Old School Magic The Gathering Decks
I love collecting and playing 90s Magic cards. It's that amazing feeling of nostalgia that many of us get when we see that early edition print quality; how we can instantly identify each of those early editions' unique look and feel. I love how Unlimited is slightly blurry and overexposed, Revised images are crisp and the borders are exact, and 4th edition is ever so slightly saturated – or Alpha with its slightly more rounded corners. The artwork in the new editions is good, but it's almost too good – probably because it is now all done in Photoshop with cutting computer edge graphic tools. Not to say that the new artwork isn't amazing, but in the old editions you can really see all the brush strokes, the color pencil lines, the roughness, and the hard work that went into each amazing art piece. Each edition has it's own little quirks and surprises. It's amazing to think about the evolution of the game and where it started.
My favorite editions are Fallen Empires, Ice Age, and 3rd Edition (Revised). Revised was my first starter pack and so it will always have a special place in my heart. I think the artwork in Ice Age is amazing and the whole theme surrounding the edition resonates with my love of snow. And Fallen Empires totally rocks. It didn't have the most powerful cards when it came out (like many editions do), but what it lacks in power it easily makes up for in character and subtlety.
I remember opening my very first starter deck in 3rd grade and how excited I was to join my friends in some epic wizard spell-casting awesomeness. My first starter was from the Revised edition and the perfectly mint rare included was was a Nightmare!
I think of "Old School" Magic The Gathering as "pre-rarity symbol" cards. That includes any edition released before the Exodus edition, which came out in 1998. "Old School" can also refer to the editions that came out in 1993 and 1994 including editions Alpha through The Dark. But I'm of the mind that old cards are anything from my childhood, the 90s.
Here are some of my favorite decks! There are a few newer cards in here but 99% of them are before 1998. I decided to list my favorite decks here so I can always re-assemble them in case I get drunk and decide to take them apart to build new decks. I hooked up some simple JavaScript to show card images from the Gatherer. Enjoy a blast from the past!
Classic Black Creature Deck
This deck pretty much kicks ass. My wife loves to beat me with this deck on a regular basis. It feels balanced and delivers quick death.
Creatures
Enchantments
Instants
Sorceries
Artifacts
Lands
Red & Green Burn Deck
This deck is awesome. Massive green manna production to fuel lethal red direct damage. Hold on to your butts!
Creatures
Enchantments
Instants
Sorceries
Lands
Pure Artifact Deck
I think this deck came out pretty good. It's not the strongest but it is extremely fun to play. And I think a deck without any basic lands is a pretty cool thing.
Creatures
Artifacts
Lands
Grind Deck
The slow and painful grid deck! Also sometimes referred to as a Millstone deck. This deck is designed to slowly eat away at your opponet's soul. As you counter their every spell, steal their creatures, and shutdown their futile attempts, you grind away at their deck, forcing them to draw and discard until they must draw from a non-existent stack, causing them loose the match. It's kinda sad, but really fun. There are lots of excellent combos in this deck, such as Library of Leng, Ivory Tower, and Howling Mine.
Creatures
Enchantments
Instants
Sorceries
Artifacts
Lands
Blue, Green, & White Commander Style Deck
This deck is super fun to play. I think partly because it's a 3 color deck that actually works together well. I tried to limit the cards that have casting costs with multiple colorful mana. This keeps the mana pool generic so even if you get only one mana of a color you can still cast any card for that color. I think the one exception is the Serra Angel. I also really like that you can only have one of each card in Commander style because it forces you to get creative with the deck building as well as making you think twice before using one of your key cards. You can't just shove four Dark Rituals and four Lightning Bolts into your deck and expect to win.
Creatures
Enchantments
Instants
Sorceries
Lands
Classic Red Deck – Dragons & Direct Damage
I really like how this deck came out. It works really well as a unit &ndash, which isn't true for all decks. Zirilan of the Claw works great with the plethora dragons. The Giant Strengths pair up sweet with the zero casting cost Ornithopters and Phyrexian Walkers and Immolation is handy to buff up your creatures or to kill off your opponent's weak ones. There are enough creatures in this deck to make them expendable, while the direct damage and Fissures keep your enemy in check. Plus it beats my wife's Class Black Create Deck (above).
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