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.

Fog - MTG 4E

I tended to be a defensive player until I was familiar with the deck I was facing, so whenever I played green, I always jammed in a couple of Fogs to protect myself. Let your opponent attack with all his creatures, thus tapping them and then don’t block any of them with my creatures but play a Fog. Then on my turn I sweep in with my horde of creatures and because his are all tapped, he can’t block and I either do a massive amount of damage or I kill him. Once someone knows that you play Fog a lot though, it changes how you play the game. Which is the whole point of Magic, every game should be different.

Flying Carpet - MTG 4E

Some cards looked cool, were spot on thematically, and were absolutely terrible, so much so that nobody used them. Then you had “bad” cards that somebody with a slightly twisted mind could find an ingenious use for that nobody had ever thought of. Sadly, I was not one of those players, so I just looked at Flying Carpet, said it was a bad card and moved on.

Flood - MTG 4E

I was not a big fan of cards that only tapped a creature and didn’t destroy it. That kind of playstyle just didn’t fit me and so I don’t think I ever used this card, not even once. However, the picture gets the point across perfectly! That soldier is sitting there, unable to do anything, even defensively. He’s completely helpless. And that is exactly what Flood was supposed to make an opponent feel like.

Flight - MTG 4E

This was a good card if you had a bunch of earth bound creatures and needed a boost to get over your opponent’s chump blockers (little creatures they would sacrifice to block your big creature and thus take zero damage). Like if you had a Cosmic Horror on the field. Fly right over the opposition and smack them in the face for 7 damage. Now that’s how it was done back in the day!

Flashfire - MTG 4E

Ahhh, the good old days when Enemy and Ally colors actually mattered. Red and White were enemies on the color pie, and Wizards of the Coast made cards specifically for and against other colors.

Of course, this was probably inspired by a wildfire in California or something.

Fissure - MTG 4E

Come on guys, build a flipping bridge, you can do it. I don’t care what that Plato dude claims, you CAN build a bridge, I believe in you!

Fire Elemental - MTG 4E

Glad it was a woman who drew this, so in 20 years she couldn’t be accused of sexism. Cause this elemental is HOT! hahahahahahaa. Oh, I crack myself up sometimes.

Firebreathing - MTG 4E

Cards like this wielded the power of “The Classics” like a sword.

Little Jimmy: But Dad, these cards have Tennyson on them. They’re educational!

Dad: Oh, well then, buy all you want son, nothing but the best for my little Timmy, errr, I mean, Jimmy.