Alpha

In the beginning, there was alpha. Well, not really, there were play test cards, and several rounds of that. But thats not why I am here.

Alpha was never a set I cared about, seriously. Up to when I quit Magic the first time, 2000 time frame, Alpha was considered nothing more than a collector's set. Why you ask....

When I played, for the first several years, no one used sleeves. Never heard of them, didn't care. Prices were not silly. You could trade some commons for dual lands. You could actually buy Mox for under $50. And generally, people were not insane about condition; just no marked cards.

The key was- no sleeves. Which meant Alpha could not be played unless ALL your cards were Alpha because of the corners. As pointed out here, even Unlimited versions of the same cards were worth more because of the unplayable-ness of the cards.

Flash forward to a few years later, everyone with a brain had sleeves, and Alpha still was not that usable. Still a collectable thing. Why?
If I recall correctly, you could call the judge, "JUDGE!" Ask the opponent to de-sleeve to make sure no proxies were being used... and there was a wild hair rumor that you could force your opponent to play un-sleeved. Hence not being able to use Alpha still because they were considered marked cards. I know I know... but you all have sleeves, what does it matter?!
Well, that was the problem with "back in the day" stuff. We didn't know any better. Funky was frowned upon.


Example #2 of funky:
When my friends started playing, they would go to the Armory in Pikesville to buy their Magic. The location still exists, but it does not sell directly to the public. This store was a MAJOR distribution center for the mid-Atlantic gaming scene. For the most part it was figures, D&D, and stuff like Warhammer. Anywho- you could buy packs, starters, and such directly from them in the store. When they FIRST went there, the store still had unlimited starters and packs. However, they also started to get revised starters and packs in.
The problem was, back then, no one could tell them if they could still play unlimited cards with revised. No one knew. Seriously. Revised was available, unlimited seemed a little more sketchy, so they bought the revised because they thought they could keep playing with that set. Don't get me started on Legends packs.

Ah, early Magic. Cloaked in mystery and no sleeves!

Proxy/fake cards

I've admitted it, I bought a bucket ton of fake/proxy cards. They were the cheapest out there, white core, laminated front and back. Good enough sleeved up for me. I could play the game, and not care about investing THOUSANDS of dollars to just play the game I wanted to play. I was never going to spent 10 hours on a Saturday at a pro-tour stop, nor a SCG event. Just not why I am playing. Sure, the local card store doesn't care about proxies, I'm down for that. And oh, it is VERY obvious my cards are fake once unsleeved. (anyone want a foil Lotus? I have one!)

However, I have a different proposal for fakes:

   (this is for all the collectors and Wizards)

What happens if the people making these proxies/fakes get them so good that people cannot tell the difference? I mean, shipped off to a grading service and returned with grades sort of well off cards. (btw, it has happened)
Keep in mind, the fakes are only going to get better, not worse. Take for example, this site. They proport to have multiple generations of printing stock and better technology to get more accurate prints. Be sure to check out their gallery of fakes.


My point being, if the fakes are so good that they are not different from the real cards- what is the response? I suspect the market crashes, only cards slabbed (graded and sealed) before a certain time frame will be considered to be genuine. Though that pretty much makes playing in any tournament hard.
Wizards would have to respond somehow. Their self imposed restricted list of cards they will never print again might have to be re-thought.
Perhaps bring back runs of these cards with holograms, or even my thought- purple boarders. Allowing Wizards to make a buck, and keep the fakes at bay. People will buy old World Championship decks to get the hard to find cards, even though they are in gold boarder. Or even the collectors edition cards which are square corners and gold backs.


The point being, the time is coming. I hope the market and Wizards are ready for a response to when the fakes are just as good as the real thing.


Btw, if you want a MUCH longer, likely much better written version of what I might have been trying to say, check out this SCG article from almost 3 years ago. It lists pretty much exactly the same points, but in much better detail.

From the same box

I drafted both of these cards, and all the packs from the draft were from the same box.

So it appears the one on the left is really what the card should look like.  We had several cards in the draft which were bleached looking. Not sure what happened at the old printing company, but it was an odd sheet.

Conspiracy!

I drafted my second Conspiracy Take the Crown set last night.

Let me just say this at the outside, I am not a great drafter... I need two, maybe three, drafts to really understand whats going on. So the first time I played the set, I think I could have done well if I didn't get mana hosed. This time, I sort of went the same direction with the drafting. I went mostly W with some light G. Lots of ways to take the crown. Yes, I know it meant I would be a target, but I counted on others being worried about each other.

It turned out, I won with 1 life for 3 rounds. Muahahahaha...

Players as I saw it:

- Rob was playing something that never worked. Got totally mana screwed, and only came in second because of a Ghostly Prison. No one ever had the mana to pay for it and the 3 creatures he had in defense

- Andy was playing a R/U flying deck which never showed any fliers. He was the only one I saw with direct damage. He also had the Rogue's Passage which is huge in this format. I got EXTREMELY lucky when he killed James during the one turn he could have killed me. The down side of his deck, he never got any fliers out.

- Dan was G mostly with some W. He had lots of trickery, moving enchantments around, pumping stuff. He was also on the other side of the table so I was never sure what he had out. He did have some of the largest critters, and had them removed three times.

- James was on the other side of me. He likely had the best deck out there, R and G. Fairly large creatures, but the kicker was the Dragonlair Spider. He became public enemy number 1 when he played it, there was just no way that could last. Thank goodness he was out before me, otherwise I would have not won.


Things that helped me win:

• Hold the Perimeter. That little card helped knock about 12-15 life off everyone else while I just sat and built defenses.
• Juniper Order Ranger- (x2) This guy helped later game in pumping up everything I had. My little sac'd Doom Traveler became 2 2/2 Flyers! Woot. (They lead to killing the last three opponents)
• Spectral Grasp- (x2) Helped save me from the biggest creature out there in the mid game.
• becoming the Monarch- I had six different cards that allowed me to become Monarch just by playing them. The card advantage was huge.
• Beast Within- This allowed me to kill off Dan by removing his one threat and killing him with my 2/2 flyers.
• Netcaster Spider- Allowed me to discourage any flyers. (plus it came down after the Juniper, so +1/+1!) 

     My true MVP though- Protector of the Crown. It came down, grabbed a +1/+1 from the Juniper Order Ranger, and became my "survive another turn" card. It was down fairly late game, so no one took my 1 life TOO seriously. (we can kill you at any time!) No one could do anything about it. Even if I was tapped out, I could easily recover. They would need to do 6 damage JUST to kill that, then have to attack me again to get one damage. Hence why I had to kill Andy to remove the chance at direct damage.
     Also, this time and my previous time, I drafted Ghostly Possession. First draft I nearly won with this card alone. The second time, I never drew it. If I had, put it on the Protector of the Crown, and I would have been nearly invincible. Well, almost. 

    Happy note- I did open the 4 packs of Conspiracy I won. I know, I know... I should have saved them for a later draft. Honestly I don't know when I was going to do that. I opened a Kaya, Ghost Assassin. One of the most "valuable" cards in the entire set. Ha. (well, top 10 in value) It was the only value card opened all night from the set.


postscript:  One aspect of this set that I am really bad at- the politics. I kept quiet for the most part. I allowed everyone else to talk about what they might or might not do. The deck I drafted reflected my attitude in the game for the most part. Stay low, stay strong, stick around long enough to have a chance.