Kotaku reported about a recent episode of YouTube show, “MTG Breakdown,” where Magic: The Gathering commentator Marshall Sutcliffe brought on Pro Tour Historian Brian David-Marshall on to show off something that a nerd of any color can appreciate: old footage of an MTG Tournament from 1994.
Now, I’m still relatively new to playing Magic and this event took place when I was two years old, but it is still really interesting to watch people playing, and getting to see the older card designs. Magic had only been out since August of 1993, so the fact that a whole tournament was created around it, in New York, in such a short period of time, proves that when people want to meet up to play card games, life finds a way.
One of the fun things, as author Cameron Kunzelman points out, is because the game was so early on in development the players are handling the cards like cards, not like artifacts that will, in my lifetime, become worth thousands of dollars to collectors. “One of the players in the finals has an unsleeved Unlimited edition Black Lotus (which currently goes for about $8,000).”
The second thing I want to highlight is the absolutely mind-annihilating shuffle this dude does. Sutcliffe’s reaction is pretty serious, and I wouldn’t recommend shuffling any cards this way. To add to the horror, David-Marshall points out that those cards definitely include a bunch of dual lands, most of which are worth hundreds of dollars each at this point. There’s also a Mox Ruby ($2,250). Again, he didn’t know the future, but dang.
As I’ve been watching recent beginner tournaments to learn some of the logistics of play, one of the things I see in the comments for Magic is that people are very serious about putting cards in sleeves.
Watching this video is a fun piece of Magic: The Gathering history, and just think about what’ll be like in 20+ years when Pokémon Go footage is a historical artifact of our gamer times, or better yet Smash.
What games would you want to be best known for playing twenty plus years from now?
(My answer: Fire Emblem: Awakening is my best work.)
(via Kotaku, image: Screengrab)
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