Before I post my deck, I'm hoping someone will remember an old school deck that I believe tried to abuse Rukh Egg, Diamond Valley, Vesuvan Doppelganger, etc. I don't exactly remember it all. I just hope someone else will.

Anyhow, I remember this deck running people over like a train back in the day... what do you remember?

4x Flying Men
4x Scryb Sprite
4x Ball Lightning
4x Kird Ape

4x Psionic Blast
1x Berserk
4x Giant Growth
4x Lightning Bolt
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Time Twister
2x Fork

1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Emerald

Erhnamgeddon was the deck to beat at our shop, I'm guessing this was around 95/96. Necro decks were also great (with Drain Life).

CREATURES (18)
4 Erhnam Djinn
4 Llanowar Elves
1 Elvish Archers
2 Savannah Lions
4 White Knight
3 Serra Angel

ENCHANTMENTS (4)
1 Sylvan Library
3 Land Tax

SORCERIES (6)
2 Wrath of God
3 Armageddon
1 Balance

INSTANTS (7)
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Disenchant ARTIFACTS (4)
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus

LANDS (21)
1 Strip Mine
4 Savannah
8 Forest
8 Plains

I certainly don't remember all of it, but this was the core of the deck.
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Shivan Dragon
4x Tinder Wall
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Surge of Strength (Berserk was soooo out of my budget)

The deck obviously folded to anything with counters or that used targeted removal wisely.

__________________
Wisconsin - smells like dairy air!

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sidian:
was never fond of the super-overpowered early decks with lotuses and moxes and such (no pride in winning that way imo). however i have fond memories of Necro-Bloom back in the day...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoshSherman:
Your post makes no sense. There's "no pride" in winning that way, but Necro-Bloom is ok?

---

theres no comparison between loading your deck up with power 9 and seeing who can out draw the other and a deck relying heavily on a specific combination of cards which can be halted in a number of ways and potentially fatal if your gambit fails due to necropotence taking life from you...

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sidian:
theres no comparison between loading your deck up with power 9 and seeing who can out draw the other and a deck relying heavily on a specific combination of cards which can be halted in a number of ways and potentially fatal if your gambit fails due to necropotence taking life from you...

im not even sure how you could possibly compare the two. necro-bloom was powerful yes but its not the same as playing p9. sorry if you have a hard time comprehending the difference.

---

You are giving P9s way too much credit. Games don't end just because someone starts the game with a mox or two, especially decks from early days.

__________________
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

quote:

---

Originally posted by junichi:
You are giving P9s way too much credit. Games don't end just because someone starts the game with a mox or two, especially decks from early days.

---

yes you're right im giving the most powerful cards in the game far too much credit for being so powerful that to this day they are the most valuble cards in the game compared to a deck that was popular in standard once upon a time, an entire playset of both cards might set you back a whopping 25 bucks. and yet im not basing my opinion on value im basing it on the fact that theres no question the p9 is broke beyond belief, hence why its called the power 9 in the first place.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sidian:
yes you're right im giving the most powerful cards in the game far too much credit for being so powerful that to this day they are the most valuble cards in the game compared to a deck that was popular in standard once upon a time, an entire playset of both cards might set you back a whopping 25 bucks. and yet im not basing my opinion on value im basing it on the fact that theres no question the p9 is broke beyond belief, hence why its called the power 9 in the first place.

edit: by the way i pretty clearly stated it was my opinion that there was no pride in winning that way...if you can afford them and you have fun destroying your opponents with a deck worth more than their car then have at it. im just saying its not the same as playing a combo deck.

---

It sounds like you have zero experience playing with P9's, and you simply classified them as broken because they have the P9 reputation.

__________________
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

quote:

---

Originally posted by junichi:
It sounds like you have zero experience playing with P9's, and you simply classified them as broken because they have the P9 reputation.

---

i classify them as broken because even THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THE GAME know they are broken. why do you think they never got reprinted and any card that does something similar has either a higher mana cost, a weaker version of the ability or some sort of other drawback. i used to have a bunch of them (my first collection was stolen from my locker in 1998.) and i had a distinct advantage over any of my friends who didnt. ive also played them against people who also had them and it turned into a game of who drew the better opening hand which is a topic that was talked about quite a bit in the early days of the game hence the banned/restricted list coming about, although i freely admit other cards were overpowered as well...i remember all too well the channel/fireball days.

also around the time the mirrodin and kamigawa blocks were being released we used to have weekly vintage tourney's in my town which was a blast except when one wallet warrior showed up a couple times and played with those cards and was able to win most of the time even against our normal top players, myself included.

im not sure how i sound inexperienced in the least. the MTG Salvation wiki itself states word for word "Due to their power, these nine cards are considered "broken" (overwhelmingly powerful)."

im not stupid enough to believe that a mox will win you the game but im realistic enough to understand the advantage p9 gives most decks in terms of mana and card acceleration is often insurmountable if the player has even marginal ability..

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sidian:
i used to have a bunch of them (my first collection was stolen from my locker in 1998.) and i had a distinct advantage over any of my friends who didnt.

---

This has nothing to do with P9's being broken or not. This has more to do with available card choice pool. Playing with a handicap deck does not make other cards broken.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sidian:
ive also played them against people who also had them and it turned into a game of who drew the better opening hand...

---

This happens a lot in formats where P9's isn't legal, so I am not sure what your point is.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sidian:
also around the time the mirrodin and kamigawa blocks were being released we used to have weekly vintage tourney's in my town which was a blast except when one wallet warrior showed up a couple times and played with those cards and was able to win most of the time even against our normal top players, myself included.

---

I don't get this at all. A vintage tournament is meant for full power decks. If your expectation of a vintage tournament is a bunch of kitchen table rogue decks that win with a 6 card combo or standard decks that runs a few dual lands, then you are definitely mistaken.

Honestly, I am not sure if you understand what is broken. Being powerful =/= broken. Academy back in its standard days was broken. Artifact lands in their standard days were broken. P9's in vintage is not broken.

__________________
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

quote:

---

Originally posted by junichi:
This has nothing to do with P9's being broken or not. This has more to do with available card choice pool. Playing with a handicap deck does not make other cards broken.

This happens a lot in formats where P9's isn't legal, so I am not sure what your point is.

I don't get this at all. A vintage tournament is meant for full power decks. If your expectation of a vintage tournament is a bunch of kitchen table rogue decks that win with a 6 card combo or standard decks that runs a few dual lands, then you are definitely mistaken.

Honestly, I am not sure if you understand what is broken. Being powerful =/= broken. Academy back in its standard days was broken. Artifact lands in their standard days were broken. P9's in vintage is not broken.

---

ill simply agree to disagree mate. i love those cards and have some fond memories of them, absolutely love their artwork and it harkens me back to the days of magic's roots. while i will agree with you that the other cards such as academy and artifact lands were broken in standard (affinity decks were annoying as hell for a while), it doesnt change the idea for me that p9 is broken. it was talked about 20 years ago and for good reason. its why for several sets the power level almost dropped to ridiculously low levels in comparison...fallen empires? homelands?

im not saying theres not an element of luck to the game and that often a game can come down to the opening hand...we try our best as deck builders to control the outcome of our draws but lady luck can of course decide the outcome. but again i remember days when it was the first one to draw channel/fireball won. it wasnt fun and it was severely unbalanced. i believe thats what the power 9 cards do...throw the balance of the game off and offers a far greater "skill cushion".

but i respect your opinion and will argue mine no further. i believe i made at least a respectable argument even if it doesnt change your mind.

My first 3 decks, I don't remember the deck list but remember the premises:

then my saproling deck...

quote:

---

Originally posted by stu55:
2nd: Full English Breakfast (At this time no idea what it was, just knew discarding a dragon and using Volrath's Shapeshifter worked...lol)

---

Personal favorite right there. Won me quite a few tournaments with that deck.

__________________
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

I believe it was:

4 Ophidian
2 Morphling
1 Serendib Efreet

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak
3 Misdirection
4 Back to Basics
4 Counters (can't remember)
3 Boomerang

7 SoLoMoxen
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Fetch
Basics

I don't know what a yutz is by the way, but Junichi's 100% correct here.

__________________
I'm a geek, you're a geek. Let's trade.

quote:

---

Originally posted by superpup:
My fond memories are of group games at the card shop with 8-10 people, and I often played a favorite deck that was 150-200 cards, just stuffing in it any good card I had (Fork, Shivan, Assassin, Howling Mine, Serra, duals, etc). Not a whole lot of strategy in most of the group game decks people played there, compared to today, but was a lot of fun to just to be playing the game.

This was around 1994/95 or so, and even by that time there were very few players around my area that had Moxes and such, so didn't have to deal with those often at a casual player level.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by JayC:
Damn man, that just got to me... I totally remember these days, as well. Nothing can replace those memories... what a great time.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by airwalk:
20 Deserts
Lots of rods/cups/stars/net's
Brassmen
Obsianus Golem was the game winner lol.

Eventually I went on to blue... was a big fan of Segovian Leviathans and Deep Spawns lol. Something about the art of blue cards and Islands, I could fantasize for hours about them, wrote a lot of crappy short stories based off what I imagined from the artwork back then. Very few cards today even remotely pique my interest for their art...

---

RIGHT?