[Format] Old-School Magic

[H]

I haven't seen it discussed here too much, but there are a few versions of this format currently being supported by tournaments:

The "Original:" Magic: 93/94

93/94, Old School Mtg, started 2007 in the casual Magic scene in Gothenburg, Sweden, and have since grown with players across Europe and North America. A total of seven sets are allowed in the format; Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends and The Dark. Non-English versions and reprints after Unlimited are considered proxies, and 93/94 is not played with proxies. The hard, time consuming and expensive road to build most decks is considered an important feature of the format. You play with what you own, and try to find what you need.

Ban/Restriction
Legal sets:
Alpha
Beta
Unlimited
Arabian Nights
Antiquities
Legends
The Dark
Only English versions are allowed in 93/94 Constructed.

As of May 11th, 2015, Summer Magic is now legal for 93/94 play.

Restricted in 93-94 Constructed:
Ancestral Recall
Balance
Black Lotus
Black Vise
Braingeyser
Channel
Chaos Orb
Demonic Tutor
Fork
Library of Alexandria
Mana Drain
Maze of Ith
Mind Twist
Mishra's Workshop
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Recall
Regrowth
Shahrazad
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
Time Vault
Time Walk
Timetwister
Wheel of Fortune

As of May 11th, 2015, Power Artifact and Mirror Universe are no longer Restricted.

Banned i 93-94 Constructed:
(The ante-cards are banned in tournaments that doesn't play for ante)
Bronze Tablet
Contract from Below
Darkpact
Demonic Attorney
Jeweled Bird
Rebirth
Tempest Efreet

Errata:
Chaos Orb (2)
Artifact
1, Tap: Choose a nontoken permanent on the battlefield. If Chaos Orb is on the battlefield, flip Chaos Orb onto the battlefield from a height of at least one foot. If Chaos Orb turns over completely at least once during the flip, and touches the chosen permanent, destroy that permanent. Then destroy Chaos Orb.

Eudemonia in California has rung a few events with a slight modification to the 93/94 rules (also ran by JACO and Nedleeds at Eternal Weekend with a different restricted list (see below)): Old-School Magic

Format:
This format is based off of the 93/94 format with several changes to set legality and the banned/restricted lists.
Legal Sets:
Alpha
Beta
Unlimited
Revised
Arabian Nights
Antiquities
Legends
The Dark
Fallen Empires
Chronicles
Collector’s Edition — in double-sleeved decks only
International Edition — in double-sleeved decks only

Banned Cards:

Bronze Tablet
Contract from Below
Darkpact
Demonic Attorney
Jeweled Bird
Rebirth
Tempest Efreet

Restricted Cards:

Ancestral Recall
Balance
Black Lotus
Braingeyser
Channel
Chaos Orb
Demonic Tutor
Library of Alexandria
Mana Drain
Mana Vault
Maze of Ith
Mind Twist
Mishra’s Workshop
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Power Artifact
Recall
Regrowth
Shahrazad
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
Time Vault
Time Walk
Timetwister
Wheel of Fortune

Special Errata:

Chaos Orb (2)
Artifact
1, Tap: Choose a nontoken permanent on the battlefield. If Chaos Orb is on the battlefield, flip Chaos Orb onto the battlefield from a height of at least one foot. If Chaos Orb turns over completely at least once during the flip, and touches the chosen permanent, destroy that permanent. Then destroy Chaos Orb.

Unrestricted in JACO's Eternal Weekend Old School:

Black Vise
Fork
Hymn to Tourach
Mana Vault
Mirror Universe
Mishra's Workshop
Power Artifact
Shahrazad
Strip Mine

One more formats has emerged in the NY area recently: Magic: 1995

THE RULES:

Your deck must be at least 60 cards, with a 15 card sideboard.

Only spells crafted from Alpha to Ice Age are legal.

You shall duel with "modern rules" with respect to our wish to reinstate "mana burn" and "damage stacking".

(Tapped blockers will deal damage, tapped Winter Orbs and Howling Mines will be deactivated.)

The mighty Chaos Orb shall read as follows:

1, Tap: Choose a nontoken permanent on the battlefield. If Chaos Orb is on the battlefield, flip Chaos Orb onto the battlefield from a height of at least one foot.
If Chaos Orb turns over completely at least once during the flip, and touches the chosen permanent, destroy that permanent. Then destroy Chaos Orb.

And Aladdin's Lamp shall cost a total of 10 mana.

THE RESTRICTED LIST:

You may only have ONE copy of the following spell in your dueler's deck:

Ancestral Recall
Balance
Black Lotus
Black Vise
Braingeyser
Channel
Chaos Orb
Demonic Tutor
Ivory Tower
Library of Alexandria
Mana Drain
Maze of Ith
Mind Twist
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Power Artifact
Recall
Regrowth
Sol Ring
Time Walk
Timetwister
Wheel of Fortune
Zuran Orb

THE LIMITED LIST:

You may TWO copies of the following spells in your duel's deck:

Fastbond
Fork
Hymn To Tourach
Jester's Cap
Mirror Universe
Mishra's Workshop
Necropotence
Strip Mine
Time Vault

THE BANNED LIST:

You may not have any copies of the following spells in your library:

All Ante Cards
Shahrazad

Additional Reading:

Old-School at Eternal Central

Old School - Europe: Facebook Page

Old School - Europe: YouTube Channel

93/94 Discussion Group

East Coast 93/94 Discussion and Marketplace

Old School '93-'94 - Europe: Facebook Group

Midwest USA 93/94 Old School Magic

Magic '95 Homepage

Danny Friedman's Vintage & Old School Blog

[Ace/Homebrew]

Any idea why Chaos Orb was nerfed? It is already restricted to one copy. Card is bad if you have to specify a target and then hit said target, no?

I have never gotten to play with the card, so perhaps I am misjudging how easy it is to hit a specific target from a foot off the table with at least one full rotation...



Edit - A friend said it may have to do with Guardian Beast allowing a player to re-use Chaos Orb...

[H]

Any idea why Chaos Orb was nerfed? It is already restricted to one copy. Card is bad if you have to specify a target and then hit said target, no?

I have never gotten to play with the card, so perhaps I am misjudging how easy it is to hit a specific target from a foot off the table with at least one full rotation...



Edit - A friend said it may have to do with Guardian Beast allowing a player to re-use Chaos Orb...

I think it is that, plus the old way used to have people playing with all sorts of bizarre board lay-outs, with all their important cards circling their Library or everything super spread apart just to avoid a blow-out from the Orb.

[nedleeds]

You can't enforce the timing. The person announces chao orb and there's nothing that says you can move all your permanents all over the fucking table. It just gets stupid. Unconditional removal for 2+1 is actually pretty insane. Now ... I couldn't hit water with a fucking oar at the last Old School and it ended up being a total waste of time. But if you are accurate with it it's an auto include and a very very good card even with the errata.

[H]

You can't enforce the timing. The person announces chao orb and there's nothing that says you can move all your permanents all over the fucking table. It just gets stupid. Unconditional removal for 2+1 is actually pretty insane. Now ... I couldn't hit water with a fucking oar at the last Old School and it ended up being a total waste of time. But if you are accurate with it it's an auto include and a very very good card even with the errata.

I have been lead to believe that once upon a time, you couldn't actually do that:

You can arrange your cards any time before the Orb is put into play, but not after. (Snark 1993/11/01)
In general, you should not stack cards or put them in places where your opponent cannot read the names of all of them or count them. This is recommended good gaming practice. (Aahz 1994/12/03)

From Crystal Keep.

Still, it's dumb and the errata makes a lot of sense.

I like the idea of adding Ice Age, but the idea of allowing two-ofs is odd and I feel it doesn't jive with the idea of historical Magic (I don't think there was ever a time where a format only allowed 2-ofs).

[nedleeds]

I have been lead to believe that once upon a time, you couldn't actually do that:



From Crystal Keep.

Still, it's dumb and the errata makes a lot of sense.

I like the idea of adding Ice Age, but the idea of allowing two-ofs is odd and I feel it doesn't jive with the idea of historical Magic (I don't think there was ever a time where a format only allowed 2-ofs).

" put into play, " ... let me know how that works out. I'm thinking of countering your orb while it's being cast and as part of how I got in the tank I spread my possessions across the table. The wording the 94 guys, Eudo, and EternalCentral have put forward are the best compromise for keeping the orb around but making it sane in my opinion. Again I couldn't hit a god damn mule with mine from an inch away from ass so I'm truly impartial.

I've talked at length about Strip Mine and feel like it's simply not old school magic without it (or the Vise). It functions much like Wasteland does in modern vintage, not being able to stand up a fetchland arguably increases its power level but the format as a whole is slower so I think it balances out. Without Strip Mine and Vise there is effectively no reason to play anything other than blue. There are also strong arguments that Mishra's Factory is too powerful and ubiquitous in 1 Strip Mine rule sets. Strip Mine is a natural predator. There's a little bit of recursion, 1 Regrowth, Recall, maybe Cane or Twister to get Strips back but nothing like Loam or Crucible exists.

Some of my victims at Philly might disagree that getting Stripped, Sunkholed, and having a turn 2 Nether Void cave in their skull isn't fun but Magic is really a zero sum fun game, I simply sucked up all the fun and had it myself.

[JACO]

Eudemonia in California has rung a few events with a slight modification to the 93/94 rules (also ran by JACO and Nedleeds at Eternal Weekend): Old-School Magic

To be clear, the event we ran at Eternal Weekend 2014 used the Eternal Central recommended Banned & Restricted List, which is different than the Eudo and European lists. Ours allows Fallen Empires (printed towards end of 1994), and does NOT restrict the following cards that some other lists do:
Black Vise
Fork
Hymn to Tourach
Mana Vault
Mirror Universe
Mishra's Workshop
Power Artifact
Shahrazad
Strip Mine

We believe in allowing for more deck innovation rather than less, and frankly not much is very busted. Each of these allow for a far wider range of decks to be played in strategies that otherwise wouldn't exist, or be remotely competitive if those individual cards were restricted. Strip Mine may at first glance look incorrect, but after almost a couple years of testing, I can reaffirm that with a restricted Strip Mine the 3-5C 'Power Blue' decks are usually beyond the power level of anything else. But opening up Strip Mine, Workshop, and some of the other more combo-ey cards levels the playing field a bit, to allow for combo decks and actual aggro and aggro-control decks to compete (whereas the 2 latter aren't really a contender without Strip Mine, which functions essentially as Wasteland in this format).

You can find the EC recommended Banned & Restricted list for 93/94 Magic in the right hand sidebar here, along with a handful of Old School articles by myself and others.
Old School Magic on Eternal Central

This is the most fun I've had playing Magic in the past few years, hands down. Also, if you can master flipping Chaos Orb, it is probably the second best restricted card in the format (behind Mind Twist), because it can go in any deck, and serves as efficient removal for anything. My vote for the best unrestricted card would probably go to Disenchant, and the most underutilized card is probably Sylvan Library.

[H]

I apologize, I missed that there was a separate list for that event, I'll change that in the first post.

I did add a link to the Eternal Central Old School page at the bottom before, but always good to have another.

I definitely agree though, more decks should be running Sylvan Library. Also, I think there is a horribly broken card that is completely unrestricted in the format that allows Ice Age, but it could be that there is no combo deck that can really use it...