By Jeremy Rose
Magic: the Gathering is an old game by most standards and it has gone through many changes and evolutions over its 27 year life span. These changes have involved new card types or mechanics being introduced through its many expansion sets to keep the game fresh and interesting and to keep its players coming back for more.
Along with the exciting new products over the years, the game has seen a significant scaling up in the strength and complexity of the cards. Often referred to as power creep, this scaling up has been known to cause some balancing issues in various formats and has ensured that today’s cards look and play far differently than the cards from the early days of Magic.
To get a better idea of what these differences look like and how the game has evolved, I sat down with a Magic player from the earliest days of the game. Andrew Pilch is a martial arts instructor in Tucson, Arizona and was in high school when Magic came out. He played until about 1995 and enjoyed countless game with his buddies wherein they tapped an unsleeved Black Lotus on concrete and traded their Moxen for Shivan Dragons.
These days, Andrew plays with my playgroup a couple times a year and doesn’t get too much exposure to Magic as a whole. We are pretty focused on Commander and Andrew has an Arahbo, Roar of the World preconstructed deck as well as a Saskia the Unyielding preconstructed that he pits against us when he can.
Before we get into it, I want to give a little background on how Andrew and I went about this. All of the cards I presented to him were cards he has never seen before, so I made sure to give some explanation of their use and general play patterns without giving him too much so that he would be more able to form his own opinions about the cards. I found this to be a really entertaining exercise and something I’d love to do again; I hope you enjoy it as well!
Nissa, Who Shakes the World
Andrew was only vaguely familiar with planeswalkers, so I gave him a bit of a rundown as to how they work before presenting him with Nissa.
Andrew: “Back in the day, I played Conversion which turned all Mountains into Plains, and that was fun, but this is a brutal card. It’s like a +5 life if they attack it and the whole time it just makes 3/3 monsters that tap for double mana. This puts you way above board. This card has to be a high priority target, it’s a nightmare.”
Ravenous Chupacabra
Not every card printed since 1995 is as busted as Nissa, so I wanted to be sure to give Andrew a whole spectrum of different power levels. Some of our more mediocre cards these days are still head and shoulders above what Andrew is familiar with.
A: “I remember Northern Paladin being a power play back then (in the 90’s), and this guy is more efficient. I really liked those type of effects, but this card would frustrate the hell out of me if they killed one of my Serra Angels with this. This guy also seems really good with some kind of resurrection card.”
Splinter Twin
One of the things I wanted to cover with Andrew as well, were some iconic Magic cards that are parts of infamous combos or banned in popular formats that he never had the opportunity to play with or against.
A: “Why is this only four mana? We didn’t have duplication type stuff like this, and it seems great. This would have been hard to overcome in the old days and you’d have to kill this right away.”
For a little more context, I also explained how Splinter Twin combos with Zealous Conscripts and Pestermite as well as showed him Kiki-Jiki.
A: “Oh, I get it. That seems really broken if you can have four of each of these in a deck.”
Blasphemous Act
Andrew loved running Wrath of God in his mono white decks in high school, so I knew he’d appreciate another sweeper that has a bit of a different flavor to it.
A: “I’m seeing the mana cost and I don’t remember playing with any nine mana cards so this better be dang good…well that answers that. It counts all the creatures, not just yours, so this is almost free most of the time is my guess. It doesn’t deal with really huge creatures, but this is a really good board wipe.”
Seedborn Muse
Andrew does play Commander with us occasionally, but he has never seen what this card can do and so I thought it’d be interesting to see what someone who is not familiar with it thinks of Seedborn Muse.
A: “ALL permanents? Yeah, I can see that being useful. The cost seems fair and by the time somebody plays it, people should probably have stuff to nuke it. But if you don’t, this could get real rough real fast.”
Platinum Angel
Magic definitely has printed some cards that can lead to some silly games and board states over the years, and this is sure one of them. I imagine to someone who played with mostly Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited cards, Platinum Angel is a tad ridiculous.
Andrew laughed for a few seconds before giving a verbal response to this one and his son, who was listening to our conversation, said “Why is that card?”
A: “I remember some really powerful artifact decks, I don’t know if people still play those or not, and this seems great. It almost feels like you could be losing to this card before the game even starts and not know it. Feels like a rough card to play against.”
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
Commander players are well acquainted with Vorinclex and most of them have negative feelings about it, especially playing against it. I wanted to see how Andrew felt about a card with this much text and power on it.
A: “Wow, that’s a big cost. It does have trample which is not surprising for that much mana. The double mana is really cool, kind of like Nissa, but the next part would really suck. That last piece seems so difficult to deal with. I’d be pissed.”
Paradox Engine
This card is undeniably broken, so much so that it was banned in Commander for both its power level and nonrestrictive casting cost. I wondered if Andrew would be able to see how good it would be despite being unfamiliar with a lot of the ways this card is used.
A: “You know, I have to wonder how many times they release a card and just think ‘Whoops.’”
Laboratory Maniac
One of Magic’s most iconic win conditions, Lab Man is another card that would not have been thought to exist back in the 90’s but has had a huge impact on the game.
A: “I’m going to guess this is used regularly in some combination to draw someone’s entire deck. And I bet they just sit there and draw cards while they just stare at the other player until they win.”
Taking a look back at where Magic has come from to where it is now, there is no denying that the design principles have certainly changed. Five mana goes a heck of a lot further than a Serra Angel these days and getting a look into the Magic days of yore has been an interesting and eye-opening experience.
Thanks for reading! Andrew is a good friend of mine and I’ve wanted to have this conversation with him for a while now. We had a blast talking about it and I hope you enjoyed the read as well! If this is something you’d be interested in seeing more of, make sure to let us know what other cards we should introduce Andrew to, and we’ll have him check them out!
Andrew Pilch began playing Magic in 1993 and has played a handful of Commander games with our playgroup since then. His favorite card is Serra Angel and he enjoys crushing opponents with combat heavy white decks. Andrew is also a lifelong martial artist and owns and operates an American Kenpo school in Tucson, Arizona.
For more info about Andrew's martial arts school, visit www.americaninstituteofkenpo.com!
Jeremy Rose is a relatively new Magic player, having only started in Battle for Zendikar. When he's not being a filthy, filthy blue player, he enjoys jamming fun games with his friends. He's also a lifelong martial artist and a professionally employed teacher. He sometimes paints minis adequately. Find out more about him on his Twitter @jermytrose.
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