The blag
It is my pride and pleasure to provide these scribbles from Martin "Fluffy" Lindström. His insights on the nuances of the game are, of course, masterful. I learned something here, and I'd wager you will too. Enjoy! /Mg out Hey kids! I am not Seb from Monsters of the Week (it’s a sweet podcast mostly about premodern but also some old school) but quite often when I think about talking to other…
It is quiet around here these days. So it is my pleasure to again offer this void to Alex Rutten to break the silence for a spell. Enjoy! /Mg out After the last monstrosity , which almost killed the blag, I will try to keep this tournament report more comprehensive… For me, n00bcon has always been connected to my dear friend Wander. He joined me for n00bcon 9 in 2017 as a travel companion and…
It is my extraordinary pleasure to get to share Will Magrann's notes from the last Arvika Festival. Please enjoy! /Mg Out After the Arvika Festival in 2023 I did not think I would be back. I had gotten second place, the Shark was likely a one time thing, I did not have anyone to travel with, and there are just too many good events to travel to. As the 2024 event calendar filled out I initially…
We shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads converged in a pub, and we— we took the ones less travelled by, And that has made all the difference. (after the poet Robert Frost) Preface We will soon give you, dear reader of this old school blog, a meaningful choice. Legends say, there once was a great report of n00bfest 2023, the mysterious event that marked the end…
I think even the fogeys occupying this corner of the Internet noticed that WotC released a Magic set based on Lord of the Rings earlier this year. But what fewer might know is that WotC wasn't just broadly inspired by the high fantasy style of Lord of the Rings when they made Alpha, they designed proper Middle Earth cards for that first Magic set. Due to copyright concerns these cards changed…
Some cards I simply like. They might not be in the highest tier, but they often lead to interesting games and "good Magic". Cards like Sindbad or Guardian Beast. Or Witch Hunter. I'd been looking for a home for Witch Hunter. During a peak of covid-reclusiveness in 2020 I wrote a single-card post about him , but still had no deck carved out. 'Cause if we want to enable Witch Hunter, we want to…
Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I…
I had a lot ideas for writing as I departed Casa Reindeer. "PastaCon" surely is one of the finest gatherings of Wizards there ever was, from kitchen tables circa 1994 to the Las Vegas Grand Prix's of latter days. As a Magic player I had ideas, even inspiration, when I left Zürich two months ago. But coming back to reality, a lot of reality suddenly came in the way of writing. Now, I love being on…
In early 1994, the Antiquities expansion provided us with a peculiar set of lands. The Urza lands were the only cards in the set apart from Strip Mine that didn't have the word "artifact" printed on them anywhere, and they were the first Magic cards that explicitly referenced other non-basic cards. I said other . Uh, that's not a specific other card. Also that one got errata. Come on, that's an…
A couple of months ago I bought a mystery box of mostly early 2000s era bulk. I was well acquainted with the old owner 15-20 years ago, when we both were a part of the Vintage - and later Legacy - scenes in Gothenburg. We also had a common interest in punk music and beer, so a few of my finest memories of our friendship are away from cardboard. I'm particularly fond of recollecting one hungover…
In the oldest days, the main purpose of a creature was to attack and block. And whenever a summon would stray from this core raison d'être, it would be to act as another type of permanent. Llanowar Elves would do a good impression of a land, Ali from Cairo could seem like an enchantment, Prodigal Sorcerer basically has the text of an artifact. But what creatures were not, were spells. All that was…
Hey, I should write something about Arvika Festival 8! That was a noble gathering, and I wanna spill some digital ink to preserve he memories and impressions. Heh. Probably a good thing that I'm not organizing n00bfest this weekend. Let's leave that to some slighly more professional Time Elementals. It appears I keep bouncing myself. So, yes, Arvika Festival. What a great time. Svetzarn and…
Here's a statement: Magic is a great game. Like, the game system is really, really good. The whole concept with the turn structure, mana development, color wheel, combat math, and all that is second to no game I've ever played, and I'm the kinda guy that have been frequenting tabletop conventions for the last quarter century. The way Magic does "creatures" and "combat" might seem a bit complicated…
So Mg, what have you been up to lately? ALL THE THINGS! On a personal level it probably happened more just last August than during the entirety of 2021. I've tried to sit down and summarize more than once, but I was facing a sort of change fatigue, and occasionally it was like my mind didn't fully get out of the pandemic. Sometimes it felt like I left a few things back in late 2020, like my…
Real Magic, proper oldschool. Dwarven god-damn Warriors. It is my great pleasure to give the stage to Michael and Martin. Enjoy! /Mg out Finally it was on! After weeks of discussing which drinks we could serve the lady of the house, which giveaways we could bring, and if Erwin deserved a present or not, Dwarven Warriors was just a few hours away. Being able to take a day off and sending the…
"Should you a Rat to madness tease Why ev'n a Rat may plague you..." —Samuel Coleridge, "Recantation" Theodor Severin Kittelsen, born in Norway in 1857, was a legendary artist and illustrator, made famous mainly by his vivid illustrations to folk- and fairy tales collected by authors Asbjørnsen and Moe, as well as his illustrated book on the Black Plague, published in 1900. If Kittelsen was born a…
A little over a week ago the glorious World Championship of oldschool Magic took place. Finally, Genoa, Italy, was the place to be, and as such it is with a special pride I introduce our guest today; the most decorated Italian in the history of the Oldschool World Championships. And Valerio is no stranger to this blag either, having previously recanted his way to the 3rd place at Worlds 2018 . But…
We may not always be wizards of tradition here - what with a tapped Black Vise dealing damage, that Maze of Ith stopping Serra Angel, and a Triskelion gladly throwing any counters it got from Dwarven Weaponsmith - but a few things still appear as immutable law. One such tradition is apparently the belated publishing of n00bcon reports from Alex. While arguably not as delayed as his last one (which…
Reinvitational, yes. The Reindeer asked if I wanted to write something about last weekend, so write something I shall. For this was a weekend to write about. Background. Happenstances during the last couple of years have somewhat altered my approach to international travels. I'm not sure if disinclination is a word, but if it is, I'd probably use it to describe my current stance on airports. When…
Every now and then I am bequeathed a rare blessing as the innkeeper of this blag. April was such a month, when I was contacted by a man named John on the prospect of him writing a blog post regarding some minutiae of Alpha printing patterns. I welcomed his idea, and was then pleasantly surprised by both the quality his writing and his deep knowledge on the subject. I, however, kinda suck at…
There was this Guinness commercial around the turn of the millennium. I think I saw it before I ever tasted a Guinness, but for some reason I still vividly recall it. In the commercial a fit but aging Italian man is swimming from a buoy in the ocean towards a small harbor. The beach town is cheering him on as he desperately races to a pub, trying to get to it before the bartender finishes pouring…
It's a bit weird to think of right now, but there hasn't been a World Championship in Oldschool Magic for three years. The last champion was crowned in 2019, almost a year before the pandemic hit. Martin "Fluffy" Lindström, the 2019 World Champion. When we first started noting n00bcon as "the Oldschool Magic World Championship" in 2010, it was a bit tongue in cheek. We didn't even have players…
Yeah, I'm doing this announcement two weeks before the tournament. What of it? I presume that if you are the kinda reckless wizard to join, you are the kinda reckless wizard to spontaneously travel to Sweden on two weeks notice. I could bother you with the history of 40K Magic. There surely are stories from that road. But anecdotes and bluffs are not what this is about. Still, in the history of…
Again it is my pleasure to give the word to Viktor "Oldschool" Peterson. /Mg out We reached the goal of €11,000! Today we close this successful fundraiser where we jointly collected €11 006 to the Ukrainian victims of the current war! Thank you all so much for your support, its heartwarming to see the kindness shown in this old school community for people in need. Unfortunately, the war rages on…
First thing first. Eleven thousand Euros. There's still a few days left on the campaign if you want to chip in. And god damn, this is the kind of thing that make me happy to be a part of the oldschool community. €11,000 is a lot of money, and it's money that could actually help people in need. These things are important, far more important than having "the best deck" or things like that, and the…