Spectral Chaos Wargaming — All that glimmers is not gold!

mmm beer!

Jonas and I went to a gaming convention in Denmark, eager to try the new format mixing Spectral Chaos with miniature wargaming. The location was an old brewery, but alcohol wasn't served until after five p.m. We nevertheless agreed that it was a reasonable idea, since one tends to become quite worn after a few days otherwise.

Our friendly Danish hosts spoke in a mixture of Cockney and Swedish, and gave us a quick run-down of the rules and how to set up figures and stat sheets in relation to the deck and battlefield. An important feature was that figures were introduced to the battlefield via roleplaying, using old Dominaria lore and the Danish community created universe as a backdrop. This aspect was more or less free-form — "You'll learn as we go, mate!"

Things took an unpleasant turn when we started playing. Jonas and I only received a few figures, and one of the Danish players was really annoyed that we didn't know the ins and outs of every single rule. Moreover, they insisted that we started the game and I had a lot of trouble setting up my figures. We had also received small piles of coins and other treasury to be used as currency in the game. My pile contained an intricate, glimmering chainmail in gold, which fit the occult high priest amongst my figures perfectly! I started roleplaying how he prepared for battle by putting on the chain mail, which turned out to be completely against the rules and the bad-tempered Danish player really freaked out!

The rules appeared to be in a constant flux, and as soon as we tried to make a play, it triggered a bunch of free plays for the Danes which soon mobilised their entire forces. I tried to explain that we were neither experts in the history of Dominaria, nor in their community created lore, but it was all in vain. When I glanced back at my part of the battlefield, the figures where in a complete mess! I desperately tried to get them in order, but it was impossible to remember all details and not upset the Danish players. That's when I woke up.

If you watch a Spectral Chaos stream, be wary of Siege of the Citadel and Mutant Chronicles in the book about Äventyrsspel before falling asleep.

- Paddan

A full circle or spiral or something

Hi al! Today we have a guest post from Slotherine on our Discord server. So I’m just gonna just going to leave the word to him, here you go! /Gordon

 2020 - what a year huh, oh it's 2021 already and this is a continuum. Negativity, financial turbulence and social distancing, we have faced hardship and are still struggling through some hard times. So with that in mind I thought the good people playing this game could use some positive vibes out there. Here are some nostalgic remarks and random musings from an all new player to the 93/94 Old School Mtg and a sort of an public greeting to all of its local communities.

A full circle or spiral or something

Magic: The Gathering - what a peculiar thing it is. This collectible card game has been a huge part of my life since the summer of 1995. I can vividly recall when I and a very good old friend of mine bought our very first cards in starter decks of the 4th edition after another classmate with his big brothers introduced the game to us and some peers. Kalle got a copy of White Knight and I opened a copy of Black Knight, but more on that later.

What a wonderful game we found, it really hit home with us, as we were already involved in everything nerdy from pen & paper roleplaying to playing with Commodore 64 and Nintendo. Jumping back to present day and the global Mad Max scenario that we are currently LARPing, January 22th 2021 was the date I got the deal made and became an owner of Unlimited Edition Black Lotus. It took me 26 years to get my hands on the card of all cards, what an amazing feeling. All this got me feeling rather nostalgic, warm and fuzzy (truth be told, this gin and tonic that I’m sipping while writing this might enhance these sensations). So, how did I get here.

Early Dark Ages: It's all black

Oh sweet summer child, didn't win many games.

Black has always been my color, ever since I got that Black Knight and thought it's way cooler than my friends White Knight. I loved the black cards aesthetically, with their gruesome pictures of power, pain and sacrifice and livid depictions of nightmares. It all felt a little forbidden, bad and extremely metal. However, I really didn't see how anything could beat a Craw Wurm or even better a Scaled Wurm! So I played a lot of subpar green aggro decks. We really didn't know how to play, house ruled interactions and rulings on cards when we weren't sure how to progress and couldn't consult the older players. In the beginning there was just kitchen table games and real scarcity of cards, I remember trading for basic lands and with no understanding of the value or rarity, so I think we got pretty hosed by the older players. I remember Kalle trading a Tropical Island from Revised for some cards he needed for a deck (can't remember what they were, but it's safe to assume it was a steaming pile of bulk).

Revised was still on shelves when we started but of course we didn't want to buy too much of the old shit, so we cracked open loads of 4th edition, Fallen Empires, Homelands, Chronicles and Ice Age. So, we spend our first years losing to the likes of Erhnam Djinn and Armageddon or Llanowar Elves and Force of Nature and after the release of Ice Age to that big bad Necropotence or just getting drilled by a Juggernaut of a Sol Ring.

Eventually we found some other players and playgroups in our region, learned the game more and finally evolved into Type 2 players that did some occasional drafting too. Our old playgroup was going through a lull when Urza block arrived and I remember a shift in our local player base. All the powerful combo decks and cards of that era pretty much drove us out of competitive play, but the appeal to compete was growing and I remember at least attending the Nationals last chance qualifier in around the year 2000, playing a last minute trade binder brew rogue black that didn't have all the cards I wanted. I think it was sporting like 3 Rishadan Port, some number of Trashing Wumpus and a playset of beats by Phyrexian Scuta and yeah, stuff. I made it to 4-0 and table #1 and all the way back to 4-4 and one of the first cuts. What a blast.

But eventually people move on in life and the playgroups in little towns or more remote municipalities are easily dissolved. People had new interests, girls, pc-gaming and eventually mandatory military service here in Finland and then of course studying in the bigger cities. Somewhere around 2003 I thought Magic: The Gathering is something adults don't do, sold pretty much anything of value and left the game for 13 years. By that time I was a passionate Extended player that occasionally dabbled with some casual Type 1.5 , but what I was really playing was Extended with some sort of Oath of Druids builds and a Counter slivers deck if I recall correctly, that's XXU right? I remember having well over 20 copies of Revised Dual Lands, Italian Legends Moat and The Abyss with some other stuff. What an uninformed douche I was.

Getting back and discovering Legacy

The amount of snow is too damn high! This goes for both my backyard and Legacy

When I got back to the game in 2016 I quickly connected and integrated with this fantastic local Legacy based community here in Tampere, amazing people. I think I made my first good decision involving this lifestyle and bought into the format in one big swoop. Now with everything good comes the bad and in this case both the bad & ugly are the Wizards of the Coast with their FIRE-desing philosophy and mismanagement of the Legacy format. The good here is, that even though most of the format staples are not Old School cards they are mostly reserved list cardboard and appreciated extremely well in few years sort of keeping the gap or leap manageable to Old School. So, while I have not really enjoyed what has happened in Legacy lately, I have had some good trading pieces and stuff to sell and therefore decreasing the amount of new cash I needed to raise. Even after trading and selling a bunch of stuff, I still have too many Legacy decks to actively play them all.

Could have, would have, should have. I am not going to get too deep into finance here as it is quite boring and somewhat beside the point of this article, but as there are some serious concerns regarding the price of these old cards and I feel this needs to be acknowledged here. I for one am not going to defend the price increases or even spikes of sorts we are seeing with the original first editions and printings of these Mtg cards, but there are myriads of different factors affecting the collectibles market inflation that we are witnessing and can be at least reasoned with. I believe the most important thing here is to take perspective on value of things and not be too much hung up on price memory.

Upfront Ville (left) Erkka (right), im looming in the far-right corner behind couple of half-naked dudes.

Peksi demostrating that there is always room for players at Mätkymökki

The wild price spikes and following increases can be really worrying for communities, because I'm pretty sure many of the players enjoying the format and playing it are worried of the increasing price tag for new players or even old players wishing to build a new deck to try something different and cool. I have firsthand experience in this as the price action has been pretty devastating for many Legacy communities, or at least very worrisome, some new players are always interested but just opt not to get involved as it might be too pricey for them or all together unachievable. On the other side, we really don't know where we are with our reserved list formats until live tournaments and travelling are an option again.

Life is good, let's keep slamming cardboard!

We all have our subjective resources, budget and a way we value things, so the way I'm looking at all this is simply from my perspective. For me personally the current prices mean that I will never be able to reasonably build something like an Old School Reanimator which I'm a bit salty about of course, because its build around some of the coolest cards I have ever laid eyes upon like Bazaar of Baghdad and All Hallow's Eve, but we can't have everything can we? Perhaps I can borrow the deck live someday to get to tap that bazaar and mill nothing but lands.

Financially I think I've made all the big mistakes in this hobby, missing the great entry points for rare and valuable cardboard and of course quitting the game and selling off at one point. However, I am extremely lucky to be in this position right now, I have a steady job with decent income, pretty successful career and I have accumulated my stock portfolios for years now. Just to be clear, I'm also married with two kids and we have a house with mortage, so by no means am I rich, there are some real expenses.

Getting in to Old School in 2021

But after buying into legacy, how can I justify allocating thousands and thousands in something like Old School Magic. Simply put, these cards as rare collectors’ items and nostalgic game pieces that have real value for me. But even more than the game or the cards, I value the gathering - that is the communities that make up for what this whole collectible card game is. If there is something good that came with this pandemic, it's that it became apparent how much I miss and enjoy getting together with people to play this game. After Premodern and Old School gripped my attention few years ago, I have been keeping myself in the loop enjoying all the great streaming, blogs and other content.

We have played Swedish b&r Old School with open reprint, so I guess that's basically Ravenna Rules policy, on two of the last few summer cottages located Mätkymökki tournaments and are pretty constantly playing a monthly Premodern in our weekly tournament schedule in Tampere. There is some added appeal to true eternal formats for a player with work and family stuff to manage. The sheer amount of new sets, ludicrous card designs and metagame shifts have slowly turned even formats like Legacy into quite quickly rotating and quite exhausting, something hard to keep up with. There are some clear cut reasons I felt like I can, would very much like to and did actually decide to collect my first Swedish legal 75 that's all ABU & The Four Horsemen original printings. First off, I started adding up all the expenses that I usually have consuming services, culture, travelling or even just going to the movies or restaurants and to experience live music. With the pandemic all these actives just stopped and I noticed that there was abundance of cash on my account every month and nothing much besides the stock market to allocate it to. Now if you are lucky enough to keep your job status secure in these times, accumulating wealth is great, but I personally think it's pretty pointless if you can't spend it in something that you enjoy.

 

Recliner of rage, steady supply of books to read and new drinks, also insert your local sports teams’ woolen socks here

 

So, I put things in perspective, ensured myself yet again that I had all the essentials in my life, felt safe and free to again spend a portion of my cashflow and even some savings in this hobby, or perhaps we ought to call it a lifestyle, and started accumulating a card base. Now I have to admit that at first, I was sure I'm just going to construct some sort of powerless pile or two for tournaments allowing open reprints, but I was quickly tempted with some more iconic and exclusive parts of this games history that I had long-coveted.

When we were planning to make some tournament trips in 2020 sometime before the pandemic hit us, I actually went through my old bulk and binders. I was happy to realize that I actually have a playable 75 for Troll Disco for the updated Ravenna rules. But what I really wanted to go back to was black. What I really wanted to do for the first time in my life, was to swing in with a Juzam Djinn. Oh god, I can still remember us dreaming about owning these cards back in the day. 5/5 for just 4 mana, that’s just not fair (looking at you Uro). Those iconic cards were pretty much unobtainable for little kids that could only buy a single booster pack a week or something like that.

So I got my first all new Old School cards in 2019, my first Juzam Djinn in early 2020 in a deal from Netherlands and my first piece of power in Unlimited Mox Jet in the summer of 2020 as we made a local deal in person. The price spikes got me really worried and at times I was feeling a bit overwhelmed in all of this, contemplating in between should I really go for as much pimp that I can or should I settle for something less. Eventually the fomo got me and as I had the means, I helped 3 more Juzam Djinns to escape the Boris Johnson regime and the looming Brexit from England late 2020. You bet I'm going to play them way too much! After I got a deal on a playset of Beta Hypnotic Specters, just waiting to eat a bolt, I was sure that I want as much black bordered cards for my deck as I could muster.

By the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 I decided to move fast so I didn't have to worry about the crazy price action anymore. With the last spike in the old school cardboard in the beginning of 2021, the price was right for couple of sellers in Finland and we did an in-person cards + cash deal for the Black Lotus. Some decisions were made, some high flying stocks positions were decreased, legacy staples were offloaded and a goal was achieved. Still waiting for few post packages to arrive, but when they do I will have an all Swedish legal 75 mono black. It's going to be far from perfect but I will be playing with what I got and with some cards that I think are cool.

Foil Eldrazi, Goblins for just about every format, Elves for PM and Legacy and a bunch of other decks/staples for variety of formats

Work in progress.

You choose how much you want so spend

Financially I have pretty much accepted that talking strictly ABU & The Four Horsemen original printings lists, mono back will be my brew space and there appears to be some ideas that I am looking to test out at some point. Some lists people have tested seem involve more control elements with disks, more manipulators, royal assassins and meekstone or something. I could try to convince myself that I don't need any expensive cards, but we all know how this is going to end up and I'll be hunting down those Guardian Beast's soon enough, if the price doesn't go completely bonkers that is. We'll see if have to the appetite to get some Unlimited duals at some point and yeah, just forget about that silly monocolored limitation.

Background in Legacy unlocks some Ravenna legal mana

I'm so glad that reprint wise the Ravenna Rules variants appears to be pretty popular in Europe, that will allow for more brewing today without committing ridiculous amounts of money. I would also encourage other Legacy players to look into the format as most of the active players have loads of Revised or Foreign Black Bordered Dual Lands so they already have the manabase covered for multicolored brews in more open reprint policies. With open reprints (usually old frame and original art) I'm looking to tinker around with my Toll Disco. I also think Atog is one of the most flavorful creatures out there with Juzam and could fill my need to get some aggressive red beats in at some point.

I don't mean to dismiss the purists wishing to keep their tournaments all pimped out, but new players are like a breath of fresh air for communities, even formats and the Swedish b&r still ensures the same appealing dynamics that were originally indented. Atlantic rules also look interesting and something I would like to try at some point. Only variation that I hold some prejudice against are the ones allowing 4 Strip Mine. About the open reprint policy, I really feel like I'm not missing anything if my opponent is slamming Revised Swords to Plowshares and Fbb Savannah Lions with 4th Armageddon, the gameplay is still there and I am free to drop and enjoy my Lotus. And we know how Mtg players are, when we get the taste for something, we buy in and start to pimp our decks. Variety of local and even tournament specific b&r modifications, gentlemen’s rules, mad brews and unofficial expansion sets like scryings are a great way to keep the 93/94 scene from getting stale.

Unfortunately it's mostly Revised or 4th, but it's something

Timetable is uncertain, but we will make it

We like many others had grand plans for 2020, many of us planned to attend yet another Magicfest in Europe with a Legacy main event, the Finnish Nationals for Premodern and Legacy, Alphacastle for some Old School Magic and the German Nationals for Premodern on that same trip, yet another rush with haste and trample to the Swedish Nationals for Premodern. Perhaps some bigger Old School tournament somewhere. Now all these events have been postponed and the outlook for 2021 is uncertain at best, but I’m sure we will get to play live at some point. I'm looking forward to getting that beer or two with Jens and Philip. And unfortunately, I didn't make the great Finnish raid to the Swedish Premodern Champs in 2019, but I've heard all good things about the local community and the mainstay figures that have roots in Old School. From what I have learned, they are my kind of people.

Oh, and there is murmuring that Gordon and perhaps some other jolly vikings could make it to the Mätkymökki tournament when we are safe to travel again. That would be grand. And by the way, I'm not the only local player interested in 93/94 Mtg. From the local Tampere Kettu Crew, I happen to know that Erkka is also looking to finish up a cool Ravenna legal BRU-control and he just agreed to buy an Unlimited Ancestral Recall. Also, Janne has almost completed a Ravenna legal White Weenie. Great things are afoot. Looking forward to meeting you all. But until then, I should really get a webcam to jam some games with yall!

 

I swear I was not drunk, even though academic celebrations can be a bit wild :)

 

P.S You can find me on Discord with the nickname Slotherine and on Facebook with my name Antti Turtiainen. Feel free to message me if you have anything to ask or just want to get in touch.

Video: This is Premodern

Have you ever heard of the format Premodern? If not, this is the perfect video for you. Gordon sat down with the creator Martin Berlin to talk about the why, what and when about Premodern.

The format is an Old School format that takes up where most 93/94 formats end and stretches all the way until Wizards decided to change the card frame. That is, it is almost the opposite of what is now known as Modern. But I will leave it at that, watch the video for the complete story and visit Premodernmagic.com for a more in-depth look at the format itself. Enjoy!

Just one more thing, don’t miss that we will stream the Swedish Championship in Premodern on Saturday June 8 at 11am CET at www.twitch.tv/wakwakmtg 46 Players will join the battle, but only one will be crowned Swedish Champion 2019!

Some of you may have picked up that this video has been in the making as it have taken about half a year to finish it. It’s my (Gordon) first more “serious” video in almost ten years and it has therefore taken a lot of time, but now I will focus on more 93/94 content!

Sindbad and the story about the Wak-Wak tree

An original art by Jesper Holm

One day Sindbad met a thin old man in the corner of a street that he usually found empty. As he thought that was kind of strange he walked up to the man and asked him who he was. The old man started to tell Sindbad the story about his life as an explorer and how he now was too old to continue on the adventure of his life. When Sindbad asked him what that was the old man started to tell an unbelievable story about an island far, far away. The island was called Wak-Wak and had always been the old man’s goal as it was said that the island had a very special tree that could grant unlimited power to the one who plucked its fruit. The sad part was that the man actually had a pretty good idea on where this island was, he was just too old to go there.

The story intrigued the young Sindbad so much so he decided to find the island and its fruit, for the man (and himself of course). He packed his equipment, gathered his crew and set sail.

Exactly where to, he did not know, but he was sure he would find the island if he just followed the old man’s description. After 3 years at sea and many adventures we can tell at another time Sindbad almost gave up on finding the peculiar fruit of the island of Wak-Wak. He started to think that the old man had lied to him but that is when an island matching the old man’s descriptions suddenly emerged over the horizon.

Now Sindbad was more excited than ever, what could this peculiar fruit be? How could it grant you power? He made it to shore and started to search the island for the tree. It didn’t take long at all until Sindbad found a mysterious place with no life at all, except for one single tree in the middle of the dead field. He found the barren ground very strange as there was no sign of what could deprive the otherwise lively land of life. He was however sure, that was the tree and he was going to pick its fruit. One thing was strange though, the tree just stood there in the open, why hadn’t anyone else already picked it?

Soon Sindbad would get his answer as he started to approach the tree. Because suddenly a fruit dropped from the tree. The fruit started to spin around as it left its tree branch and Sindbad could see a grinning smile on it as it fell. It then hit the ground with an ear deafening bang that made the earth shake so violently that Sindbad fell to the ground. When he stood up again and looked at where the fruit had landed a big chunk of the ground was missing and all that was left was a smoldering crater.

This was when Sindbad realized it, the peculiar fruit of the Wak-Wak tree was actually the origin of the mythical Chaos Orb.

And with that story you know how Wak-Wak and Flippin’ Orbs are related and why our new "logo" looks the way it does.

Right now, Gordon is looking into where he can order some nice-looking pins with this new amazing looking orb fruit on. Because the plan is to send a Flippin’ Wak-Wak Orbs pin to everyone that supports our site and podcast in one way or another. If you like the pin and want to be part of the ones who will get one of the first batch made the easiest way is to support us by becoming a Patreon.  But there are of course many other ways you can support us as well, for example of course Bonnie Myrbacka will get one as he has helped us by editing Flippin’ Orbs and Magnus “Mg” De Laval for letting us stream n00bcon X.

The original is a painting made by the super talented Jesper Holm and the plan is to give it away to a supporter in the future, so if you like it, stay tuned!

And one last thing, would anyone want a playmat with this motif?

Playmat?

At the bottom of the glass – 4 lessons from a loser

Today we have a blog post from Flippin' Orbs host Seb Celia where he tells us about 4 very special cards that he has had the "honor" of winning during the last couple of years. Each card comes with its own stories and lessons that have made Seb a wiser man, and a better player, or at least we hope so.  /Gordon

Lesson I

Lesson II

Lesson III

Lesson IV

Lesson I – The Rag Man

The dark side of the moon

It’s a card right? I mean, you win when you play it … sometimes. Blood Moon is a deceptive card though, it gives you that warm fuzzy feeling but you are a blind fool. And a deception that elevates us is dearer than a host of low truths. Let’s lay down some of those truths.

I sometimes use Fog as an example of a deceptive card that lets you really remember winning. You won that one time when all the stars aligned and, clearly, should’ve died that very turn if it were not for this and that. It does not, however, remind you of all the times you sat with the card in your hand, doing nothing. Cards need to do things for you to win, we could probably agree on that right? I think in many ways Blood Moon qualifies here. Sometimes it just flat out kills all opponents’ upcoming plays. Other times they have a Fellwar Stone when you decided to play with plains in your Blood Moon deck. Other times you slam it when you have an opening around counterspells and whatnots but strand a bunch of your own cards in hand due to playing three colors in your Blood Moon deck.

So for the tournament where I won the Rag Man (A price given out to last place in all our tournaments, Ed.) I played a Blood Moon deck with Savannah Lions, splashing for blue power (because I am not a peasant by position, nor by nature). To make a long story short, it did not go well. I even met a Merfolk deck where my Blood Moons just did everything that is close to nothing.

 

Lesson II – Sorrows Path

(Put the lime in the) coconut

I did not plan claiming all these trophies, to aquire them you have to be ready to be beaten a lot, like a lot a lot. But it’s also a bit like in that Fight Club scene where they are told by Tyler Durden to go out and get beaten up by complete strangers. It’s not as easy as it seems. I claimed this little gem by coming 5th place just out of range for the top4. I actually won the Sorrows Path in the raffle just before the top4 and it seemed fitting to say the least. Råberg signed it when he beat me in the win and in. Anyway, I played this:

Arabian Aggro is a great deck. Recently we have seen a lot of creature based decks popping up and in that meta, you probably win playing Swords over Lightning bolts but hey, I feel that if you put a lion and a gorilla in a cage fight… the monkey will beat the shit out of the cat. I did try playing three sylvan in the sideboard in this event because I had seen “Farsan” go unbeaten in the swiss at n00bcon, and he won against like, at least two-three The Decks (including mine) with them, as a sort of Ancestrals. But they did not serve me that well, and I don’t like that card as much as other people do. I think I had control a bit too much in mind building my deck and let that be a lesson to you all, you probably will never meet the decks you plan to meet anyhow.

Seb's Arabian Aggro

Lesson III – The Fallen

What a wonderful world

So, if you play Eureka, you lose. At least that’s what LSV says, but let’s not delve too much into what’s good or bad with the deck in general. I did some very sweet plays and that’s what you want, slinging the most badass creatures in the game, like playing a turn one Lord of the Pit. There got to be some kind of achievement unlock just doing that, right? I had a real blast the whole tournament … but I lost. I like the possibility to ramp out big dudes and to be able to live the magical christmas land from time to time playing eureka. Unload your hand, slam Concordant Crossroad and hitting for a ton. Moat is a problem though… and a bunch of other crap are problematic too, but who the fuck cares when all you want is to win more, rather than win?

(The Fallen was also the price for a last place finish, Ed. )

"So you say my Library might be too slow?"

"So you say my Library might be too slow?"

 

Lesson IV – Blaze of Glory

Where is my mind

Seb's n00bcon deck - The Machinegun

I can’t really complain that much about coming 9th place in this year’s n00bcon. The deck felt solid, I got mind twisted three times in the games that I lost that eventually put me outside of competition and that is a crappy feeling. I remember when I played against Olle Råde for the win and in and had a Library in my starting seven. “This is the first time I get to play library turn one!” I declared. Olle mind twisted me the following turn for a bunch. The bigger picture of the whole tournament for me was a bunch of really fun games and I try to keep that in mind going forward.

I love playing Atog decks. The main problem with Atog is that you really only need one, that’s true for a bunch of cards, like the ones I’ve mentioned earlier (Blood moon and Sylvan Library). But you need to make it stick which means you have to bait out a counter or two and/or keep it around. The reason why I think small creatures are, and have been good lately is that all the control decks skimp with their removal. Right now, in the age of lions, I’m playing at least 2 bolts with my 4 swords in my The Deck because those small lifepoints add up. U/R has like 8 creatures, and 4 of them are Flying Men. They are really, really good. Especially if they bait out swords so you can slam your Serendibs. And even though you might feel that the Lions get smashed by Mishras, white has both Disenchant and Swords so those factories have to dodge a lot to stay alive