Magic: the Gathering; A Competitive History

A blog dedicated to the early days of competitive magic, the players and their decks. (This is not an official WOTC blog)

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I am not sure how this has happened, but this blog has 4 followers. 

1, 2, 3, 4! That is amazing. 

Looks like it's time to start talking about old decks.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. Otherwise, we're gunna start at the beginning, and look at the decks used in the very first World Championship, as played by champion Zak Dolan and runner up Bertrand Lestree.

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I didn't have much to do with the construction of our control decks (shocking, I know)

Patrick Sullivan, Red Mage Extraordinaire on testing for Pro Tour Dragon's Maze

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/26228_Pro-Tour-Dragons-Maze-Report.html

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There are few things as enjoyable as facing off against someone who has all the rare cards and a superiority complex, and introducing your Goblins to their face.

Dan Paskins

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If you think red can't handle Serra Angel, which is a 4/4 creature, you should see it try and stop Ihsans Shade. Especially with no land. Now *that* is comedy.

Mike Flores

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What I didn’t realise was that all the time I had a Hammer in my graveyard, which I could have been using every turn. The people watching were so pained by this that they nearly made an announcement over the Public Address System, either a subtle one, ‘Could Mr Bogardan please return his Hammer’ or a less subtle one, ‘Could Dan Paskins please return the Hammer to his hand’.

Dan Paskins - UK Nationals, 2000

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The night before a constructed tournament is a terrible time for Magic players. Panic sets in, and you change around your carefully constructed deck and sideboard, or abandon it for a different deck entirely. It’s a horrible feeling. You don’t need to suffer. I used to suffer from this, then I discovered Red decks. Red decks are specially formulated to relieve pre-tournament nerves. Before a tournament just after Tempest was released, I was panicking because my 3 colour White deck was rubbish. It was about 3 am and Tony, who was testing with me, said, ‘Why don’t we build a Red deck’. I played this deck, enjoyed Scrolling people and naming Fireblast, and haven’t looked back.

Dan Paskins

- http://web.archive.org/web/20010110042700/http://thedojo.com/t001/nats.000531dpa.shtml

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Maybe it is just me, but given the choice when playing in a Pro Tour Qualifier between a deck which is intellectually demanding but which lets you feel smug if you manage to pilot it correctly and a deck which slaughters the opposition, I'll go with the latter.

Dan Paskins

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What does a land destruction deck do besides destroy your land? What does a card-denial deck do besides make you discard, what does a weenie deck do besides attack you with little creatures? All these decks could be played by trained chimpanzees, and all of these decks completely collapse if their cheap narrow tricks don't work right. "The Deck" is a complete exception to this rule. Since it fundamentally doesn't do anything at all, their is nothing to go wrong.

Brian Weissman on his deck; The Deck.

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When we get to the match itself, I make a turn 3 and a turn 4 Ball Lightning in game 1, which lasts five turns, and the same in game two, which he manages to drag out until turn 6.

Dan Paskins;

http://web.archive.org/web/20001214183300/http://www.thedojo.com/t991/t2.990604dpa.shtml

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Bertrand Lestree's Decklist for the very first Magic: The Gathering, Pro Tour.

Bertrand would go through to the finals with his Green-White Erhnam 'Geddon deck.

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Mark Rosewater congratulates Dave Price on making the top 4 in the Sydney Invitational, Sydney, Australia, 2000. 

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Olle Rade, 1997.

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Dave "King of Beatdown" Price, 2000 Magic Invitational, Sydney. 

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The Town of Red House- David Price, 1997 Pro Tour L.A Report.

I've been looking for this one for a while, but I have finally found it. 

Enjoy

Subject: PT-LA Report Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 17:55:11 -0500 (EST) From: [email protected] To: Frank Kusumoto <[email protected]> The Town of Red House The summer of 1997, driving towards Columbus, Ohio on the seemingly endless roads through the middle of nowhere, New York, we see a sign. Not just any sign, like locusts covering the earth, or lightning bolts from heaven, but a road sign. It read, "Entering the Town of Red House." Then I heard the voices in my head, which had been silent for so many years: "Build a house, and you will win." We all know how that story ends, with me winning the Type II portion of US Nationals, and scrubbing out in the draft. At least, that's how I thought it ended. Enter Queen Mary. We tested for weeks... blue Capsize/Tradewind Rider, green land destruction, white weenie with red, blue/white control, red, and red with white decks filled our dreams. Early on, the red decks just didn't cut it. Our favorite was white weenie; it seemed to have everything. Until we played against Eric Taylor's U/W control deck in Canada, and it beat us again and again. We had to start again from scratch. Then the voices started again, "Build a house, and you will win." We rebuilt the red deck, and made it as fast as possible. There where 4 slots that we couldn't decide on: Blood Frenzy, Shatter, or Giant Strength. I tried Giant Strength, and we playtested and playtested, and it kept winning and winning. Why play Lowland Giants, when we can make our own? Building a house. Chris Pikula, Worth Wollpert, John Chinnock, unqualified teammates David Bartholow and Tony "The Shark" Tsai, and I built and tested and refined the deck until we reached the final product. Worth, Chris, and I played it in LA, and John opted for a red deck with white and bigger creatures. The deck Team Deadguy played: 16 Mountains 4 Wastelands 4 Mogg Conscripts 4 Mogg Raiders 4 Mogg Fanatics 4 Jackal Pups 4 Canyon Wildcats 4 Fireslingers 2 Rathi Dragons 4 Giant Strength 4 Kindles 4 Cursed Scroll 2 Scalding Tongs Sideboard: 4 Shatter 1 Rathi Dragon 1 Torture Chamber 2 Scalding Tongs 2 Jinxed Idol 4 Stone Rain 1 Apocalypse I can't give a play by play report; I don't remember each and every match and especially not everyones' names. I'll just mention the highlights. Thursday: It was an uneventful flight to LA. Worth, Chris, and the ever lovable Jason Opalka were more than enough to keep me entertained. The movie sucked and they forgot to bring vegetarian meals for Chris and I, so I ended up eating three apples and a salad. The usual fare. We get to LA and keep our lips sealed. We know what we're playing and we're confident. We hang out in our room with Aziz, do some final tuning of the deck and sideboard, and get a good night's sleep. I love being prepared. Friday: I managed to avoid Dancing Gnomes the entire day, ending up 7-0 with the only other undefeated player Kyle Rose. Some highlights of the day included beating down Casey McCarrel, who had a good red deck, with Stone Rains in the main deck and no giant strengths, beating an excellent French player playing a R/G deck, and wrecking shop in the last round with Torture Chamber, against a friendly white weenie player from the UK. I played one or two U/W control decks, and as we thought, Chill and COP:Red just weren't enough to beat us, with us having 10 artifact damage after sideboarding. I bought Aziz, Chris, and Worth dinner that night. Good karma. Saturday: After having Mike Long not make eye contact with me for the previous two days, I got into a heated discussion with him in the tournament area. He called me a hypocrite, for "taking his words out of context," and I couldn't quite figure out how one could take "If you play Pete Leiher, can you throw the match to him so he can make the top 8 [in US Nationals] ?" out of context. I guess I'm just alittle slow. Anyway, I was up in his face, and he was up in mine. A good time was had by all. As far as the tournament goes, I had some good luck and some bad luck. I started off the day losing to Kyle Rose, who out-Rathi'd me in games two and three. Later I found that we both had three Rathis after sideboarding, he just happened to get them on the fourth turn of the last two games. Such is life. He played a good match, and he beat me down. I played two of the other final 8 players, beating Bachmann 2-1, and losing to Adam Katz 1-2. Adam Katz's deck was a nightmare for our deck, and he won despite the many mistakes that he made. Also of note: Rudy Edwards showed up late for his match against me, losing the first game, and I beat him down the next game. If he hadn't shown up late, his Orim, Samite Beatings would have given me some serious problems in games two and three. Chris Pikula came in 20th place, qualifying himself for PT-NY, and Worth Wollpert hit Dancing Gnomes after Dancing Gnomes, and didn't quite make the top 64. Sunday: First round of the final 8, I play Svend Geertsen. He's also playing a red deck, but he's not prepared for other red decks. After sideboarding, he still has Scalding Tongs, Jackal Pups, and Stone Rains in the deck. After losing the first game, I sideboard out the Pups and Tongs for Shatters, a Torture Chamber and a 3rd Rathi. He beats me again, and I'm alittle shaken. I don't think our deck should lose to his, especially after sideboarding, but I've been getting the worst draws. Finally, in the 3rd game, I get two Giant Strengths in my opening hand, and he plays 2nd turn Goblin Bombardment. Holy shit. I'm in trouble. Somehow, I manage to get a 5/5 Mogg Raider into play and win the game. The next two games are a bit easier, and its on to the quarterfinals. I get to play David Bachmann, again. I'm pretty confident, because if he gets a bad draw, I'll run him over, and even if he gets a good draw, he can't deal with Rathi Dragon. He plays well, but gets substandard draws and I beat him in 4 games. Oddly enough, the one game I lost was the game that I played Rathi Dragon. He outraced me with shadows and lifegaining. And on to the finals... I made a mistake or two, as did Ben Rubin. It was an odd match, because I had no idea what was in his deck. I didn't try to find out, and I hadn't played near him in the Swiss. I didn't know that he had Living Death until he cast it in game 2. I thought he had power sinks up until the end. Crazy stuff. I won the first game with an exceptional draw. Giant Strength'd Jackal Pup was too big for him. In the second game, my draw was horrendous, and I should've mulligan'd. I didn't, though, and I conceded when he was about to Lobotomy my Cursed Scrolls. The 3rd game was like the first. I went first and came out too fast for him. The 4th game I got him down low, and then he got Corpse Dance/Bottle Gnomes going. I conceded (which was also a mistake, because I had an Apocalypse in the deck at that point, but I still was under the impression that he had countermagic), and we started the fifth game. My opening draw was the biggest beatdown ever: 3 Moutains, Jackal Pup, Fireslinger, 2 Stone Rains. I was playing first, and I drew a Wasteland at the start of my second turn. At the end of my fourth turn, he was at 12 life and he had no land in play. Game over. That was my day. After that, it was pretty crazy. People kept asking me how I felt. What the hell am I supposed to say? "I feel pretty good" was the only response I could come up with. I don't think it finally sunk in until Chris and I were waiting at the LA airport later that night... Props: My fellow Deadguys, Chris Pikula, Worth Wollpert, Tony Tsai, and David Bartholow, for playtesting and moral support John Chinnock, for his help in tuning the deck and being the biggest schmoozer on the Pro Tour Matt Place, newest Deadguy, for being an all around good guy and giving our team two consecutive PT wins Dennis Bentley, for having the most faith in me Ben Rubin, for a great final match Laura Carroll, for doing another terrific job of organizing the PT The players from the UK, for having the best attitude about Magic that I've seen in a long time Jeff Donais, for his fine judging and his lucky left ear Nate Clarke, for honestly believing that I'm the antichrist The guy at the airport, for continually paging Amanda Hug'nkiss Slop: Mike Long, 'nuff said Until next time, David Price a.k.a. Captain Beatdown Team Deadguy [email protected]

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I know it is cool to bring back lots of Goblins, but leave the ever so clever combos to decks which need to rely on such tricks to win. Red decks don't need that nonsense to win.

Dan Paskins on Patriarch's Bidding and Goblins

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Knight of Stromgald, aka Pump Knights.

One of the most important creatures of early Magic decks. 

A great 2 drop with some fantastic abilities and some brilliant art!

Knight of Stromgald was printed in Ice Age and in 5th Edition, and was commonly seen in aggressive Necropotence decks along with Hypnotic Specters and Order of the Ebon Hands.

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A photo from the first Magic: The Gathering, World Championship, back in 1994.

Check out the cards in that trade binder!