It's been a while since I logged in, and this is the exact conversation I was hoping to find to get some answers. The last time I looked at Vintage staples a year or so ago, they looked like they were all dropping. Did something happen that I missed?

I haven't played paper Vintage in years and sold off all my power but my Lotus and Walk due to sentimental reasons. It's all been sitting in boxes as I moved on to other formats and then games. I still lurked here as I enjoyed keeping tabs on the format, but the last couple of years were kinda rough financially after getting laid off from my VFX studio, so I checked out of the game entirely. Yesterday I happened to randomly check out some prices and I couldn't believe what some of the staples were going for.

I started playing tail end of Unlimited buying packs at Microplay (Video game chain mainly based in Ontario Canada), played up until Combo winter, and joined TMD when I got back into it as Mirrodin dropped. I've seen usernames come and go over the years, and there are still quite a few from back then. I've been blessed because I've got playsets of random relatively expensive cards like transmute artifacts, replenish etc that were considered janky until someone broke it. Unfortunately I've also broken up sets over the years as I've needed cash, so I have 3 bazaars and 3 Alliances FoW because the 4th FoW is in my complete set. I'm not sure what to do any longer. On one hand, I've amassed a large collection with quite a lot of staples and I'm in a lot better position than many other players, but on the other hand it would still cost a lot to get back in.

in the mid 90's, we used to laugh at the miniwargamers because their hobby was so expensive compared to ours, but I could buy out most of a GW store with what I would need to buy in again. On a strict cost benefit analysis, looking at what high end board games cost and the amount of time you get out of them vs how much time I can get Vintage to the table, it doesn't look very good, and that's super depressing.

@80percentbuffoon

While Zoom may be an option, I can't see any large Con or Tournament that depends on WotC's good graces using Cockatrice unless they use it without any images, and I can't see any players wanting to use it without images, so you can't really use it as a viable above the counter option. It's pretty much the back room poker option for Magic at this point. The number of publicly viewable and joinable vintage games aren't that many; most are either playing privately with a select group of friends, or they are on private servers to control who gets in.

This is the best version I've found, and you only need 2 cards in hand to fire it off.

T2 Snoop
T3 Boggart Harbringer putting Kiki-Jiki on top
Make the snoop clone itself an arbitrarily large number, then make it finally copy the Harbringer again, putting Mogg Fanatic or Sling-Gang Lieutenant on top of your library and sac them all.

The craziest thing about this card is that there are 4 variants of the art, all slightly different. Its like being in Antiquities again.

Because there are 4 variants of the regular and 4 variants of the special frame, it has to be more common than other mythics. I wonder what that will do to its value.

I haven't seen it being used in ages, and without the mana acceleration in the newer formats, is it really relevant? It's kinda funny that this is now considered weak enough to see play in standard.

For those who still run it, I guess the question is do you run OG for nostalgia factor, or foil?

Netrunner had a controlled click and credit system instead of mana, and the FFG version, which was extremely well received, had identity cards that you built your deck around.

@billcopes Unrestricting Trinisphere. Enjoy your cheap 3 mana permanents. We then make a gentleman's agreement to play neither Lurrus or Trinisphere as more than a 1 of maindeck.

@jaco said in Vintaholics Anonymous:

The thing unique about Vintage is that it is specifically dedicated to be the eternal resting home for the hideous design mistakes of Magic past and present, even if we seek some semblance of balance every now and then. It is supposed to be wild and ever-changing.

Yup. One of the most interesting things Vintage does for me is seeing cards that were originally rarely played when released becoming bombs now that they interact with a card considered unplayable in a new set. A perfect example for me was what happened to flash when newer creatures came out. I've had a playset of them since Mirage as I bought a bunch of it when it came out. They just sat in my binder.

As someone that started playing by buying unlimited starters and packs, the current permanent centric play feels more like the real origins of the game. The first time I saw a deck that didn't feel like really playing magic was when Prosbloom hit. That was not Magic to our playgroup.

I stopped playing at the beginning of the Urza block because it didn't feel like the same game. I got back into it right before Mirrodin block hit because I was working in a comic shop part time in Jasper Alberta. It was all young kids who just discovered it, and myself and a couple of older guys were teaching them. It reminded me why I got back into the game. They were all trying to cast ridiculously inefficient creatures that looked cool. It reminded me of turning Lord of the Pit, Shivan Dragon and Force of Nature sideways ftw.

I love Vintage, but it has never really felt like true Magic to me. The spell and combo centric nature of it was just a product of being able to cherry pick the top 1% of the cards available over decades of sets.

Man... "sacrifice a food" is going to really irk me this block. I had a feeling this was going to end up being the templating, but seeing it on the card is another thing.