and a Rampaging Hippo outclassed my blockers (and I didn’t draw the Sandblast to force a trade). Getting Unquenchable Thirst played on two of my creatures was the difference in this game. Once again I brought in the Essence Scatter to deal with their big creatures, and it came in handy game 2 when I used it to counter a Rhonas the Indomitable! Now I knew what I was really up against, and in game 3 my opponent got a turn 3 Rhonas and kept the creatures coming to bring my dream of prizes to a crashing halt.

I wasn’t going to let my first article ever be tainted with an 0-2 drop, so I soldiered on to play out the string against a UR cycling/eternalize deck with fliers. I had mana problems in game 1 and died to an Ominous Sphinx and Glyph Keeper. Game 2 was also uneventful as I curved out and got a concession on turn five. In Game 3 my early pressure, and my opponent’s Hazoret’s Favor had us both top decking for the win. My opponent had me down to 7 life with a hasted and exerted Khenra Scrapper. On the second last turn of the game, he chose not to use the haste ability on his Ominous Sphinx facing down my three small creatures, and I attacked right into it, getting to use Sandblast to great effect. His topdeck was the Glyph Keeper of course, and I acknowledged a ‘ggs’.

Unfortunately for my opponent, the sphinx counters the first ability that targets it every turn, so they were not able to attack me for lethal damage and the third round ended in victory for me!

To sum it up, I was 3-3 in games played and didn’t mulligan once, but the games that I had 4-drops in my opener ended in victory, and the games I had 2-drops didn’t.

I didn’t get to attack even once or use the ability on my first pick Angel of Condemnation, and when Oketra was live she was unstoppable (I would have like to have a couple more ways to generate tokens and support her). I feel like if I had been able to draft more/better removal that I could have realistically ended up 2-1, as the big green creatures gave me trouble in both my losses. Perhaps I should have drafted green in the first place!

Thanks for taking the time to read, and remember to let the Woolie win!

Craig Simpson

Craig is a husband, and father of 4, living in the frozen north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Outside of collecting cards to build old school decks with, he has a love for merfolk in modern and occasionally drafting online.