Unbelievable MTG Blunder in Pro Tour Finals

[@NikachuMTG]

At 5:15 Bob uses Impulse correctly and doesn’t shuffle (despite the card text). This is because Impulse was printed with a typo; after you put the cards on the bottom of the library, the shuffling is redundant. So Impulse got an errata to ignore the shuffle at the end. I should have used a different graphic.

[@matthewmihajlovich4390]

according to what i can find on the card Impulse, the errata causing you to not have to shuffle your library was not put in until october of 2004. Since this game according to your description was played in 1999 that would mean it was played before the errata meaning it was played incorrectly as you still had to play with the way it was written on the card. or am i missing something in my quick goggle search of the card and it's rulings.

[@matthewmihajlovich4390]

@wes coble which is why im trying to figure out when specifically it was changed. i could only find something dated 2004 you seem to have something that predates 2004. but even in your timeline it is somewhere between 1998 and 2000 and since this game was played in 1999 it could have been misplayed here.

[@wetlemon0532]

Glad to see i came into the comment section, just to say it was a misplay for it to already be explained haha. Thank you

[@alexandersepa3037]

I like how you like your own comments XD

[@Exile559]

Impulse has always been a bs card.

[@darkmatter32x]

Game 1 in our LGS. My opponent has 3 life and has Karn Liberated on the field with 2 counters. I was obsesed at removing his planewalker that I bolted it instead of the player. :(

[@tiagotavolari]

Been there

[@NikachuMTG]

NOOOOOOO!

[@m_hoch_drei]

Nice one! You just have to set priorities.

[@loganchristiansen564]

Played against Reid Duke on mtgo once, and went for his Planeswalkers with my damage rather than his face and had lethal and lost that match

[@jeaholland]

I've won but at what cost lol

[@notrkm]

this just shows how high tier pro level magic is. This is a "unbelievable" blunder but it's also something that is perfectly understandable and a mistake that lot of magic players can understand making.

[@fallendeus]

Thing is though, let's say he is trying to play around a counter spell in hand right? He drains for 4 gets countered, still is at 6 life, plays niv disk (tapped until his next turn) next turn he gets hit by the crack back for 11, game over. This was the all or nothing turn.

[@noahcarroll4944]

This also shows how Nikachu is starved for content. He's basically reuploading a video he already made. Gotta pay the bills somehow, I guess

[@bgmephisto]

@@noahcarroll4944 he can put up whatever he wants whenever he wants, thats life Noah.

[@NikachuMTG]

This is game 2 of a 5 game match. Last video was game 1.

[@Beethoven8335]

@@NikachuMTG what was the title of that video? I haven't seen it yet.

[@mikotagayuna8494]

I know that many of your videos have shown this but seeing players riffle shuffle decks containing some of the most revered cards in MtG history for 19 minutes makes me feel like my soul is leaving my body.

[@calebcaperton9459]

At the time, they where just game peices like many cards are today.

[@thewilsonexperience]

I played in a tournament yesterday where a player had a visibly half oval deck. My opponent shuffled at the tips like you do a deck of playing cards except they're not. The cards could of been proxied, I'm not sure, but it was uncomfortable looking at a deck of pringle sleeves with pringle cards inside.

[@commiecomrade2644]

@@thewilsonexperience Its uncomfortable to see people say "could of" - what do you think that means? Magic requires quite a bit of reading so its troublesome to see players saying "could of".

[@mrosskne]

oh no muh cardboard

[@christopherhammond5142]

They weren't really worth shit back then. Quite a few of the tournaments I played around then wouldn't even allow sleeves, not to mention that we didn't have easy access to sleeves of the questionable quality of Ultra Pros at that time.

[@sethputnamscrackpipe6204]

So weird seeing ppl play with no sleeves. I remember playing back in the day with revised cards and the early expansions with no sleeves and it makes me cringe thinking how much damage my friends and I did to our cards. Holding decks together with rubber bands full of OG duels and moxes😬

[@GraemeGunn]

Yeah it's really tough to see, let alone think about lol I wish I had all my old cards still.

[@Kuronosa]

There was also a time where they couldn't sleeve for feature matches, because the cameras had difficulty displaying the cards through the sleeves.

[@Y2KNW]

I bought 2 moxes off a friend just to save them back in the very late 90's. The Jet's not too bad but the Emerald looks like it lost a fight against a belt sander.

[@chancylvania]

How do you even shuffle without sleeves? They’re all flat so it would make real shuffling a pain and damage cards quite a bit

[@sethputnamscrackpipe6204]

@@chancylvania we used to pile shuffle. Back in he day we did more damage to our cards from rubber banding them and playing on harsh surfaces… all without sleeves. I remember when sleeves were first introduced some of my friends saw them as a “waste of money”

[@dashleyfox]

I don't play MTG, but these videos are fascinating to me and you do a great job explaining things so that even someone like me can understand what's happening. Great work.

[@antonyduhamel1166]

I agree, but I find Nikachu to be a little too patronizing. The tone of voice he continually uses just grates on me. It comes off as "how could you EVER have made that mistake?! "I" would NEVER have made THAT mistake!" And that's really arrogant. It's the one thing that keeps me from subscribing to him.

[@burningpapersun1]

On a stage at that level it's easy to say this was a huge mistake. He was playing what he thought were the correct lines and got blind sided by a random swords to plowshares. I'd scoop after that too. Playing off meta was a great choice in that moment.

[@Chubbies34]

But it wasn’t a correct line. He holds back the magic for the disk for what reason ? If it got countered he’s dead on board anyways with a tapped disk. So it doesn’t even matter if he plays the disk 😂

[@graog123]

​​@@Chubbies34 re-read the comment you responded to. the statement was that it was thought to be the correct line & he wasn't dead on board, Nika discussed that

[@TheSilentScream94]

Even after 1 minute. Seeing those cards unsleeved... instant heartattack.

[@MCMCvirguleMC]

That shuffle with Dual lands. I think I sprained an eyelid.

[@Nakira27]

was thinking the same

[@derekstoughton7894]

That was the first thing I noticed as well. I cringed.

[@MoikHorst]

but this is the real way to play magic!! idc how much worth a card is. i want to play a cardgame. its stupid to give a card an absurd price so noone can rly play it. makes no sence to me. this game is a cardgame and not a money bank

[@Canadianvoice]

Imagine playing a game because it's fun and not worrying about the resale value of your fun.

[@erikt5286]

The reason you don't overcommit in that scenario is because Bob could have been holding a counterspell. If he overcommits and gets countered, he can't play anything else that turn. Given the matchup, it was more likely that Bob would have counter magic over a Swords in hand.

[@guybuckridge7326]

Yes, Bob was more likely to have a counter but if he does, the games over anyway. A tapped Disk would just watch as he dies to the lands.

[@erikt5286]

@@guybuckridge7326 Ah, yes. You're right

[@AC3handle]

Something yalls forgot about, BACK IN THE DAY... those cards were worth barely a fraction of what they are today. Even and especially the dual lands. I recently found a box that had a whole bunch of duals from that era that I had bought off this one guy for like..5 bucks for the good ones, 2-3 for shitty condition ones. On a tropical island, I literally wrote, IN PEN on it, a little word balloon that says "SKIPPERRRR!"

[@lincolnherbert3379]

Most common mistake my brothers and I used to make is going wide with way more creatures than we needed to win, and getting fogged. Immediately dying on the crack back hurts so bad when you had the game in the bag.

[@greenwave819]

gotta have your own fog ready!!

[@itzBandomas]

The biggest blunder from this match in my opinion was in round 5 of the 1999 finals where Brian David, after wastelanding Bob Mahr twice took a counterspell over a force of will while Bob has no lands in play. He also misplayed game 1 instead of wastelanding and going to second main phase he went for the win and lost to a hard cast force of will

[@NikachuMTG]

SUBSCRIBE to show support for those poor unsleeved cards!

[@SevNeijizawaVt]

NGL, when I saw this on ESPN2 back in the day, I cracked up so hard bc it's 💯% relatable as a magic player, especially bc I have difficulty reading a situation of it's clues - I blunderbuss my own games to the backrooms more than anyone I know. So I know the shamescoop so well, but I still have/had fun each time I lost bc it was getting frequent enough that I could get memed for it nowadays!

[@benbailey4387]

These old school magic reviews are my favorite mtg content to watch! If you are exposing cheaters or reviewing statistics based on luck these have been really fun! Im looking forward to more!

[@AsianSuperGAMES]

get bitches bro

[@ShadowWasntHere8433]

I don’t think it’s an “unbelievable mistake” to assume your opponent sideboarded out creature removal in a creature less match

[@NikachuMTG]

Yeah but either you're going to win that turn or you're not. Like if Bob has a counterspell, leaving mana up for Disk is useless. Might as well play around Swords.

[@shifazkhan845]

I think the real mistake is in thinking swords to plowshares is only creature removal.

[@seilaoquemvc2]

it was an unbelieavable mistake because there was nothing in hand that could save him from the hit back, thus playing around counterspell was irrelevant as he was simply dead on board anyway.

[@LucianDevine]

@@NikachuMTG That is a fair point. He's dead on board to the manlands. So saving mana for Disk is pointless. The only reason he gets a turn to draw action, which he scoops before, is because one of them dies, and he can only get hit for 8 of his now 10 life.

[@TriangleChloros]

@@NikachuMTG Mana Leak was legal at the time. My immediate thought is he forgot Bob wasn't running it, and was playing around that. At which point he can't also play around swords, so leaving up one extra for Disk probably *is* the right way to try and hedge for it, giving him more time to find another drain spell before the manlands kill him. (It also protects him from the vanishingly small chance of Disrupt *into* Mana Leak.) Unfortunately, Bob *was* running Ivory Mask, and showed him a tutor for it.

[@robertbouley7697]

The scoop hurt me worse than the mis-drain. Neither hurt as bad as the exposed card shuffling. 😥

[@briandiadem]

My biggest blunder was selling all my cards back in 2002. 😭 Second biggest blunder was waiting until 2021 to get back into MTG.

[@ironkodiakbooks5115]

I sold my tournament deck back in 1997 for about $1000. Today that deck would cost $200,000 to $300,000 to replace. I had 11 mint Beta dual lands (& one non-mint) all blue, black, & red. 😩 Mint beta Ancestral, Mirror Universe, 😢 Mishra's workshop, playset of Mana Drain, playset of The Abyss... 😭

[@romanlinnik7441]

@@ironkodiakbooks5115 it's like shares/cryptocurrency. Back then most people didn't have the foresight to hold off on a good deal (I think a grand for Magic cards is a good deal). If you didn't sell them that time, you would sell them a year later for slightly more, or two years later for more than you were offered last year etc. Don't feel bad :)

[@brianm2242]

He was a young player, in the most important game of competitive Magic, up against one of the greatest minds to ever pick up a card. He made some mistakes; can't really chastise him for it.

[@ChrisoManiso]

I like that Nikachu finally brought up the pain I feel when I watch these older games being played... they bend the cards nearly 90 degrees when shuffling, placing a land, playing a card. It hurts my soul.

[@Hypnostedon]

I still do that with my homies and we are 30 years old. We don't care 😂

[@jaxsonbateman]

I think it's important to mention that Maher won the final 3-2 - so that misplay was arguably tournament deciding.

[@raphg6319]

your math doesn't make a sense.

[@jaxsonbateman]

@@raphg6319 What do you mean? (Bob) Maher wins this game as a result of the misplay, and goes on to win the match 3-2. If Davis doesn't misplay, and thus wins this game, theoretically they win 3-2 instead of Bob (theoretically, because chaos theory/butterfly effect is a thing).

[@moongurd20]

That shuffle with no sleeves... And i so wanna play a necropotence deck for casual play 😅

[@mulder1979]

I don't think it's a blunder. Keeping in Swords when your opponent plays no creatures is a much bigger blunder. Brian thought it was much more likely that Bob had a counter, so he decided to keep 4 mana open so he could cast Disk in case his Drain Life got countered. I actually think this is the correct play, because nobody keeps in their Swords when you don't play creatures.

[@fallendeus]

A counter spell would have meant he lost anyways, He drains for 4 it gets countered, he is still at 6 life and gets hit by the swing back for 11. There was no outcome where draining for 4 was the smart play. He would have been dead before he could have untapped niv disk. Yeah this route he technically got another turn but he wasn't playing around anything in particular, he wasn't playing around counter spell, he obviously wasn't playing around swords, so the leaving the 4 open to play disk just doesn't make sense because to his knowledge either this would connect and he would win or it would be countered and he would lose next turn anyways.

[@NikachuMTG]

Any situation where Bob counters the Drain life, Brian dies. So the Disk doesn't matter. So he needs to play around any card except counterspells.

[@mattc3581]

Bob's deck has a lot of different sideboard cards against different opponent's but really only 2-3 that have any use against necro. Given that necro is going to take out creatures vs oath, the oath player is pretty much forced to take out the oath, which is going to be 2-3 copies, he probably takes out a Shard Phoenix as it looks really bad if you aren't getting it with oath and opponent has no creatures to kill with it. After that if he has a couple of swords to plowshares in his main deck then probably at least one is going to get left in because there is just nothing else worth bringing in instead of it after taking Compost, Sacred ground and perhaps an Aura of Silence. Brian should have been aware that there was at least a reasonable chance that there were higher priorities to take out and that some Swords might have stayed in. (Swords is a sub par but legitimate card to keep anyway imho, there is a reasonable chance that 3 extra life could help you survive one extra corrupt/drain. Playing counters and with the opponent using demonic consultation there is a very real possibility of them running out of ways to kill you.)

[@Tylerdakoh]

AHHH, i just recently found you and have been binging your vids. But Watching these guys play with no sleeves, bending and riffle shuffling the cards is WILD with todays context.

[@captainanopheles4307]

I remember a game on arena where my oppo just needed to attack me to win... Both topdecking, he had 1 life and I had an enchantment that pinged a life away (trespasser's curse?) if he played a creature. That's right. Instead of just attacking, he played a creature. Couldn't believe it.

[@irbster]

Dude that never happened at all. Show some damn class

[@captainanopheles4307]

@@irbster what, as much class as calling a stranger a liar based on a thought?

[@irbster]

@@captainanopheles4307 I was freaking there dude, this is Terry, your freaking cousin

[@captainanopheles4307]

@@irbster really? Hi, then.

[@irbster]

@@captainanopheles4307 yea real funny dude you won't be laughing when I tell aunt Tammy about this. Fricking ridiculous man she raised you better

[@InGovWeMistrust]

Happy Easter everyone! Local game stores might be closed but if you can get some games in online make it a magic day!

[@aaronjenkins223]

I was at negative life once with platinum angel out with swiftfoot boots, and avacyn, opponent went to exile avacyn so I cast teferis protection...... he was quick to point out that since platinum is treated as if it doesn't exist, I lost the game due to the negative life 😂

[@thestatesofunitedamerica1203]

But you also didn't exist, thus your negative life didn't either

[@NazoPureChaos]

@@thestatesofunitedamerica1203 I can't tell if you're joking or not, but just in case you aren't: Teferi's Protection doesn't phase the player out, only their battlefield. It does give them protection from everything. Or at least protection from everything except state-based effects.

[@thestatesofunitedamerica1203]

@@NazoPureChaos ohh, yeah I guess you're right. My bad 😅

[@thekittenfreakify]

I read this and think to my self...why are games not like this?

[@smurvje]

Oath vs Free spell necro. Such a trip down memory lane :) These were 2 of the decks I had so much fun with. With the Necro deck I "accidently" qualified myself for the (Dutch) national championship. There were some spots open at the NK-qualifier that was played at a game fair I was attending, and since I had the deck with me I thought "why not", and signed up. I had played some limited and/or pre-releases before, but never a big constructed tournament like this. Ended up winning all but one games and finishing 2nd or third overall (can't remember). Oath I never played tournaments with but it was a fun, not too boring/overpowered deck and you got to play with big creatures. (I sometimes added a little bit extra instead of just that Morphling)

[@bogoloboaz1183]

Was Bob supposed to shuffle his deck after playing the impulse at around 4:57 it may be cut footage but I am unsure. He only shuffled the chosen card and his hand instead? This leads to him getting compost which then turns the table.

[@bogoloboaz1183]

@@Cwefr Agreed feels a bit redundant to shuffle.

[@krislagreca6152]

Yeah I believe that was actually a printer error

[@Zakenhz]

The Shuffle your library afterwards was a print typo.

[@azarisLP]

He shuffled his hand to hide which card he got off Impulse.

[@NikachuMTG]

Shuffling the deck was a printing/typo error. What a blunder by Wizards of the Coast!

[@workingtitle904]

Hot dang I can never get enough sleeveless magic when bridge shuffled duals are involved! Legit one of my favorite things about these videos!

[@joltman81]

Watching your facial expressions is always a treat, but watching you watch the shuffle at 8:37 was just amazing! (Also I had to smash like, as is the rule...)

[@Wizard_of_the_Tower]

The actual rule is: think for yourself, and do what feels right for you.

[@NeutralGuyDoubleZero]

That unsleeved poker shuffle had me going there for a minute

[@PandaDSU]

100% not a major blunder. Most players would assume that the swords were all sideboarded out.

[@Aphid4]

@@zeroduvidas8664 Honestly, even if you think there's a small chance he has swords, there's a bigger chance he's got a force of will. So keeping 4 mana open to play the disk is actually sensible. Against force, you still have a chance of winning since the disk can blow up the manlands, and you might draw something good. The mistake is prematurely giving up?

[@GoldenSunAlex]

@@Aphid4 No, against force he lost. If drain life didn't resolve, he was dead next turn.

[@targetplayer]

A more obvious blunder was by Pascoli in the last game of the finals vs Finkel at PT Kuala Lumpur 2008 (Morningtide-Lorwyn limited). Pascoli attacked Fire-Belly Changeling (1/1 firebreathing) into Preeminent Captain (2/2 first strike), throwing away his changeling which is even worse than it sounds bc so many of his cards depended on having a creature of a certain type (e.g. Peppersmoke). He shame scooped a couple turns later.

[@Teifling]

Playing around Swords post board would have been clairvoyant strategic playing. I don't blame Davis for playing conservatively, but the scoop seemed a little premature.

[@aaronbarnett9492]

The scoop was the blunder from the video title

[@RCTricking]

Yeah shame scooping when you're still totally live in the pro tour finals seems really loose.

[@LucianDevine]

@@RCTricking I mean totally live may be a bit of an overstatement. Bob has to get Null Rod to shut down the Disk, and he still has 2 cards that Brian hasn't seen, as all the hand disruption has been countered for a good bit, since the first Duress that succeeded I think. He doesn't know that Bob's hand is mostly just lands, which is why the Counterspells have been getting used. If he doesn't counter the Unmasks, Brian Brian gets to see his hand, take a Counterspell anyway, and know that Bob had just lands and another Counterspell to bait out with another Unmask. So he then would have sunk everything into the Drain Life and won. Oh, and he's dead in 2 turns to the manlands, aka 1 turn for Brian to draw a damage spell and hope it resolves, since again, he doesn't know it will. Look at the mana Bob has open on that turn. He left Counterspell mana up, in addition to the Plow mana. So for all he knows if he Drains for more, Bob uses a Counterspell or Force of Will, and if he Drains for 4, he uses Plow to get use out of an otherwise worthless card.

[@ryonkarpierz1179]

The era of unsleeved cards. This hurts to watch but we all did it back in the 90's, and to top it off riffle shuffling them will give some players heart attacks.

[@tirhaka5520]

That they play without sleeves is killing me :D

[@ich3730]

makes the whole "competitive" aspect kinda null if you can just play some whacked about cards with markings and little wear and tear. Like, that INVITES cheating and card marking. Thats why competitive magic is a joke xD I never understood why people have to bring their own cards anyways. Make tournament proxies with identical backs, i can do that on a printer in like 10 min

[@KeithDCanada]

While not a blunder, I was in an Emperor tournament with a couple of friends in the early years of MTG. I was the Emperor in the middle, and my two friends were my guards to either side. I no longer remember what deck I was playing with... because all I remember is that was the fastest game of Emperor I ever saw. We started first, and the guard to my right played a land, and a mox. Play continued clockwise to me, and around the board, as everyone else just played a single land for their turns. When my right guard started his second turn, he played another land, played a second mox, Tapped a land a the mox emerald for a Channel spell, then the other land, and the mox ruby, to cast a Fireball, converted 19 of his life for the extra mana he needed to do a 20 point fireball to the opposing teams Emperor. 30 seconds after we sat down at the start of the first round, we stood back up... and got quite a few looks from the rest of the auditorium, lol.

[@greenwave819]

I've already heard of the game you mention. It's known across the land. They even named a major MTG website after that specific game!

[@DUxMORTEM]

The number of times a player just grabs the opponents card is so odd to watch knowing how it isn't tolerated today without 1st asking. Plus i mean shuffling without sleeves is painful to watch...

[@laurencefraga6450]

In defense of Brian, he could have thought: "He may have a Power Sink, so I won't drain with full power". But since he gave up after his play, I don't think that thought crossed his mind.

[@wwbcwp]

I agree that that's the only line of reasoning which would be defensible. However, since this is game two he should have had a reasonable idea as to whether or not that was likely, and having seen the decks I don't think it was. Still a somewhat viable concern given the timeperiod. However, in a post-board game two against an opponent running UWGx, as the mono-black deck I'd have assumed my opponent boarded in some amount of lifegain/protection, or simply left swords in.

[@billepperson2662]

What?! NO one used power sinks, they're garbage counters, Bob didn't even bother with arcane denials... I talked to Brian about this myself @ PT Chicago 2000, he had recently unmasked him & just didn't think it was likely Bob would've top decked anything relevant in the last couple turns & didn't see the line as a possibility/wanted the remaining mana to consult for something instead of drawing with Necro again... again, the guy was 15 @ the time playing "The great one" in a PT final. He was young, not stupid

[@S1L3NTDr460n]

watching someone bridge-shuffle raw OG duals will never stop being painful as hell lol

[@mikat8062]

8:58 the way he taps the corner of the card on the table so many times is killing me 😂😂😂

[@unpassantquipasse8268]

I first I was like "Meh, that exile spell must be to get some life control, wich could always be handy" and then I saw the opponnent not going overkill. I thought "No need to overkill. Keeping some mana open may be usefull" then... I smirked. Bummer he scooped. Well played anyway.

[@joecrail7596]

Never really got into playing magic had a bunch of friends that did and like hardcore got into it they would go to our local comic stores and do competitions I remember always being a spectator and it always seemed so hard to grasp until I actually started to play myself and then I realized it's really quite simple to figure out it's just like chess once you figure out what the pieces do even though MTG has far more pieces you know effectively how to use them and then throughout practice and playing other people who are ultimately better than you you learn better strategies that you fit to your own playstyle needless to say I've always loved MTG!!! Even more so as an adult now that I do more drawings and artistry work I really appreciate the artwork that goes into these cards! It really helps one's imagination bring forth an image of what the creature looks like you know what I mean? Also thanks so much for the content Nikachu MTG!!! You're videos are very welcoming to new people looking to get into magic and very informative too I always enjoy watching keep up the GREAT WORK!!!!

[@maxwell4322]

The real "Blunder is at about 5:15" the card states that after looking at the Top 4 he puts on bottom and must Shuffle. He does not end up shuffling his deck but his hand. This woulda cost him to lose the game probably since he top decks the compost next which was game changing.

[@NikachuMTG]

The card was printed with a typo, it’s not suppose to shuffle because putting the cards on the bottom would be redundant. So the shuffle was removed from tournament play

[@maxwell4322]

@@NikachuMTG oooooh

[@sammurphy3343]

They shuffled so effectively back In the day with zero regard for card condition. I like it.

[@sykeassai]

Well it's hardly a blunder when a counter could have still been on the cards in which case having the mana open for another play was potentially the smarter move. The smarter move did however cost him.

[@fallendeus]

A counter spell would have meant he lost anyways, He drains for 4 it gets countered, he is still at 6 life and gets hit by the swing back for 11. There was no outcome where draining for 4 was the smart play. He would have been dead before he could have untapped niv disk. Yeah this route he technically got another turn but he wasn't playing around anything in particular, he wasn't playing around counter spell, he obviously wasn't playing around swords, so the leaving the 4 open to play disk just doesn't make sense because to his knowledge either this would connect and he would win or it would be countered and he would lose next turn anyways.

[@sonichujfs2393]

"smack like if that hurt to watch" this whole game hurt to watch between sleeveless shuffling and all the hand shuffling nikachu

[@Crowniecrown]

The Beanie Baby on the corner of the table really ties the 90s of this video together.

[@PaulGaither]

While this is the most famous blunder, there is areason people say, "Brian Davis- The only man to loose a pro tour final 5-0" He made blunders in each of his three losses. this game was a TEXTBOOK example on what to do and what not to do and the power of the crds when used properly and when not ued properly.

[@connorosborn7187]

I know there are already comments like this, but it really pains me to watch cards worth that much money now to be played without sleeves! Great video Nikachu, thanks for the content!

[@NikachuMTG]

you're welcome!

[@jangelaclough5457]

One thing I like about these videos is that the commentators would say "this guy will win as long as he doesn't do (insert dumb move)" and then a few seconds later the guy will go "yea, I'm gonna do (insert dumb move)"

[@spacefreak5064]

My favourite type of videos! And also the cheaters exposed series hehe ^^ Keep it up my dude! Much love

[@EricFrock]

The unsleeved dual lands just getting shuffled like that lol. Was a different time for sure.

[@TheCaptainCruise]

Bro', no one cared about Dual Lands back then. They were $5-10 bucks at most

[@PaulGaither]

In the original video @12:43 Brian doesn't Wasteland a blue producing land, go to combat to empy the mana pool, and then cast corrupt, which loses him the game - punting another loss. The lesson I learend was the importance of sequencing and the value of late game wasteland.

[@Rhapsodies_In_Red]

Love watching these old games, thanks Nikachu!

[@NikachuMTG]

you're welcome!

[@omnomnomnath415]

I've made several blunders MtG in the near 30 years I've been playing but one that always stuck with me happened at a modern event January 1st, 2016 at my LGS. I'm playing Jeskai Splinter Twin( weeks before the banning) while my opponent was playing Burn and it's game 3. I have 6 lands with one being Celestial Colonnade... but overlooked how many were untapped and neglected to activate it before I swung in with my creatures bringing him down to 3 life but no Bolt in hand. I realized just as I passed my turn that all 6 of my lands were untapped and could've activated the Colonnade to finish the game that turn. He had no creatures left, no cards in hand, and I was at 4 life so despite my mishap, I was still confident that the game was mine. Then he top decked Boros Charm, slammed that puppy down burning me for exactly 4 and offered me a giant slice of humble pie. The perfect combination of a terrible blunder and the perfect top deck.

[@ryanbowen4526]

Those cards are positively floating off the mat, so bent. Takes me back to a simpler time haha

[@wilhelmkreis6578]

I think the biggest blunder I've ever done was forgetting that a potentially game ending pump spell was a sorcerery in my Gishath edh deck and going to combat before casting it

[@NikachuMTG]

oooof

[@sabata414]

Wait, I'm confused. Nevi's Disk destroys creatures, artifacts and enchantments. I know stack is first in, last out, or last in, first out. Wouldn't the enchantment be destroyed first, and as the lands were creatures at the time, they'd be permanently sent to the graveyard?

[@HeavyMetalMouse]

In this case, the things Disk destroys are all destroyed simultaneously, and so the benefit of the Sacred Ground are still in effect for the creature-lands being destroyed at the same time as it - nothing can 'interrupt' the middle of a spell or ability, the entire effect has to resolve before the game updates the stack (removing the activation of Disk, then putting the Sacred Ground trigger on the now-empty stack). The triggered ability, once stacked, does not care that the Sacred Ground is not on the board anymore, so returns the destroyed lands as described.

[@mangohavoc6428]

AHHH the way he's shuffling those dual lands without a care in the world... or a sleeve in the world... hurts my heart.

[@bh-w2297]

production value seems like it's really improved for this video, well done Nika!

[@NikachuMTG]

I’m glad you guys noticed!

[@gristlebits]

Seeing the duals getting riffle shuffled without sleeves is actually killing me inside

[@TheCaptainCruise]

Bro', no one cared about Dual Lands back then. They were $5-10 bucks at most.

[@Josh-99]

I was actually at this Finals, but I wasn't watching the game at the time so I missed seeing it live (I saw it on the "instant" replay, which involved them literally re-winding the tape between the matches to replay the mistake). This was back when the rules were totally unrecognizable to people who play the game right now, by the way.

[@greenwave819]

like mana burn!

[@DiabloTommaso]

These games were so explosive. As you said 1 card turns the match all over it s head. Too bad powercreep exists ( funny as we say powercreep when back than spells were insane).

[@3114Cancerbero]

The crisp sound of unsleeved MTG cards is my kind of ASMR.

[@3114Cancerbero]

Senpai noticed me

[@killaphaser1882]

The fact that their both just bending and slapping their cards down on the table is killing me

[@meatbyproducts]

Did it a few times. Even once in a Warhammer tournament. I refused to let my opponent in the final match make a bad attack and told him how to do it better and it was what won him the game.

[@lunamaruguest3229]

this is right up there with something else we all use to do back in the day...keeping our cards wrapped in elastic bands XD

[@ShrugThisLife]

I was playing a Game of Commander in League at my Local shop, I had Necropotence , Aetherflux & Bolas Citadel , I Played Teferi’s Protection off the top phases out & got life drained by Yawgmoth at phase in.

[@dropdeadinsanity]

Man do I love a good necropotence. I use it in my Edgar Markov EDH deck alongside Bolas Citadel. I use things like Harsh sustenance, and other drain/gain effects. It's great fun. Loving this channel so far! Just subbed :P

[@NikachuMTG]

Thanks! And yeah, Necropotence has been draining and gaining for cards for almost 30 years now!

[@paulthetexan]

I remember this match! Ah, the good ol' days of PT coverage...thanks for the nostalgia!

[@NikachuMTG]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@SvviftDeath]

I had only started going to tourneys for standard magic. I had the Gaze of Granite to wipe out all my opponents creatures I played it not realizing he had a creature in play to make me pay 1 more mana or counter the spell and played it. I still almost won the game but had I played my shockland into play untapped first I would've had the mana to play around it and would've handedly won the game with little resistance. Was a big play mistake that was also a valuable learning experience.

[@Nick_Whiskey]

TBF to a lot of the new players in comments crying about the lack of sleeves, this was the first Pro Tour they were legal - not many people actually used them in a tournament setting at this point. That was because the most common sleeves were penny sleeves, and they were easy to bend, accidentally mark, and barely kept your cards clean from dirt due to how loose they were. Ultra Pro started making matte black sleeves in 1996 (and red ones when Tempest released), and it's likely these players used them for 99% of the time the decks were in use... they were just illegal in a tournament setting.

[@mhc706]

This was WAY more fun to watch then the matches I’ve been seeing. The video quality leads me to believe this was from some years ago. Matches in modern day all seem like they are played by people with the worlds worst cases of adhd/are trying to cheat all the time

[@NikachuMTG]

this was like 23 or so years ago

[@snaxximan5737]

"reduced the glare" cameras capturing it with 12pixels. Thanks Magic Streamers!

[@ClaimingKarma]

What's getting me is the handling of the cards the lack of sleeves, the snapping of the cards on the table the flipping through the hands, the riffle shuffling of the decks all things people couldn't imagine doing with the price of cards nowadays

[@kingheath97]

The unsleeved riffle shuffle hurts me on a primal level

[@Mouspadu]

I thought I wanted a 30 second video of the crime but context was nice. Thanks for the content

[@NikachuMTG]

You’re welcome!

[@neverrip7132]

I had a crazy game in like 2003. Alex vs Alex. I played card "have two turns". I picked up hoping to draw a monster for kill and forgot to "flash back" my monster to kill. I picked up again, 2 cards. Game over. And dude packed up his cards real quick and said game over. I lost a box.

[@joebaumgart1146]

I'm very new so I've been binging your videos on my days off. You've taught me quite a bit. Ty. I just realized I forgot to Subscribe, so I rectified the situation.

[@NikachuMTG]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@joltman81]

I was playing a Magic Origins FNM once, and my opponent played a Deep Sea Terror. I even said at the time "Thankfully you only have 3 cards in the graveyard!" Then a few turns later I played Dreadwaters, causing my opponent to discard enough cards to use the deep sea terror. After I did that I actually facepalmed. Yea, I lost that round...

[@kwikdraw7332]

My biggest blunder was my only ever SCG open event at 2019 SCG Columbus (Modern). I was 3-0 with UW Control, and in round 4, I was on the play against Dylan Hand (Eldrazi Tron): As I pass to Dylan after my turn 3, I have Island, Hallowed Fountain, Field of Ruin with Surgical Extraction in hand. He has Cavern of Souls and Eldrazi Temple, and popped an Expedtion Map for a 2nd Eldrazi Temple. However, there was a delay in the action between my passing and Dylan using his Map. In my brain, he had missed his land drop and was getting his 3rd land in his main phase. I knew when I saw the 2nd Temple, the play was to Field a Temple and Extract the rest, but SINCE I thought it was his main phase, I made up my mind to make the play EoT. Turns out, the Map pop was at my EoT, and my confusion at seeing him untap after was so great that I didn't stop him in his draw step to get BOTH Temples, and instead let him play the second Temple and drop a Reality Smasher. Only after the Reality Smasher was on the field did I realize my folly. TL;DR Because I wasn't paying attention, I went from being on par with (or maybe even ahead of) Eldrazi Tron's mana base on his turn 3 with 0 threats in sight piloting UW Control (a dream scenario against ANY deck as a control player) to having a Reality Smasher do exactly what its name suggests it does.

[@DrPantsOG]

The hard shuffles on the duals gets me every time. 😭

[@DGMouro]

I love all the shuffle and play without sleeves… Greetings from Argentina. Keep it up! 🤙🏽

[@blaze556922]

watching them shuffle such old cards without even a sleeve in sight is painful. I do remember those days though

[@jawstrock2215]

oh god, the un-sleeved card bending shuffles... *shivers*

[@dellhelp]

BRO. Ik this is 1999 or whatever, but those unsleeved dual lands and rifle shuffling them bare, my heart cant take this anymore

[@TelesphoreArt]

8:38 I'm crying laughing at your face, but I feel you too! lol

[@mhc706]

I love the commentary for games videos man.

[@justinlevy6549]

Watching an unsleeved riffle shuffle with ABUR duals caused an aneurysm.

[@Goblinyourammo]

Bob with the card snaps everytime he buts a card down lol

[@TheMaskedHero]

Pretty Deece covered this entire match. But, this is such an amazing match, that any video about the games is very much appreciated.

[@sweaterpause7862]

Ive had to learn this lesson the hard way myself. This is why i never attack for exact lethal anymore.

[@ebush279]

Been missing your vids lately. Happy Easter bro. :)

[@NikachuMTG]

Happy Easter! I'll see if I can ramp up production!

[@67Elite]

My man, Nikachu, finally uploads

[@NikachuMTG]

I'm back

[@JLStanton1968]

The irony here is that Bob shouldn't have qualified for this Pro Tour. He received a ratings invite. It was found out that a dealer in Iowa had fixed tourneys to get Bob the points needed to qualify for this event. There's a lot to this story that will never be shared by WOTC. It's probably the biggest controversy that was never made public.

[@dakotastyles]

my favorite part is when randy was all like "shhh guys be quiet! " but then proceeds to speak loudly hahah

[@NikachuMTG]

I know, right? "DON'T SAY FOUR!" "Guys, be quiet..."

[@ironkodiakbooks5115]

I one played in the finals of a tourney at The Wizard's Keep in Muncie Indiana (ironically the Keep was in the basement of the building) where I started to tap my Strip Mine to destroy my opponent's land, instantly took it back to cast something else. Forgot to Strip before my opponent's main phase & he proceeded to miraculously come back to win. Had I stripped him, I would have won the game, match, & tourney. First prize? Full set of Unlimited. It's not all bad though, as my second place prize was a full set of Unlimited moxes & lotus. Not bad for a $20 entry fee.

[@AtomicOnionTree]

Watching players bridge shuffle unsleeved dual lands hurts my soul.