This PT was fed by the first round of PTQs. I played in my city's (Atlanta) first, a two-slotter featuring the breakout of the mono-red deck known as Sligh. My first round opponent: Paul Sligh.
This is my favourite youtube show on ALL of TH-cam right now, I now know I am 10 years older than Cedric because I was 20 when this happened and really getting into competitive magic (I finally made it to a PT a few years later)
I now know the approximate difference in age between me and the people referred to in this comment thread thus far, because the last comment cites the year of birth of the participant and I can work backwards from there.
The final match was 5 hours because the guy with the healthier body was the superior player playing with an inferior deck. Guevin reportedly was so sick from being psyched out by Hammer that after the match, he ran off to the bathroom and barfed. Hammer, who was a pro arm wrestler along with a comic shop owner was well acclimated to the game of psyching out the opponent since that's a big part of pro arm wrestling. And the fact that he was in such good shape helped him last the 5 hours. On another note, almost all the European players got eliminated day one when drafting cards like Power Sink over cards like Fireball. Even when 4th Edition was new, the European players didn't have much sealed product and relied heavily on imported singles from the US, especially from Los Angeles.
Heya! Love the series! I was a PTQ player during these early pro tours and someone who obsessed over the competitive scene. I read the sideboard over and over, knowing the decks and accomplishments of Hammer and Olle Rade like they were Jordan and Olajuwon. Your series has been one of the best nostalgia bumps of my life. I don't mean to be greedy about something I already love, but I wanted to make a suggestion about something I thought would be super cool for the show. The Magic Dojo and tournament reports were such a huge part of the early competitive Magic scene, and I think it would be very fitting and cool for you guys to look at some of the old reports from these tourneys, which often had reports written by top 8 players and champions, and find an interesting tourney report story about the tournament to share! Can't wait for the next one! Alice was one of my favorite old school formats. Probably because it was the first competitive format I had a deep personal meta dive into and I think it was my first PTQ top 8. It's probably actually dogshit, but I loved it.
Tom was a great player, though the genius of his play, was his brother Pete was a genius at deck building. The two together made a great competition. Playing at the Wizards Tower in Nashua was a blast. Between the Tower, Hammers, and SMK produced so many skilled players.
Love this series! As a heads up, during the play section, due to camera placement and eyeline, you're breaking the Line of Action, making it ever slightly disorienting. An easy fix to this is just flipping the overhead camera around so Cedric is on the right.
For the draft format of 44H (15 15 8), keep in mind at that time, the previous format was 333 (3 = Revised). Revised did not have 15 playables per pack...basic lands were mixed in to the packs at the uncommon and common slots so on average you got like 3 basics per pack. So technically you got about 12 playable cards per pack and three packs is 36 playables to draft. With 44H, you get 38 playables per draft set.
Awesome 🎉! Are you going to be covering one of the first invitationals as well? With all the weird formats Mark Rosewater made up and the cards the winners got to design. Would love seeing you play a backdraft 😂
a note on the idea of speeding up play because of MTGO. LSV talked about the same thing MTGO came out and the people of his generation speed up to accommodate the chess clock but now the newer generation that grew up with MTGO play slower because they know exactly how much time they have and use it
Patrick had the game at 1:30~. Move to declare attackers, Cedric probably doesn't tap down the Shivan, declare attacks with Shivan, disenchant the gaseous form after attacks are declared.
I started playing magic in 1994 thanks for covering these old times, we enjoyed them back then. Cant wait to see you get to later years, like playing memory jar, or academy 😂 2005 worlds was my favorite top 8 to sleeve and replay btw
What were the sideboarding rules in those days? Could the 'beatdown' deck not have boarded up to 45 for game2? Then maybe 55 for game3 once the arms race for decking is on!
I love the documentation of mtg history guys! I have just one thing id like to ask- if you play Tournament decks, could you swap decks to see how either of you pilots it?
I know this is logistacally very difficult but you guys should actually draft 4th+4th+HL. Would be amazing to watch and the only record of such thing on camera.
Awesome content. I haven't thought it all the way through if itd be a good idea, but would you play these old games with the rules as they were at the time of the tournament?
The ruins was in his random crapbox he kept for nostalgia,( every old player has those boxes) but the shivers were sold long ago because they were worth something, yet worthless for pro players
Wow. Hammer's deck was something else, for sure. I think the only Tom's deck wins is via a lucky Armageddon. I also think using the Ruins on the Oyster is a mistake. The games are going to be so long and drawn out, you have to save removal for an actual threat. The Oyster isn't a a "threat" is just slow removal of its own, and its not a threat till YOU have a threat. This is a different kind of magic, and the games are going to be sloggy. I can see whey the finals took 5 hours.
Bring back banding. Always loved the Melissa Benson Mesa Pegasus. I feel like any person who is actually playing with banders in their deck is capable of explaining it to their opponents. Maybe I'm just lucky enough to understand it better than most.
I’ve never played with them, but I also don’t feel like it’s that complicated. It’s strategically complex when deciding what to Flood and how to attack, but actually resolving combats involving bands is simple enough.
When I first started playing the game it was in the 4th Ed/Ice Age era and I was in 2nd grade. Never found the mechanic hard to understand. Took a good long break and came back around Dominaria and was kind of shocked to hear that people were having such issues with it. From what I understand it has a lot of rare edge cases where it gets complicated, but 99% of the time, and even more so back then, it was super simple.
@@Aaron-wv5si Very similar experience, here. We started/stopped playing at the same time. I was a couple years older, and you came back to the game a couple years sooner. I think it deserves emphasis: A Mesa Pegasus and a Giant Albatross attacked into and took down a Shivan Dragon (the Albatross also died). Everything on board; no tricks. Banding was strong and amazing flavor for white, which is why Garfield kept pushing it, despite all the haters.
Was reading up on it and it seems strange that all the damage is applied to only 1 of the creatures. In the Shivan Dragon vs Mesa Pegasus and a Giant Albatross scenario, I don't get why lethal damage (1) wouldn't apply to say the Albatross, then the remaining (3) damage then applied to the Pegasus? I guess cause they're still considered individual attackers, that can just be blocked as one entity? So all 4 of Shivan's damage just goes to 1 of them of the attacking player's choice?
@@ClockworkEngineer Can you give me some examples? And I don't mean people that just moved on from the game or mostly don't play much anymore (Finkel, Budde, Cuneo, the Ruel brothers, lots of the old-guard Japanese pros like Kenji and Saito, etc.).
‘Attack as a band’
‘I choose Oyster’
‘I hope this is not a Slur. Cave People.’
So many bangers.
Gotta throw in "go check out my Onlybands" as well, certified lol
This PT was fed by the first round of PTQs. I played in my city's (Atlanta) first, a two-slotter featuring the breakout of the mono-red deck known as Sligh.
My first round opponent: Paul Sligh.
Beautiful story and, especially in context, great username.
Attacking with a Gaseous Formed creature in a band is the pinnacle of 90s Magic.
"My bands next turn are sick." - Patrick Sullivan
This is my favourite youtube show on ALL of TH-cam right now, I now know I am 10 years older than Cedric because I was 20 when this happened and really getting into competitive magic (I finally made it to a PT a few years later)
I now know i am 12 years younger than him since i was born in 1998 and was never a competitive magic player but rather a competitive YGO one
I now know the approximate difference in age between me and the people referred to in this comment thread thus far, because the last comment cites the year of birth of the participant and I can work backwards from there.
I kind of lost it at "I hope this is not a Slur, Cave People."
This, is hilarious. I can't wait for the later PTs, with Patrick's camera recording😂
I lost it when Patrick declared an attack as a band. Great video
The final match was 5 hours because the guy with the healthier body was the superior player playing with an inferior deck. Guevin reportedly was so sick from being psyched out by Hammer that after the match, he ran off to the bathroom and barfed.
Hammer, who was a pro arm wrestler along with a comic shop owner was well acclimated to the game of psyching out the opponent since that's a big part of pro arm wrestling. And the fact that he was in such good shape helped him last the 5 hours.
On another note, almost all the European players got eliminated day one when drafting cards like Power Sink over cards like Fireball. Even when 4th Edition was new, the European players didn't have much sealed product and relied heavily on imported singles from the US, especially from Los Angeles.
THAT GAME 4 OH BABYYY
AND game 5? Holy
Heya! Love the series! I was a PTQ player during these early pro tours and someone who obsessed over the competitive scene. I read the sideboard over and over, knowing the decks and accomplishments of Hammer and Olle Rade like they were Jordan and Olajuwon. Your series has been one of the best nostalgia bumps of my life.
I don't mean to be greedy about something I already love, but I wanted to make a suggestion about something I thought would be super cool for the show. The Magic Dojo and tournament reports were such a huge part of the early competitive Magic scene, and I think it would be very fitting and cool for you guys to look at some of the old reports from these tourneys, which often had reports written by top 8 players and champions, and find an interesting tourney report story about the tournament to share!
Can't wait for the next one! Alice was one of my favorite old school formats. Probably because it was the first competitive format I had a deep personal meta dive into and I think it was my first PTQ top 8. It's probably actually dogshit, but I loved it.
I will say though, that having Cedric’s inner monologue be represented by the SP Canadian character is entertaining. Thank you editor.
I didn't know you watched these guys as well.
I played and helped Hammer and other Hitmen get tuned up for this. It was a great time, and one my best memories from that time.
I'm surprised Cedric didn't go to 40 cards after sideboarding, but you can't argue with CoP Blue!
Tom was a great player, though the genius of his play, was his brother Pete was a genius at deck building. The two together made a great competition. Playing at the Wizards Tower in Nashua was a blast. Between the Tower, Hammers, and SMK produced so many skilled players.
Love this series!
As a heads up, during the play section, due to camera placement and eyeline, you're breaking the Line of Action, making it ever slightly disorienting. An easy fix to this is just flipping the overhead camera around so Cedric is on the right.
For the draft format of 44H (15 15 8), keep in mind at that time, the previous format was 333 (3 = Revised). Revised did not have 15 playables per pack...basic lands were mixed in to the packs at the uncommon and common slots so on average you got like 3 basics per pack. So technically you got about 12 playable cards per pack and three packs is 36 playables to draft. With 44H, you get 38 playables per draft set.
Awesome 🎉! Are you going to be covering one of the first invitationals as well? With all the weird formats Mark Rosewater made up and the cards the winners got to design. Would love seeing you play a backdraft 😂
a note on the idea of speeding up play because of MTGO. LSV talked about the same thing MTGO came out and the people of his generation speed up to accommodate the chess clock but now the newer generation that grew up with MTGO play slower because they know exactly how much time they have and use it
I went to this PT event on the big red boat. I had multiple friends and acquaintances who were competing. I played in some of the key side events.
2:09:20 "I feel like I'm fluent in a dead language" thats exactly what it feels like explaining banding to people!
26:20 absolute Cedric moment… he’s a great guy but he’s special
Patrick had the game at 1:30~. Move to declare attackers, Cedric probably doesn't tap down the Shivan, declare attacks with Shivan, disenchant the gaseous form after attacks are declared.
This was an immaculate match
Cedric with the omegapunt of not Oystering the Pegasus in game 5 before Oystering the Minotaur. Red Band Wins!
I look forward to these episodes like i was 25 years younger
I started playing magic in 1994 thanks for covering these old times, we enjoyed them back then.
Cant wait to see you get to later years, like playing memory jar, or academy 😂
2005 worlds was my favorite top 8 to sleeve and replay btw
Banding and all the activated abilities add several degrees of complexity to the game wow
I love how out of all the cards, the Shivan Dragon is the one proxied with a slip of paper 😂
do more of there. id love to see the pro tours of the early 2000s
The YMG stores were in Somerville, MA and Providence, RI.
That was epic. Love this series
First you’re all amazing and without a doubt super grateful for you all! Have a wonderful day and thank you for your content.
Epic and hilarious match, I love these
Best podcast on the tubes
What were the sideboarding rules in those days? Could the 'beatdown' deck not have boarded up to 45 for game2? Then maybe 55 for game3 once the arms race for decking is on!
Watched this on Patreon and commenting to support the algorithm.
I love the documentation of mtg history guys! I have just one thing id like to ask- if you play Tournament decks, could you swap decks to see how either of you pilots it?
"Go Check out my Only Burns" - Patrick Sullivan, quote of the match
If one creature in a band is blue, can you CoP: blue the damage for the whole band since they deal damage as one unit?
See you at the Flesh and Blood Pro Tour in LA this weekend.
43:05 The first time in the year 2024 that anyone anywhere has attacked with a band in the game Magic: the Gathering.
1:23:03 playing around the bolt is a big brain play
Let's go!
Sphinx's Rev would have genuinely been worse than Alabaster Potion these games since Cedric has no way to win the game aside from decking.
(Cedric) A very fair point
I know this is logistacally very difficult but you guys should actually draft 4th+4th+HL. Would be amazing to watch and the only record of such thing on camera.
33:49 it’s definitely Raka. Good job with the proper reference.
The creatures in these decks really embody one of my favorite Patrick sayings: send in the clowns 🤡
Patrick really filled out his Bingo card this time 😅
Awesome content. I haven't thought it all the way through if itd be a good idea, but would you play these old games with the rules as they were at the time of the tournament?
How does Patrick have an An-Zeran Ruins but not a Shivan Dragon?
The ruins was in his random crapbox he kept for nostalgia,( every old player has those boxes) but the shivers were sold long ago because they were worth something, yet worthless for pro players
What card art is used for the thumbnail again?
Why is there a card called chandler
A story character from homelands.
people knock banding for justifiable reasons, but if you ever just want to completely negate Trample, you know where to look
Red White Blue? Star Spangled Slaughter as what we called it back then
My takeaway from this is that banding is… kinda sick?
this is some epick gaming
Magic the way Richard Garfield intended❤❤❤
Imagine doing all this, with damage on the stack? Seems rough.
Ah yes, now THAT'S the "fun and interactive magic as Garfield intended" everyone keeps talking about.
Wow. Hammer's deck was something else, for sure. I think the only Tom's deck wins is via a lucky Armageddon. I also think using the Ruins on the Oyster is a mistake. The games are going to be so long and drawn out, you have to save removal for an actual threat. The Oyster isn't a a "threat" is just slow removal of its own, and its not a threat till YOU have a threat. This is a different kind of magic, and the games are going to be sloggy. I can see whey the finals took 5 hours.
Even terrible gameplay looks great with Beta basics
I didnt know Patrick was Canadian.
I know banding! I can speak your language!
That's crazy because I thought armageddon was bad against flood
should have bought a shiv dragon with the ironclaw orcs
OFF THE BOAT
That's a deion sanders rookie card....
Actually Homelands didn't have that many good cards. But 4th Edition was LOADED. There were a lot of good picks.
Endless Entertainment
ALBATROSS GAME!
As a cave person i was triggered and became 2/2
Bring back banding. Always loved the Melissa Benson Mesa Pegasus.
I feel like any person who is actually playing with banders in their deck is capable of explaining it to their opponents. Maybe I'm just lucky enough to understand it better than most.
I’ve never played with them, but I also don’t feel like it’s that complicated. It’s strategically complex when deciding what to Flood and how to attack, but actually resolving combats involving bands is simple enough.
When I first started playing the game it was in the 4th Ed/Ice Age era and I was in 2nd grade. Never found the mechanic hard to understand. Took a good long break and came back around Dominaria and was kind of shocked to hear that people were having such issues with it. From what I understand it has a lot of rare edge cases where it gets complicated, but 99% of the time, and even more so back then, it was super simple.
@@Aaron-wv5si Very similar experience, here. We started/stopped playing at the same time. I was a couple years older, and you came back to the game a couple years sooner.
I think it deserves emphasis: A Mesa Pegasus and a Giant Albatross attacked into and took down a Shivan Dragon (the Albatross also died). Everything on board; no tricks. Banding was strong and amazing flavor for white, which is why Garfield kept pushing it, despite all the haters.
Was reading up on it and it seems strange that all the damage is applied to only 1 of the creatures.
In the Shivan Dragon vs Mesa Pegasus and a Giant Albatross scenario, I don't get why lethal damage (1) wouldn't apply to say the Albatross, then the remaining (3) damage then applied to the Pegasus?
I guess cause they're still considered individual attackers, that can just be blocked as one entity? So all 4 of Shivan's damage just goes to 1 of them of the attacking player's choice?
Since the advent of Arena/MtGO, haven't we learned that the people who were making top 8s repeatedly just cheaters?
What makes you say that?
@@canman87The fact that they all stopped ranking when forced to play with decks they couldn't manipulate.
@@ClockworkEngineer Can you give me some examples? And I don't mean people that just moved on from the game or mostly don't play much anymore (Finkel, Budde, Cuneo, the Ruel brothers, lots of the old-guard Japanese pros like Kenji and Saito, etc.).
Source: I made it up