MTGNexus

So we have a bunch of old farts on here that wizards is clearly marketing to with stuff like Timeless Dragon, Rishadan Dockhand, Tourach's Canticle, Dakkon, Shadow Slayer and all the new cards in old border. A whole lot of "remember these super sick old cards?" Here's a nostalgia trip for you! I'm a fan and I think it's pretty awesome. It got me wondering though.

I have nostalgia for cards like Lightning Angel, Mageta the Lion and Trained Orgg from when I just started playing when I was really young. I started seriously drafting around 2009 - 2011 so I have a slightly different nostalgia for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn/Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, Arc Trail, Stitched Drake and Homicidal Seclusion. I also have some commander nostalgia from around them with Atogatog, Jaya Ballard, Task Mage and Tivadar of Thorn. I find I my nostalgia kind of falls off a cliff around 2012 and Return to Ravnica. Looking through the set list. I feel mostly "meh" about all of the except for Hour of Devestation.

Anyway, old man ramblings. This is a long round about way to say, do you think there are any cards from the recent sets that you'll look back on with nostalgia in 10-15 years from now? For me one that is sticking out is Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge because it's enabled my High CMC deck which I've been associating a lot of new fun memories with. I'm hoping that Didn't Say Please results in similar fun memories. There's a lot of shade thrown at new cards so I was wondering if people had any hope for fondly remembering some of the newer cards.

As far as I'm concerned, my heart was made whole and subsequently shattered to oblivion by Paradox Engine's life cycle. It was one of the first really powerful cards I really owned when I was rebuilding my collection, and I picked mine up for $9 USD a week after release. I got to enjoy it for the entirety of its hideous, broken, beautiful, lovable tenure in our format, and while I did not weep or rage when it left my arms, I still miss it every day.

My copy is an old friend, probably one of those cards I'd never sell even if I was quitting forever. Heck, if I ever do quit, I'll frame my Paradox Engine just for the good memories or laminate it into a nice little bookmark.

I feel like Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose shaped many of our pandemic Cockatrice games (always as part of the 99). Seems apt when he has a strong, more-recently-classic enchantment stapled to him.

I just want to feel the excitement when I realized that I could build Cromat as a 5c commander. *Sigh*

This one's tough, as a lot of the nostalgic appeal of old cards, for me anyway, derives from either flavor or weird design, both of which haven't resonated with me for years.k

Most of my nostalgia for Magic doesn't come from the storyline, or even legendary characters. I have very strong emotional memories of the 4th edition boosters that had Hurloon Minotaur|4ED and Mana Vault|4ED. Also, some urza's block stuff, like big daddy Yawg, or 'Ice age flavour text legends' (they got me with Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor, Zur the Enchanter, and Jaya Ballard, Task Mage). It's nice to see Dakkon in planeswalker form, though.

I'm looking forward to having a copy of Tourach (who I think is underwhelming for a massive cult leader), but, stuff like Carth the Lion kind of misses me.

I think the nostalgia isn't super-there for me for modern cards, because the characters I get attached to (like Elspeth, and Rowan/Will) are still alive, and still going places. I like many of the characters, but, it's hard to have nostalgia for them while they're still active.

In my mind nostalgia is driven by something you play with and against a lot then suddenly you stop encountering. This happens quite a bit with cards that get banned generally speaking. I have some nostolgia for Primeval Titan, Emrakul 1.0, and even in its own way Sylvan Primordial.

Its worth noting that as commander continues to mature we have a lot more diverse strategies and concepts being run. If you look back to pre tuck change you would see a lot of clones, tuck effects, tutors, and more broad use / goodstuff commanders. ETB tactics were far more favored in part because your commander was a lot less reliable than they are these days. Back then, I don't think anyone wasn't playing Eternal Witness in a green deck.

I guess for me Jenara, Asura of War has nostolgia. She was really good with / against tuck and clones. She also needed very little of a deck devoted to her. The change to tucking and clone legends killing both were both blows to her as a commander in my mind. She was an incredible power house of a legend back then to the point that I would have considered her just a step under cEDH.

If I put my super old school nostolga hat on, I go back to White Knight / Serra Angel / Crusade days. My brother had a few mono white decks back in the era of Mirage / Ice Age that I can remember playing kitchen table magic against quite a bit. My brother beating down on me with his mono white decks sort of left me endeared to the color.

A few cards I'd pick for mega nostalgia from this last decade or so:

ISBPathfinder wrote: ↑

3 years ago

In my mind nostalgia is driven by something you play with and against a lot then suddenly you stop encountering. This happens quite a bit with cards that get banned generally speaking. I have some nostolgia for Primeval Titan, Emrakul 1.0, and even in its own way Sylvan Primordial.

Yes this is the same for me.
If I was trying to predict what I think will be nostalgic for me in the future to do with the last year it is going to be modal cards, especially those that I can play from the command zone. However if there are tons of new modal cards in the future then it I won't associate the mechanics with a period of time.
Also the companions were a big thing for me.

For reference, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar is exactly what I was talking about. Names that appear in flavour text.