Thanks!

You never disappoint, always top tier content top to bottom

This is perfect for me. You started MTG the exact time I did. I associate MTG with literally 7th Edition and the Odyssey block. The themes and art are literally drilled into my brain.

This is wild. That Mark Zug Serra Angel is by far my favorite art for that card, and I'm shocked that wasn't the popular sentiment, at least as the time.

Every few years I stop playing the game, but sometimes I stumble on one of your videos and it makes me wanna get back into it all over again

Thank u sam

Oh man Thorn Elemental! That takes me back…

Donato is awesome, great video

loved the video. much like you, staring at the art on Magic cards as a kid is what drew me to the game

i need videos about rock climbing in your format, because it's so beautiful. you're my favorite person to watch on youtube.

I'm glad to see some love for 7th edition. Keep up the fine work, my friend.

The way he talked about shivan…. He definitely went to ESF at Syracuse!!

"A boy lost in his imagination, suspended in a world within a world" - that hits differently. With those words you sum up my relationship with magic when i was young.

magic card design is so far away from this now. its a different game.

This video indirectly puts into words why I’m not connecting with magic lately. I was introduced to magic with Origins, and it hooked me instantly with much of the same art. The first deck I ever played was a red deck borrowed from a friend that topped out at shivan dragon. The moment I put that bad boy on the table, I was in. Haven’t felt that sense of tradition and reverence in a long time.

You also started with a core set! I have similar feelings about Magic 2013, the clear vision of high fantasy, the evocative art, core sets are absolutely my favorites.

Maybe I'm early, video just started, but I would buy print versions of your drawings of these cards

What a gorgeous love letter to the game I have spent 3 decades with. There was a real magic, for lack of a better word, when I was 13 and opened my first starter deck or when the long search bore fruit and I was finally able to buy a couple packs of Antiquities and Legends to see what was possible inside. Thank you for this.

I'm so glad to see Patagia Golem is loved by others. I didn't find it until I had been playing long enough to know its not a "good" card but I bought it on sight. One of my favorite cards and favorite arts.

7th edition has always been my favorite core set. I was completely caught off guard by this video. Nice to see I wasn’t the only one that noticed its unique charm

I started around the same time, what a blast from the past!

I started with the 7th edition starter kit! That Thorn Elemental is such a throwback. I still remember the good ol' days playing against Amber Prison and Vizzerdrix.

Sam, this video brought me to tears. The passion, love and craft you bring to magic through your essays, through your work is unmatched. Thank you so much.

funny that this video gets recommended to me when it's released 7 hours ago

Sam drops some wisdom once again! What an appreciation for the art of this game. What a passion! Thank you, man.👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Amazing video as always. So many memories 🥹

Crush me with that nostalgia.

Holy shit the thorn elemental bringing the nostalgia

I am always glad to be supporting this channel. Thank you for always making videos of what you are most passionate about. It may not even be a topic I thought I'd be interested in and I am always impressed.

Oblivion loading screen approved

You brought me some serious feels. Your points about the flavor text, the dueling paladins, the high fantasy lore . . . I think that's why the "Worlds Beyond" so offensive. THIS is Magic: the Gathering! Not SpongeBob and Spider-Man.

don't know anything about mtg but the black lotus is really cool. just the art and the name alone make it so cool for me :D

Me after a long day collapsing into bed, then having to get up and dance at having a new Rhystic Studies video to binge.

RIP the magic we loved, hello FORTNITE OF MAGIC and cull the ruination of one game being within itself.

That was lovely

My story was pretty similar to yours, but my first MTG product and pact was Scourge Booster. The rare was Eternal Dragon, by Kev Walker, still my favorite MTG card.

My Patagia Golem was Vesuvan Doppelganger Sam. Love it to this day and it instantly makes me 13 again. I run it in my Queza EDH deck. Thank you for your love of this game.

I have a foil coubterspell from 7th edition. It's valued at 166.00

Look, I love your work. I love what you do, and the unique perspective you bring. And I could handle the Duskmorn video being a paid ad that glosses over the set's glaring problems by trying to twist them into positives. And I could handle a video exalting 7E, whose art and creative I find somewhere between lackluster and cringeworthy personally. It's an important set for you. But the idea of talking extensively about the changes in Magic's art around the time of Mirage and 5E (which had new art for all the A/B/U cards in it, a very significant detail you also omitted) without any mention at all of Sue-Anne Harkey is infuriating. Not only that, but to uncritically quote an interview subject as diminishing her impact by saying Magic totally could have found these artists before, but simply couldn't have afforded them (because of the change in contracts, a thing he also has the audacity to depict as a necessary and positive move!). Harkey's background in the fine arts scene rather than the status quo of fantasy illustration is a massive part of what made Magic's art undergo a stunning transformation between Mirage and Portal and even beyond. 7E trying to recapture the conventional high fantasy tone of Alpha was, IMO, a step backwards after what the game's aesthetic had grown into since then. It'd become its own unique thing, and 7E turned it back into the airbrushed painting on the side of your dealer's van. And to try to twist 7E into somehow being responsible for the emergence of Giancola after you yourself had just shown superior pieces he'd done previously? I get that this is a video about 7E, and that given its negative reputation it's novel to take a more positive stance on it. But don't wade an inch deep into the previous era of Magic's aesthetic development, the era that actually made Magic a leader in fantasy art rather than a follower, only to steamroll over those achievements. This is disappointing.

Every video you make has such thoughtfulness, such poignancy, and so much heartfelt love for Magic, that it’s impossible to be anything but swept away for every second of the feature. Thank you for giving words to what I had believed were indescribable feelings, fascinations, and wonderment. You;re one of the very best creators I’ve ever seen on KZbin, and I am endlessly entranced by your work.

Though I've only played Magic for four years, one of my favorite things from many older sets are the sayings/catchphrases that you find in the flavor text. And the poems are my absolute favorite

The first Magic thing I ever bought was that 7th edition starter.

GG as always!

I love literary quotes on MTG cards and the one on seventh edition Wind Drake is my favorite one by far. It just enhances the whole aesthethic of the card beautifully. From the art, to the frame and the flavor text, seventh edition Wind Drake is one of my all-time favorite cards. Seeing it highlighted here filled my heart with joy. Thanks Sam.

7th is your version of my scars block, those first sets are something magical

I didn't get into magic until I was in high school. I was very much into video games and had few friends I might play with; so my first introduction to magic was magic 2014. The first card to capture my imagination was one from the first deck you get in the game. It was Rancor, which was also painted by Kev Walker. The art was so interesting to me because it showed what we, the players, were doing. Standing behind a summoned creature empowering it. It immersed me in world by directly showing an illustration of what we were doing. It also provided my first learning experience. As a beginner player I dismissed it as terrible since it didn't seem to do much on paper. But by playing it I learned how good it could be. And later when I got the card in paper form the flavor text made me see the card in a new light. It made me realize the cards could be insightful in more ways than one.

my own magic card that absolutly fried my brain forever is also a kev walker. mixed with an amazing flavour text. Silver Myr ruined my life

i came across patagia golem earlier this year while restocking cards at work and it instantly became one of my favorite peices in the game

MTGNorth shout out. Love you guys. I'm so happy to see you in a Rhystic Studies video!

I started playing when 7ed came out. I remeber mom buying me the starter 2 decks that came with this great little manual. I probably played throught the tutorial game from the manual with myself a 100 times.