Oh, _that's_ why Hurloon Wrangler has denimwalk... Excellent showcase of what can be a hard-to-swallow lesson for developers: The game's community, not its creators, defines its beloved icons. (See also Fblthp.)
It's sort of an evolution. When a game is new, it's only the passion of its creators that keep it going. Especially in the early years of Magic, up until about mid-1997ish, its creators and their immediate network were still its largest community. Early Magic influences, people like Randy Buehler, Mark Rosewater, Mark Gottlieb, Aaron Forsyth, and Erik Lauer, were people who started out as fans/pros of the game who rotated in and out of WotC employment. The early testers and developers for sets like Fallen Empires, Ice Age, Homelands, and Mirage, for the most part, had been there at the beginning. I don't know for certain, but I'm willing to bet this is true for a lot of long-running game franchises.
Hurloom Minotaur was one of the earliest ads I remember for MtG. The other being "Someone in Nebraska just summoned Lord of the Pit. And he's sending him your way."
I have a great minotaur deck! I had to take Hurley and the other vanilla minotaurs out as I continued to upgrade it throughout the years. I create custom tokens with my fav vanilla bulls- Hurley, Canyon Minotaur, and pensive minotaur. I call it my minotaur horde deck :D
"The age of esoteric was over, the time of cute had come" And here we are today, with Bloomburrow and Duskmourn battling out for the hearts of the players
It’s so weird how they’ve been promoting those sets almost simultaneously. I know we’re in the Eternal Spoiler Season era right now, but they uploaded a Planeswalker’s Guide to Duskmourn weeks before BLB’s release. Do they not have faith in the premise or something?
@@Nonregional I think between the perpetual vomit of Innistrad and diarrhea of Phyrexia, Wizards understands the playerbase is probably tired of "horror-themed" sets. My guess is that Duskmourn is scheduled to release with the new season of "Stranger Things," will have a whole Universes Beyond tie-in commander set, and nothing else will come of it. Bloomburrow seems to have people excited. And I can't blame them. After four years of mechs and wi-fi magic and cyberpunk BS and film noir and magical tommy guns and whatever in the name of christ Thunder Junction was trying to be, splashed with Warhammer and Fallout, I think Magic players are happy to get back into, you know, fantasy. And there's a sigh of releif that, at least once, Wizards is letting up on the endless spew of "EDGY AND EPIC!" Tell you the truth though I wonder how much has changed since that Sports Illustrated article - now that I've typed all that out, it kind of feels like Wizards is still embarassed by Magic, and wants it to be a "serious" medium instead of you know, wizards throwing octopuses at each other.
I think there was a missed opportunity with not reprinting this guy in Dominaria Remastered. It was the perfect chance to pay one last homage to the OG Magic mascot.
Hi Sam, I hope this comment finds you well. You may not remember me, but we met in Lucca last year at the 30th anniversary exhibition, on a rainy Saturday. We chatted a bit and I asked you to sign my copy of Llanowar Elves. Hearing you talk, even if only for a minute, about Kev Walker's creative process is still my highlight of that day. Something funny happened afterwards. As I was leaving the building, practically racing downstairs, I almost bump into Peter Adkison. I had no clue who he was, but intuited he was someone important as two convention stewards with bright yellow vests caught up and accompanied him upstairs. I remember standing there, on the landing, transfixed by the minotaur Mr Adkison sported on his back. Seeing it here, even just in pictures, is emotional. Thank you, Sam, not only for sharing your knowledge and boundless enthusiasm, but for indirectly making this moment happen. That year, Lucca felt like a momentous gathering.
One of the things that made early Magic so incredible was how unpolished it was. There was mystery in the flavor text and what it meant, or who or what the characters, worlds, and factions were. The art being pulled from a lot of places, and in a lot of styles contributed to that as well. Even the card interactions were far less planned. Today Magic is a deliberate machine in every way, leading you down the path the company sets for you. Before there were things to wonder about, and to discover.
These small clearings in the forest of Magic's knowledge still exist -- places where you can explore interactions that don't seem to be designed. I've got a Commander deck that explores the idea of, "what if I mutate a creature on to a vehicle?". These weird avenues are there to be found, but they require a bit of concerted effort to go exploring for them.
@Quroe_ nah that's a completely different think. You are talking about uncertain rules interactions caused by complexity creep. He is talking about the interest and intrigue of magic's settings, flavor, and aesthetic which has all bit disappeared in recent times
I guess I came into the game at a very pivotal point; Weatherlight was the first expansion I was able to get into with everyone else and that was basically the prequel to the start of that massive story with Gerrard and crew.
I get the love for Hurloon Minotaur because it was one of the earliest displays of MTG's identity. It was not simply a random creature, it was a entire character transmitted to the player with a image and some text. This makes me wonder why doesn't have more nods to it, especially on the Modern sets.
Yeah I agree. mythology and occult/esoteric lore were huge markers of mtg prior to sets like tempest. I recall the intrigue of mtg's mysticism in the artwork being the main draw for me as a kid when i was first introduced to the game. I think they've steered the ship towards more cute, kitsch and even campy subject matters in more recent lore. Sometimes you'll see some artwork that reminisces back to the earlier years but it seems more rare as time passes.
Ive got a whole minotaur tribal edh deck and 90% of the creatures are really bad vanillias but the art is so gorgeous I run them over busted cards. Hurloon minotaur is certainly one of them :)
I have an Angel deck that, ironically, runs a Revised Serra Angel for that exact reason. Back in Hurloon Minotaur's day is was a good card, but now history has resigned them both to the same level of playability.
Contemporary Magic has some of the best fantasy art available, and I'm glad for it... but these 90s images (Hurloon Minotaur, Benalish Hero, Prodigal Sorcerer) just HIT different.
Contemporary magic has awful digital slop art. Magic art had its hay day back when they first changed the card frame in the 2000s. Back when artists actually made art and not just hyper-realistic bullshit.
It really doesn't. Outside of a few artists (Seb, Jesper, Terese, etc.) and special treatments, most modern card art is the same uninspired WotC art that showed up with DnD 5E. While it's generally ok to good art in a technical sense, that's about it. Of course, I'd chalk that up to the company mandating a mostly uniform art style and they picked one that is very boring.
@@Crimson_Fist My favorite type of internet comment is the person who jumps into the replies of someone who expresses their like for something and tells them they're wrong for liking the thing. Y'all are classy people.
There is not that much to say about Nadu. I can write you a script in two minutes: "WotC needed Modern Horizon to sell a lot of packs so they pushed a lot of cards. R&D is staffed by complete incompetent fools who only care about what would be cool to have in commander. MaRo should have been fired 15 years ago after Mirrodin block but somehow he is still around and he can't help himself but make green cards completely OP. Modern is now Modern horizon block constructed and Legacy is now the most balanced format in magic for some reason. Standard has been dead for a while and nobody cares about it. Magic is now glorified cardboard funkopops."
As a former magic player i love your content so so so much, your storytelling skills are insane and your choice of subjects are just next level, i would never have thought about this card again if it wasent for this video.. now i sit after a 13min video and think back to when i was a kid in school playing magic with my friends.. it warms my heart.. i miss those days..
I know it doesn’t show up all the time, and I certainly would devour more if more were put out, but damn, Rhystic Studies content just hits different. Just absolute quality and absorbing storytelling. Masterful quality and presentation as always.
This is the first time one of your videos has been recommended to me in months. You should see what UA-cam is doing with your channel because I’m not seeing your posts, and I’m subscribed.
i understand that its frustrating when youtube doesn't serve content from channels you're subscribed to on your home page, but if you gander over to the "subscriptions" tab then you'll find everything there for certain :)
Yeah you need to use the subscribed tab to get your actual sub feed. A surprising number of people don't do this. The Home tab is specifically your discovery algorithm, kind of like if the default page of Spotify was the list of random songs it thinks you'll like that play after finishing the song you ACTUALLY want, instead of your actual saved library.
Use your subscription tab if you don’t want to miss content. For me, any other place on UA-cam never brought up the content from channels I’m subscribed to.
Magic is such a strange hobby, because I feel like I'm fairly enfranchised, and I spend quite a bit of time and money on it, and I'm familiar with a lot of history and esoterica associated with the game, and somehow I never knew that some random 3 drop from Alpha was the face of the game in its early days.
I love the art of Hurloon Minotaur, probably due to it being so ingrained in those early promotions. The card may suck, but since it defined Minotaurs in Magic I'm able to use the 2 Revised ones I have for Sethron tokens.
To be fair, the Minotaur tattoo designs I always thought were amazing, and a significant identifier for Magic, and I still enjoy them. I wouldn't mind if we had more of them in the future, and while the cards did just bite for the most part, that design aesthetic was on point.
Maybe I'm the wrong one here, but I wish Hurloon had stuck around more and stayed more relevant. It promotes this rich, thoughtful and gorgeous depiction of red creatures. Not a rampaging brute, but a person who found their peace in the passion of red.
I don't normally comment on youtube videos that much, but every time one of your videos comes out it makes me so very happy. Your work and love for this game is inspiring and I feel a kindred spirit there; someone that cares so deeply for this silly little slice of gaming history. It evokes the same feeling in me watching these videos as a cozy night at the pub with old friends, drinking and laughing over old memories playing with pieces of expensive cardboard. I never sleeve my decks anymore, I love to play the game as raw and viscerally as I can, and your content has truly made a huge difference in how I see value and historical accuracy. It seems silly to become so emotional about cardstock, or towards a content creator who may never see this comment and whom I will almost certainly never meet nor speak to, but I hope that a little of the wellspring of emotion I feel carries across over so simple and elegant a passion. Keep up the fantastic work.
I just had an idea for a video and thought you might be interested. With the releasing of Mystery Booster 2, you could do a video on 'the mystery of a booster' and break down booster pack history, design structure over time, and delve into card rarity. From there, I imagine there is a lot that goes into card design vs rarity and how that all plays together. What do you think?
This video harkens back to simpler times, when I remember binging your first 20, or so, videos. Videos about simpler concepts, mostly just a card, or an artist. I love these times too, but nostalgia is powerful. Thanks Sam.
I haven’t played mtg or followed any content creator in about 5 years… but I always watch a Rhystic Studies video because his videos transcends the card game itself
God, me in my corporate grime; I am but blessed, goodness to see an upload from exactly what I want; a mascot here perhaps, but here for me is an escape
Thank you for eluminating the pricing of this card. I stumbled over it on a scryfall search some years ago for a minotaur deck. It was one of those cards i was going to buy bcs of the art not the playability. You did use better words then i have to describe the effect the art had on me. Cards like this are what mtgs soul is for me. Thanks a lot for the video
Music was so good. The tone it gave off was like unraveling a mystery that didn’t need solving yet as you dug deeper into the threads of everything the more entangled in the details you become.
The LAST thing I expected to see was one of my fave esport teams in this random video from a channel I’ve never watched before. Thats fantastic! Basilisk has great taste in SC2 pros so I don’t doubt you are a worthy addition
Dude, this card WAS Magic the Gathering to me when I was a kid. I absolutely love the simple mystery of the art. Anson Maddocks, Mark Tedin, and Quinton Hoover remain some of my favourite MtG artists of all time.
I was just a teenager living in a smal city in Brazil and start playing during Mercadian Masques. I knew it wasn't a strong card. But my God I loved the minotaurs. I already had a thing for "old" cards at the time...... true mages know that the real power of a card comes from things that can be put into words............
So unreal to realise you were in Lucca last year, when I still didn’t know anything about Magic. Now, one year later, I would have really loved to come see you when you were here in Italy! Alla prossima volta, Sam!
Ideas for future videos: • Looking at the artwork of original lands - what is if any their relationship to the broader narrative of painting the landscape all throughout art history? What considerations did bringing the expense of a huge landscape - a mountain down into small squarish rectangle pictorial space, to a function as a staple to a gameplay, to largely become “part of the furniture”, to be seen but not noticed, bring to the artists? Where were these places depicted? Where do they stand in context of Secret Lair lands that sell for a premium? • Delving into ‘tapping’. Why tapping, why turning a card sideways, why the name during the development of the game. Contextualising against card effects that don’t require tapping. Iconic cards that tapped (E.g. Prodigal Wizard). Tapping as a handful of tangible, gestural “dance” to MTG play (something “lost” and automated/animated in its digital forms) - outside of drawing, putting down cards, shuffling, transferring cards (discard, graveyard). All of which poses an obstacle to players with accessibility difficulties. Was there ever thoughts of MTG as being inclusive of such folks during its development and inception? • Shivan Dragon - off hand one of the few cards with artworks that feature a perspective that’s dramatically looking straight up. Even the horrors of Lord Of The Pit come with an eye level view. What was the story of Shivan Dragon? Its artwork almost capturing the same moments before death brought upon by an overwhelming, towering, fearsome, unbridled raging beast
Wow, the young artist Gallegos picture is a good pull! And since was introduced to the game during 4th edition, the power of Hurloon Minotaur's visgae is imprinted deep in my mind.
I really cannot be happier to have a minotaur episode on your channel! They are my favorite tribe and my copy of Hurloon minotaur is a gift from a friend that I really treasure! Thanks for a great video again!! A nice rest from writing my master thesis 😂
Hurloon Minotaur's statline may be scoffed at, but I drafted Beta with my friend, and let me tell you, when he lands he's a beast. Almost, "How will I come back from this?" Level of power. Thanks for fleshing out the fond feelings I already had for this vanilla.
I think it's worth mentioning that Hurly had a lot of fans among casual players, even if the tournament dudes knew it was bad. The staying power of the 2/3 minotaur continues with that being the default size of minotaurs in Theros and elsewhere
Hurloon minotaur is one of my favourite cards. The art is simply one of the best paintings ever done for Magic, period. I own only two Alpha cards, and the minotaur is one of them.
I know a lot consider Brian David Marshall the official historian of Magic competitive play, but you, Sam, are definitely defining the genre in your own way and would love to see a book or long-form documentary of all you have learned over the years!
There’s a certain beauty in the timing posting this just before Bloomborrow I feel (a set I should be clear I’m pumped for). I started playing in revised and boy we’ve come a long way creatively
Hurloon Minotaur is the first card that left a strong impression within me ; one of the first card i ever saw and the seed of my interest for this game. pretty solid job for a 3ccm red vanilla 2/3
I don't think I've ever been this early to one of your videos... Great job! As a player that started during Battle for Zendikar, I was always confused about the minotaur memes parroted by the regulars there. Fascinating subject!
Hurloon being a not-good card even upon release but becoming the icon of Magic in those days really speaks to the power of artwork and aesthetics drawing people into the game. I fell in love when I saw the original blue border!
Great video As a piece of further anecdotal evidence to support the hypnotic nature of the card, i just got back into Magic this year after a very long hiatus, and i decided a minotaur deck would be awesome. Inevitably i discovered Hurloon online and instantly knew i must include it, even seeing that it's not the greatest card mechanically. I just loved the art so much. I had no idea about any of its history until right now 😅.
Saw you at MagicCon chicago and I’m hoping to see you again in Las Vegas. I absolutely love your videos and youve helped me truly fall in love with the game
I worked a booth at MagicCon Minneapolis and we sold one of those Denim Jackets, just gorgeous. Thousands of dollars for a denim jacket, Magic is amazing.
This video made me realize a lot. "Players don't like Hurloon Minoutaur", "Homelands was made for the company" and "players like good cards" revelead to me that I'm disconnected from most of the playerbase for way longer than I thought - because I like some bad cards (like Craw wurm, Hurloon Minotaur and other junk), I like Homelands nonsense from a Vorthos perspective and I like those things more than I like Magic, the game. I should have realized this 25 years ago: I like Magic/the Old Lore, but I'm not the target market for the cards. I was in an ok place when some things pleased everyone (good cards, 80-90s art, cool lore), but now that they are focused on what "players like": powerful cards, flashy things, Universes Beyond... Maybe I'm a very small part of the target market, not the user they have in mind when they design current magic. I think they are wrong because they are losing identity fast, but that's not the point. Maybe I was a way smaller section of the playerbase than I thought. I should have stick to art books and stuff like that instead of reading huge text boxes in commander cards that feel like playing with tax forms. Realizing that Magic wasn't really made for me when I started playing, that I'm merely tolerated as customer, could have saved me a lot of time and money. My point is... Some of us actually liked the minotaur. More than the lonely boring Angel in the control deck. Maybe at some point people will realize Peter was right all along, or maybe he was not... I wasn't really expecting to "kinda quit" today, but, since this video has boomer stuff and pokemon references, let's not forget the cycling rule: "there is a time and place for everything". At least for me, the magic feels long gone.
Shortly after I started playing, a friend got me the Theros minotaur preconatructed deck (just a 60 card kitchen table deck, not a commander one). While it wasn't nearly on the power level of standard decks, I really enjoyed playing it casually. They played with the mechanical identity of minotaurs being 2/3s which made Rollick of Abandon (everything gets +2/-2 until end of turn) into what was sometimes a one sided board wipe plus a trumpet blast.
This is so well down. I love your videos. Keep up the great work. I have been playing since 1994 and I remember in revised the minotaur being the face of magic, and I remember myself and other 12 year friends wondering why this terrible card was the face of magic. Serra Angel always seemed more appropriate.
as a kid in nineties europe I had not even seen these adds, seeing it on the booster pack was the closest, but I still thought it looked rad and outrageous
Started playing when I was 8 during Alpha. It was a very popular game at my school. At that age I imagined the land sprawling out before me, and monsters being summoned. I never experienced that sort of thing with toys. I went through my old boxes and found cards I made by cutting out various parts of cards sanding and gluing them. A couple looked decent considering
For us in South America (Chile specifically) it was the Juzam Djinn. Most of the posters in old LGS' were about Juzam Djinn and Lord of the Pit. Good times back then :P
funny enough I was browsing through bargain bin at a shop 6 months ago and found this card. I didn't know the history of the card or that it had been so iconic but I liked it. It's in my "cool card" binder right now!
I started playing in 2014, but Hurloon Minotaur was one of the first cards I ever owned. It was in a plastic baggie of red cards I bought at a garage sale mixed in with some Mercadian Masks cards.
Hurloon Wrangler from Unglued having Denimwalk now makes SO much more sense.
Was just coming here to mention that.
oh well found !!
well and wrangler is a brand of denim jeans
Yeah I remeber when the joke was first explained to me being like "oooooooh! now i get it!"
"Nothing's coming between me and my didgeridoos"
Oh, _that's_ why Hurloon Wrangler has denimwalk...
Excellent showcase of what can be a hard-to-swallow lesson for developers: The game's community, not its creators, defines its beloved icons. (See also Fblthp.)
It's sort of an evolution. When a game is new, it's only the passion of its creators that keep it going. Especially in the early years of Magic, up until about mid-1997ish, its creators and their immediate network were still its largest community. Early Magic influences, people like Randy Buehler, Mark Rosewater, Mark Gottlieb, Aaron Forsyth, and Erik Lauer, were people who started out as fans/pros of the game who rotated in and out of WotC employment.
The early testers and developers for sets like Fallen Empires, Ice Age, Homelands, and Mirage, for the most part, had been there at the beginning. I don't know for certain, but I'm willing to bet this is true for a lot of long-running game franchises.
Hurloom Minotaur was one of the earliest ads I remember for MtG. The other being "Someone in Nebraska just summoned Lord of the Pit. And he's sending him your way."
That sounds like a bad porn advert "Lord of the pits in your area"
@@TempestDacine And he intends to become the lord of YOUR pit "smooth jazz begins"
Built a minotaurs-only commander deck and absolutely had to include Hurley. Always brings smiles to the table whenever he drops.
@thecrazyspud: Now I wanna see Jorge Garcia play a minotaur.
I have a great minotaur deck! I had to take Hurley and the other vanilla minotaurs out as I continued to upgrade it throughout the years. I create custom tokens with my fav vanilla bulls- Hurley, Canyon Minotaur, and pensive minotaur. I call it my minotaur horde deck :D
"looks remarkably like kermit the frog" my boy richard caught a stray
Such an absolute asshole thing to say.
He is talking about the expression on his face being similar to a common kermit expression of disgust
@@Kryptnyt No, the similarity and the similarity of expression are two distinct thoughts by the writer
"He Grimaces"
But you said he looked like Kermit, not Grimace!
@@Zomburai45Not surprising, considering it's "sports illustrated "
10:40 Jesse as a Serra Angel is an adorable little bit of art.
shes my Serra Angel 🥹
"The age of esoteric was over, the time of cute had come"
And here we are today, with Bloomburrow and Duskmourn battling out for the hearts of the players
It’s so weird how they’ve been promoting those sets almost simultaneously. I know we’re in the Eternal Spoiler Season era right now, but they uploaded a Planeswalker’s Guide to Duskmourn weeks before BLB’s release. Do they not have faith in the premise or something?
*wallets
@@Nonregional I think between the perpetual vomit of Innistrad and diarrhea of Phyrexia, Wizards understands the playerbase is probably tired of "horror-themed" sets. My guess is that Duskmourn is scheduled to release with the new season of "Stranger Things," will have a whole Universes Beyond tie-in commander set, and nothing else will come of it.
Bloomburrow seems to have people excited. And I can't blame them. After four years of mechs and wi-fi magic and cyberpunk BS and film noir and magical tommy guns and whatever in the name of christ Thunder Junction was trying to be, splashed with Warhammer and Fallout, I think Magic players are happy to get back into, you know, fantasy. And there's a sigh of releif that, at least once, Wizards is letting up on the endless spew of "EDGY AND EPIC!"
Tell you the truth though I wonder how much has changed since that Sports Illustrated article - now that I've typed all that out, it kind of feels like Wizards is still embarassed by Magic, and wants it to be a "serious" medium instead of you know, wizards throwing octopuses at each other.
@@TheRusty Most underrated comment; well said!
Duskmourn isn’t esoteric, it’s 80s nostalgia horror slop
Seeing Sam in a picture witha bunch of Starcraft Pros for Basilisk feels like a crossover episode to me.
I think there was a missed opportunity with not reprinting this guy in Dominaria Remastered. It was the perfect chance to pay one last homage to the OG Magic mascot.
Wow that's actually sad
There was a Hurloon battle hymn (with Firesong and Sunspeaker in the art) in Dominaria United, not sure if that counts.
Hi Sam, I hope this comment finds you well. You may not remember me, but we met in Lucca last year at the 30th anniversary exhibition, on a rainy Saturday. We chatted a bit and I asked you to sign my copy of Llanowar Elves. Hearing you talk, even if only for a minute, about Kev Walker's creative process is still my highlight of that day. Something funny happened afterwards. As I was leaving the building, practically racing downstairs, I almost bump into Peter Adkison. I had no clue who he was, but intuited he was someone important as two convention stewards with bright yellow vests caught up and accompanied him upstairs. I remember standing there, on the landing, transfixed by the minotaur Mr Adkison sported on his back. Seeing it here, even just in pictures, is emotional. Thank you, Sam, not only for sharing your knowledge and boundless enthusiasm, but for indirectly making this moment happen. That year, Lucca felt like a momentous gathering.
God, that image is so iconic. Really takes me back.
I really do remember loving the visual and being confused by how bad this card was.
One of the things that made early Magic so incredible was how unpolished it was. There was mystery in the flavor text and what it meant, or who or what the characters, worlds, and factions were. The art being pulled from a lot of places, and in a lot of styles contributed to that as well. Even the card interactions were far less planned. Today Magic is a deliberate machine in every way, leading you down the path the company sets for you. Before there were things to wonder about, and to discover.
These small clearings in the forest of Magic's knowledge still exist -- places where you can explore interactions that don't seem to be designed. I've got a Commander deck that explores the idea of, "what if I mutate a creature on to a vehicle?". These weird avenues are there to be found, but they require a bit of concerted effort to go exploring for them.
@Quroe_ I think they're more referring to the mystique of the world's and characters and not necessarily the depths of the mechanics.
@Quroe_ nah that's a completely different think. You are talking about uncertain rules interactions caused by complexity creep. He is talking about the interest and intrigue of magic's settings, flavor, and aesthetic which has all bit disappeared in recent times
@@Quroe_I think you're talking about something else. Mechanics and gameplay depth
I guess I came into the game at a very pivotal point; Weatherlight was the first expansion I was able to get into with everyone else and that was basically the prequel to the start of that massive story with Gerrard and crew.
That denim jacket is so legendary, the ultimate grail
Seriously, that jacket is cold asf 🥶🥶🥶
Jessie as Serra angel goes unexpectedly hard
I get the love for Hurloon Minotaur because it was one of the earliest displays of MTG's identity. It was not simply a random creature, it was a entire character transmitted to the player with a image and some text.
This makes me wonder why doesn't have more nods to it, especially on the Modern sets.
Yeah I agree. mythology and occult/esoteric lore were huge markers of mtg prior to sets like tempest. I recall the intrigue of mtg's mysticism in the artwork being the main draw for me as a kid when i was first introduced to the game. I think they've steered the ship towards more cute, kitsch and even campy subject matters in more recent lore. Sometimes you'll see some artwork that reminisces back to the earlier years but it seems more rare as time passes.
Ive got a whole minotaur tribal edh deck and 90% of the creatures are really bad vanillias but the art is so gorgeous I run them over busted cards. Hurloon minotaur is certainly one of them :)
Likewise! Gotta have a didjeridoo!
I have an Angel deck that, ironically, runs a Revised Serra Angel for that exact reason.
Back in Hurloon Minotaur's day is was a good card, but now history has resigned them both to the same level of playability.
Breadsword, Folding Ideas, and Rhystic Studies are really my only “drop everything and watch” channels.
Thanks for this Sam!
Babe wake up, new rhystic studies just dropped
Rhystic study* lol
No she got it right. ._.@ekimyukselbaba8847
@ekimyukselbaba8847
Read the channel name
I know, babe, I just watched it
Contemporary Magic has some of the best fantasy art available, and I'm glad for it... but these 90s images (Hurloon Minotaur, Benalish Hero, Prodigal Sorcerer) just HIT different.
There really is such a history to it. It's awe-inspiring stuff to look at, some of those old 90s and early 00s arts.
Contemporary magic has awful digital slop art. Magic art had its hay day back when they first changed the card frame in the 2000s. Back when artists actually made art and not just hyper-realistic bullshit.
@@marcello9476 Okay.
It really doesn't. Outside of a few artists (Seb, Jesper, Terese, etc.) and special treatments, most modern card art is the same uninspired WotC art that showed up with DnD 5E. While it's generally ok to good art in a technical sense, that's about it. Of course, I'd chalk that up to the company mandating a mostly uniform art style and they picked one that is very boring.
@@Crimson_Fist My favorite type of internet comment is the person who jumps into the replies of someone who expresses their like for something and tells them they're wrong for liking the thing. Y'all are classy people.
Adkinson being there in his jacket is so sick man. Fun video, thanks Sam :)
Can't wait for the inevitable video on Nadu
The video is 4 seconds long. The only image is a picture of Nadu. The narration is simply, "This card should be banned".
Nah, it'd be like the video on Gaak@@migrn
Give it at least a year for the full story to play out.
We can wait
There is not that much to say about Nadu. I can write you a script in two minutes: "WotC needed Modern Horizon to sell a lot of packs so they pushed a lot of cards. R&D is staffed by complete incompetent fools who only care about what would be cool to have in commander. MaRo should have been fired 15 years ago after Mirrodin block but somehow he is still around and he can't help himself but make green cards completely OP. Modern is now Modern horizon block constructed and Legacy is now the most balanced format in magic for some reason. Standard has been dead for a while and nobody cares about it. Magic is now glorified cardboard funkopops."
As a former magic player i love your content so so so much, your storytelling skills are insane and your choice of subjects are just next level, i would never have thought about this card again if it wasent for this video.. now i sit after a 13min video and think back to when i was a kid in school playing magic with my friends.. it warms my heart.. i miss those days..
I know it doesn’t show up all the time, and I certainly would devour more if more were put out, but damn, Rhystic Studies content just hits different. Just absolute quality and absorbing storytelling. Masterful quality and presentation as always.
Sam has a PhD in Linguistics if I recall correctly... And it most definitely shows...
This is the first time one of your videos has been recommended to me in months. You should see what UA-cam is doing with your channel because I’m not seeing your posts, and I’m subscribed.
He only posts once every 1-2 months so the algorithm won't pick it up
i understand that its frustrating when youtube doesn't serve content from channels you're subscribed to on your home page, but if you gander over to the "subscriptions" tab then you'll find everything there for certain :)
Yeah you need to use the subscribed tab to get your actual sub feed. A surprising number of people don't do this.
The Home tab is specifically your discovery algorithm, kind of like if the default page of Spotify was the list of random songs it thinks you'll like that play after finishing the song you ACTUALLY want, instead of your actual saved library.
Use your subscription tab if you don’t want to miss content. For me, any other place on UA-cam never brought up the content from channels I’m subscribed to.
Magic is such a strange hobby, because I feel like I'm fairly enfranchised, and I spend quite a bit of time and money on it, and I'm familiar with a lot of history and esoterica associated with the game, and somehow I never knew that some random 3 drop from Alpha was the face of the game in its early days.
I love the art of Hurloon Minotaur, probably due to it being so ingrained in those early promotions. The card may suck, but since it defined Minotaurs in Magic I'm able to use the 2 Revised ones I have for Sethron tokens.
There was a jacket in a glass case at GenCon a few years ago and I was tempted to do a Mission Impossible rappel from the rafters at 3 AM to grab it.
To be fair, the Minotaur tattoo designs I always thought were amazing, and a significant identifier for Magic, and I still enjoy them. I wouldn't mind if we had more of them in the future, and while the cards did just bite for the most part, that design aesthetic was on point.
I was at Magic 1 Homelands release with my dad and brother. I remember the Hurloon Minotaur!!
Maybe I'm the wrong one here, but I wish Hurloon had stuck around more and stayed more relevant. It promotes this rich, thoughtful and gorgeous depiction of red creatures. Not a rampaging brute, but a person who found their peace in the passion of red.
I don't normally comment on youtube videos that much, but every time one of your videos comes out it makes me so very happy. Your work and love for this game is inspiring and I feel a kindred spirit there; someone that cares so deeply for this silly little slice of gaming history. It evokes the same feeling in me watching these videos as a cozy night at the pub with old friends, drinking and laughing over old memories playing with pieces of expensive cardboard. I never sleeve my decks anymore, I love to play the game as raw and viscerally as I can, and your content has truly made a huge difference in how I see value and historical accuracy. It seems silly to become so emotional about cardstock, or towards a content creator who may never see this comment and whom I will almost certainly never meet nor speak to, but I hope that a little of the wellspring of emotion I feel carries across over so simple and elegant a passion.
Keep up the fantastic work.
I just had an idea for a video and thought you might be interested. With the releasing of Mystery Booster 2, you could do a video on 'the mystery of a booster' and break down booster pack history, design structure over time, and delve into card rarity. From there, I imagine there is a lot that goes into card design vs rarity and how that all plays together. What do you think?
This video harkens back to simpler times, when I remember binging your first 20, or so, videos. Videos about simpler concepts, mostly just a card, or an artist. I love these times too, but nostalgia is powerful. Thanks Sam.
I haven’t played mtg or followed any content creator in about 5 years… but I always watch a Rhystic Studies video because his videos transcends the card game itself
God, me in my corporate grime; I am but blessed, goodness to see an upload from exactly what I want; a mascot here perhaps, but here for me is an escape
Thank you for eluminating the pricing of this card.
I stumbled over it on a scryfall search some years ago for a minotaur deck.
It was one of those cards i was going to buy bcs of the art not the playability.
You did use better words then i have to describe the effect the art had on me.
Cards like this are what mtgs soul is for me.
Thanks a lot for the video
Music was so good. The tone it gave off was like unraveling a mystery that didn’t need solving yet as you dug deeper into the threads of everything the more entangled in the details you become.
Your work always reminds me that Magic has always been bigger than Wizards.
As a fan of both SC2 and MtG, its amazing seeing a pic of you with the rest of the Basilisk team Rotterdam, Reynor, Serral, and trigger
The various original arts for Anaba Shaman are some of my favorite Magic pieces visually, to this day.
The LAST thing I expected to see was one of my fave esport teams in this random video from a channel I’ve never watched before. Thats fantastic! Basilisk has great taste in SC2 pros so I don’t doubt you are a worthy addition
Dude, this card WAS Magic the Gathering to me when I was a kid. I absolutely love the simple mystery of the art. Anson Maddocks, Mark Tedin, and Quinton Hoover remain some of my favourite MtG artists of all time.
I was just a teenager living in a smal city in Brazil and start playing during Mercadian Masques. I knew it wasn't a strong card. But my God I loved the minotaurs. I already had a thing for "old" cards at the time...... true mages know that the real power of a card comes from things that can be put into words............
So unreal to realise you were in Lucca last year, when I still didn’t know anything about Magic. Now, one year later, I would have really loved to come see you when you were here in Italy! Alla prossima volta, Sam!
Let's goooo. Good seeing you in Amsterdam bud!
Ideas for future videos:
• Looking at the artwork of original lands - what is if any their relationship to the broader narrative of painting the landscape all throughout art history? What considerations did bringing the expense of a huge landscape - a mountain down into small squarish rectangle pictorial space, to a function as a staple to a gameplay, to largely become “part of the furniture”, to be seen but not noticed, bring to the artists? Where were these places depicted? Where do they stand in context of Secret Lair lands that sell for a premium?
• Delving into ‘tapping’. Why tapping, why turning a card sideways, why the name during the development of the game. Contextualising against card effects that don’t require tapping. Iconic cards that tapped (E.g. Prodigal Wizard). Tapping as a handful of tangible, gestural “dance” to MTG play (something “lost” and automated/animated in its digital forms) - outside of drawing, putting down cards, shuffling, transferring cards (discard, graveyard). All of which poses an obstacle to players with accessibility difficulties. Was there ever thoughts of MTG as being inclusive of such folks during its development and inception?
• Shivan Dragon - off hand one of the few cards with artworks that feature a perspective that’s dramatically looking straight up. Even the horrors of Lord Of The Pit come with an eye level view. What was the story of Shivan Dragon? Its artwork almost capturing the same moments before death brought upon by an overwhelming, towering, fearsome, unbridled raging beast
Wow, the young artist Gallegos picture is a good pull! And since was introduced to the game during 4th edition, the power of Hurloon Minotaur's visgae is imprinted deep in my mind.
I really cannot be happier to have a minotaur episode on your channel! They are my favorite tribe and my copy of Hurloon minotaur is a gift from a friend that I really treasure! Thanks for a great video again!! A nice rest from writing my master thesis 😂
Sethron has been on the build pile for a while and I think this was my green light to finally put it together with Hurloon and all his friends.
Hurloon Minotaur's statline may be scoffed at, but I drafted Beta with my friend, and let me tell you, when he lands he's a beast. Almost, "How will I come back from this?" Level of power. Thanks for fleshing out the fond feelings I already had for this vanilla.
I think it's worth mentioning that Hurly had a lot of fans among casual players, even if the tournament dudes knew it was bad. The staying power of the 2/3 minotaur continues with that being the default size of minotaurs in Theros and elsewhere
I had a German Fourth Edition copy that I absolutely loved as a kid. I treasured that card.
I've been playing for over a decade but have never heard a peep about this minotaur. Very cool
Dan and Rachel voiceovers is the crossover I’ve been waiting for!! I love these shorter videos, feels like classic magicmansam. Thanks for this video.
Hurloon minotaur is one of my favourite cards. The art is simply one of the best paintings ever done for Magic, period. I own only two Alpha cards, and the minotaur is one of them.
Yo hold up Jesse dressed up as Serra Angel at 10:43 kinda slaps tho
I know a lot consider Brian David Marshall the official historian of Magic competitive play, but you, Sam, are definitely defining the genre in your own way and would love to see a book or long-form documentary of all you have learned over the years!
There’s a certain beauty in the timing posting this just before Bloomborrow I feel (a set I should be clear I’m pumped for). I started playing in revised and boy we’ve come a long way creatively
I've always loved Hurloon Minotaur's art. Yes, the card sucks, but the art outlives its medium.
THE perfect video length. Watched this only best of the run time. Also minotaurs.
The end of this video is inspired. Beginning like you're going to go on another tangent, and then just breaking it off after a brief callback.
Dan Sheehan and Rachel Weeks?! Star studded episode!
You, Sir, are a National Treasure. Love your videos. I always end learning new lore and trivia about the game and it's Art. Thanks!
Hurloon Minotaur was my first MTG card. A friend of mine gave me one at school back on 1997.
Dude makes free documentaries for us, what a guy 🥰
That's how you enjoy a video. Love the content. Keep up the great work.
Part of me likes to thing that Hurley can represent the every-person who comes to play the games their way rather than for the competitive flash.
Hurloon Minotaur is the first card that left a strong impression within me ; one of the first card i ever saw and the seed of my interest for this game.
pretty solid job for a 3ccm red vanilla 2/3
I think Wizards should redeem the Hurloon Minotaurs. I'd like to see them come back as a good tribe at some point.
Such a satisfying running time for what will no doubt be such a satisfying video.
Nostalgia certainly isn't logical...a few years ago I bought a graded Alpha Hurloon Minotaur just to have it 🤷♂
I don't think I've ever been this early to one of your videos... Great job! As a player that started during Battle for Zendikar, I was always confused about the minotaur memes parroted by the regulars there. Fascinating subject!
You could have talked about the mtg novel, "ashes of the sun" which explored the minotaur culture in great length.
This is a very moving video essay. We are very, very lucky to have you in the community, Sam. 🐮
Red as a color represents Winning. Perhaps ol' Hurloon was a Herald of things to yet to take shape - being a Shaman and all.
Hurloon being a not-good card even upon release but becoming the icon of Magic in those days really speaks to the power of artwork and aesthetics drawing people into the game. I fell in love when I saw the original blue border!
Great video
As a piece of further anecdotal evidence to support the hypnotic nature of the card, i just got back into Magic this year after a very long hiatus, and i decided a minotaur deck would be awesome. Inevitably i discovered Hurloon online and instantly knew i must include it, even seeing that it's not the greatest card mechanically. I just loved the art so much.
I had no idea about any of its history until right now 😅.
I have a signed set of all Anson's minotaurs, and it's the only page in my binder that's not for trade.
I was expecting a parallel between the minotaur and the new "portrait" styled cards! Am I wrong in seeing the similarities between the two styles? :)
Saw you at MagicCon chicago and I’m hoping to see you again in Las Vegas. I absolutely love your videos and youve helped me truly fall in love with the game
Magic has such a rich history. Its beautiful. Thanks for another amazing vid
Getting Command Sphere nestalgia with these voice overs! Love it!!
Thank you for making this high quality historic content. I am now a happy subscriber 👍!
Bro, I love you're videos. So well crafted.
I worked a booth at MagicCon Minneapolis and we sold one of those Denim Jackets, just gorgeous. Thousands of dollars for a denim jacket, Magic is amazing.
I had no idea Hurloon Minotaur was such an icon, now I need to get one framed
This video made me realize a lot.
"Players don't like Hurloon Minoutaur", "Homelands was made for the company" and "players like good cards" revelead to me that I'm disconnected from most of the playerbase for way longer than I thought - because I like some bad cards (like Craw wurm, Hurloon Minotaur and other junk), I like Homelands nonsense from a Vorthos perspective and I like those things more than I like Magic, the game. I should have realized this 25 years ago: I like Magic/the Old Lore, but I'm not the target market for the cards.
I was in an ok place when some things pleased everyone (good cards, 80-90s art, cool lore), but now that they are focused on what "players like": powerful cards, flashy things, Universes Beyond... Maybe I'm a very small part of the target market, not the user they have in mind when they design current magic. I think they are wrong because they are losing identity fast, but that's not the point. Maybe I was a way smaller section of the playerbase than I thought. I should have stick to art books and stuff like that instead of reading huge text boxes in commander cards that feel like playing with tax forms. Realizing that Magic wasn't really made for me when I started playing, that I'm merely tolerated as customer, could have saved me a lot of time and money.
My point is... Some of us actually liked the minotaur. More than the lonely boring Angel in the control deck. Maybe at some point people will realize Peter was right all along, or maybe he was not...
I wasn't really expecting to "kinda quit" today, but, since this video has boomer stuff and pokemon references, let's not forget the cycling rule: "there is a time and place for everything". At least for me, the magic feels long gone.
Loved this, love minotaurs in myths and lore, MtG, D&D, Warhammer... anything!
Shortly after I started playing, a friend got me the Theros minotaur preconatructed deck (just a 60 card kitchen table deck, not a commander one). While it wasn't nearly on the power level of standard decks, I really enjoyed playing it casually. They played with the mechanical identity of minotaurs being 2/3s which made Rollick of Abandon (everything gets +2/-2 until end of turn) into what was sometimes a one sided board wipe plus a trumpet blast.
“He wore his denim jacket.” What a clean line.
This is so well down. I love your videos. Keep up the great work. I have been playing since 1994 and I remember in revised the minotaur being the face of magic, and I remember myself and other 12 year friends wondering why this terrible card was the face of magic. Serra Angel always seemed more appropriate.
as a kid in nineties europe I had not even seen these adds, seeing it on the booster pack was the closest, but I still thought it looked rad and outrageous
I said this last vid. But I think another vid idea could be the 3 card blind format. Seems like his type of vid to make. Also great vid as always.
I remember this card vividly. Wow. Great video.
Started playing when I was 8 during Alpha. It was a very popular game at my school. At that age I imagined the land sprawling out before me, and monsters being summoned. I never experienced that sort of thing with toys. I went through my old boxes and found cards I made by cutting out various parts of cards sanding and gluing them. A couple looked decent considering
Awesome! I never knew Hurloon Minotaur was this important for early Magic
Hurloon Minotaur is right up there with Dandan as far as the cards that are iconic because of the artwork, but that no one ever played.
For us in South America (Chile specifically) it was the Juzam Djinn. Most of the posters in old LGS' were about Juzam Djinn and Lord of the Pit. Good times back then :P
funny enough I was browsing through bargain bin at a shop 6 months ago and found this card. I didn't know the history of the card or that it had been so iconic but I liked it. It's in my "cool card" binder right now!
I started playing in 2014, but Hurloon Minotaur was one of the first cards I ever owned. It was in a plastic baggie of red cards I bought at a garage sale mixed in with some Mercadian Masks cards.