There was an Absorb from Invasion block opened in a long gone gamestore back where i studied. A couple snobby friends joke around the card meaning and image, and wrote/painted on it "Sorbetéalo" (slurp it) with golden ink. They laughed, and played with it. A boring Dad joke, yet the feeling of owning the card was not lost on me, during a time card signings and pre-release stamping was very frowned upon. Years passed, and one day during Ravnica Allegiance pre-release someone comes to me and asks for my copies of Absorb, which i had 3 on my packs. He needs 2, but has nothing i need. Then suddendly, in the midst of his binder i see it: That old Absorb from my college days. It's mine now.
Everytime I'm on vacation overseas, I stop at a local game store to buy a couple of singles (even if it's just a foil basic land) and doodle on one of them the date and place of my vacation with a sharpie. My decks are filled with cards that bear memories of my trips :)
To give you another story about a card with character, there's a shop in College Station, TX called "Clockwork Games" nestled in the back of a strip mall and known mostly by the magic community and advertised by word-of-mouth. On the counter next to their register is a contorted, ripped, extremely damaged Bruna, Light of Alabaster from Innistrad. It's encased in a thick resin case screwed shut in the corners, entombed and suspended in a brick of transparency. The story of it's origin is that during the Innistrad draft, someone actually pulled that Bruna from a prize pack, but it came fresh out of the pack with water damage, warping it and making it unplayable even with sleeves. The guy who drafted it was a regular and prone to fits of anger, and this was no different. He screamed, ripped the card into a hundred pieces, some rumors are he bit it at least twice, and threw them into the air and stormed out of the shop. The clerk behind the counter was irritated at having to clean up this guy's mess but wanted to see if the card could somehow be salvaged. He picked up every piece, used a tender amount of glue and tape to line it up as best as he could, then pressed it between the two slabs of resin to flatten it out as much as possible. Once he saw what he had made, he decided not to check if the card was made possibly playable again, but instead put it on display next to the shop's checkout computer. The man came back in for the week's FNM a few days later, saw the Bruna which was unmistakably his sitting there like a trophy on a shelf, and promptly left. I don't know if it was his last time in the shop, but I'd like to think he was either too embarrassed at his antics or angry at the cause to be near that thing. If you're ever in that town, see if Bruna's still there. I bet she'd like the visit.
Gig 'em! I only went to Clockwork once with a friend who was trying to introduce me to Magic, and didn't get the cardboard fever until I'd already graduated, but I could tell it was a great environment
When I was in university I was pretty poor but wanted to get into edh. I didn’t have sleeves, I didn’t have good cards, and I had illegal double faced cards because they were pennies compared to the full price. The people I played with were cool and each birthday I would be gifted a full art land. These lands were special though because my friend would draw a dumb/bad/cute little dragon into the background. (I was running a kartthus dragon deck). Each time I played those cards I would always say, “I play a birthday land”
There is a concept in Japanese literature called “mono no aware,” literally “pathos for things.” It describes the wistful sadness one feels at the passing of beautiful things, the cherry blossoms which last only for a few short days, the memories worn into fading ink and cardboard, a reminder of the transience of life and of time which moves ever forward. This was a beautiful video.
“Pathos of things” is not the literal translation of 物の哀れ. Aware means “sadness.” Mono no aware is literally “sadness of things.” Any use of “pathos” is flourish at best or misleading at worse.
I love Gonti as the commander for another reason: the aether born in nature are destined to die young, and therefore are more aware of their mortality than we are and value experiences over much material value.
@@jackalcoyote8777 I know I'm late to the convo, but seeing your comment made me laugh a bit. It's actually hilarious that Gonti is one of the only aetherborn that's has some "staying" power in the lore and he also happens to be the only card in that deck that actually has a protective "sleeve" around him.
What I love about the deck is that it fits so perfectly for an aetherborn. Their lives are incredibly short, and while Gonti has a means around that, there's no guarantee that his solution will last forever, or even for a human lifetime. So they play life as hard as they can, much like any aetherborn plays at life as hard as they can, regardless of the damage. After all, if you're falling apart anyway, why not dance as best as you can until you die?
watching this video again just to get a glimpse of the monster... I think the Sophie Deck has given new life to the cards so fortunate to find their way into the shuffle. The damage of each card tells a story individually, but the new assemblage of cardboard and manner in which DJ plays weaves a novel of new character for the deck.
They're a little scuffed in this sharpie-based form, but I bet a nice paint or ink for a glossy black veneer across the whole card would look extremely nice. It's a super cool idea.
Seriously. You look at them and you instantly get what they were going for. They also didn’t do it sloppy, either; you can see directionality to their lines in some of the cards
I first saw the deck a few years ago, and I was initially horrified at how beat up it was, more to the ideal of knowing the price of, rather than the value of the cards. This video showed me a new perspective on what it means for some piece of cardboard to be “valuable”. Thanks Mr. Studies.
I kind of want to push back a little bit - it's peak privilege to worry more about 'value' than 'worth'. More people's lives are affected by 'worth' than by 'value', it's effectively the difference between the lower and higher tiers of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Many, many people can play Magic, but only just barely, and so I don't blame people who choose to play this ludicrously expensive game and try to do what they can to recoup at least some of the game's steep cost. I know at least a few people who have ended up selling a Magic collection to pay for a medical emergency, or to make a major life change. It's something you can't do with just any piece of gaming equipment. Maybe if the culture (WotC, stores, event organizers) were more tolerant of proxies, non-rotating formats, using cubes, etc. things would be different. But many of the loudest and most effective voices in this hobby just want more and more money from the player base. For OGs or people who have already 'made it', I respect this higher admiration of Magic cards as some kind of abstract platonic ideal. But for the loads of people who have bills to pay and who aren't sure if they'll ever be able to retire, I can't help but respect their approach to preserving the 'worth' of their cards. Maybe if we didn't live in this kind of society, things might be different. If only.
@@martinertlschweiger8218 I completely get where you’re coming from. You and I, as well as everyone in the comments to Rhystic Studies himself have bills, lives and struggles that only the most well off get to ignore. I also agree that WoTC should make some changes to their systems that prioritizes fairness and exposes other eternal formats to the masses. Though, that’s a naive thought. However, the reason I now think of this game and these cards as “valuable” is because of sentiment. My most expensive cards I own are high school graduation gifts from my friends, signed by them so I “don’t forget where I got it.” And truthfully, magic my only real hobby, the rest of my life is bills and school and work. So, as privileged as it is to assign “value” to the cards that I love, it’s not out of attempting to look down upon anyone for it.
@@martinertlschweiger8218 found a solid proxy guy here where in live in China, sold my entire collection except a few sentimental cards, and I’m not looking back. If someone doesn’t wanna play with proxies, my guess is because they haven’t tried yet, or they’ve already made the investment. I’m here for the game, and these things are the real deal. Indistinguishable except for the proxy stamp on the back.
Hearing that naked ripple shuffle. . . That takes me back. It takes me back to boy scout meetings, parents laughing in the other room, organizing, goldfishing, crying over them about unrelated drama and lost loves. Brings me back to looking at a chance to by Unlimited packs and choosing Ice Age because I could have more cardboard to build more things. I cared more about experiences over things instead of the value of those things. My mom who is now into collectibles as a sort of hobby/savings asked me if any of my cards were worth something, I never told her about the Bayou I traded for the Birds of Paradise. Instead I smiled softly and said "yeah I had a few, sold them for less than I should have, bought more on the playground for more than I should have". I got hustled more than I hustled others, and in that moment maybe even in this moment as I type this out to you realized my childhood was ultimately a good one. Maybe not the one I wanted but a good one, I could imagine worse childhoods. Thanks, for this. I wasn't expect to cry on All Fools Eve.
My absolute most valuable card is a proxy. It’s a Gaia’s cradle that my girlfriend commissioned which depicts the two of us in a grotto of trees. I love it. If I ever get rid of my collection it will remain forever.
Although sillier, my girfriend and I proxy a lot of decks by printing the card front, cutting and sleeving with some cheap card. Sometimes, she would forget to print one or two, which leads to me hand-drawing the whole card as best as I can on a white sheet roughly the same size. The arts are so silly since I draw badly, but I even put my name on the corner and sometimes even do some flavor. My happy-brocoli Multani never fails to draw laughter out of anyone...and she treasures it like it's the best thing ever.
I have a playlist titled "Videos I Needed When I Watched Them." This video now resides there. I haven't felt this way about this game in years. This reminded me of playing old Kamigawa cards on the hot summer asphalt with the neighbor. I was only 6 at the time, so he gave me some old cards to play with. I still have those pieces of scratched up cardboard. Thank you for reminding me of this feeling.
You can tell this is such a wonderful video by the fact that the comments are filled with the experiences and stories, this essay reminds them of. It's such a relatable topic but is such a unique experience for us all.
This is so beautifully written. Ngl I teared up a little. When I was little, I used to play Yu-Gi-Oh without sleeves. When I look back on them, some of the creases on those cards were caused by friendly disputes with friends, as we were playing the game. Some of those friends I've lost touch with, some made poor choices and are in prisons I cannot visit, some passed onto the next life. The memories in those creases are priceless. 10/10
That Exoskeletal Armor having _only_ the damage from the crash is its own flavor, all its wear not being from a lifetime of regular use, but the singular moment of violence that you and it emerged from. That Armor is a snapshot as vivid as the photographs of its aftermath.
This made me so nostalgic for the days of playing "kitchen table" at day camp back when we used rubber bands, played by the pool, and were amazed by bulk rares like eater of days.
I remember '94, lunchroom table Magic in high school, decks held together with rubber bands, games played on tables smeared with grease, random condiments, and heaven knows what else, Moxen and dual lands with frayed edges and scratched backs, a BLACK F***ING LOTUS getting Coke spilled on it, its owner ugly-crying as he gently padded it off with a paper towel before spending all of 4th Period holding it under an air dryer while the rest of us silently thanked all that is pure and holy that it wasn't us. I remember the golden age.
Fun fact about the "stray blue ink" on the Library of Alexandria's Deckmaster insignia: that's actually a weird marbled effect on the deckmaster logo (according to Jesper Myrfors, the guy who designed it), and because Magic card backs are uniform it can't ever be changed. Every single Magic card, well-worn or pack-fresh, has that exact mark on it.
This reminds me of a story. Supposedly there is a highly signed copy of Hidetsugu’s Second Rite wandering around Victoria. Apparently the card won a lot of Canadian Highlander games, and each time a player lost to HSR they would sign it. A bit of culture in practice, you might say.
@@dra9onslayer If it's Canlander, then it'd be Victoria, BC. Victoria, Australia is much more likely to see Australian 7-Point play than Canlander play.
I think I went to that Yellowjacket when I was shopping in stores in Victoria. I had watched some MtG skits before (started playing ~2016), but I never knew that LRR was even Canadian at that time (didn't really binge their content until a year or so after). I saw a few collector stores, browsed cards and stuff. Ended up buying a King of Tokyo board game and two MAD Spy vs Spy compilation magazines from another store
I've been a long time fan, and I think this is the best video you've ever made. I just keep coming back to it over and over. Ever since I saw it, when I buy magic cards online or in stores I always ask for the worst condition version they have, it allows me to be so much less stressed about handling them or accidentally damaging them. It's message extends outside of magic as well. I've always thrifted for clothes, not only because I wanted to, but because it was so much cheaper and I've never had enough money to buy everything new. This video is a reminder I can revisit to remind myself not to be ashamed of wearing well loved clothes. Even if they aren't my memories, I can't help but feel more connected to the world and the people who might have worn them before me.
This is a video that has made me seriously reconsider how I view the things around me. As someone who obsessively washes his shoes, worries about the slightest knick on his clothes I am at a cross roads. Do I continue or do I embrace the stories, embrace the wear and tear… I’m struggling, I don’t know what to do, I’m inspired to change, but I also have that nagging voice in the back of my head telling me it won’t be perfect anymore. This video has made me think, and that’s the most important thing a story can do… thankyou.
I know you made this post 2 years ago, but here's a thought: Taking care of the things you cherish makes all of the little marks and scratches and bruises you can't fix all that much more meaningful.
A priceless card for me is the masterpiece Ornithopter, one of my favorite creatures in the game. It was the 0-3 prize pack at my LGS, a night where i felt rather down about my draft deck and thought had drafted good, built it properly, but it just couldn't even take one game let alone a match. I felt it was fitting that the blinged out 0/2 for 0 would come to me at the worst possible result, and just try to remember the first point of this game is to have fun.
Honestly, this is probably my favorite video of yours. There's something so visceral and real about the battered cards we play and the journeys they've been on. I appreciate the love of the VG and Damaged rectangles we cherish.
I think this is the best video Rhystic has ever made. I've always believed that things are more beautiful if they wear their story. There's nothing quite as ugly as an antique in age alone. So clinically precise and clean... there's no soul, or if it there is one it's more likely a haunting. The beauty found in the wear of something loved is unique and priceless. To quote one of my favorite books... “The point isn’t to win?” I asked. “The point,” Bredon said grandly, “is to play a beautiful game.” He lifted his hands and shrugged, his face breaking into a beatific smile. “Why would I want to win anything other than a beautiful game?” -Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear.
I think in Japanese there's a word/concept called "sabi" that refers to the beauty and spirit that objects acquire through age and use. Seems to perfectly encapsulate your beautiful and thoughtful reflection.
When I first started playing, while in high school, there were no sleeves to protect the cards. I bought from a local comic book shop, because game stores were not yet a thing. We riffle shuffled when we played and often our playmats were the smoothest piece of concrete we could find. Back then there was no thought of preserving the integrity of the card, no legal action. This was a new game that had only been around for about a year from a company no one had ever heard of. It was just as likely to go bankrupt in our mind as it was to thrive. I sold most of my collection after high school, saving a white/green and a black/red deck. Even when I came back to the game with Dominaria, I kept those cards separate from the rest of the new collection, a testament to when I was young and carefree.
I saw the title and within seconds of watching, knew it had to be about that glorious Gonti deck. Every one of your videos brings a new, interesting perspective to a game I thought I knew in and out. Keep up the great work man
I built a faerie deck for extended back in the day and have carried it all the way through to modern to this day. Promo spellstutters, dci bitterblossoms, foil deltas, foil thoughtseizes, signed mistbind and vendilion cliques, etc. The deck has seen thousands of games now. The shuffling has left a s-bend in the middle of every card. The secluded glens foiling is so stained and dark that its barely legible. Given to a shop id be lucky if they even took them. Heavily played for sure. But its a collection I built over 15 years - my entire career with MTG, and I have so many memories with that deck, both grand and foul. To me, I dont care if the cards are beat to hell. Its a mark of their service and of my love for this game, and the tempo archetype. I really appreciated this video. Because it touched on a lot of the reason I love playing thia game. Every card has a story. Every player has a favorite gem they wont let go of.
I really like this video. I have been playing magic for 10 years and in my youth played the cards sleeveless. On concrete, tables or the floor. There were times I was cringing because my instinct was to "SLEEVE IT IMMEDIATELY!" and seeing how he used to bring a plastic bag reminded me of how I used to do the same before I started making money. I still have those old cards and when I look back on the wear and tear on the cards I just smile because those were great memories of the game and how financially the value is worthless but personally its worth more than any other card I buy to make my decks competitive. Which is sad because I sleeve my cards to protect my investment and trying to win games instead of enjoying the game. I think we get lost in the monetary value of something we forget how we use these cards to play a game that bring friends from different backgrounds this video is the antithesis of what value is on a card. Now I just look at these cards as a way of making a quick buck and never seeing the cards for what they are and sleeving them to protect the quality of one day either selling them for more or for less when I acquired them or to pass them on to my kids. But things don't last forever and the memories I made with these cards no matter the wear and tear will always have a piece of me and the games we played. Therefore having the card tell a story which makes it that more valuable. Thanks for the reminder that value isn't always about money but after playing this game for 10 years I still have much to learn and find a new appreciation of cards regardless of condition. Amazing vid!!!!👍👍👍👍👍
The most beautiful and pure way to play magic. It teuely warms my heart. Brings back the halcyon days of my youth! Been playing since '94 and thus warmed my heart just like seeing the old font and white borders! ❤️ Thank you.
The card I have like this is the Jace Beleren from the Jace vs. Chandra Duel Deck. Its foil and has several creases and edge damage, but it was from a time where me and my siblings would play with the preconstructed decks our dad would get and play against each other on the table or floor, no sleeves, not fully understanding the rules. I've thought about getting rid of it for years, but never could bring myself to. And now after seeing this video I'm probably gonna keep it even if i sell my collection.
inherited that same jace from a friend when he quit playing. jammed it in every modern UW pile I showed up with to my lgs for years. that collection is what got me into playing magic as a long-term hobby, and I'm forever grateful for having friends teach me to play. thanks for sharing!
My friend had an "oops all Jace Beleren" deck he built around Shadows over Innistrad as a joke (mono-blue; 3-4 copies of every Jace, counterspells). Him and his backpack got caught in some pretty heavy rain. He came into our uni lecture for the day looking like a drowned rat and said "at least my bag's waterproof", it wasn't. We spent the whole day with the cards on radiators and under heavy books trying to save as much of it as we could. The whole deck is now just a warped, water damaged, unshuffulable mess; but I believe he still has a few cards from it as relics and we all get a good laugh out of it even now nearly 10 years later. Luckily he hadn't managed to get around to buying the big hitter, Mind sculptor, yet and only had 2 copies of baby-jace.
My first MTG card was Ruric Thar, from the Gruul Gatecrash precon that I asked my dad for on a trip to the mall movie theater. I had heard my mom’s partner talk for hours about Magic and slivers and how cool Venser was, and my dad had played back in the early days, so when I walked past the card store in the back corner of the mall and saw the foil face card, I was already sold. I took it with me everywhere and ended up playing against classmates and relatives and literal random people and it was AWESOME. Just seeing you start unsleeving a Ruric Thar, Unbowed at the end had me tearing up thinking about how I would ripple shuffle the deck for hours at a time as a nervous habit when I couldn’t sleep, and how much wear I put into my unsleeved Primordial Hydras by doing that lol
A minute in and a perfect description of just how I feel whenever I see any Magic card from the good old days of the 90s. The way I describe them is that they have this charisma about them that just makes me want to pick them up and play a game, no matter what condition they’re in
Your videos are always well made and a treat to watch, but THIS video is your first to make me tear up and nearly cry. That rush of memory for what really makes this game special to so many of us caught me totally off guard. Thank you so much.
My group really enjoy your lore dives and my friends occasionally put it in the background when we play commander. This video to me was, absolutely charming. A very real Magic the Gathering Velveteen Rabbit. As the skin horse said it doesn't often happen to those "who have to be carefully kept" but I'm glad to know Dear Gonti is out there.
This reminds me of my friends back in high school. I had spread the gospel of edh throughout the group, but I never saw the fruits since I flunked out (it was a special program. Continued failure meant removal and I was too mentally unwell to catch up). But I still saw the little things. They were newer to magic and didn't have playmats, so they played on the floor in the hallways. Whenever they asked you to cut their decks, they would hold the deck in one outstretched palm, and leave the other out so that when you made the cut, it would transfer hands instead of meeting the floor again. It probably didn't make much of a difference and would even piss off other friends (myself included), but now I hope I can see them do it again. I wonder if they still have any cards from back then. I'd love to see what those disgusting floors did to those cards, even if they were sleeved.
Beyond magic, this sentiment means a lot to me and I'm glad I'm not crazy for feeling it too. I always had trouble explaining to other folk why there's something really beautiful in something rough and run down.. even pathetic. There is something so genuine in the way things break down, how stuff tears or stains. Smudges on a diamond. I'm reminded most of the lyrics from Sean Bonette of AJJ saying "I think I like my pretty pretty ugly."
What a beautiful video. I've stopped playing magic since the pandemic but I have a set of m10 lightning bolts that are pretty beaten up that I really cherish. I've won all kinds of fancy alt art bolts but I always go back to that set cause I love the story... The first time I went to my LGS I was about 12 and really just wanted to beat my big brother, I told the store owner (the legendary Gary Campbell) about his deck and showed him my pieced together burn deck. He helped me build an anti-mill deck out of bulk then swapped out my shocks for lightning bolts. Obviously I was a kid so didn't take great care of them, not even always using sleeves but I still have them! Now my own little brother uses them when he plays with his burn decks that are built to beat my control decks. They might be beat up and less shiny than my GP bolts or my MPR bolts but they're my favourite cause I wouldn't have kept playing magic at all without them.
Sam, earnestly this might be my all-time favorite MTG video. Definitely has me thinking of how/why to build a deck that's priceless & playable as though it's worthless. ❤
I wasn't expecting sadness from a new video from you, but the topic made me very reminiscent of when I would play Yu-Gi-Oh! growing up and we never used sleeves. Decks held together with rubber bands, shoved in our pockets. When I go through those cards now, the memories are tangible, like you spoke on. My Magic cards however don't share the same quality. They have their own memories of course but, not ones that can be seen or touched. Anyway, fantastic video as usual. I am always happy to see a new one pop up, even if the mood changes halfway through!
I had a magic origins deck builders toolkit my dad purchased for me on a whim during the summer of 2015. I was a Boy Scout, and there was a good contingent of boys who played in the troop. I remember giving my friend Paul all my cards and asking him to help sculpt s deck for me. Atarka, World Render sat rubber banded to the front of a chaff Gruul deck i often played. The card was destroyed. I think i still have a copy of Ugin the spirit dragon that resided within that deck.
This video is what i love about tcg, the shared experiences, the veteran cards that have seen so much play that the art is fading, the things that money can't buy. Lovely video as always
I absolutely love the way the blacked out mana rocks look! its so simple, but interesting. I wonder what the original owner of the cards thought as they did that.
I think they were expressing their creativity and because they thought it looked cool. If this were an alter professionally done, no one would bat an eye. I hope the person who did that became an artist.
when i first started playing magic when i was 14, i heard about alters and tried my hand at them. i never was very talented at painting and my colorblindness made the colormatching difficult, but i saw someone do the sharpie art online. i did it on a plains and it looks awful. i stuck it in a tupperware box full of my art supplies and forgot about it until i moved out of my parents house. still have the card today in a binder for all the cards that id never get rid of.
This project is such a love letter to the game. It makes me want to hold onto those few decks that are really special: my collection of 60 card kitchen table decks (still in rubber bands) my first 2 commander decks and even my new "all backgrounds deck," things I made not to be good but for the love of the game.
A year old video that I've watched a countless number of times, every time it becomes more near and dear to me and makes me look back at my cards, seeing the first commander deck I built and the reserve list phyrexian dreadnought that I got signed that now resides in that deck, the card means more to me than the value it's worth, the value I traded it for or even the value of it in my deck. It will forever be my favourite card that I own and my favourite magic card, it never attacks, it barely ever gets cast and it will always end up in my graveyard and exile. As gorgeous as the card is, it never gets a proper looking in a game but it will never lose value in my collection of cards that changed the way I look at the game and it's value
This made me so nostalgic for my days playing Yu-Gi-Oh with my runner bands and tons of scratches. This may be the best video I've seen this year. I can't stop thinking about this.
This video makes me think fondly of the set of cards I had during school, a couple decks held together with rubber bands and traveling everywhere in my pockets. Most of them were a gift of bulk cards from a friend that had too many, plus a couple Ravnica boosters (from the first Ravnica set). One of those decks just happened to share pocket with a Bic pen that blew up, and now I own a handful of cards with ink splotches. The two most notable were a Suppression Field and a Deathknell Kami. The latter stood out to me because it was part of said gift from a friend. I didn't even play black (I still don't), but it became THE card that I picture whenever I think of what that era of Magic was, for me. It was really satisfying to get your signature on it during your last visit to Barcelona. :)
This video blends its theme with an emotional honesty that brings the viewer along for an 18-minute, worthwhile journey. I can tell you put heart into this, as well as a lot of conscious thought. The title is perfect, and just like the deck this video ia many stories and one story at the same time. Thank you.
I've been watching your videos at random for the past two weeks, and this is by far your best one so far. It hits the mark just right with the way you express yourself. And damn I'm feeling nostalgic for a game I haven't played in years now.
I have a new favorite short from your library now. This video is incredible and you should be very proud of the feelings you can induce in your viewers. Remembering my early TCG days, where the only thing in the world that mattered to me was a promo YuGiOh card, the Winged Dragon of Ra, which was included in an XBOX game that I received as a recovery gift when I broke my leg as a kid. I still have that card, and even though it's pretty beat now, I refuse to sleeve it. Some things just never lose their luster.
Your videos have an amazing charm to them, and always a joy to watch and listen to. From the opening segment of the 4/10 Library of Alexandria to DJ's handling of the Gonti deck, even the momentos that people shared with you in that Twitter thread, I was overcome with nostalgia to the point of holding back tears. I have only dabbled in Magic for a short period of my life, but I can only relate what you said about Magic in this video about much of everything else. I have become a hardcore metaslave for many of the games I play, always searching for ways to gain the upper hand, do optimal damage, raise the strongest and correct units... that I had mostly forgotten how a game was meant to be played. I had been longing for the time I could simply play a game for what it is, to refuse looking up optimal strategies. To live the moment and play without outside influence. All of your video essays have been a joy to watch, and seeing you appear on my feed always makes the day better. Thanks Rhystic Studies.
Thankyou for this video. It has made me reconsider the meaning of value. The first booster pack I opened was from an Ajani planeswalker deck, from Aether Revolt. One of the cards I pulled was a Masterpiece Sphere of Resistance. I didn't have any sleeves at the time, nor did I know the value of that card, so I used my 1 sleeve on Ajani from the deck, as that's what had value to me. Later I played at that LGS, I was informed that the sphere was 'extremely rare', and told to sleeve it. By this time it had some dents already. I used to think of this as a regret, that my sphere wasn't in perfect condition, and never would be. But now that I've grown up, start to make choices where life will take me, and sell my collection, I will look back at this card, one of the few I will keep, and it will bring a tear to my eye. Not of regret that it's price will be forever tainted, but at the immeasureable value it has to me. Once again, thankyou.
this has been my favorite deck since I heard about it a few years ago. DJ is a saint amongst men and reminds me of my childhood more than any card in my collection. thank you for covering him.
There is not a single video from Studies that I love more than this one. Every video he makes is filled with passion and love for Magic. Knowing that people care so much about keeping their card's value, I'm not interested. I may sell my cards someday, but I don't see it. I love playing the game, and it is so much more blasphemous to have cards meant to be played with in a binder forever, than to play with your magic cards without fearing for loss in quality. If I couldn't pull out my battered old magic deck, take off the rubber band, and bridge shuffle it without a play mat, then I would have never been able to play when I was young in the first place.
2:53 I'm fighting back tears. This video is Art, in the truest senses of the term, as it perfectly explains nostalgia, longing, and our species' need to share better than anything else. This is what elevates us to _Homo narrans._
I imagined a little story in my head about who Sophie might be when I saw that Liliana, Dreadhorde general with a bite out of it even before the show ended (watch to the end, it helps out this wonderful channel). I imagined an ex-girlfriend who, upon the breaking up with the owner, trashed certain precious items to the original owner in her anger. The cherry on top was feeding their beloved commander deck to a very enthusiastic dog and one last spiteful note. Was she justified in her anger? Who can say, love is a two-way street. I love the content from this channel, always chills me out.
In my native language of Hebrew, there is a saying "ספר שלא נקרא לא נקרע" or in English "a book that isn't torn wasn't read." It works as a pun because the words for "read" and "torn" are pronounced the same way. It means more broadly that if an item doesn't have any wear and tear to it it may be perfect but it was never actually used and enjoyed.
Bought a G/W starter deck in Tarkir block (back when those existed) and one of the booster packs in it had a foil Dragonlord Dromoka. My luck peaked just as I started playing, and that card will never leave me.
I'm so glad I glanced through UA-cam before I went to bed to see this. This video feels like it captures what I always feel when I watch your videos; a love letter to this game in ways I'd never have thought about in a similar ways, something that always feels like a diamond that just appears when it's ready, and when it does, it feels like something truly special and worth spending my time experiencing
YESSSSSSSSS!!! That deck is a work of art! I love my kitchen table decks that are unsleeved. Whenever I ask a friend to play some casual magic with me and I break out that box of four unsleeved decks, then begin to riffle shuffle with abandon, I always delight in the responses I get, especially when I convince them to join in on the earnest fun.
My most treasured and priceless card is a two way tie. The first one is the very first magic card I ever held in my hands, it is a copy of tromokratis from born of the gods, I loved the art and the card and bought it from my friend in high-school for a quarter and carried it in my wallet for a few weeks before i finally got to play the game, and I was hypnotised by it all that while And the best part is that we've been life long friends ever since. The second one is a Gaea's cradle, I received it as a birthday gift from a dear friend of mine who is like an older brother and was always there for me, this card has been the best birthday gift I have ever gotten, and no matter how rough and tough life got, I never sold it and never will. It's funny how both of them are priceless to me and are equally important, however, their monetary value is astronomical.
Love it! I have a deck called "Trash Heap". It's made with 100% draft chaff and cards others threw out. I also altered each card with sharpie so they are actually trash now. It's also played unsleeved. It's one of my favorite decks.
I currently have a Bomber Corps from Gatecrash, 2013. It is worth, at most, 25 cents, USD. It was my first pet card, and was in all of my first decks, from when I first started playing in middle school, and had a prescence in most of my decks until some time in highschool. It hasn't seen use for a few years now, about, but while making a new commander deck recently, I pulled it out of the big plastic box that all of my cards were haphazardly thrown into for storage when I was younger, a storage method I thankfully grew out of. I had a similar thought as this video describes about the Library of Alexandria. Even the wear was similar, though this card is significantly younger. I sat for a little while reminiscing about my memories with this card and those decks, and the memories that surrounded those games. Then I put Bomber Corps in a sleeve that matched the rest of the cards for the deck. It's certainly not the best option, I subbed it out for a card I know would use the slot better, but I felt like Bomber Corps deserved to join the ranks of one of my decks again. Maybe even relive my first real "tournament" victory, a barely monitored afterschool club thing where Bomber Corps dealt the final touch of damage to my opponent with its keyword. Or maybe this deck is trash and I am going to absolutely steamrolled, we'll see.
The two cards I love the most among all in my collection are my revised Sol Ring and Sword to plowshares. I traded it from my friend of 8 years who sadly passed away from a heart attack. I keep those cards in my favorite commander deck and they are the two I will never ever trade away.
Really enjoyed this video and I totally empathize with the ideology of enjoying a product how it's meant to be. That said, I won't be unsleeving my cards any time soon. I can barely afford the hobby as is, I just can't bring myself to devalue something so precious already. If it weren't such an absurdly expensive hobby to really be into, I'd be all about it. I have some cards that are well-loved that came from my cousin's collection who played in the early 90's, before I got into the game, and I absolutely treasure them also.
I'm a newbie to MTG. But I can easily relate when I think on my old Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Scraped up and rubber banded decks full of memories and wonder. I hope to one day look back on another deck of treasures.
My mono green titan deck. Was the first deck i ever owned, was the ajani duel deck from shards. Over the years it has lost red and white slowly, and gone through countless iterations, from the original zoo, to a combo deck, to a prison, to its landfall-eldrazi form now. Its not terribly expensive, but the evolution is priceless. Since i dont play anymore it will never fulfill my final vision for it, but hey, thats fine. Has gone through over a dozen sets of sleeves and shows wear even through them due to the sheer ammount of play it saw. Nostalgia beats price tags any day
The one card I deem priceless in my collection is a durdle turtle from some kind of starter deck in khans of tarkir. Not just because of the meme but because of the fact it was in the first deck I ever played. My father had been playing from the beginning (he still has his 2 sealed boxes of The Dark) but he had taken a break from the game until khans. It was right when I was starting to reach the age where I understood the game. He got me the deck and durdle turtle was the only rare in it. I remember thinking it was the coolest, most flavorful card in the world. I still have that durdle turtle and I wouldn't part with it for anything.
One of my favourite videos. Have been rewatching some of your old videos, glad I landed on this one again. The concept explored delves so much further than just Magic and you capture it so beautifully.
I stopped playing a long time ago and I sold close to everything, but I still have the first rare I ever got in a booster pack, a minds desire. for a long time it was my favourite card. There's also a stasis framed on my wall. a cruel ultimatum and death cloud that I use as bookmarkers, both, at seperate times got me a ticket to the nationals. i was never a great player, but those cards I hold dear. great content
2 роки тому+1
Thank you for (masterfully) documenting this. I'll surely be re-watching it every year
Vintage definitely to me at least, definitely feels like the most primordial format in a way. It also represents, to my extent, the people who *truly* value the game over the money. A smart person doesn't play Black Lotus, not only because Vintage is vastly less played than the other formats it contests with, but because doing so inevitably decreases the value of that card, minor damage is accumulated no matter what, no sleeve can ever permanently protect a Lotus. For a Lotus to retain value, it needs to be locked away. But they play anyway, at least in part, for the love of the format. It's part of why I love Vintage, even if I only ever experience it through a janky Java program. I've never been a complete fan of locking said cards away, because I never like looking at things in terms of how it can make me a profit. But still, my most valuable cards sit sleeved in plastic toploaders, for sentimental reasons. Including, as I decided to do while watching this video, one of if not the first YuGiOh cards I ever owned. A bruised copy of Chiron the Mage that makes even the Gonti deck look like it is in perfect condition. More ovular in shape than rectangular now, the card has been with me since childhood, including the time I dropped it in a trough urinal at school (don't ask how). Yet I like it in there, because it keeps its memory with me. Its value is in its sentiment, so putting it in an esteemed position means I can always enjoy looking at it. And in that sense, perhaps it is more dignified than one of those hard plastic shells.
This was beautiful to watch. I love the idea that the character of cards has as much intrinsic value as the most opulent purely through sentiment. I have about 5 cards that are sentimental to me for this reason. All were sent to me by readers of a primer I write for Varina Lich queen as a sign of gratitude and they all stand as pinnacles of how wonderful this community can be. I also have a friend in Denmark sending me a copy of Tatyova, which he has promised to sign 'Dear Dale f you love Simon'. Once it arrives I will cherish it always.
The magicest and most gathered deck of all time. You see, usually when i look at the prices of some cards i cannot avoid to cringe a little. Maybe it is because I am a pragmatic guy, but all of this "cult" and economy based on the scarcity of some cards bothers me. For me, Magic the gathering is a GAME. That's why is special, because of the moments I have experienced on the table. The cards are meant to be played, not to sit ,as you said, in their little plastic coffins. For all of this I thank you very much for this video, because it reminded me that there are people out there that not only think like, but they take this filosphy to the maximum level. Thank you Rhystic Studies and good job, as usual.
This reminds me of a cmdr deck tech I watched years ago and it was full of beat up cards. It started from one of his friends spilling their commander deck out into the street and he decided that he’d rebuild a deck using the remaining pieces. The rule was simple they had to have had organic wear and tear. I don’t remember what the deck was trying to do, but I remember thinking how cool it was to have all those stories around the history of each card and how it met it’s fate. Your video did such a better job materializing what I felt back then and why I continue to hang onto worthless cards that have their own stories that mean something to me. Thank you.
Just the first few minutes of this are fantastic by themselves, the way you communicate these hard to describe feelings when you see an old, valuable, but well played card... Very well said stuff.
Coming back to rewatch this after it inspired one of my cherished decks, a deck made with the goal of being all traded cards where the player I traded with signs the card and new friends or community members sign the basics. It’s nowhere near my best deck but it’s one I’ll bring to every large event to get signatures and tell the stories contained within the deck.
Thanks soooo much I love the passion of your project. Especially documenting this persons love and execution of his project. Finally a shout out to The Prof for his passion to promote the game for the players.
Dude, it never ceases to amaze me how well you can put thoughtfulness and sensibility in the conversation about our dearest game. I wish for this channel to live long and prosper and to keep on posting videos that put me in this state of reflection and amusement.
The "Love, Sophie ❤️" card is so touching. I hope whoever got that from Sophie appreciated it. I have a feeling that they did considering how well-loved it is
I've been having a rough go recently and your channel has been helping me find the glimpses of joy in what feels like a sea of darkness. Keep being wonderful!
what a beautiful video, and the sequence where you unsleeved a deck and shuffled it was such a wonderful way to drive home the philosophy about treasuring wear and tear! i'm not a very avid magic player, i more like to witness other people play it and hear people talk about it, but this video made me think about the items i have that are more precious to me because of the wear they exhibit. i think if i dig through my childhood comics I'll find a specific one with creases all over it because as a kid I fell asleep in bed with it, and i think the other precious worn item would be my stuffed panda that's been with me since the day i was born. her glass eyes have scratches all over them from when 5 year old me wanted to play catch with my mom on the driveway, using the bear as the ball. When i first saw those scratches, while my mom was worried I would be upset about breaking my toy, little me said with delight "her eyes have SPARKLES in them"
You are not just an analyst and a historian, you are also a philosopher and a poet. I am more impressed by your channel than I am by any other MtG-related content producer on UA-cam, and there are some seriously great Magic videos out there. I don’t know what combination of life-path choices and innate aptitudes led to you making stuff so interesting, informative, and thought-provoking, but we’re all richer for it. Great work!
![Limits of a [CARDNAME] | The Story of Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pukpaxSBeAE/mqdefault.jpg)
![Limits of a [CARDNAME] | The Story of Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar](/img/tr.png)
Support Prof's Kickstarter campaign for the Academic 133+ XL here:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/tolarian/the-academic-133-xl
Another outstanding video, congrats Rhystic Studies
You look like a smarter Steve-O. Great video!
The "other" DJ's deck gives me a blend of feelings, from uncomfortable to free.
There was an Absorb from Invasion block opened in a long gone gamestore back where i studied. A couple snobby friends joke around the card meaning and image, and wrote/painted on it "Sorbetéalo" (slurp it) with golden ink. They laughed, and played with it. A boring Dad joke, yet the feeling of owning the card was not lost on me, during a time card signings and pre-release stamping was very frowned upon.
Years passed, and one day during Ravnica Allegiance pre-release someone comes to me and asks for my copies of Absorb, which i had 3 on my packs. He needs 2, but has nothing i need.
Then suddendly, in the midst of his binder i see it: That old Absorb from my college days.
It's mine now.
This is your best video so far. The sentiment behind it is nothing less than beautiful, inspired and moving.
Everytime I'm on vacation overseas, I stop at a local game store to buy a couple of singles (even if it's just a foil basic land) and doodle on one of them the date and place of my vacation with a sharpie. My decks are filled with cards that bear memories of my trips :)
This is actually a super interesting way of making a deck more personal and I thank you for the idea
totally stealing this idea
Commenting here so i remember to do this because that is a lovely idea
Nice, that's a cool ass mana base
That's a really cool idea!
To give you another story about a card with character, there's a shop in College Station, TX called "Clockwork Games" nestled in the back of a strip mall and known mostly by the magic community and advertised by word-of-mouth. On the counter next to their register is a contorted, ripped, extremely damaged Bruna, Light of Alabaster from Innistrad. It's encased in a thick resin case screwed shut in the corners, entombed and suspended in a brick of transparency.
The story of it's origin is that during the Innistrad draft, someone actually pulled that Bruna from a prize pack, but it came fresh out of the pack with water damage, warping it and making it unplayable even with sleeves. The guy who drafted it was a regular and prone to fits of anger, and this was no different. He screamed, ripped the card into a hundred pieces, some rumors are he bit it at least twice, and threw them into the air and stormed out of the shop. The clerk behind the counter was irritated at having to clean up this guy's mess but wanted to see if the card could somehow be salvaged. He picked up every piece, used a tender amount of glue and tape to line it up as best as he could, then pressed it between the two slabs of resin to flatten it out as much as possible. Once he saw what he had made, he decided not to check if the card was made possibly playable again, but instead put it on display next to the shop's checkout computer.
The man came back in for the week's FNM a few days later, saw the Bruna which was unmistakably his sitting there like a trophy on a shelf, and promptly left. I don't know if it was his last time in the shop, but I'd like to think he was either too embarrassed at his antics or angry at the cause to be near that thing.
If you're ever in that town, see if Bruna's still there. I bet she'd like the visit.
Yeah, I think she's still there. Thanks for the history, it means a lot to know that.
Gig 'em! I only went to Clockwork once with a friend who was trying to introduce me to Magic, and didn't get the cardboard fever until I'd already graduated, but I could tell it was a great environment
Went there quite a bit with old coworkers, Clockwork is a gem among gems. Anyone passing through should give it a stop by.
When I was in university I was pretty poor but wanted to get into edh. I didn’t have sleeves, I didn’t have good cards, and I had illegal double faced cards because they were pennies compared to the full price. The people I played with were cool and each birthday I would be gifted a full art land. These lands were special though because my friend would draw a dumb/bad/cute little dragon into the background. (I was running a kartthus dragon deck). Each time I played those cards I would always say, “I play a birthday land”
“I play a birthday land” - that is so wholesome.
That's awsome
Oh my god my heart, that’s probably the most wholesome thing I’ve ever heard. 😊
Thank you for the chuckle. 😊
I want to like this but it at 666 likes and I can't break that. Love this story.
There is a concept in Japanese literature called “mono no aware,” literally “pathos for things.” It describes the wistful sadness one feels at the passing of beautiful things, the cherry blossoms which last only for a few short days, the memories worn into fading ink and cardboard, a reminder of the transience of life and of time which moves ever forward. This was a beautiful video.
I feel this now especially as my cherry blossom will be losing its petals soon :(
“Pathos of things” is not the literal translation of 物の哀れ. Aware means “sadness.” Mono no aware is literally “sadness of things.”
Any use of “pathos” is flourish at best or misleading at worse.
Ah, a fellow The Midnight fan?
I believe what you are looking for is the term wabi-sabi
@@alexray6084 respectfully, I suggest googling terms/concepts that you’re unfamiliar with before speaking on them
I love Gonti as the commander for another reason: the aether born in nature are destined to die young, and therefore are more aware of their mortality than we are and value experiences over much material value.
Except Gonti!
They have the aether heart so they're cold and just love wealth
also the fact that gonti himself takes the mint condition cards from opponents is pretty neat.
@@jackalcoyote8777 I know I'm late to the convo, but seeing your comment made me laugh a bit. It's actually hilarious that Gonti is one of the only aetherborn that's has some "staying" power in the lore and he also happens to be the only card in that deck that actually has a protective "sleeve" around him.
i was going to say this! im glad somebody else did first
What I love about the deck is that it fits so perfectly for an aetherborn. Their lives are incredibly short, and while Gonti has a means around that, there's no guarantee that his solution will last forever, or even for a human lifetime. So they play life as hard as they can, much like any aetherborn plays at life as hard as they can, regardless of the damage. After all, if you're falling apart anyway, why not dance as best as you can until you die?
I've always joked about preferring beat up cards because "they have character", but that Gonti deck cranks it up to 1000%
watching this video again just to get a glimpse of the monster... I think the Sophie Deck has given new life to the cards so fortunate to find their way into the shuffle. The damage of each card tells a story individually, but the new assemblage of cardboard and manner in which DJ plays weaves a novel of new character for the deck.
The blacked out mana rocks are low key cool af. I love that idea. It’s like a new version of minimalism.
They're a little scuffed in this sharpie-based form, but I bet a nice paint or ink for a glossy black veneer across the whole card would look extremely nice. It's a super cool idea.
Seriously. You look at them and you instantly get what they were going for. They also didn’t do it sloppy, either; you can see directionality to their lines in some of the cards
I first saw the deck a few years ago, and I was initially horrified at how beat up it was, more to the ideal of knowing the price of, rather than the value of the cards. This video showed me a new perspective on what it means for some piece of cardboard to be “valuable”. Thanks Mr. Studies.
I kind of want to push back a little bit - it's peak privilege to worry more about 'value' than 'worth'. More people's lives are affected by 'worth' than by 'value', it's effectively the difference between the lower and higher tiers of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Many, many people can play Magic, but only just barely, and so I don't blame people who choose to play this ludicrously expensive game and try to do what they can to recoup at least some of the game's steep cost. I know at least a few people who have ended up selling a Magic collection to pay for a medical emergency, or to make a major life change. It's something you can't do with just any piece of gaming equipment.
Maybe if the culture (WotC, stores, event organizers) were more tolerant of proxies, non-rotating formats, using cubes, etc. things would be different. But many of the loudest and most effective voices in this hobby just want more and more money from the player base.
For OGs or people who have already 'made it', I respect this higher admiration of Magic cards as some kind of abstract platonic ideal. But for the loads of people who have bills to pay and who aren't sure if they'll ever be able to retire, I can't help but respect their approach to preserving the 'worth' of their cards.
Maybe if we didn't live in this kind of society, things might be different. If only.
@@martinertlschweiger8218 I completely get where you’re coming from. You and I, as well as everyone in the comments to Rhystic Studies himself have bills, lives and struggles that only the most well off get to ignore. I also agree that WoTC should make some changes to their systems that prioritizes fairness and exposes other eternal formats to the masses. Though, that’s a naive thought.
However, the reason I now think of this game and these cards as “valuable” is because of sentiment. My most expensive cards I own are high school graduation gifts from my friends, signed by them so I “don’t forget where I got it.” And truthfully, magic my only real hobby, the rest of my life is bills and school and work.
So, as privileged as it is to assign “value” to the cards that I love, it’s not out of attempting to look down upon anyone for it.
@@martinertlschweiger8218 found a solid proxy guy here where in live in China, sold my entire collection except a few sentimental cards, and I’m not looking back. If someone doesn’t wanna play with proxies, my guess is because they haven’t tried yet, or they’ve already made the investment. I’m here for the game, and these things are the real deal. Indistinguishable except for the proxy stamp on the back.
@@guerrillagorilla6537 many tournaments in LGS's around the world refuse to allow proxy play. which is a common reason people want the real cards
Hearing that naked ripple shuffle. . . That takes me back. It takes me back to boy scout meetings, parents laughing in the other room, organizing, goldfishing, crying over them about unrelated drama and lost loves. Brings me back to looking at a chance to by Unlimited packs and choosing Ice Age because I could have more cardboard to build more things. I cared more about experiences over things instead of the value of those things. My mom who is now into collectibles as a sort of hobby/savings asked me if any of my cards were worth something, I never told her about the Bayou I traded for the Birds of Paradise. Instead I smiled softly and said "yeah I had a few, sold them for less than I should have, bought more on the playground for more than I should have". I got hustled more than I hustled others, and in that moment maybe even in this moment as I type this out to you realized my childhood was ultimately a good one. Maybe not the one I wanted but a good one, I could imagine worse childhoods.
Thanks, for this. I wasn't expect to cry on All Fools Eve.
Thank you for your writing.
My absolute most valuable card is a proxy. It’s a Gaia’s cradle that my girlfriend commissioned which depicts the two of us in a grotto of trees. I love it. If I ever get rid of my collection it will remain forever.
Although sillier, my girfriend and I proxy a lot of decks by printing the card front, cutting and sleeving with some cheap card. Sometimes, she would forget to print one or two, which leads to me hand-drawing the whole card as best as I can on a white sheet roughly the same size.
The arts are so silly since I draw badly, but I even put my name on the corner and sometimes even do some flavor. My happy-brocoli Multani never fails to draw laughter out of anyone...and she treasures it like it's the best thing ever.
Oh my gosh that's so sweet!!!
I have a playlist titled "Videos I Needed When I Watched Them." This video now resides there.
I haven't felt this way about this game in years. This reminded me of playing old Kamigawa cards on the hot summer asphalt with the neighbor. I was only 6 at the time, so he gave me some old cards to play with. I still have those pieces of scratched up cardboard. Thank you for reminding me of this feeling.
little late here, but if you would, please make the playlist public!
You can tell this is such a wonderful video by the fact that the comments are filled with the experiences and stories, this essay reminds them of. It's such a relatable topic but is such a unique experience for us all.
yeah, the comments have been amazing. a true delight to read them all.
I'm almost tempted to play my vorthos gruul deck unsleeved, Borborygmos would want it that way
This is so beautifully written. Ngl I teared up a little. When I was little, I used to play Yu-Gi-Oh without sleeves. When I look back on them, some of the creases on those cards were caused by friendly disputes with friends, as we were playing the game. Some of those friends I've lost touch with, some made poor choices and are in prisons I cannot visit, some passed onto the next life. The memories in those creases are priceless. 10/10
This comment right here!!!
I love my old scuffed yugioh cards too. Every scratch a memory
Same, glad I still have my childhood Yu-Gi-Oh collection, wish all my pokemon weren't stolen ay school tho... they were well loved in a rubber band
That Exoskeletal Armor having _only_ the damage from the crash is its own flavor, all its wear not being from a lifetime of regular use, but the singular moment of violence that you and it emerged from. That Armor is a snapshot as vivid as the photographs of its aftermath.
This made me so nostalgic for the days of playing "kitchen table" at day camp back when we used rubber bands, played by the pool, and were amazed by bulk rares like eater of days.
The rubber band in the sandwich bag... literally time warped me to '98. Man... I really used to do that.
I remember '94, lunchroom table Magic in high school, decks held together with rubber bands, games played on tables smeared with grease, random condiments, and heaven knows what else, Moxen and dual lands with frayed edges and scratched backs, a BLACK F***ING LOTUS getting Coke spilled on it, its owner ugly-crying as he gently padded it off with a paper towel before spending all of 4th Period holding it under an air dryer while the rest of us silently thanked all that is pure and holy that it wasn't us.
I remember the golden age.
i still use the rubber band and sandwich bag to store my decks...
Fun fact about the "stray blue ink" on the Library of Alexandria's Deckmaster insignia: that's actually a weird marbled effect on the deckmaster logo (according to Jesper Myrfors, the guy who designed it), and because Magic card backs are uniform it can't ever be changed. Every single Magic card, well-worn or pack-fresh, has that exact mark on it.
This reminds me of a story. Supposedly there is a highly signed copy of Hidetsugu’s Second Rite wandering around Victoria. Apparently the card won a lot of Canadian Highlander games, and each time a player lost to HSR they would sign it. A bit of culture in practice, you might say.
Presumably you mean Victoria BC specifically, I assume?
@@CosmicConical Would also love to know, but I expect it might be Victoria, Australia as I've never heard of this supposed card before.
@@dra9onslayer If it's Canlander, then it'd be Victoria, BC. Victoria, Australia is much more likely to see Australian 7-Point play than Canlander play.
It's Nelson's from LRR.
I think I went to that Yellowjacket when I was shopping in stores in Victoria. I had watched some MtG skits before (started playing ~2016), but I never knew that LRR was even Canadian at that time (didn't really binge their content until a year or so after). I saw a few collector stores, browsed cards and stuff. Ended up buying a King of Tokyo board game and two MAD Spy vs Spy compilation magazines from another store
I've been a long time fan, and I think this is the best video you've ever made. I just keep coming back to it over and over. Ever since I saw it, when I buy magic cards online or in stores I always ask for the worst condition version they have, it allows me to be so much less stressed about handling them or accidentally damaging them. It's message extends outside of magic as well. I've always thrifted for clothes, not only because I wanted to, but because it was so much cheaper and I've never had enough money to buy everything new. This video is a reminder I can revisit to remind myself not to be ashamed of wearing well loved clothes. Even if they aren't my memories, I can't help but feel more connected to the world and the people who might have worn them before me.
thank you for writing this. it made my day.
This is a video that has made me seriously reconsider how I view the things around me. As someone who obsessively washes his shoes, worries about the slightest knick on his clothes I am at a cross roads. Do I continue or do I embrace the stories, embrace the wear and tear… I’m struggling, I don’t know what to do, I’m inspired to change, but I also have that nagging voice in the back of my head telling me it won’t be perfect anymore. This video has made me think, and that’s the most important thing a story can do… thankyou.
Life is a fire, not a rock.
I know you made this post 2 years ago, but here's a thought: Taking care of the things you cherish makes all of the little marks and scratches and bruises you can't fix all that much more meaningful.
A priceless card for me is the masterpiece Ornithopter, one of my favorite creatures in the game. It was the 0-3 prize pack at my LGS, a night where i felt rather down about my draft deck and thought had drafted good, built it properly, but it just couldn't even take one game let alone a match. I felt it was fitting that the blinged out 0/2 for 0 would come to me at the worst possible result, and just try to remember the first point of this game is to have fun.
Ornithopter, the God-Pharaoh.
Honestly, this is probably my favorite video of yours. There's something so visceral and real about the battered cards we play and the journeys they've been on. I appreciate the love of the VG and Damaged rectangles we cherish.
I think this is the best video Rhystic has ever made.
I've always believed that things are more beautiful if they wear their story. There's nothing quite as ugly as an antique in age alone. So clinically precise and clean... there's no soul, or if it there is one it's more likely a haunting. The beauty found in the wear of something loved is unique and priceless.
To quote one of my favorite books...
“The point isn’t to win?” I asked.
“The point,” Bredon said grandly, “is to play a beautiful game.” He lifted his hands and shrugged, his face breaking into a beatific smile. “Why would I want to win anything other than a beautiful game?”
-Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear.
I hadn't heard about this deck until now. And I feel honoured to be part of a game where we feel this. Thank you RS. Thank you.
I think in Japanese there's a word/concept called "sabi" that refers to the beauty and spirit that objects acquire through age and use. Seems to perfectly encapsulate your beautiful and thoughtful reflection.
Hearing you describe and defend the Library of Alexandria card at the beginning is one of the coolest things I've heard in a while.
When I first started playing, while in high school, there were no sleeves to protect the cards. I bought from a local comic book shop, because game stores were not yet a thing. We riffle shuffled when we played and often our playmats were the smoothest piece of concrete we could find. Back then there was no thought of preserving the integrity of the card, no legal action. This was a new game that had only been around for about a year from a company no one had ever heard of. It was just as likely to go bankrupt in our mind as it was to thrive. I sold most of my collection after high school, saving a white/green and a black/red deck. Even when I came back to the game with Dominaria, I kept those cards separate from the rest of the new collection, a testament to when I was young and carefree.
I saw the title and within seconds of watching, knew it had to be about that glorious Gonti deck. Every one of your videos brings a new, interesting perspective to a game I thought I knew in and out. Keep up the great work man
I built a faerie deck for extended back in the day and have carried it all the way through to modern to this day. Promo spellstutters, dci bitterblossoms, foil deltas, foil thoughtseizes, signed mistbind and vendilion cliques, etc.
The deck has seen thousands of games now. The shuffling has left a s-bend in the middle of every card. The secluded glens foiling is so stained and dark that its barely legible.
Given to a shop id be lucky if they even took them. Heavily played for sure. But its a collection I built over 15 years - my entire career with MTG, and I have so many memories with that deck, both grand and foul.
To me, I dont care if the cards are beat to hell. Its a mark of their service and of my love for this game, and the tempo archetype.
I really appreciated this video. Because it touched on a lot of the reason I love playing thia game.
Every card has a story. Every player has a favorite gem they wont let go of.
I really like this video. I have been playing magic for 10 years and in my youth played the cards sleeveless. On concrete, tables or the floor. There were times I was cringing because my instinct was to "SLEEVE IT IMMEDIATELY!" and seeing how he used to bring a plastic bag reminded me of how I used to do the same before I started making money. I still have those old cards and when I look back on the wear and tear on the cards I just smile because those were great memories of the game and how financially the value is worthless but personally its worth more than any other card I buy to make my decks competitive.
Which is sad because I sleeve my cards to protect my investment and trying to win games instead of enjoying the game. I think we get lost in the monetary value of something we forget how we use these cards to play a game that bring friends from different backgrounds this video is the antithesis of what value is on a card. Now I just look at these cards as a way of making a quick buck and never seeing the cards for what they are and sleeving them to protect the quality of one day either selling them for more or for less when I acquired them or to pass them on to my kids.
But things don't last forever and the memories I made with these cards no matter the wear and tear will always have a piece of me and the games we played. Therefore having the card tell a story which makes it that more valuable. Thanks for the reminder that value isn't always about money but after playing this game for 10 years I still have much to learn and find a new appreciation of cards regardless of condition. Amazing vid!!!!👍👍👍👍👍
The most beautiful and pure way to play magic. It teuely warms my heart. Brings back the halcyon days of my youth! Been playing since '94 and thus warmed my heart just like seeing the old font and white borders! ❤️ Thank you.
The card I have like this is the Jace Beleren from the Jace vs. Chandra Duel Deck. Its foil and has several creases and edge damage, but it was from a time where me and my siblings would play with the preconstructed decks our dad would get and play against each other on the table or floor, no sleeves, not fully understanding the rules. I've thought about getting rid of it for years, but never could bring myself to. And now after seeing this video I'm probably gonna keep it even if i sell my collection.
inherited that same jace from a friend when he quit playing. jammed it in every modern UW pile I showed up with to my lgs for years. that collection is what got me into playing magic as a long-term hobby, and I'm forever grateful for having friends teach me to play. thanks for sharing!
My friend had an "oops all Jace Beleren" deck he built around Shadows over Innistrad as a joke (mono-blue; 3-4 copies of every Jace, counterspells).
Him and his backpack got caught in some pretty heavy rain. He came into our uni lecture for the day looking like a drowned rat and said "at least my bag's waterproof", it wasn't.
We spent the whole day with the cards on radiators and under heavy books trying to save as much of it as we could.
The whole deck is now just a warped, water damaged, unshuffulable mess; but I believe he still has a few cards from it as relics and we all get a good laugh out of it even now nearly 10 years later.
Luckily he hadn't managed to get around to buying the big hitter, Mind sculptor, yet and only had 2 copies of baby-jace.
My first MTG card was Ruric Thar, from the Gruul Gatecrash precon that I asked my dad for on a trip to the mall movie theater. I had heard my mom’s partner talk for hours about Magic and slivers and how cool Venser was, and my dad had played back in the early days, so when I walked past the card store in the back corner of the mall and saw the foil face card, I was already sold. I took it with me everywhere and ended up playing against classmates and relatives and literal random people and it was AWESOME. Just seeing you start unsleeving a Ruric Thar, Unbowed at the end had me tearing up thinking about how I would ripple shuffle the deck for hours at a time as a nervous habit when I couldn’t sleep, and how much wear I put into my unsleeved Primordial Hydras by doing that lol
A minute in and a perfect description of just how I feel whenever I see any Magic card from the good old days of the 90s. The way I describe them is that they have this charisma about them that just makes me want to pick them up and play a game, no matter what condition they’re in
I have a near mint alpha Sacrifice from just before that card spiked in value, it's one of my favorite cards even though I know it's not very good
Your videos are always well made and a treat to watch, but THIS video is your first to make me tear up and nearly cry. That rush of memory for what really makes this game special to so many of us caught me totally off guard.
Thank you so much.
My group really enjoy your lore dives and my friends occasionally put it in the background when we play commander. This video to me was, absolutely charming. A very real Magic the Gathering Velveteen Rabbit. As the skin horse said it doesn't often happen to those "who have to be carefully kept" but I'm glad to know Dear Gonti is out there.
This reminds me of my friends back in high school. I had spread the gospel of edh throughout the group, but I never saw the fruits since I flunked out (it was a special program. Continued failure meant removal and I was too mentally unwell to catch up). But I still saw the little things. They were newer to magic and didn't have playmats, so they played on the floor in the hallways. Whenever they asked you to cut their decks, they would hold the deck in one outstretched palm, and leave the other out so that when you made the cut, it would transfer hands instead of meeting the floor again. It probably didn't make much of a difference and would even piss off other friends (myself included), but now I hope I can see them do it again. I wonder if they still have any cards from back then. I'd love to see what those disgusting floors did to those cards, even if they were sleeved.
Sophie, my love 💕
Beyond magic, this sentiment means a lot to me and I'm glad I'm not crazy for feeling it too. I always had trouble explaining to other folk why there's something really beautiful in something rough and run down.. even pathetic. There is something so genuine in the way things break down, how stuff tears or stains. Smudges on a diamond. I'm reminded most of the lyrics from Sean Bonette of AJJ saying "I think I like my pretty pretty ugly."
What a beautiful video.
I've stopped playing magic since the pandemic but I have a set of m10 lightning bolts that are pretty beaten up that I really cherish. I've won all kinds of fancy alt art bolts but I always go back to that set cause I love the story...
The first time I went to my LGS I was about 12 and really just wanted to beat my big brother, I told the store owner (the legendary Gary Campbell) about his deck and showed him my pieced together burn deck.
He helped me build an anti-mill deck out of bulk then swapped out my shocks for lightning bolts.
Obviously I was a kid so didn't take great care of them, not even always using sleeves but I still have them!
Now my own little brother uses them when he plays with his burn decks that are built to beat my control decks.
They might be beat up and less shiny than my GP bolts or my MPR bolts but they're my favourite cause I wouldn't have kept playing magic at all without them.
Sam, earnestly this might be my all-time favorite MTG video. Definitely has me thinking of how/why to build a deck that's priceless & playable as though it's worthless. ❤
I wasn't expecting sadness from a new video from you, but the topic made me very reminiscent of when I would play Yu-Gi-Oh! growing up and we never used sleeves. Decks held together with rubber bands, shoved in our pockets. When I go through those cards now, the memories are tangible, like you spoke on. My Magic cards however don't share the same quality. They have their own memories of course but, not ones that can be seen or touched.
Anyway, fantastic video as usual. I am always happy to see a new one pop up, even if the mood changes halfway through!
I had a magic origins deck builders toolkit my dad purchased for me on a whim during the summer of 2015. I was a Boy Scout, and there was a good contingent of boys who played in the troop. I remember giving my friend Paul all my cards and asking him to help sculpt s deck for me. Atarka, World Render sat rubber banded to the front of a chaff Gruul deck i often played. The card was destroyed. I think i still have a copy of Ugin the spirit dragon that resided within that deck.
This video is what i love about tcg, the shared experiences, the veteran cards that have seen so much play that the art is fading, the things that money can't buy.
Lovely video as always
Big props for what looks like some The Mars Volta art on your wall there!
You're the only magic creator that can make me get emotional. You're the best, Sam.
I always riffle shuffle and i love when i browse through my cards and see the slight bend them because it means i have played with them a lot
I absolutely love the way the blacked out mana rocks look! its so simple, but interesting. I wonder what the original owner of the cards thought as they did that.
I think they were expressing their creativity and because they thought it looked cool. If this were an alter professionally done, no one would bat an eye. I hope the person who did that became an artist.
when i first started playing magic when i was 14, i heard about alters and tried my hand at them. i never was very talented at painting and my colorblindness made the colormatching difficult, but i saw someone do the sharpie art online. i did it on a plains and it looks awful. i stuck it in a tupperware box full of my art supplies and forgot about it until i moved out of my parents house. still have the card today in a binder for all the cards that id never get rid of.
This project is such a love letter to the game. It makes me want to hold onto those few decks that are really special: my collection of 60 card kitchen table decks (still in rubber bands) my first 2 commander decks and even my new "all backgrounds deck," things I made not to be good but for the love of the game.
amazing work, homie
mans doing gods work advertising yall's heavily damaged cards lmao
A year old video that I've watched a countless number of times, every time it becomes more near and dear to me and makes me look back at my cards, seeing the first commander deck I built and the reserve list phyrexian dreadnought that I got signed that now resides in that deck, the card means more to me than the value it's worth, the value I traded it for or even the value of it in my deck. It will forever be my favourite card that I own and my favourite magic card, it never attacks, it barely ever gets cast and it will always end up in my graveyard and exile. As gorgeous as the card is, it never gets a proper looking in a game but it will never lose value in my collection of cards that changed the way I look at the game and it's value
This made me so nostalgic for my days playing Yu-Gi-Oh with my runner bands and tons of scratches. This may be the best video I've seen this year. I can't stop thinking about this.
This video makes me think fondly of the set of cards I had during school, a couple decks held together with rubber bands and traveling everywhere in my pockets. Most of them were a gift of bulk cards from a friend that had too many, plus a couple Ravnica boosters (from the first Ravnica set). One of those decks just happened to share pocket with a Bic pen that blew up, and now I own a handful of cards with ink splotches. The two most notable were a Suppression Field and a Deathknell Kami. The latter stood out to me because it was part of said gift from a friend. I didn't even play black (I still don't), but it became THE card that I picture whenever I think of what that era of Magic was, for me.
It was really satisfying to get your signature on it during your last visit to Barcelona. :)
This video blends its theme with an emotional honesty that brings the viewer along for an 18-minute, worthwhile journey. I can tell you put heart into this, as well as a lot of conscious thought. The title is perfect, and just like the deck this video ia many stories and one story at the same time. Thank you.
I've been watching your videos at random for the past two weeks, and this is by far your best one so far. It hits the mark just right with the way you express yourself. And damn I'm feeling nostalgic for a game I haven't played in years now.
I've already seen this video around 5 times, maybe even more. It really always makes my day. I think it's your masterpiece.
I have a new favorite short from your library now. This video is incredible and you should be very proud of the feelings you can induce in your viewers. Remembering my early TCG days, where the only thing in the world that mattered to me was a promo YuGiOh card, the Winged Dragon of Ra, which was included in an XBOX game that I received as a recovery gift when I broke my leg as a kid.
I still have that card, and even though it's pretty beat now, I refuse to sleeve it. Some things just never lose their luster.
Your videos have an amazing charm to them, and always a joy to watch and listen to. From the opening segment of the 4/10 Library of Alexandria to DJ's handling of the Gonti deck, even the momentos that people shared with you in that Twitter thread, I was overcome with nostalgia to the point of holding back tears.
I have only dabbled in Magic for a short period of my life, but I can only relate what you said about Magic in this video about much of everything else. I have become a hardcore metaslave for many of the games I play, always searching for ways to gain the upper hand, do optimal damage, raise the strongest and correct units... that I had mostly forgotten how a game was meant to be played.
I had been longing for the time I could simply play a game for what it is, to refuse looking up optimal strategies. To live the moment and play without outside influence.
All of your video essays have been a joy to watch, and seeing you appear on my feed always makes the day better. Thanks Rhystic Studies.
Thankyou for this video. It has made me reconsider the meaning of value. The first booster pack I opened was from an Ajani planeswalker deck, from Aether Revolt. One of the cards I pulled was a Masterpiece Sphere of Resistance. I didn't have any sleeves at the time, nor did I know the value of that card, so I used my 1 sleeve on Ajani from the deck, as that's what had value to me.
Later I played at that LGS, I was informed that the sphere was 'extremely rare', and told to sleeve it. By this time it had some dents already. I used to think of this as a regret, that my sphere wasn't in perfect condition, and never would be. But now that I've grown up, start to make choices where life will take me, and sell my collection, I will look back at this card, one of the few I will keep, and it will bring a tear to my eye. Not of regret that it's price will be forever tainted, but at the immeasureable value it has to me.
Once again, thankyou.
this has been my favorite deck since I heard about it a few years ago. DJ is a saint amongst men and reminds me of my childhood more than any card in my collection. thank you for covering him.
There is not a single video from Studies that I love more than this one. Every video he makes is filled with passion and love for Magic. Knowing that people care so much about keeping their card's value, I'm not interested. I may sell my cards someday, but I don't see it. I love playing the game, and it is so much more blasphemous to have cards meant to be played with in a binder forever, than to play with your magic cards without fearing for loss in quality. If I couldn't pull out my battered old magic deck, take off the rubber band, and bridge shuffle it without a play mat, then I would have never been able to play when I was young in the first place.
2:53 I'm fighting back tears. This video is Art, in the truest senses of the term, as it perfectly explains nostalgia, longing, and our species' need to share better than anything else. This is what elevates us to _Homo narrans._
ok buddy, let's take a deep breath and trim that neckbeard.
Love the Bedlam in Goliath album art on the wall
I imagined a little story in my head about who Sophie might be when I saw that Liliana, Dreadhorde general with a bite out of it even before the show ended (watch to the end, it helps out this wonderful channel). I imagined an ex-girlfriend who, upon the breaking up with the owner, trashed certain precious items to the original owner in her anger. The cherry on top was feeding their beloved commander deck to a very enthusiastic dog and one last spiteful note. Was she justified in her anger? Who can say, love is a two-way street.
I love the content from this channel, always chills me out.
In my native language of Hebrew, there is a saying "ספר שלא נקרא לא נקרע" or in English "a book that isn't torn wasn't read." It works as a pun because the words for "read" and "torn" are pronounced the same way. It means more broadly that if an item doesn't have any wear and tear to it it may be perfect but it was never actually used and enjoyed.
Bought a G/W starter deck in Tarkir block (back when those existed) and one of the booster packs in it had a foil Dragonlord Dromoka. My luck peaked just as I started playing, and that card will never leave me.
I'm so glad I glanced through UA-cam before I went to bed to see this. This video feels like it captures what I always feel when I watch your videos; a love letter to this game in ways I'd never have thought about in a similar ways, something that always feels like a diamond that just appears when it's ready, and when it does, it feels like something truly special and worth spending my time experiencing
Always so so ecstatic when I get to see one of your uploads :) Congrats on 200k , so extremely deserved for the quality of these videos
YESSSSSSSSS!!!
That deck is a work of art!
I love my kitchen table decks that are unsleeved. Whenever I ask a friend to play some casual magic with me and I break out that box of four unsleeved decks, then begin to riffle shuffle with abandon, I always delight in the responses I get, especially when I convince them to join in on the earnest fun.
My most treasured and priceless card is a two way tie.
The first one is the very first magic card I ever held in my hands, it is a copy of tromokratis from born of the gods, I loved the art and the card and bought it from my friend in high-school for a quarter and carried it in my wallet for a few weeks before i finally got to play the game, and I was hypnotised by it all that while And the best part is that we've been life long friends ever since.
The second one is a Gaea's cradle, I received it as a birthday gift from a dear friend of mine who is like an older brother and was always there for me, this card has been the best birthday gift I have ever gotten, and no matter how rough and tough life got, I never sold it and never will.
It's funny how both of them are priceless to me and are equally important, however, their monetary value is astronomical.
Every video you make is like listening to poetry. Thank you for your contributions ❤
Love it! I have a deck called "Trash Heap". It's made with 100% draft chaff and cards others threw out. I also altered each card with sharpie so they are actually trash now. It's also played unsleeved. It's one of my favorite decks.
I love the idea of your sleeveless deck being classic gruulstuff. It's as sentimental as it is flavorful.
All cards deserve a loving home
I currently have a Bomber Corps from Gatecrash, 2013. It is worth, at most, 25 cents, USD. It was my first pet card, and was in all of my first decks, from when I first started playing in middle school, and had a prescence in most of my decks until some time in highschool.
It hasn't seen use for a few years now, about, but while making a new commander deck recently, I pulled it out of the big plastic box that all of my cards were haphazardly thrown into for storage when I was younger, a storage method I thankfully grew out of.
I had a similar thought as this video describes about the Library of Alexandria. Even the wear was similar, though this card is significantly younger. I sat for a little while reminiscing about my memories with this card and those decks, and the memories that surrounded those games.
Then I put Bomber Corps in a sleeve that matched the rest of the cards for the deck. It's certainly not the best option, I subbed it out for a card I know would use the slot better, but I felt like Bomber Corps deserved to join the ranks of one of my decks again. Maybe even relive my first real "tournament" victory, a barely monitored afterschool club thing where Bomber Corps dealt the final touch of damage to my opponent with its keyword.
Or maybe this deck is trash and I am going to absolutely steamrolled, we'll see.
The two cards I love the most among all in my collection are my revised Sol Ring and Sword to plowshares. I traded it from my friend of 8 years who sadly passed away from a heart attack. I keep those cards in my favorite commander deck and they are the two I will never ever trade away.
Really enjoyed this video and I totally empathize with the ideology of enjoying a product how it's meant to be.
That said, I won't be unsleeving my cards any time soon. I can barely afford the hobby as is, I just can't bring myself to devalue something so precious already. If it weren't such an absurdly expensive hobby to really be into, I'd be all about it. I have some cards that are well-loved that came from my cousin's collection who played in the early 90's, before I got into the game, and I absolutely treasure them also.
I'm a newbie to MTG. But I can easily relate when I think on my old Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Scraped up and rubber banded decks full of memories and wonder.
I hope to one day look back on another deck of treasures.
My mono green titan deck. Was the first deck i ever owned, was the ajani duel deck from shards. Over the years it has lost red and white slowly, and gone through countless iterations, from the original zoo, to a combo deck, to a prison, to its landfall-eldrazi form now.
Its not terribly expensive, but the evolution is priceless. Since i dont play anymore it will never fulfill my final vision for it, but hey, thats fine. Has gone through over a dozen sets of sleeves and shows wear even through them due to the sheer ammount of play it saw. Nostalgia beats price tags any day
The one card I deem priceless in my collection is a durdle turtle from some kind of starter deck in khans of tarkir. Not just because of the meme but because of the fact it was in the first deck I ever played. My father had been playing from the beginning (he still has his 2 sealed boxes of The Dark) but he had taken a break from the game until khans. It was right when I was starting to reach the age where I understood the game. He got me the deck and durdle turtle was the only rare in it. I remember thinking it was the coolest, most flavorful card in the world. I still have that durdle turtle and I wouldn't part with it for anything.
Meandering Towershell?
@@tomshortell1046 yes, I just think of it as durdle turtle.
One of my favourite videos. Have been rewatching some of your old videos, glad I landed on this one again.
The concept explored delves so much further than just Magic and you capture it so beautifully.
I stopped playing a long time ago and I sold close to everything, but I still have the first rare I ever got in a booster pack, a minds desire. for a long time it was my favourite card. There's also a stasis framed on my wall.
a cruel ultimatum and death cloud that I use as bookmarkers, both, at seperate times got me a ticket to the nationals. i was never a great player, but those cards I hold dear.
great content
Thank you for (masterfully) documenting this. I'll surely be re-watching it every year
Vintage definitely to me at least, definitely feels like the most primordial format in a way. It also represents, to my extent, the people who *truly* value the game over the money. A smart person doesn't play Black Lotus, not only because Vintage is vastly less played than the other formats it contests with, but because doing so inevitably decreases the value of that card, minor damage is accumulated no matter what, no sleeve can ever permanently protect a Lotus. For a Lotus to retain value, it needs to be locked away. But they play anyway, at least in part, for the love of the format. It's part of why I love Vintage, even if I only ever experience it through a janky Java program. I've never been a complete fan of locking said cards away, because I never like looking at things in terms of how it can make me a profit. But still, my most valuable cards sit sleeved in plastic toploaders, for sentimental reasons. Including, as I decided to do while watching this video, one of if not the first YuGiOh cards I ever owned. A bruised copy of Chiron the Mage that makes even the Gonti deck look like it is in perfect condition. More ovular in shape than rectangular now, the card has been with me since childhood, including the time I dropped it in a trough urinal at school (don't ask how). Yet I like it in there, because it keeps its memory with me. Its value is in its sentiment, so putting it in an esteemed position means I can always enjoy looking at it. And in that sense, perhaps it is more dignified than one of those hard plastic shells.
This was beautiful to watch. I love the idea that the character of cards has as much intrinsic value as the most opulent purely through sentiment.
I have about 5 cards that are sentimental to me for this reason. All were sent to me by readers of a primer I write for Varina Lich queen as a sign of gratitude and they all stand as pinnacles of how wonderful this community can be. I also have a friend in Denmark sending me a copy of Tatyova, which he has promised to sign 'Dear Dale f you love Simon'. Once it arrives I will cherish it always.
The magicest and most gathered deck of all time.
You see, usually when i look at the prices of some cards i cannot avoid to cringe a little.
Maybe it is because I am a pragmatic guy, but all of this "cult" and economy based on the scarcity of some cards bothers me.
For me, Magic the gathering is a GAME. That's why is special, because of the moments I have experienced on the table. The cards are meant to be played, not to sit ,as you said, in their little plastic coffins.
For all of this I thank you very much for this video, because it reminded me that there are people out there that not only think like, but they take this filosphy to the maximum level.
Thank you Rhystic Studies and good job, as usual.
This reminds me of a cmdr deck tech I watched years ago and it was full of beat up cards. It started from one of his friends spilling their commander deck out into the street and he decided that he’d rebuild a deck using the remaining pieces. The rule was simple they had to have had organic wear and tear. I don’t remember what the deck was trying to do, but I remember thinking how cool it was to have all those stories around the history of each card and how it met it’s fate. Your video did such a better job materializing what I felt back then and why I continue to hang onto worthless cards that have their own stories that mean something to me. Thank you.
Just the first few minutes of this are fantastic by themselves, the way you communicate these hard to describe feelings when you see an old, valuable, but well played card... Very well said stuff.
Thanks Sam for featuring my Fact or Fiction!
-SrPantuflas
Coming back to rewatch this after it inspired one of my cherished decks, a deck made with the goal of being all traded cards where the player I traded with signs the card and new friends or community members sign the basics. It’s nowhere near my best deck but it’s one I’ll bring to every large event to get signatures and tell the stories contained within the deck.
I really love your composite and saturated essay style. Watching your videos have made me carefully re-evaluate how I communicate.
Thanks soooo much I love the passion of your project. Especially documenting this persons love and execution of his project. Finally a shout out to The Prof for his passion to promote the game for the players.
Dude, it never ceases to amaze me how well you can put thoughtfulness and sensibility in the conversation about our dearest game. I wish for this channel to live long and prosper and to keep on posting videos that put me in this state of reflection and amusement.
The "Love, Sophie ❤️" card is so touching. I hope whoever got that from Sophie appreciated it. I have a feeling that they did considering how well-loved it is
I've been having a rough go recently and your channel has been helping me find the glimpses of joy in what feels like a sea of darkness. Keep being wonderful!
everything about this gonti deck makes me smile in the most heartfelt way. real magic.
what a beautiful video, and the sequence where you unsleeved a deck and shuffled it was such a wonderful way to drive home the philosophy about treasuring wear and tear! i'm not a very avid magic player, i more like to witness other people play it and hear people talk about it, but this video made me think about the items i have that are more precious to me because of the wear they exhibit. i think if i dig through my childhood comics I'll find a specific one with creases all over it because as a kid I fell asleep in bed with it, and i think the other precious worn item would be my stuffed panda that's been with me since the day i was born. her glass eyes have scratches all over them from when 5 year old me wanted to play catch with my mom on the driveway, using the bear as the ball. When i first saw those scratches, while my mom was worried I would be upset about breaking my toy, little me said with delight "her eyes have SPARKLES in them"
You are not just an analyst and a historian, you are also a philosopher and a poet. I am more impressed by your channel than I am by any other MtG-related content producer on UA-cam, and there are some seriously great Magic videos out there. I don’t know what combination of life-path choices and innate aptitudes led to you making stuff so interesting, informative, and thought-provoking, but we’re all richer for it. Great work!