Reflections: what could have been.

Recently, my laptop of many years finally fried, and with it, a project I had been working on for the better part of a year. It started with a simple question:

"how would you make a theoretical OS expansion that could have looked in place during the 95 drought?"

 

 

and

 

"What does Old School need?"

 

 

These were both extremely complicated, and extremely interesting questions I wished to answer. The problem was simple, make a fan setwith an emphasis on flavor first, while trying to find some of the complaints that OS had, around this time Mr. Bard started promoting OS Brawl, and as that happened, EDH followed which gave me a reason to include mono-colored, and even enemy colored legends.

 

For mechanics, I didn't feel the need to include any new mechanics, instead of I decided to expand on some mechanics that didn't get such treats like Rampage and Banding. I never found a poison counter card, but I even had bands with others and legend specific cards.

 

Finally I set a few ground rules:

 

Cantrips can't exist in the set. Even the Ice Age cantrips.

 

 

Each legend either must be a big brute, or unusually unique. Each mono-colored legend should embody the philosophy of it's color to it's purist.

 

Text/color change effects are on the table.

 

There should be vertical/horizontal cycles, as well as color pairs.

 

There should be no cgi art. Nor should there be any modern references.

 

Classical real world sources should be encouraged.

 

(Disclaimer: Magic: the Gathering and it's likeness is owned by WotC, a subsidiary of Hasbro. All art is used without permission, and is given credit to the artist when possible. Any artist who wishes for their art not to be featured here may send me a personal message, and all cards bearing it will be deleted without hesitation at my earliest convenience. If your name is missing on a card, or I got an art credit wrong, please send me a PM and I will fix it. This is a non-profit, fan based expansion, on a non-profit blog. Please support all the listed artists, as well as the official product).

 

White

 

 

White ended up with a solid 'town/city' theme to it, however many cards for that have been lost, including an enchantment that turned all your townfolk into soldiers during combat, civic engineer, which regenerated walls, but gave them a -0/-1 counter. and a gossipmonger who could tap other white creatures. Also lost was a 1/1 white creature with plainswalk, a legendary wall, and a riflemen card.

 

 

A simple creature with a simple effect. While the WW2 propaganda art ad Paul Harvey might make it seem to contemporary for a fantasy TCG, I'm always glad how simple and elegant this card has turned out.

 

 

The set always had a strong knight theme, as seen here. Perhaps this would have been too powerful for a knight tribal deck, or perhaps it should have said an opponent. Either way, the idea is the knight attracts other knights to duel or challenge, including you. At one point, this was simply called tournament knight, but I didn't like the name.

 

 

One of the few surviving cards that interact with banding directly, Leadership does nothing for the creature in question, but allows for a multitude of other creatures to get a bonus while under his command.

 

 

One of two mono-white legends. I figured a creature who's very presence gets your team to work together would make for a interesting creature. Sadly this design was made years ago for a 'legend a creature' contest, and I been burrowing it ever since.

 

 

The white Enchant World. All the Enchant Worlds had a theme of a 'other worldy place" loosely based on real world sources, in this case, it's Limbo, a place where you await the after life. Since artifact creatures don't have souls, they'd be unaffected by Limbo, but everything else would be, allowing the dueling planeswalkers who were there to steal the recent dead and give them no life for their own bidding.

 

 

In the case for lords, I wanted to do something different, in the idea of a lord that boosts two different creatures, but disregards and ability. In this one, the Lord of the Realm allows unity between the commoners (the soldiers) and the Nobles (the Knights) for a common cause.

 

 

 

 

I liked the idea of utilizing two creature who share a special bond into being better fighters together. Livingston's are made for a stunning piece for the card.

 

 

 

Inspired straight from the alpha sheet. this card simply makes a sun rise, stunning orcs and goblins, while killing vampires and trolls.

 

 

Ante never got its day in the sun, but I wanted it to. I included a number of ante related cards (two of which survived), including this one here.

 

 

The white pair of the Lone Knight, Wandering Knight is a nomadic knight, shown in his ability to gain a landwalk ability of your choice. The beautiful Hoover art (which never graced a card) is just a plus. I feel this design is one of my favorites in the set.

 

 

Blue

 

Blue got two aspects to it, a trickery theme (as it should) and a nautical theme (as it should). A number of blue cards have been lost sadly, including a kraken. Here however, is the blue cards in question.

 

 

A Magical Hack for creatures, Change Face could disrupt tribal tactics, or even empower your own creatures. Eventually WotC released a card that works like this, so it's not entirely an original idea on my part, but something I wanted to include. Sadly a similar enchant creature spell a lot like Dream Coat was also designed but not saved.

 

 

 

A changeling is a shapeshifted that can change it's appearance, but not it's size. In this case, I made a significantly weaker version of Doppleganger, except it's always a 3/3, occasionally making it better in some regard. This fits with the policy at the time that a expansion card wouldn't be strictly better than its base set counterpart.

 

 

 

 

The blue lord is probably the funniest, and most useless. However, I enjoy the idea of misguided worshippers making kraken and leviathans stronger.

 

(fact: I was inspired for the flavor text from the artist who posted it attached to the pic).

 

 

 

 

The blue ante card, which would allow you to swap it with the card in the ante if your opponent wasn't willing to raise the stakes.

 

 

 

There are three ships in the set, two have banding. The idea is to allow a creature to ride in the ship for a bonus. In this case, the Ferry (which I admit looks like a longship) can sneak a single creature into your opponents port, for an unblockable attack. The Islandhome mechanic is just pure flavor.

 

 

 

 

Probably the most convuloted design in the set. Lady in the lake tutor's a 'sword' and then can use it to lure in a foolish hero. While no the worst design ever on a Magic card, it's certainly clunky in many respects, which means it fits perfectly into what I was going for.

 

 

 

If Lady is the most convuloted card in the set, this one is the most broken. The Akashic Library is a new age theoretical location on the Astral Plane which concludes all worldly knowledge. Planeswalkers dueling here would naturally be able to get what they need, as they need it.

 

 

Some cards simply need simple effects. This is one of them, which can help a blue player fortify his coast, and defend from sneaky islandwalkers.

 

 

The second ship in the set and the only surviving blue legend. The Mary Celeste was originally designed for a Halloween contest some years ago, and is based on the legendary Maritime mystery of the real world ship. I never fund the artists name for this beautiful painting though.

 

 

A simple design I was inspired by through a fake card I saw as a kid. The idea is with the merchant doing you a favor, you can buy your ships at a discount, while suddenly your opponents cost a bit more then they remembered.

 

 

Ship of the Line was probably one of my most redesigned pieces of fictional card board. At one point it blew up lands, it destroyed blue creatures, it had islandwalk instead of vigilance. At the end, I feel this was the best design.

 

 

An interesting a powerful draw spell, that is all.

 

If printed in 95, would be almost useless, but could become very powerful. I wanted a clone effect for an instant/sorcery card. Interrupt was only added until you choose the card in your hand. All other timing rules for the copy must be legal.

 

Black

 

















 

 

There was a fan set called 'Middle Kingdom' way back before my time. It contained a number of different takes on 'Wild Growth', which inspired this one. I decided that the additional damage was for flavor, but could also be used offensively, since I'm designing this with manaburn in mind.

 

 





 

 

 

It wouldn't be an old school expansion without some mean color hate cards. While this isn't better then Gloom (honestly, what is?) it does offer more flexibility, especially if your simply splashing white for Swords/Disenchant. I'm honestly impressed how well this card worked out, from the art, to the ability, to the flavor text.

 

 

 

 

 

A wight in tradition is a ghoul bound to the place of his burial. Usually a person who's wasn't given a proper burial, the only way to cure the issue of the wight is either to give the body a proper burial, or to destroy the body. I went with this, making a nearly indestructible creature, but given it a proper burial (headstone, Crypt), or destroying the body (badger), will destroy the wight.

 

 

 

 

I wanted to experiment with the idea of banding also working as a drawback. In this case, it's in the form of a powerful, but expensive removal spell.

 

(Ruling: The initial target can't be black, any black creatures in the bands will be destroyed by virtue of proximity).

 

 

 

Another design from another set. The idea of a Ghostly Hitchhiker is pretty damned old, dating back to antiquity. I could explain all of the flavor mechanics here, but decided I'll leave that to the reader.

 

 







 

 

The black legend of the bunch. (The other was a Vorhees style killer called the eternal). Iblis is a Djinn, offering you three wishes at the cost of your soul. However, it's easy enough for a planeswalker to get around this.

 

Fact: The art is from 'Convocations'. A art book released by Armada comics that showcased drawings of card combo's. This one by the great Jeff Menges is 'The Wretched+Lure'.

 

 

 

 

 

The idea of a creature dying to give a bonus isn't all that uncommon in Magic. I just wanted to try it in instant form.

 

 

 

The opposite of Wandering Knight, Lone Knight instead comes in with a built in fear.

 

Fact: The art is from 'The Gathering' an art book celebrating Magics (20th?) Anniversary by uniting numerous artists from the early days of MtG. This art is actually a reimagining of Black Knight, by original artist Jeff Menges.

 

 

 

 

These designs are really old (I originally made them on Anycraze.com), the outcast creatures had the 'loner' mechanic a decade before Innistrad. In this case, they would get stronger or have abilities as long as they were the only creature you controlled. This one, the most basic, simply gets an unholy strength, making him a strictly better 'ogre', with the draw back being he can only defend you so much.

 

 

 

 

 

The black lord, Necromancer naturally pumps up the basic undead. I honestly don't like the flavortext, but it's there, I'll live with it.

 

 



 

The black Enchant World. It's the Mayan underworld, and it's name translates into 'a place of fear'. A wanted an underworld card that effectively made the graveyard untouchable, forcing the dead to stay there. Also if you can, check out Ms. Drums work, most wasn't appropriate for use in this set, but it's all good stuff.

Red

 

 

Red somehow ended up all over the place, from military tactics to, the greek heroes, as well as goblins and barbarians. Most of the red cards didn't survive the purge (like all colors) but the ones that did, well they work I guess.

 

 

 

 

A massive barbarian champion. I wasn't afraid to jump onto sources from other expansions (like Legends), however, in retrospect, it should have been called 'rathi Champion'. I am worried, this design was probably to strong for OS however, and should probably cost more mana.

 

 

Fact: This art is also from the Convocations artbook. It's combo is Stone Giant+Uthden Troll.

 

 

 

 

Another 'Anycraze' original. Apocalyptic Cult has been moved between fan set to fan set of mine since the first one (which was a poorly designed apocalyptic expansion designed for multiplayer games). I'm honestly not sure if that's even the artists name, since Anycraze wouldn't credit the artist, but was what I think I saw when zooming in on the original art piece. Still one of my favorite custom cards of all time.

 

 

 

 

Originally titled 'Nuke'. This 'Anycraze' original showed how multiplayer cards could work, in the idea of spite for an opponent at the cost of yourself. I included it in here, simply because I like the design, but naturally Nuke wouldn't work for an OS expansion, so I instead took a name from a YGO card.

 

 

 

 

On the design sheet as a rare, it wouldn't be the only Banding red creature (Nalanthi Dragon). Originally coined for a short lived Hellinistic expansion (that we abandoned as soon as Theros was announced), it sat at the back of my mind. When I saw the amazing work of Vincent Pompetti, I had to use some, and this card came rushing back to my mind.

 

 

 

 

In the 3.0 book 'Path of the Sword', there is 'Legendary Classes', one of which is the Adamantium Warrior. A barbarian who can slew entire armies. I wanted a legendary Barbarian, and so came Korna. The Regeneration actually comes from one classes ability, where once PER CAMPAIGN, the Adamantium Warrior can shout so fiercely it scares off death itself. Plus RRR: Regenerate isn't exactly unheard of on other cards from the time.

 

Fact: This art actually comes from the poster in the Dakkon Blackblade comic, and I couldn't find an artist, so I labeled both artists in the comic for it.

 

 

 

 

Not all cards need to be powerful rares. This common shows off a simple, but flavorful effect that could be game winning in a pinch.

 

 

 

 

 

The red lord, and the first lord I designed, it was largely inspired by both the mechanics, and the art of Orc General from The Dark. 

 

 

 

 

 

The red Enchant World, Ragnarok makes all creatures engage in never ending combat. This is improved upon with the ability for it to give everything one half of 'haste', as well as attacking doesn't cause to tap. Pompetti's art works amazing with it as well, showing a dark, foggy battlefield.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the earliest designs, to settle the issue of 'better one drops'. This mercenary shows his loyalty to coin, being able to be bought for a measly R. I wish I figured out flavor text for this one, but alas, he's here, in all his glory.

 

 

 

 

 

I always loved the idea of orc clans being different by the claws they wear. Its simple, yet believable. Here, is a much stronger orc, living up to his bronze and brass claw cousins, but instead of cowardice, they possess foolishness, willing to engage in any 'worthy challenge' as a false sense of bravado.

 

 

 

 

Magic needs the occasional card of humor. Goblins digging team, balloon brigade, Uncle Istvan, Norin the Wary, kolbolds, Phil Foglio. Suicidal Kolbold is no different, being a 1/0 that can only be alive with other support.

 

Fact: The art is also from the convocations art book. It's 'kolbold+Unstable Mutation+Blood Lust+ Berserk'. Bryon Wackwitz must have been a more daring planeswalker than me.

 

 

 

Early on, I wanted to copy Legends and touch on other cultures outside of western cultures. Ironically, several native American inspired cards made it into the expansion, this being the sole survivor. The Thunderbird, according to oral tradition, would fly across the planes, dropping lightning from it's wings. I copied this idea, allowing it to shoot any creature unfortunate enough to be on the ground at the time of it's passing, however, remember, the Thunderbird holds no loyalty.

 

 

 

Green

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artifacts

 

 

 

Gold