Healing Salve - MTG 4E

 

It's amazing to me how just having armless hands and that funky red background gives this whole picture a djinni, arabian nights vibe. 

Grizzly Bear - MTG 4E

 

OR....

...........you can knock your friend down and hope the bear eats him instead! Worth a shot, right? 

Green Ward - MTG 4E

 

I never used the wards very much because they only affected one creature and I was always about getting as many creatures out onto the field as I could. I think they would be much more effective now in the Commander variant, giving your commander protection from whatever threats you faced across the table.

Green Mana Battery - MTG 4E

 

This doesn't look like ANY sort of battery, but it looks wicked cool. That was enough for me back in '95 anyway :-D

Greed - MTG 4E

 

Hurray, another funny Foglio piece of art! And this time I actually like it :-D

Gray Ogre - MTG 4E

 

Thank goodness that club is strategically placed. Some things I simply do not want to see.

Grapeshot Catapult - MTG 4E

 

Goblin Rock Sled - MTG 4E

 

Goblin King - MTG 4E

 

He's no David Bowie, that's for sure!

Goblin Balloon Brigade - MTG 4E

 

Gloom - MTG 4E

 

Ahhh, good old specific enemy colored cards. It gave each color much more character and separated them from each other. Not subtly, but with sledgehammers. Magic was raw and untamed then. I miss those days.

Glasses of Urza - MTG 4E

 

I was never the type of player who could strategize well enough to take advantage of a card like this. Knowing what my opponent had never gave me enough to turn the game to my favor. Black had a lot of cards that would allow you to force your opponent to discard, which this card would synergize with quite well, but I never played black back in the day either, so I was STILL out of luck :-D

Giant Tortoise - MTG 4E

 

Hey look at that, the Foglio's can draw something that isn't all cartoony and jiggly! Color me surprised. I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years. Of course, back in the day I never paid attention to who the artists are anyway. That's changing as I'm doing these posts though.

Giant Strength - MTG 4E

 

He'd be a little more impressive if he didn't have that potbelly, you know?

Giant Spider - MTG 4E

 

Gross, gross, gross!

Giant Growth - MTG 4E

 

What a great card! Magic cards had varying "speeds" of cards. That basically meant that if a faster card was played, you couldn't play a slower card in response. The speeds were (from fastest to slowest) Interrupts, Instants, Sorceries, everything else. So this was an instant speed, which meant it could be played on your opponents turn (sorceries and slower could only be played on your turn). That set things up for shenanigans during the Combat phase. You could defend with a smaller creature and your opponent would think he'd won and SUDDENLY, OUT OF NO WHERE, your creature gets Instant Growth'd and BAM, your opponent's creature dies and he is left sobbing in the dirt like the chump he really is. Moment's like that are why people like me play Magic the Gathering ;-)

Ghost Ship - MTG 4E

 

Regenerate is a mechanic (game ability) wherein a player can pay the cost (in this case, three blue mana) and at the end of his turn, if his creature was going to die, it won't. It will be on the field of battle, ready to go again. Which fits with the theme of a ghost ship perfectly. Can't kill it, and it just keeps coming back.

But another reason I've been posting these cards and looking back is because it brings into stark contrast the power creep that has happened over the years. This is an expensive card in terms of mana (4 to cast it and then 3 dedicated blue to regenerate it) and by today's standards, it is completely unplayable. That is just sad because Magic's game play was predicated on the idea of new cards being thoughtfully created to synergize with ALL of the old cards and not to simply replace them. Wizards of the Coast hasn't done that. They have simply increased the power of cards and decreased costs because that is an easier way to sell cards than to come up with good, well balanced cards. It takes time and money to do Magic cards right and Hasbro (Wizards of the Coasts' alcoholic abusive stepdad) is only interested in pimping Magic out for the money it can bring in every 3 months.

Gaseous Form - MTG 4E

 

Phil Foglio was the artist for this card. Ol' Phil knew how to draw his women, that's for sure, even the ghostly, insubstantial ones. So to pair his art up with a Shakespeare quote is just eye rollingly bad taste. I'm sure 17 year old me laughed my head off at it.

Forest 1 - MTG 4E

Nowadays each set comes with 4 variations on the lands that produce mana, but back in 4th Edition (and earlier), there were only 3 variations. Here is the first “Forest” that you could choose to use. Some people didn’t care and would just grab however many forests they needed for their decks without looking at the art. Others would choose just ONE artwork version and make all 22-24 lands the exact same. Other people would choose 8 of each land exactly and others would do some mix. It always depended on the person making the deck.

I always found it interesting how the various mana cards managed to convey the “sense” of the land they were representing. A Forest is much more than just a bunch of trees all in the same place. As a land surveyor, I know this all too well. Small bushes and rocks and trees all make up what you stumble across when you’re running for your life from a bear, especially if they happen to be angry mutant magic bears! 😉

Force of Nature - MTG 4E

This was my favorite card ever since I first laid eyes on it. A monster that just delivers the punch, right to your face. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Of course, the recurring cost every turn makes it a beast to maintain, and the 4 forest pips means only mono-green decks would have enough green mana to even cast this. Of course, nowadays this card is complete garbage. But that’s how Magic has changed over all. Besides Sol Ring, this card is enshrined in my mind as the Epitome of Magic the Gathering.