An introduction to a new-ish way to play magic that is gathering popularity online.

Now you are probably wondering what I’m talking about here. New-ish?? Well there is a relatively new format gaining huge popularity online that uses just the oldest magic cards. It’s called 93/94 or sometimes Oldschool, because the format limits players to building decks with cards printed in magic’s early days of 1993 and 1994. That is Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends and The Dark sets, to you and me, with a banned and restricted list of the most powerful and silly cards.

As the format is more casual and down to individual play groups some groups allow revised, foreign cards or newer reprints of cards from 1993 and 1994 and some do not. Its down for your group to decide what you prefer. Personally I prefer the nostalgia, history, art and style of the old cards so don’t like using newer reprints, they really take something from the games, so I don’t use them even if the decks are weaker because we don’t own the 1993 and 1994 versions of all the cards. I mean who wouldn’t want to play with only awesome old cards I mean look at these Giant Spider, King Sueliman, Ernham Djinn, Psionic Blast, Terror, Shivan Dragon, Serra Angel.

Now before you fall into panic that you need to spend thousands to even play the 93/94 format, it is important that I point out that it is completely not about that at all. It is however all about nostalgia (even if you weren’t playing back then) and bringing the original spirit of the game back. That’s to say; it is a more casual fun based format and tournaments have that excitement factor of round after round of different decks to play against and exciting new cards to discover.

Building a deck is a process of passion that takes time and is part of the rewarding process of the format. Much like back in those early days the old cards are harder to find and people pick up what they can in trades or by buying a few commons and uncommons each week or month where they can.

Now sure decks can play cards like a single black lotus, and other very expensive cards (according to the ban/restricted list found here) which does make some decks very expensive, but these are far from the norm and not needed to win or be competitive at all. These most powerful artifacts and mana accelerants are still very good but when the absolute best thing you can accelerate into is a 5/5 with a drawback or a 4/4 flyer in a format that has plenty of efficient ways to kill creatures the 99% of players that don’t own these cards are not at a huge disadvantage to those who do, and as mentioned before winning is only part of the goal here.

In fact it is actually really difficult to find tournament deck lists online and the mothership website in charge of old-school magic 93/94 only posts pictures of the tournament winning decks, which are done in such a way that makes it difficult to see what the cards actually are if you do not know already. This adds to the whole suspense and excitement of seeing old obscure cards that you have never seen before, I mean who nowadays actually knows what any of the cards in those old sets even look like let alone do. When they come up in games every card is like a work of art and there really is a wow factor even if the decks are full of cards deemed terrible by today’s power creep driven standards.

So you are probably wondering what the games play out like, or have an idea of turn 1 combo kills and powerful spells. I can safely tell you that this could not be further from the truth. In the early days of magic creatures were weak and removal was very strong, compare Lightning Bolt to Ironclaw Orcs, a 2/2 for 2 mana was seen as too good back then and had to have a considerable draw back. This makes the games a lot more technical and a bit like a sealed deck pre-release where no one knows the new cards except the unbeatable mythics.

Some deck ideas to get you going could be mono white or red aggressive decks, green blue flyers with Flying Men and Giant Growth or black based control with Sengir Vampire as a finisher, but it’s really down to whatever you think would be good and fun  to play. Remember many good cards are actually very cheap in their unlimited or white bordered printings, however alpha cards can be much more expensive if you want to pimp out your deck.

To recap some of the bonuses of this cool new format:

• Awesome art, flavour and nostalgia experience
• Relive old days of magic
• Exciting seeing and discovering new cards and interactions
• Rewarding to build decks over time
• Creative deckbuilding
• Can be as expensive or cheap as you like
• Very technical gameplay that improves technical play abilities