[Discussion] Fetchlands

[Kitchen Table Hero]

After I got back to playing magic some time ago, naturally the first things I had to get were the Onslought fetchlands. I stopped playing about Torment time and back then was pretty much a casual player, going to some prereleases and FNM and such.
Going through my deck, I realised what an impact the fetches have on it: there are more fetches then actual mana producing lands. Made me wonder what the format was like before the fetchlands were printed.

So I would like to ask sourcers that were playing serious eternal magic before the fetchlands were printed what the format was like and how much of an impact they had. Just looking at the DTB forum, over half the decks are 3 colours or more which makes me wonder if it was always like this.

Was the format slower?
Were there fewer 3,4 and 5 colour decks?
Were decks packing more land total?
Other than duals, what were the common lands to use? painlands?
Were cards like BoP and Brass more common?
Brainstorm as wideley used?

EDIT: Of course Legacy proper was made after the fetches were printed, hence I would like to know what Type 1.5 was like before they were released.

[Skeggi]

Was the format slower?
Were there fewer 3,4 and 5 colour decks?
Were decks packing more land total?
Other than duals, what were the common lands to use? painlands?
Were cards like BoP and Brass more common?
Brainstorm as wideley used?

Onslaught was released September 27, 2002. Legacy was formed in the fall of 2004.

Legacy always had fetchlands. The only eternal format before Legacy was Vintage. So:

1: Vintage was never slow.
2: No.
3: No: Moxes, Black Lotus and other nonland acceleration took up alot of landslots.
4: Some decks used a few painlands iirc. City of Brass is probably the most used one over the Ice Age lands.
5: City of Brass, read above ;) BoP was used in about the same amount as now I reckon, perhaps slightly less.
6: Yes, people still used Brainstorms alot. Vintage obviously has other shuffle effects besides fetchland, such as tutors.

[Kitchen Table Hero]

Onslaught was released September 27, 2002. Legacy was formed in the fall of 2004.

Legacy always had fetchlands. The only eternal format before Legacy was Vintage. So:

1: Vintage was never slow.
2: No.
3: No: Moxes, Black Lotus and other nonland acceleration took up alot of landslots.
4: Some decks used a few painlands iirc. City of Brass is probably the most used one over the Ice Age lands.
5: City of Brass, read above ;) BoP was used in about the same amount as now I reckon, perhaps slightly less.
6: Yes, people still used Brainstorms alot. Vintage obviously has other shuffle effects besides fetchland, such as tutors.

Thanks for the reply.
I know legacy was "made" after the fetchlands and vintage never had a problem with speed, I guess I should have specified what was 1.5 like before the fetches. Ill edit the original post.

[Skeggi]

Thanks for the reply.
I know legacy was "made" after the fetchlands and vintage never had a problem with speed, I guess I should have specified what was 1.5 like before the fetches. Ill edit the original post.

I'm not following. Before Legacy there were 3 basic formats: Vintage (Type 1, eternal), Extended (Type 1.X, not eternal) and Standard (Type 2, not eternal). They added Legacy (Type 1.5, eternal).

[Kitchen Table Hero]

I'm not following. Before Legacy there were 3 basic formats: Vintage (Type 1, eternal), Extended (Type 1.X, not eternal) and Standard (Type 2, not eternal). They added Legacy (Type 1.5, eternal).

I always thought that before Legacy proper there were 4 formats:
Type 2 - now Standard
Type 1.x - wow Extended
Type 1 - now Vintage
Type 1.5 - now Legacy, which untill the creation of Legacy proper was Type 1 but where the restricted list was the banned list.

If my memory fails me and there was no such thing as type 1.5 then just shut down the topic please.

[Tosh]

Before Legacy was officially formed, some people (myself included) played T1.5 which was T1 but both banned and restricted cards in T1 were banned in T1.5.

[Poesjuh]

Yup, that is also how I remember things. Before Legacy there was type 1.5, just as Extended used to be type 1.x

[DeathwingZERO]

Formats:

Previous -> Current

Type 2 -> Standard
Type 1.x -> Extended
Type 1.5 -> Legacy
Type 1 -> Vintage

They went to the names for simplicity, if I recall correctly. They liked being able to distinguish formats for ease of speaking to those uniformed of how they were. It's easy to mix up 1, 1.5, and 1.x, compared to Vintage, Legacy, and Extended.

[Peter_Rotten]

1.5 (now defunct) was a bit of a different format than Legacy. Here's a brief list of cards that defined 1.5 and some cards that were banned but are available in Legacy:

Legal
Mishra's Workshop and MetalWorker
Bazaar of Baghdad and Worldgorger Dragon
Mana Drain

Banned
Lion's Eye Diamond
Lotus Petal
Mox Diamond
Chrome Mox

Although there are other differences (like Illusionary Mask was legal in 1.5), I think I listed the most significant differences in legal cards that shapped the two formats.

edit: can you imagine Legacy Ichorid with Bazaar legal? LOL!

[edgewalker]

I wouldn't say the format was "slower", since before the fetch lands, there where ways to have mana fixing. The mirage fetchlands were legal, birds of paradise was legal as well as land tax/land grant. There where plenty of ways to fix mana, they just weren't as efficient as the fetchlands.

Also, the old Landstill lists still bring back bad memories.

[MattH]

edit: can you imagine Legacy Ichorid with Bazaar legal? LOL!

Yes I can, because it's just the Vintage lists with +3 LED and less, uh, Serum Powder or whatever the fuck they run.

[HdH_Cthulhu]

Yes I can, because it's just the Vintage lists with +3 LED and less, uh, Serum Powder or whatever the fuck they run.

it would be the most broken list ever cuz of LEDs...