MTG Pro Play in the 90s You NEVER See Today

MTG pro play was very different in the 90s. Tournament customs back then would be bannable based on rules today. Can you spot all the differences?
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#magictcg #nikachu #mtg

[@NikachuMTG]

Subscribe or I'll shuffle your revised duals.

[@radip]

your mean riffle shuffle unsleeved dual lands :D

[@benjaminkaye5119]

Facing towards me so I can cringe

[@christopherhammond5142]

My brother already burned through a tropical island with a cigarette while drunk playing, you can shuffle that one any way you want.

[@daftwulli6145]

I think the voices you heard with the banter where not the players themselves, cause i am like 99% sure one of those voices was brian weißman

[@daftwulli6145]

@@radip back then they where 10 bucks and you could get them everywhere

[@DiabloTommaso]

Crowd were insane, no sleeve, banter.... actualy the enviroment was more relaxed and playful. To be honest i prefere this than the dead silence and just Marshall voice

[@mrgrimm335]

Agreed

[@TheLegend-oy2sg]

The sleeves and painful card shuffling just kill me, the banter is great

[@kentan9928]

HAHAH i was one of the player without the sleeves in a local game shop tournament. .. and it wasnt in the rules, honest i wasnt trying to cheat or something but was a $10 deck i put together after gathering some lame combos i think off the top( i think shards of alara with all the exalted thingies) to win the back then staples like NAYA JUND... etc. and i WON 3rd ! and the salty looser called out saying i know what my next cards are but the judge just let it roll and even gifted me a set of sleeves for those cards !

[@Diogenes2077]

That's about what I directly thought. They look like they are having fun playing a card game. I miss the time when having fun was the main point of playing magic.

[@rolandfrerichs5625]

@@kentan9928 I still have some unsleeved decks. I don't plan to sell, so who cares? It's just 25 year old cardboard ...

[@troyuchida3146]

Sure the unsleeved cards, the shuffling, and the squat position are all bad. But you gotta admit, it’s way better than ”2 explores”

[@RandomCommenter955]

🤣

[@DakonBlackblade2]

A game of Magic has the first turn, the second turn and then the "uhh 2 explores" turn in that order.

[@LeftLeaningPinko]

Don't be so sure. This video didn't cover Mike Long's lap tutors.

[@toddydog3]

One of those decks probably cost more than my student debts.

[@davidelrod7865]

Also not covered is Mike Long's infamous take two cards off of Impulse, where he'd very quickly put a card in his hand from the 4 cards, then take a long time deciding which order he wants them to go on bottom then say "oh wow, I only have three cards here, Impulse looks a 4!" Then pick up another card for the Impulse pile and put another card into his hand.

[@LaBlueSkuld]

That player profile for Mike Long was so 90s I'm surprised Hootie and the Blowfish didn't crash through that brick wall to tell a joke about Monica Lewinsky while chugging a Fruitopia and promoting Roland Emmerich as the next Stephen Spielberg.

[@ravenxgaming9195]

All while playing with a skip-it

[@arachnophilia427]

oh god nostalgia overload

[@simcosports2584]

Surge

[@Hohmies86]

Fruitopia!

[@Chance57]

It felt like an old Jerry Springer or Maury character intro video.

[@UTUB2kholle]

Watching them mashup their dual lands unprotected is basically like watching someone use the Mona Lisa as a beer coaster

[@E.J.Crunkleton]

PLEASE FORGVE US! WE DID NOT KNOW!

[@italianspiderman5012]

@@E.J.Crunkleton NEVER!

[@OrloxPhoenix]

Shame!

[@danajacobs9727]

Re: Unsleeved cards. I seem to remember in Mike Rosewater's podcast, he told a story that they forced the players to desleeve their cards because the cameras/lighting that they were using wasn't optimal, and the camera couldn't see sleeved cards due to a huge glare. Maybe that's why there was a tithe proxy also?

[@arachnophilia427]

i still have a deck left together from back then, and will continue to play it unsleeved because a) watching people cringe is funny and b) it's too late for those cards anyway

[@stephenmcarthur8490]

I can confirm. I played top 8 of U.S. Nationals in 1999 and they forced me to unsleeve my deck for the cameras. They said the sleeves created glare, and they also wanted the Magic logos on the back of the cards. We were told the night beforehand that we would have to unsleeve, so we had the evening + following morning to find unworn/newer copies of any cards that would have otherwise been marked. Some of my cards had heavy play on them, so I had to borrow newer versions from other people.

[@Barraind.Faylestar]

That tournament was one of the first ever videotaped, and the conditions were garish. There were a few players who refused to play on camera because of it, and they were very lenient with proxies by the end.

[@vecvecvec]

mike rosewater

[@term-827]

Why did that sound like an un set stipulation? Like imagine a silver border card that had an effect if you chose it during the draft and it forced all the players to not use sleeves for the entire game.

[@andreww479]

Here I was excited to see nikachu's grandpa play some magic and instead get clickbaited into a gore video, I'm going to go take a shower and triple sleeve some bulk commons

[@hybridyd1305]

🤣🤣🤣 omg

[@ProfDragonite]

Made my day. And it's 6 am right now.

[@dirtydeeds4free553]

I have a 125 dollar edh deck with no sleeves just to tilt people. It has a cratorhoof in it and I love to smash people with it

[@Noobie2k7]

@@dirtydeeds4free553 I used to do it at locals and loose regionals in yugioh when I was taking super budget decks to them. Just rock up and treat my deck like shit because it probably cost me about £30 total.

[@V2ULTRAKill]

@@dirtydeeds4free553 might as well tear up that craterhoof likes its a chaos confetti proxy at that point

[@Skablergen]

can't wait to show up to my next buddies EDH gathering power-squatting on my friend's chair and riffle shuffling my Gaea's Cradle

[@ich3730]

the winning posture

[@danielreese2137]

Don't forget to add alpha basic lands too

[@camcarb3]

Son-of-a...When did Gaea's Cradle go nuts!!? I have four of those, unsleeved, in my miscellaneous land box. Holy $4!T I guess I can go buy a new car now.

[@AC3handle]

@@camcarb3 At least in the last 5 years that I know of. However it's nowhere NEAR as broken as Tolarian Acadamy. Same setup, but you get blue mana for artifacts, not critters.

[@IbeTHORShammer]

@@AC3handle banned in commander in tho

[@christiansmith49]

Anyone else look at the way mike long was sitting and immediately think "tutor for the combo my precious"

[@hyperion7001]

I heard the words- Watashi Wa L Desu

[@TheMattmatic]

@@hyperion7001 He should have been eating some fancy pastry while sittting in that position to truly channel L ! :D

[@Trueflights]

L was my first thought...

[@endersblade]

Back when the game was an actual game and people had genuine fun playing it.

[@locokrazy]

Ya this is how I remember the game back when i started playing. The proxy especially brought a smile because that exactly how most of us played our more expensive cards 🤣

[@TheSuperboy91]

believe it or not people still have fun playing MTG to this day lol -.-

[@FiddleMiA]

@@TheSuperboy91 no its not how endersblade like the game and he is the god of fun! hes so right no one likes this game!

[@ELFanatic]

Still fun but nostalgia IS one hell of a drug.

[@Cerylion]

@@viniciussantos2857 I think they mean the tournaments, which do seem more playful in the older videos. Casual MTG is the same as it always was.

[@kellyhoesing2573]

I have this VHS still. I also still sing-song "You'll never guess what I'm going to get" when I tutor for obvious hate cards.

[@NikachuMTG]

LMAO

[@jtyree0226]

Honestly, it’s a cult classic

[@lynnminmei7709]

I kind of actually enjoyed the laid backness. It seemed like a real gaming environment as opposed to our super tight faced pin drop silence routine now. But yea, watching them shuffle those unsleeved cards was such a different emotional experience. You are awesome for sharing this video!

[@kingzut]

my mom owned a shop when i was in high school in early 2000s and even hosting a tournament with a black lotus as a prize and a few moxes, the environment was much like shown in the vid.

[@SpitefulAZ]

There's a clip where Mike Long's opponent says "god you're really annoying" as mike long keeps trying to predict his game plan.

[@arachnophilia427]

it worked, though. he famously bantered an opponent into conceding after pitching his only wincon.

[@SpitefulAZ]

@@arachnophilia427 he pitched drain life but then showed a couple of draw spells and said "give?". Is that the clip? I never noticed it was the same game 🤣

[@miikey376]

he's just trash talking.

[@joshforester2634]

@@SpitefulAZ Yep, against Mark Justice in paris

[@ManaDrain315]

The blatant cheating from the 90's is also now illegal.

[@shibbidydoowop]

LOL

[@LucianDevine]

I was hoping he'd show one of the cheats from the Bob Maher vs Brian Davis match. Like when he goes to draw a card, sees an extra card, sees that it's blue, and we know all of this, because the commentators see it and announce it!

[@subzero308]

Having fun in MTG now a days is also very very illegal... Everyone is just so serious its pathetic.

[@PensFan96]

Playing with marked cards without sleeves is like screen cheating in Goldeneye 007 on N64, everybody can do it so that makes it fair

[@alexanderparker9421]

Man sits on the chair like L from Death Note.

[@erijerij214]

Pretty sure when Light wrote his name on the death note it read Michael Long

[@cvanceter]

it's especially funny because death note wasn't serialized until 2003. This man Predicted L

[@jdtyler7]

Now that's a sweet reference.

[@BlameItOnYourFriend]

just made the same comment I geeked out when I saw this I did not think people actually did shit like this lol.

[@thetimebinder]

It was much easier to be a pro back then since cheating in front of three judges wasn't punished.

[@NikachuMTG]

But is it really cheating if almost everyone does it? 🤔

[@DakonBlackblade2]

@@NikachuMTG Cheating is allowed if, and only if, you cast exactly 2 explores before doing it.

[@subzero308]

R u kidding me being a pro today is an absolute joke... As long as u have a bank account with money in it u can be a "pro" MTG player... Sooo hard to net deck with money in ur bank account.

[@calimahr2725]

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW CASUALLY HE MANHANDLED THOSE CARDS? It hurts to watch every time he shuffles.

[@supernoodles908]

Part of me likes it. Treating as parts of a game rather than connection pieces

[@jasonL287]

Mike Long would sit that way in his chair hoping to see his opponent’s hand. During this time period, he would occasionally play at my LGS and he would constantly cheat in casual games.

[@Olematonnimi]

What a gigachad.

[@nichmiller4251]

I took a break around 2010 and came back full swing in 2015. It took the better part of a year for me to get used to how uptight everyone became. It went from a game to a competition, real quick.

[@davidm.corbin4643]

That is one thing that makes me sad about modern. I'll never be able to have fun with a kooky jank deck that wins one out of three games. Because it's a "drag" on the meta.

[@bbqseitan7106]

I stopped playing the week Khans came out Came back at Throne of Eldraine Especially the EDH community became ridiculous and hostile

[@accessyourinnerlight971]

I hate the competitiveness of the game now. I enjoyed it primarily because of the artwork and the fantasy/escapism it offered to me as a teenager. The White Cards especially I thought were absolutely beautiful.... "Mesa Pegasus", anyone? It helped me a lot when my grandfather died from a heart attack, first family death that really affected me. I still play Magic sometimes, but not the way it was intended, and not in any competitive way. I sometimes buy packs of commons and common lands from the hobby store (for way cheap) to cut up and use the pictures for my own roleplaying games. Or I will play with a pack of 15 common lands and create landscapes and kingdoms for a campaign. When I do play Magic the Gathering with others, I try to break away from the game every once in a while to enjoy the story that's being told. It becomes more of a narrative fantasy experience that way. Granted, I do not play it often because most people don't like to play that way.

[@Thumper770]

That's what happens when you play for money instead of fun.

[@rolandfrerichs5625]

I think the change you describe happened somewhere between Ice Age and Visions, not between 2010 and 2015 ;)

[@seantzizl]

For most of the tournament, you could wear sleeves. They actually required you to take them off though on the final stages for the Camera. They did at least have you go through and replace cards that were noticeably worn. In 2000 I was on the stage for the JSS - I remember having a half dozen cards that I had to borrow from other people before the finals. Fortunately other players and vendors were more than willing to help.

[@joakimandersson7769]

Magic in the 90's was chill, fun, relaxed and sweet as fuck, and that's not just my nostalgia talking, these clips prove that my memory was correct. I would take being back in the LGS basement casting Dark Rituals into Specters drunk as a skunk any fucking day over the MTG Arena hellscape of today.

[@jnfirst]

This is the way!

[@JerryLeeHowell2]

You can still do exactly what you used to. I still play with friends for fun, and its fun. Nothing has changed. You don't have to play the better players. Magic is the same, your friends are what changed.

[@rolandfrerichs5625]

In my local group, it was allowed to reveal Ritual + Specter at the start of the game and play something else. It was considered poor etiquette to actually drop them on turn 1 ;)

[@lanesteele240]

Mike is the only person that i witnessed get ran out of a tournament for cheating

[@zerochill4096]

What are you talking about? This is Magic the way Richard Garfield envisioned

[@junglerumbler6917]

He never thought there would be competitive play. Idiot

[@zerochill4096]

@@junglerumbler6917 ...so you call me an idiot over something that is obviously a joke. And I was sure that the sarcasm in my comment was so painfully obvious that it would have been impossible for anyone to not pick it up, but it seems you proved me wrong

[@takehilol]

Magic working as intented xd

[@Trueflights]

I've been playing since early on and every game I have ever played in, be it FNM, casual at home play, or Ranked qualifiers over the years I've only ever cut my opponents deck. As far as I can remember, it used to be a rule that you were not allowed to shuffle your opponents deck, you were only allowed to cut it. I'm not sure when that changed, but everyone I know just continued to play that way ever since.

[@goat666db]

Been playing since ‘95 and I’ve always been the same way. I’ll pretty much only ever cut, mostly because it saves time. Unless I have any reason to not trust my opponent that is lol

[@JivanPal]

@Trueflight Silverwing, it's just a time-saver to only cut rather than shuffle. Pros started outright shuffling their opponents' decks rather than just cutting them to mitigate any suspicion of decks being loaded; they have never been _required_ to shuffle them. Having said that, some no-good players judiciously shuffle their _opponents'_ decks, so the current tournament stance is that players are _permitted_ to shuffle their opponent's deck, but if there is reason to believe that Alice is judiciously shuffling their opponent Bob's deck, then Alice may be forbidden from shuffling Bob's deck at the judge's discretion, and the judge will then shuffle Bob's deck on behalf of Alice to prevent cheating by either party.

[@miakid4159]

You were never barred from shuffling another opponents deck. I used to play from the late 90s on FNM etc. It was just your discretion, most people i cut once or tapped it. But you know there was always one sniveling little cheater in the room, I'd watch those guys like hawks and shuffled their desks more then they did.

[@jasonreardon8477]

Magic was fun and chill back then. People played for fun. Now people just money collect and are card snobs. Only a handful of people even knew what magic was and you were a nerd for playing. Now ccg is common all over. Shuffle those sleeveless libraries and dualies boys. Salute 😁

[@fullfat8112]

yeah but.. these guys are playing for big prizes and the level of cheating at this time was INSANE - Mike Long was just robbing kids blind constantly. I think Magic ended up better off being the floor-rules-fest it turned into, just to make sure we could all go to a tournament and not get into a fistfight over life totals when the guy tips over his dice

[@odoacredacalcutta5085]

competive play at this stage of the game had an hidden rule: after your draw step, you can look at the top card of your library

[@miakid4159]

Lmao cause the cards would stick together, i did the same.

[@Rorschachqp]

This is middle school to me. At least they had judges. To me, old school meant that after the cut, you made your deck illegal by ante-ing up the first card of your deck before drawing seven. Then whoever won the die roll/coin flip drew seven, went first and still drew a card for turn. You had to check the other person’s deck to make sure they had at least 60 cards in their deck and not the old 40 card deck.

[@amyholdren]

Mike Long is the godfather of blatant cheating Edit: His friendly demeanor and playful banter are his distraction.

[@MrWalloyd]

Just like Ted Bundy.

[@michaelsolymossy1772]

He basically invented cheating in competitive magic LOL

[@greysonhensley9429]

I appreciate the quirkiness of pro play back in the day. Those kinds of personalities really made the scene happen, and with that giving way to min-maxing seriousness, pro play has basically died. Frog leg standing on the chair is an icon, like nothing competitive play has delivered in years.

[@TheMattmatic]

I read a Swedish mtg fanzine back in the 90s and remember reading a report from GenCon where the writer played a guy sitting on the floor in the hotel. They guy had 5 moxes and Black Lotus in his deck and played without sleeves while being really drunk! That was considered crazy back then too :D

[@michaelsinclair8255]

If I recall correct, Mike Long brought a "doctors note" to the tourney stating that he could sit like that on his chair due to a "back problem"

[@Apanblod]

"Dear Mr. Judge. My son has problems with his rear end and must be allowed to sit in the position most comfortable to him during his matches against the other boys at the magical card games he likes to play. Regards, Mrs. Long

[@atk9989]

@@Apanblod to be fair if he had recently fallen he could have damaged or fractured his tail bone making sitting in a chair for an extended period extremely painful, and squatting in a chair is still lower head level than standing up. And that is something that would be worth bringing a note about.

[@joedoe7041]

@@Apanblod not to defend the guy. most players in the 90's kept their hand in a single file and face down, only to fan the cards out when it's their turn. so swatting like that wasn't to much of an issue.

[@juliotorres3147]

@@atk9989 he has extremely bad posture in that squat. It’s only doing more damage to his back.

[@jademonolith]

what a legend that Mike Long is LMAO

[@ShadowWalker-ng1it]

That last match is pretty infamous for blatant cheating too (like finding a cadaverous bloom on Long lap's)

[@nanettesage1112]

When the game came out, they were viewed as "Cards". Just like playing cards. No one truly expected them to become as valuable as they are today. So, people handled them the same as they would playing cards, figuring, if a card got worn out, they would just go track down another. Once VALUE became a factor, the handling of the "cards" changed.

[@nicholasfair6882]

They're still just cards. Capitalist mentality has corrupted everyone's mind and now everyone yearns to exploit everything on earth for personal gain, taking it so far as to make bets on potential value and rarity of things that don't even exist yet. Anyone who doesn't just play this game and instead works with it like the stock market is a fucking clown.

[@joshbailey7775]

That first video kicked me in the nostalgia gut. I bought all those world champ decks. And that video came with all of them.

[@valetboy21]

I remember one Origins back in the late 90's one a my friends spent the convention acquiring an all alpha deck, just so he could play it without sleeves. That was our thinking back then.

[@39kelevra]

Oh man... I forgot about that Alpha card rule.

[@Audiot4pe]

It's okay, these were simpler times. I love the footage of Michael Long playing with his cards next to a building in an empty lot. I need more of these videos lol

[@gamingxmachina6718]

The riffle shuffling hurts my soul every time I see it.

[@nickfanzo]

It wasn’t that bad, we used to riffle shuffle outside in the playground with power 9

[@lingerieslayer]

@@nickfanzo you played with the power 9 outside, exposed to the elements and riffle shuffled? I want to call the cops

[@nickfanzo]

@@lingerieslayer we did . Everyone did. It was just a cool game in 1993-1994

[@sybmike]

If you know what you are doing, riffle shuffling does basically no damage to a deck of cards. It is actually designed to shuffle well while keeping decks in the best condition possible.

[@davidelrod7865]

That first Tithe played is also a basic plains with the word Tithe written on it (proxy). I'm guessing his actual copy of Tithe was too damaged/marked so the judges have him a proxy instead.

[@nickfanzo]

I started playing in 1994. We used to slam our moxes and lotuses on the cafeteria table at school. With pizza sauce and all, no sleeves. I actually got rid of two black lotuses for zombie masters. 🤦‍♀️ They were beta lotuses. I still own full power, in a binder , but now with sleeves too 😂

[@3kojimbles895]

I long for your childhood, and possibly your cards

[@GabrielRibeiro-eg3bw]

Oh boy, I wish Magic cards were so cheap we could still riffle shuffle unsleeved cards =´(

[@radip]

This was a fun way of playing magic. Where did we go wrong?

[@subzero308]

It stopped being fun and it started becoming serious and all about money also SJW made it cringe. MTG is still a fun game but the Pro side of it is trash now.

[@marcopepoli6038]

@@subzero308 I used to play in the '90s, now I'm coming back and I noticed people is just focusing on quick wins and is not enjoying the fun part of the game.

[@weee1049]

honestly im just mad planeswalkers became a card, hate them

[@tsa539]

@@weee1049 same and ...

[@tsa539]

@@marcopepoli6038 .. same. Happy to see that I'm not the only grumpy one about those things. On Arena, those zoomers cry when I kill their commanders. Something went wrong with mtg

[@Thumper770]

"Why don't you put those dual lands in sleeves?" *shuffles his sleevelessdeck* " OH, these are just the extras...."

[@strahanwyatt5671]

man the 90s were just uniquely different.

[@lastofusclips5291]

ah, the rootwater thief himself

[@yubl10]

This video is a really great of 90s nostalgia. The first MTG thing I remember buying was sixth edition starter deck. The first booster set I ever bought, I think, was invasion so these pro tour videos were a good bit before I started playing the game. My first TCG was Pokémon. I tried to learn L5R as a kid, but it was just too complicated for my child brain.

[@oscarbratsch8187]

Love that you’re doing unique magic videos. Appreciate the effort!

[@NikachuMTG]

Thanks!

[@zaclindemann9978]

I love the head shake as they shuffle value right out of the cards lol

[@Caliban_80]

What's really amazing is how strict pro play became and how the judge compensation never changed at all.

[@russellcolosi8310]

That Bob Mahr video is one of my favorites. Talk about needing to win a match 5-0. But it's a great video on why tight plays matters.

[@SkyeSpider]

Hey! I may have been at this event 😳 Yeah, though: the differences you point out are things that have definitely changed for the better. I don’t miss shuffling without sleeves.

[@dominicking3217]

From a Randy Buhler video, he said they couldn't use sleeves for coverage because of the camera glare.

[@ozmantn5774]

That brought back memories. Miss playing the game so laid back.

[@Juiceboxdan72]

I doubt I will every get into MTG (no friends, etc.), but your videos are really cool regardless! I love stuff that's really complicated like this.

[@blurry9744]

8:34 Lmao, so professional way to play the game, hilarious :D and also the part where they count life with dice, thats just mindboggling O_O

[@JuanTheBone]

The player energy and vibe should be welcomed in modern magic, being entertaining for spectators is REALLY important for the livelihood of competitive games.

[@Oshidashi]

The 90's never die. I still play with my friends like this exactly. Some old cards are so beat up, we had to write the power/thoughness and mana value with pen on the card cause the edges lost their print. Admittedly, we have started sleeving parts of our decks, starting with rares, after we learned the value of the cards when we picked up magic again during corona.

[@BoTCoramoor]

The commentary on the Mike Long Broll killed me. Great video.

[@ugreen2244]

As a new competitive player that’s never played in anything more than a FNM setting, I’d love to see a video of your tips and tricks for game etiquette in tournament play. Love your content Nikachu!

[@bbqseitan7106]

Just be easy going

[@scruffybackpacker1299]

As one who played heavily in the 90s I will say that the game has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. Personally I miss some of the lax there was but I appreciate the care taken nowadays. Alot of people used to slip things through the Cracks perse

[@invisible4ever]

You got me at "smash like for card sleeves". Couldnt resist.

[@KsiazeIktorn]

Shuffling those naked dual lands or even Vampiric Tutors is always brutal to watch.

[@calmvolatility2787]

I want more of these 90s analysis vids! Please!

[@ascott615]

I started playing when shuffling your opp. deck , and writing down life totals on paper was coming into the norm. It was a different time and a weird transition for a new player. Sleeved decks was always a thing, except for young kids at FNM drafts.

[@Tomix4k]

You make memes without being obnoxious. You have interesting thumbnails + titles but you don't clickbait. You explain stuff in detail without it being a drag. I don't even like Magic and I've found myself binge watching your whole channel 😂

[@NikachuMTG]

Thanks!

[@RC-lw5lw]

Definitely smashed "like" for card sleeves. Watching those beautiful old school masterpieces like Vampiric Tutor get shuffled into oblivion hurt my soul...

[@nerdstrong]

I actually remember this first match. This match was featured on a VHS tape called Road to Worlds. I think I still have that tape somewhere.

[@Dohyden2]

thank you for riffle shuffling your dual lands, I bought mine heavily played ^-^

[@gafdl6365]

You should do a series on reviewing old pro plays/games! Thanks Nik!

[@Tylerncm1022]

The old pro tours feel like what my kitchen table games are like. So casual and fun lmao

[@yujiro424]

The only sleeves available for a long time were penny sleeves. Which split if you so much as looked at them wrong and didn't conceal the backs. This is just how the game had to be played. It is also true that everybody just cheated like crazy.

[@lrom5445]

That must have been beta/revised? I remember Ultra pro having deck protectors shortly after I started playing. Looking it up, Ultra pro came out with deck protectors in 1995, which lines up with how I remember it. There were penny sleeves in 1993-1994?

[@yujiro424]

@@lrom5445 Yes to all.

[@scarletvrgames568]

I played against somebody at a crimson vow two headed giant event running golgari where every land in his deck was the full-text secret lair. He shuffled like that last clip. It made my partner physically suffer watching him do that when my partner realized what his lands were.

[@Damesanglante]

I was playing in the 90's and we were all doing that. xD At that time, we were all in awe in front of the 200$ Black Lotus saying a card should not cost that much. I also threw all my cards in the garbage at that time. ¬¬

[@leadpaintchips9461]

I remember having that discussion around the black lotus, where we were just agast at how much a single piece of cardboard was worth in a game where you manhandled it on a regular basis. $200 was too much, changed it from a game to play to a collection to be hoarded. No one in my game group was a fan, and WotC not reprinting any of the power 9 just felt.... wrong.

[@gregkeever3571]

This is the kind of magic I like to play. They are chill and enjoying the game. Everyone is so uptight at tournaments nowadays it’s like playing against robots

[@jermaineconcern1539]

GREAT video idea dude! Can't believe anyone's never done this before.

[@bignerd7683]

I do gotta say. That was a spicy riffle shuffle. And if these cardboard cards we play were worth what they should be i would riffle every time

[@octofrostvapes587]

I honestly subbed for 2 reasons. 1) I love mtg 2) you're voice is soothing.

[@kittensmakingcandles]

I played in tournaments in the 90's starting during Unlimited. We did use sleeves, but they were clear. Most tournaments didn't allow using Alpha because of their different shape (Beta was the most sought after version then for value). Some tournaments could ask players to de-sleeve their decks, but most players didn't like it. And yes, it would have been very easy to mark cards, and most players played with cards of varying wear. Cards were expensive (especially Type 1), but even more so they were much harder to get: you had to open packs, find someone to trade/buy/borrow, or find random singles to buy in comic/game shops. So tournaments just had to let players use what they had, though they wouldn't allow severely damaged cards. The proxy Tithe used in the video could have been a judge approved swap in for a damaged card that the player showed they had. And I don't know ANYONE who rifle shuffled their cards like that. We all pile shuffled or (some few) did overhand shuffle methods. Maybe some rich, stubborn, or oblivious people would have shuffled their cards. It would really have been very easy for people to cheat then, most of us just didn't think about it and wouldn't have caught it. Especially anything sophisticated. And most tournament matches weren't taped and didn't have judges or commentators watching. (I quit just as the Pro Tour was getting underway and never went to one until much later once as a tourist, so dunno if they were different) Many Magic players would often talk a lot then. It was a social game. Also, most Magic players had started playing social local tournaments long before Wizards got their Pro Tour going. So all the spectacle of the Wizards tournaments hadn't really polished all the casual culture out of the game.

[@NikachuMTG]

Your post reminds me how we used to categorize tournaments by type 1, type 1.5, and type 2.

[@kittensmakingcandles]

@@NikachuMTG Yup :) That was such a HUGE moment for Magic. When it pivoted from the infinite card pool. And in a way that smartly didn't cut out it's longtime players and their collections (type 1), while also setting up the game to be commercially viable and focused on the most recent cardpool and accessible to new player (type 2), and while also exploring a format that allowed collections but wasn't dominated by the most OP cards (type 1.5). That change made Wizards able to sell sets again. Without having to convince players that the cards in them were better than older ones they already had. While also creating an ever rotating cardpool with a fresh and ever rotating meta. It reset the experience of the product of Magic to be made and sold and played forever.

[@returningwhisper]

What in hell’s name is up with the recurring power squat?!

[@jtyree0226]

He doesn’t want to skip leg day

[@doomofthedestiny8065]

I remember shuffling unsleeved cards and bantering with friends, still use dice and riffle shuffle just sleeved now

[@Misterscout]

Anyone catch the failed shuffle of long. Trying to know where his card might statistically be.

[@golDroger88]

I wish competitive play were like this again.

[@AxielFan]

And here I thought the reacting to videos on youtube fad was over, but Nikachu is bringing it back

[@AxielFan]

Would love to see a grandpa nikachu reacts series

[@junglerumbler6917]

It’s not a fad. It’s a natural emotion. Dummy

[@tysonhuanh4641]

Sleeves! what sleeves! I started playing MTG at the tail end of unlimited set and I remember spending the entire summer at the local game store playing MTG with my friends and trading with everyone there. good memories. I had 3 sets of moxes , lotus and time set. this was all before scrye and price guides and I remember the standard trade value was 2 double lands for a mox and 3 double lands for a lotus. if I could go back in time and tell my younger self to take better care of the cards and instead of selling my collection for pennies , rent a bank vault and buy a house in the future with it lol.

[@NikachuMTG]

What a story!

[@kingjames4886]

when I started playing TCGs no one used sleeves... then only people who were weirdly overly protective of their cards did... then they started selling them at walmart. I remember some people would cut up those binder pages into sleeves but they'd always fall apart at the seams then people would try to tape them back together lol...

[@Dangler83]

This is what I remember when i played. Simple times, simple rules. I miss playing with my friends in high school.

[@mick-luv-in]

I've never played MTG before, but for some reason, I keep watching your vids.

[@NikachuMTG]

Thanks! 😂 Maybe you should try it. You can play for free on MTG Arena.

[@goriondude]

Appreciate how far the game has come?! I stopped playing tournaments because everyone is so stiff and serious now.

[@rowee017enzo]

Back days MTG cards are fully used to play and enjoy the game. Also back then, we don't care if the edges or back of the card is beaten up and the price value is the same. We only care what the card can do in the game. Nowadays collecting is more focused rather than playing it.

[@saldiven2009]

Ultra-Pro didn't start selling sleeves until 1995, so not sure at what point after that sleeves became mainstream. I didn't play very much in the late 1990's until around 2002, and they seemed pretty common by that point.

[@benjaminkaye5119]

This has me rolling. Thank you for the content.

[@E.J.Crunkleton]

We never used sleeves back in the day. Fun fact, i once had about 20 dual lands that i sold for 10 bucks apiece in the 90's. It was around revised or 4th edition when they outlawed them in tourneys and i ran monochrome decks in response. Good times.

[@benhensley3621]

Wait, KZbin actually being on time with notifications? 👀 Thanks for the video, Nikachu!

[@travisvermaak]

That look of shame you shot them when shuffling sleeveless was priceless!

[@anthonyju6392]

Thank god I still have my revised dual lands. I never would have thought at that time they would be worth so much but it was like one of my first goals when I started playing. Mostly because I wanted to play any deck I could think of without being limited.

[@d.rock2224]

The shorts and the sandals lol I can't

[@ieatyogapantz]

I'd honestly want to bring this style of play back.

[@brandonsutton3750]

hellllll yeah, the 90s. I didn't even know what a card sleeve was back then! I wish I knew what happened to all my cards, though. RIP

[@shanehorton4022]

Wait what, shadow creature! My fav jank!!! I never knew it saw tournament play, I must investigate.

[@nobodyimportant72]

That tutored card did get put back on top of the library although it seems there was a reminder in there. When it comes to being unsleeved your cards were maybe better quality then but also cheaper plus "old" wasn't close to what it is now. If you want to look at scary consider that riffle shuffle!