Hello everyone, welcome to the second month of the Roaring 20's. I hope we all have had a great beginning to the new decade. My goal for the new year was two blog posts per month, however a bad case of the flu at the beginning of the year sidelined me for a week and then an extremely hectic, albeit productive, month at work kept me from meeting my goal. I intend to fix that now. I begin my staycation today and look forward to the Super Bowl, video games, and Magic.





One of the most awesome parts of Old School Magic: The Gathering is the various local communities that dot the globe. From our forefathers in Sweden to the groups right here in the United States and everywhere in between, the different rules, cultures, blogs, and tournaments are what set this format apart. Any time I see people get irritated about set legality or rule variations I cannot help but feel that they are missing the point. Just play with your group how you like with the cards you like and respect those with whom you disagree. Our differences are what makes this global community so much fun, and as someone who started in Spring of 1994 I can tell you that the different kitchen table rule sets mimic the feel of playing back then. Embrace it and love it, I know I do.





Akron Legionnaires . One of the best groups out there is the Columbus Kobolds right here in Ohio. They are a short 2 hour drive from the group my brother Jimmy and my friends Matt and Sean founded here, theThey are all quite genial guys who build cool decks. They also hosted a bodacious tournament at Thanksgiving time that I truly hope will be an annual event (no pressure!) One of the coolest people I met there was Jon Revell, who along with his brothers Ben and Sean represent an awesome family of Old School players right here in the Buckeye state. I mentioned my great time losing 2-1 to his land destruction brew at the aforementioned Butterball tournament in my recap and I look forward to slinging spells with him and the rest of the Kobolds next time I get down Interstate-71 to the capital city.





About a month ago I received a letter in the mail from Jon Revell, and I was excited to open it as I had the faint idea that he may have sent me a few cards to contribute to my quest to collect a complete set of Unlimited Edition. I have said a million times on this blog that I am in no way soliciting contributions nor do I expect them, but my brother Jimmy, Matt, Sean, Magnus and Mikael have all contributed and it is extraordinarily gracious and very much appreciated. As I opened the letter I was greeted with Jon's awesome gift:





Those merfolk can get quite scary when the Lord of Atlantis shows up.

I am once again truly humbled by the kindness and coolness of this community. Thank you Jon, it is appreciated. When I was young I summarily dismissed the Merfolk of the Pearl Trident as junk, not understanding that it could be made quite effective by 1 (or more!) Lords of Atlantis. That is in part because I was not aware of their lord then, nor would I have considered the possibility of multiple copies of a rare card as a possibility. Isn't that flavor text awesome too? Atlantis is the center baby, we are the ones who left! I always really enjoyed Jeff Menges's art on this card and all his others as well. I also kind of dismissed Creature Bond, but thanks to our singleton format cards like this can play a part in games. Anson Maddocks made some of the very best art of Magic and this card kind of spooked me as a kid. Thank God I never had Living Wall. Lastly we have Lifetap, another card I largely ignored that has found a home in our Akron Legionnaire singleton format. Once again I am impressed by Anson's art. Is that guy like a vampire merfolk? Who can say...





Thank you again to Jon and everyone else who has sent some cards my way. Every time I see your contributions I think of my interactions with all of you and how much you have enriched my first year back in the game. Stay tuned...







