Magic: The Gathering

[Xerlic]

Academy and jar were never in standard together. Saga came out October 98 and banned in December.

Legacy came out in March 99. The ban announcement came out March 1st and wotc made an emergency announcement on March 11th to add har to the list.

[Xerlic]

That block had to have to most powerful cards ever printed outside of Alpha/Beta/Unl. Magic was a hell of a lot better back then.

You crazy son lol. Those were dark days of nongames.

[Weltall]

Academy/Jar wasn't standard? I could have sworn it was. Regardless, I remember playing the deck for all of 2 tournaments before the cards were worthless.

I know for a fact I played something in standard with Academy for a very short period of time.

Edit: I remember now...

It played Windfall, Mind over Matter, Scroll Rack, Lotus Petal, Key, Spiral, etc....

Broken as fugggg

[Xerlic]

Yeah windfall was almost as bad as jar. That and academy were the first 2 pieces banned in Dec 98 followed by a lot of the other key pieces in March. Hell that standard was so busted that dark ritual was banned for a time.

[Krandor]

Urza block was the greatest thing ever. Once it rotated out was when I stopped playing the first time because things just weren't fun anymore.

Welt already listed a bunch, but let's also not forget Goblin Lackey, Smokestack, Yawgmoth's Will, Tinker, Cradle, the list goes on and on. Even the unbroken stuff was fucking crazy at times, like Rancor, No Mercy, Hidden Gibbons.

Man just getting nostalgic thinking about the pure glory of Urza

[Weltall]

To add some off the top:

Blastoderm, the 3/3 regen for 2 with Echo, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Gaea's Cradle, Ritual, Durress, Frantic Search, Priest of Titania, Rofellos (I think?), Show and Tell, Metalworker, Academy Rector, Back to Basics, Exploration.

I also quit after this block rotated for a few years. Magic was never better than that block. Standard is a hell of a lot worse with all of this "powering down" bullshit.

JTMS standard was a close 2nd to Urza.

[Krandor]

Exhume!
Mother of Runes!
Unearth!
Argothian Enchantress!

The list just goes on forever

[Weltall]

Man....the days Q_Q

I think Mother of Runes might be on my "Top 5 Most Annoying Cards to Play Against" list....I'll have to think about it.

[Xerlic]

Funny how blastoderm and albino troll were considered constructed playable creatures when we get the likes of siege rhino nowadays.

On the flip side shit like bolt, counter spell and rampant growth are considered too powerful.

[Krandor]

Creatures have generally gotten stronger over the years, it's just everything else that's gotten weaker.

Mother of Runes is easily my favorite creature ever. It forces your opponent to burn removal right away/counter it, and if they don't then the fun begins.

[Xerlic]

Sulfur elemental. :D

[zoobernut]

I felt like the game was way more balanced back in those days. Spells/enchantments were just as good as creatures so there was a great mix of things going on in decks. These days creatures keep getting more powerful while spells dwindle.

[Weltall]

I also liked how, at most, the common standard deck was 2 colors. Usually, your only duals were pain lands or City of Brass, and those got you raped by mono green or red so no one played them.

Nonbasic lands are my favorite part of magic. I guess I just prefer them to be utility type lands as opposed to mana fixers.

[Kyreth]

Man just getting nostalgic thinking about the pure glory of Urza

I worked for WoTC during the Pokémon/Urza's Crack era. The looks people gave us at the Wizards shop made me feel like a drug dealer.

[synistar]

Necropotence. Dat stupid amount of card advantage.

[Kyreth]

Necropotence. Dat stupid amount of card advantage.

Eh, that goes all the way back to Ice Age and mono-black-discardageddon so potent you just hoped the fucker didn't ritual it out past you and instant-refilled his hand while fucking yours.

Urza block was Yagmoth's Will.

[Tricen]

You want to see an amazing game? Turn 1 rit necro unmask and loses. Lemme find it. EDIT: Oh, also, the opponent mulled to 5. So yeah. Bob Maher :O

[Kyreth]

You want to see an amazing game? Turn 1 rit necro unmask and loses. Lemme find it.

I used to cause massive rage on necro players just by getting Balance topdecked and proceeding to return the favor with a R/W deck full of one-mana solutions. Knight? Bolt. Spectre? Swords.

The most humiliating tournament win I delivered back then to a Necro deck was balancing him out of cards and lands, then beating him to death with an Atog.

[Xerlic]

I was still in playground magic mode when ice age came out. I remember nobody knew what necropotence did because it had a ton of words and templating back then wasn't the best. We all could tell what skip your draw step meant tho so we all thought the card was bad haha.

So maro confirmed full art lands and NO enemy fetch reprint in bfz. Certain people in my lgs are acting like the god damn sky is falling lol.

[Moridam]

yeah my friends and i were all in the same frame of mind. pay life for cards?! that sucks. it was all about lifegain and fuck off huge creatures (which were always accompanied by onerous upkeep costs).

the one misty rainforest i bought a few weeks ago to accommodate the G splash in my deck has more than doubled so i'm pretty jazzed about the news tbh. i didn't have any immediate need or plans for any other fetches though, so i'm not particularly bothered. might try and cash this out while it's spiking and grab two when it returns to saner levels.