Early Years Lingo
General forum
Posted on July 8, 2022, 5:56 p.m. by Epicurus
Hello players young and old!
I've been playing MtG since Revised (3rd Edition) was released in '94, and lately I've been feeling nostalgic. Probably because my brother's birthday was a couple days ago, and he was who got me playing in the first place.
One thing in particular that I've been ruminating about is the evolution of the slang, the jargon, the lingo. Specifically, how it has changed - at least in my understanding of it. You see, 1994 was still the infancy of the internet. Yes, there were "chat rooms" and message boards, but nothing like the social media we have had in the past couple decades. And some of us, who grew up in very rural areas like myself, didn't have home internet access at all. So it's interesting to speculate on just how the slang was spread in the first place.
I remember when everyone I know referred to Prodigal Sorcerer as "Tim," because the original artwork for the card resembled Tim the Enchanter from Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail. Subsequently, for a while thereafter, any creature that had the ": Deal 1 damage to any target" ability was also called Tim. However, I haven't heard Tim used in that context in a very long time, and obviously the name has a completely different meaning now.
I remember that the "H" in EDH stands for "Highlander," as in "There can be only one," referring to the singleton aspect of the format. However, I also remember previous singleton formats which existed before EDH, and they were just called Highlander. The term "Singleton" is, for me at least, relatively new.
I remember when instant and/or sorcery direct damage, or "burn," was called "Cheese," although, pre-internet, I don't know how widely that term was used. Was that something only my LGS said, or was it common in other circles?
I remember when creatures with powerful abilities but with toughness 3 or less were referred to as "Lightning Rods," and nobody ever used the phrase "the bolt test." Again, I don't know if that was just us at my LGS.
Do you remember any old lingo from days gone by? Do you still use that antiquated terminology? Do you have any slang that is unique to your playgroup and/or LGS? Please share!
Thank you!
Squee_Spirit_Guide says... #4
Love this thread! I remember when gold cards were gold cards and not multi-coloured cards :)
Also, we used to play a variant called All Mana Down where there was no restriction on the number of lands played per turn. The idea was to make games quicker when time was short. Not sure if anyone else played that or if it was just us few weirdos.
July 8, 2022 8:32 p.m.
Game_of_Cones says... #5
I remember that when Taniwha was released, at the LGS everyone would shout “TANIWHA!” when the creature was cast
July 8, 2022 9:01 p.m.
Yes, "Gold" cards!
I also remember a format we would play at drafts called Winner Take All. 4 player multiplayer, everyone bought 3 packs (or it might have been 4 packs, I don't remember), and all of the cards were shuffled into one pile (this was before they started putting a basic land into the packs). That pile was the main deck, which everyone drew a hand of 7 cards from. Then we made another deck out of just basic land.
On your turn, you drew 2 cards, which could be from the main deck or the land deck, or one from each. You kept anything you drew from the main deck, and the winner got whatever was left in the main deck at the end of the game. I haven't heard anyone mention that format in a long time.
July 8, 2022 10:27 p.m.
Squee_Spirit_Guide says... #7
Epicurus That sounds like a fun format! Kind of like a draft version of Spat, which is like a cube where instead of drating everyone draws from the same deck, has unlimited mana, and can only play one spell per turn. I think there are variations of it, but that's always how my play group always played it.
The winner of the game got to sign the card that got them the win, which was fun to see which unexpected cards won games. My favourite was a Desolate Lighthouse that shifted when the last card in the deck was drawn and led to victory for its controller because everyone else 'decked' themselves first. Good times!
That's not really lingo related so apologies for the ramble there! On the lingo front, and speaking of gold cards, did anyone else call a 5-colour deck a rainbow deck?
July 8, 2022 11:28 p.m.
Squee_Spirit_Guide Not only did we call 5-color decks Rainbow decks, but we also sometimes played a format called Rainbow.
5 players, each with a monocolored deck (one of each color). Allied colors were friendly, enemy colors were enemies. You could only attack enemies, which included direct damage. And you could only use removal, counterspells, etc against enemies. You'd then usually end up with 2 winners of allied colors, but not always. It made for very interesting games, because like if you were playing green then your allies were white and red, but the red and white players were enemies of each other. Really weird diplomacy going on in those games.
July 8, 2022 11:43 p.m.
Breakfast foods. Trix, Fruity Pebbles, Eggs, Full English, and I think Cheerios is the last remnant of that.
And yes, rainbow decks and gold cards were very much a thing.
Squee_Spirit_Guide I recognize that "all lands down" format, but we called it Speed Magic. Usually you draw a card for each land you played.
July 8, 2022 11:44 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #10
“Weenies” were non-goblin 1/1s (goblins got to be goblins because they were special). I feel like “mana dork” has been around forever as well, but I can’t verify... my memory just can’t do that well any more.
We had played “Four Seasons” games, where each round of turns was affected by a different artifact: Winter Orb for winter, Mana Flare for summer, and then spring and fall sort of sucked so we tried different things. Iron Star for fall and Wooden Sphere for spring, if I remember correctly.
July 9, 2022 10:26 a.m.
I actually don't remember the term "Mana Dork" being used back in the day. We would refer to Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elves collectively as "Mana Elves," and Birds of Paradise as " Mana Birds," but way back then those might have been all there was. Yeah, you had Apprentice Wizard in 4th Edition, but nobody really used that.
jethstriker says... #2
Same here, Burn is also referred to as "cheese" in my early years of playing. I think it came from video game terms that means "cheap strategy" or "strategy with no skill".
I remember if a deck is mostly composed of artifacts, they are called "mono brown decks".
July 8, 2022 7:29 p.m.