Cards 110, 111 and 112: Bluer than Blue

This Jace, Architecht of Thought comes from Matti Hämäläinen, a prominent player in Tampere.

These cards were given to me by other players at my local game store. Unfortunately I do not remember from whom each card came from.

In today's haul we have a few moderately bent cards in Gideon's Reproach and Siege-Gang Commander and a beautiful deep dark blue Jace, Architect of Thought. The Reproach and Commander have been bent in use and do not have particularry interesting stories to them.

The Jace on the other hand had been lost on Matti's floor for a while until it was discovered under his kitchen sink. It should go without saying that the card was no longer in mint condition by then. It has been soaked in various mysterious liquids and the current best guess for the dark colour and the slight smell is cooking oil. Let this be a lesson that kitchens are not safe places for collectible cards.

Card 109: Introducing the Chew Test

This card was sent to me by Jouni Saikkonen, a local player here in Jyväskylä. Many thanks to him!

This Swift Warkite has been thoroughly chewed and the blue inner layer found inside Magic cards is both visible and has had its blue ink practically sucked out. The reason for its condition is that the card has undergone a new method for detecting counterfeit cards.

Jouni's toddler daughter cares for him a great deal and is understandably concerned about the value of the Magic collection she will eventually inherit. To make sure her father does not get scammed by shady Magic dealers, she has done extensive Research and Development and is now ready to introduce the Chew Test to the Magic community. This method for spotting counterfeit cards is absolutely infallible, simple to perform and is roughly as invasive as many other popular card testing methods.

To perform the test, you should hand a suspicious seeming card to a nearby toddler. Then all you need to do is patiently wait for them to chew on it until the test is complete and they are ready to let go of the card. It is important to not interrupt this process, as an interrupted test will not give reliable results. Once the toddler indicates that the process is complete, all you need to do is inspect their mouth.

If their lips have turned vivid blue, the card is genuine. If the colour indicator does not change from pink to blue, you have found a counterfeit card. This test is very easy to perform and is very reliable. The best thing is, the Chew Test is unlikely to leave your cards in any worse condition than the famous Bend Test would!

Cards 103 to 108: Baby Snacks and annoucing The Cube

Last weekend was the time for Porocon and the Finnish Nationals as its main event. I met Juha Ihonen there, who has had the honour of providing the first practically mint card for my project. Juha was in the deck check team for the main event and I was running a modern side tournament on day two of the convention. Thank you for these practically mint treasures, and for your support during the event.

Ihonen's card salvaging cats share his floors with a miniature version of him, the Ihonen jr., who is at the age where your gums tend to itch and paper and cardboard look very tasty to your eyes. This combined with Ihonen sr. storing commons in an open box have led to various accidents, six of which are pictured above.

All of the cards have been chewed and even those that haven't been bitten into pieces have been so thoroughly soaked in drool that they are completely destroyed. This blog so far hasn't featured any cards from my own collection, but my floors are reigned over by a Little Girl who shares Ihonen jr's taste for cardboard, so if you will ever see any cards that have been destroyed in my care, they will probably look like these.

The approved card pool for Wear 'n' Tear is now well past one hundred and the pile of cards that haven't quite made it is almost as large, so now is a good time to begin building The Cube from these. As cards keep coming, I will add and remove them from Wear 'n' Tear, which for now is a Highlander deck and may turn into a Commander deck in the future, and all cards will have a place in a cube that I will hopefully get to use  once we are up to three hundred or so cards in total.

Cards 93 to 102: Legitimate Merchandise

The above cards and a couple of dozen more arrived via mail from kanslerioikein, who we remember from the previous singles bin finds. These cards were also found in his local game store. He took all of the worn cards he could find there and sent them to me, but I photographed only the ten most damaged ones.

The Elves of the Deep shadow has what look like coffee stains on it and the Gorilla War Cry is torn, so they easily make the cut for the deck. Most of the other pictured cards have small bends or severe scratching, but I decided to include them as well. With this, Wear 'n' Tear is now a complete Highlander deck with even some leeway to choose cards for the full hundred. I am still hoping to find a five-colour commander to turn it into an EDH deck though.

Cards 91 and 92: Treasures from the opposite side of the globe

I'm back! I was vacationing in Croatia for a week and then headed to Helsinki for Porocon when I got back to Finland. In the mean while the cards pictured above and one other package had arrived in my mailbox. There is another post coming very soon after this one for the other package, and a third one for my haul from Porocon.

These cards came all the way from New Zealand, from a Vintage-playing gentleman who goes with the nick KIP_NZ on the IRC channel #mtg on EFNet. Many thanks to him! The severely worn Cabal Coffers he traded from one of his friends just for this purpose and the Incinerate has reportedly been on a windowsill basking in the sun for several years. The Incinerate is probably technically still tournament legal, but such thorough bleaching is interesting enough that I will play it nevertheless.

Cards 89 and 90: Dark Discoveries

Today's additions all come from previous contributors. The Tormented hero is from Ville-Veikko Vähäaho, who is also responsible for an Aetherling and the Despoil and Dark Banishing are from Ilkka Siiki, who has previously provided some crimpled cards and a pile of Basic Lands.

The FNM Foil Tormented Hero was found under VVV's kitchen counter. Having been tormented in inhumane conditions for an unknown period of time, the card is severely bent and has worn edges. The Despoil and Dark Banishing were found when Ilkka had some local players over at his apartment to loot his boxes of Commons, so he can get rid of as many as possible before moving abroad. The Despoil is unfortunately only badly worn, but hardly destroyed, so it does not make the cut. The Dark Banishing on the other hand has a small tear on its edge and has been worn badly enough that it bends in odd ways, making it just Practically Mint enough. It is starting to look a lot like Black will be the primary colour of this deck.

Wear 'n' Tear now has 90 cards in it, and the box of cards rejected from it also contains 85 cards. If I combine the two, we are roughly half-way to a small cube. That is starting to look like a real possibility.

Cards 87 and 88: Reading and Spying

These cards were sent by Sampsa Nylund, who has also sent some cards earlier. Thank you again!

Today's envelope came from Sampa Nylund, who also contributed the second card of Wear 'n' Tear earlier. The torn Goblin Spy is from the same batch of cards he got from a friend as a child along with the previously seen Mountain With a Peak. It has some sentimental value as his first ever Magic card. It is a fine addition to my project, even though the ability doesn't reveal any additional information that couldn't be deduced from seeing the unique card backs already.

The other cards are assorted victims of time and games that he could not tell exactly when and where they have been damaged. The Read the Bones has been bent badly enough to make it an easy addition to Wear 'n' Tear, but the Vile Requiem and Trade Caravan, although badly worn, would still be tournament legal, and thus they are not quite worn enough for me. We might see them again if I combine Wear 'n' Tear with the pile of cards rejected from it to create a small Cube.

Cards 83 to 86: Swallowed Soldier and Defective Promotions

This Anafenza, the Foremost was left at my local game store by Lassi Ahlberg, a local L1 Judge who took his judge exam in the same event I did.

These crimped prerelease promos were collected at the Puolenkuun Pelit prerelease in Tampere by user scor of mtgsuomi.

Scor also threw in these cards along with the crimped foils.

I got two nice deliveries today. Lasse had left a card of mine he had been holding in Fantasiapelit, my local game store, and had attached the pictured Anafenza to it. His sofa hand swallowed her, and digested her to this shape. Beware of deceptively comfy furniture. First they crush your magic cards, then they steal your car keys.

The Odric, Lunach Marshal, Harness the Storm and Burn from Within all come from the Puolenkuun Pelit prerelease in Tampere, where scor likely opened one of them and collected the others as donations to me from other people who had gotten defective product. All of these have had their bottom edge crimped by the machine that packages the promos in plastic. This makes them count as marked cards and useless for tournament play.

The last two cards, Murasa Ranger and the worn Island scor found from his own collection. The Ranger is an interesting misprint where the printer had likely ran out of ink, so the text box has much thinner text than usual. It is otherwise in mint condition, so It'd clearly be legal to play in tournaments and thus not eligible for Wear 'n' Tear. The Island has been with him for a long time and had accumulated wear and tear over the years so it now has a ruined corner which makes it marked. It is not very spectacular, but it is a basic land, so I am not going to raise the bar very high for it.

Cards 76-82: Practically Mint Prerelease

The pre-release was a three-fold success for me. Firstly, because Shadows over Innistrad seems to be a very nice format for limited. I can't wait to get to draft it. Secondly, because I did not lose a single match today. Unfortunately I got a draw on one round though. Thirdly, because I got many Practically Mint cards to add to Wear 'n' Tear.

The first addition is the Conquering Manticore from the Heroes vs. Monsters Duel Deck. It was given to me by a younger player in the tournament who had started playing Magic with his brother after they bought the duel deck. I unfortunately did not memorize his name. The card had fallen on the floor and slid under his brother's fridge during a game, and they had left it there because removing it would have taken too much time and effort at the time. When they finally retrieved it, they noticed that the fridge had leaked all manners of fluids and grime onto the floor below and the Manticore was gone for good. Thank you for letting me have it!

The rest of the cards all come from the same pool of cards. My friend Ismo Virtanen toppled his bottle of flavoured mineral water during deck construction, which soaked his deck. He sleeved up what he could and played trough the tournament, but after the games many of the cards had been soaked long enough that they were worthless. I felt sorry for his loss, but also eager to add such fresh cards and a first-hand story to my little project.

I give my thanks to Ismo and the sponsor of this contribution, Bonaqua, for these fine cards. The pile I got from him contained many more cards, but I added only the seven most severely bent cards. Some changes may happen in the future, if some of these appear too good to fit in with the rest of the deck or some of the others dry more and settle into more bizarre shapes.

Cards 68 to 75: Sedimentary Basics

Ilkka Siiki brought me a huge pile of worn basic lands when we were playing Cube at my place. Thank you!

We spoke briefly about how hard it is to find destroyed basic lands after Ilkka had brought me some cards for the previous FNM update. Between then and today's Cube night, he had dug trough his layers and layers of old cards, and brought me a huge pile of worn Basic lands. There are dozens of them, but I picked only the eight most visibly damaged for immediate inclusion to Wear 'n' Tear. Some more may be added after more thorough scrutiny.

Some of the lands have been worn in use, some have fallen victim to treacherous reflexes when they fell on someones lap and the Island from Portal has probably been used to make tokens or counters during a game. It is quite impressive that a Perfect Fit sleeve is just tight enough to keep the Island in shape well enough that it can be carelessly shuffled.

This took Wear 'n' Tear up to 75 cards, so I made a sideboard by setting aside some of the cards that are especially hard to cast and a few low-impact cards and we played a few games to test how this works. Ilkka dug out his Pauper Turbofog to provide an appropriate level of challenge, and after two games we had won one each. We got everyone ready for the Cube before we could start the third game, so the ultimate winner was never decided.

Cards 64 to 67: Foils for Science

The above cards were brought to me by Panu Karppinen, a highly competetive player here in Jyväskylä who also happens to like foils and other premium cards. The Fireball and two of the Mountains are from the Premium Deck Series: Fire and Lightning deck and the third mountain is from the Premium Deck Series: Slivers deck. All of the cards are extremely severely bent beyond all hope of recovery. Before I reveal exactly how they got this way, I have to deliver the extra-salty rant I promised in yesterday's post, so here goes.

Although these cards have been destroyed later, they were never tournament legal for real. You see, the so called ''premium'' foiling process used for the Premium Deck Series and From the Vault series of products is a scam. Those cards are marketed and sold as real tournament legal Magic cards, but that is outright false advertising in many parts of the world.

Normal foils tend to bend easily, but they can be prevented from becoming marked cards with some care and a bit of effort. The alternate foiling process on these cards however involves a different foiling layer, which turns the card into a kind of a bi-metallic strip thermometer. This means that the foil layer and the cardboard attached to it react to thermal expansion and absorption of humidity differently, which makes the cards bend heavily as the climate they are in changes.

Here in Finland temperature can vary between the extremes of -30°C and +30°C and humidity likewise varies between extremely dry and extremely humid. In climates like this, all attempts to take proper care of foils like this are doomed to fail. These foils are not quite as bad in areas where seasonal variation in climate is not as extreme, if the cards come from a factory that has a similar climate as the area the cards are used in. Playing with these cards in a climate that is different that where the factory was located is still a very bad idea, even if it has mild seasons.

A few years ago, we had a Pro Tour Qualifier in winter, and many people brought decks that play FTV Grove of the Burnwillows and some other cards for which the "premium" version is the cheapest and most available one . It was -25°C and very dry outdoors, and in the fully packed tournament venue the climate was extremely warm and humid. A few rounds into the tournament, just about all deck checks the Judges performed led to Game Losses and Groves and other "premium" foils being replaced with basic lands, as even the foils that had been taken proper care of became marked cards and strictly illegal for tournament play due to the difference between the climate outdoors and the climate indoors.

This is the reason why these versions of these cards tend to be the cheapest ones on the market, and the problem just keeps on propagating as unsuspecting new players buy them, thinking they are buying real Magic cards. If someone from Wizards of the Coast happens to read this, please go to some managers office, slap them, and tell them this has to stop. This foiling process should have never passed Quality Assurance, and it is time to take responsibility for that failure. I suspect it may be cheaper than the regular process used in other products, but if you can not afford to use the foiling process that kind of works, make your premium products with full art instead.

This brings us back to how these cards are stuck being this badly bent. I mentioned earlier that Panu likes his foils and full art cards, so having unplayable ones naturally frustrates him. Being a very tenacious person, he doesn't give up easily, so he scoured the Internet for any and all tips and tricks that are rumoured to be able to fix bent foils. He then systematically tested all of them, even the outlandish ones, on cheap foils and recorded the results.

The result of his scientific experiment was that none of the tricks work, and some of them outright ruin cards, as expected. The Fireball and the Mountain that are bent horizontally were thermally treated in an oven on low heat setting and the laterally bent Mountain was treated with a blow dryer.

Cards 61, 62 and 63: Reflexes of Kozilek

These cards were found buried under the collection of Ilkka Siiki, when he was making an inventory of his cards for selling.

This Inquisition of Kozilek was sent by Teemu Luhtamäki, who got it from a friend of his who quit playing Magic.

I was brought a total of seven cards in this week's FNM, but you will have to wait for the last four, until I get better pictures and write a longer rant about the many ways in which those four cards are ruined. In the mean while, you can enjoy these three excellent additions to Wear 'n' Tear. I promise the rant will be salty enough to be worth the wait.

Ilkka was the most active judge in my area when I started playing, but for a long time he has been too busy with work and sports to be able to play or judge in magic tournaments, so he is selling most of his cards. While going trough his collection, he found the Circle of Protection: Artifacts and the Defense of the Heart buried under piles and piles of other cards. The Circle was literally folded across the lines you can see on it. He does not know how exactly they were destroyed, but it is safe to assume they have been crushed in storage.

The Inquisition has a simple story, but one that is certain to resonate with most of my readers. I assume most of you have some experience with the reflex of trying to catch something that falls on your lap by snapping your knees together. That is exactly what happened to this this card as Teemu's friend fumbled with it. Most magic players learn to get rid of that reflex, but for some it takes destroying an expensive card or two until they learn to let things fall.

Cards 59 and 60: Crushed Eye and Bruma

The two Frozen Shades are from Kake and the Unblinking Bleb is from Marde, both notorious players in Tampere.

The Unblinking Bleb has extensive wear and tear over the entire card. It has been used with a sleeve as a hideout for some Bank Identifier Codes and in that duty both the card and the sleeve have been crushed in pockets, wallets, pencil cases and wherever else thoroughly and repeatedly. It is a fine addition to Wear 'n' Tear.

The two Frozen Shades are almost booster fresh, although they might not look like it. Their story begins in a cottage in the beautiful natural park of Koli, where Team Dredge and some other players spent some nights playing Magic. Kake won two boosters of Italian 4th edition for placing second in a Jungle Draft, and to his surprise seven of the cards in both boosters were exactly the same, including these Frozen Shades. As is often the case with Finnish Magic players, some alcohol was involved, and this booster packing oddity led to the fine gentlemen taking these two handsome Brumas to the Sauna with them, which apparently seemed both hilarious and a good idea at the time.

Being treated to much relaxing heat and humidity allowed Kake to give them a condition rating to match their language: Mediterranean Mint. As I try to follow a Singleton rule, only one of the Shades counts towards the total sum of cards.

Card 58: Voice of Korea

This very rare Korean Voice of Resurgence is a contribution from Hannu Vallin, one of the gentlemen behind Poromagia.

I have got yet another practically mint card to introduce today. This Voice of Resurgence was originally obtained by Hannu Vallin for his personal collection, but he had lost it on his way home from work. He found it on the parking lot the next morning, but it was far too late to save the card. There is still an astonishing amount of sand adsorbed on the card, which it deposits as fine layers inside any sleeve it is in.

Being run over by cars in bad weather is cruel enough, but that is only the beginning of the Voice's story. Hannu took the ruined piece of cardboard home with him, but he tossed it into a bag on his porch and abandoned it there. The card spent several seasons outdoors at the mercy of the elements, being buried under snow and soaked by melting snow and so on, until much later Hannu found it again, and sent it to the only home it could fit in, Wear 'n' Tear.

I have tried to describe the damage on this card for a while now, but I am still at a loss of words. There is sand, there is grime, there is extreme water damage and it is beautiful and horrifying at the same time.

Card 57: Daggered Cloak

This Cloak of Confusion was given to me during FNM by Topias Paasonen, a local player and one of my neighbours.

This Dark Ritual was mailed to me by Jani Havukainen from Helsinki.

This time I am presenting you a severely malformed Dark Ritual and a slashed Cloak of Confusion. Wear 'n' Tear is starting to have a really high number of black cards in it. We already have one Dark Ritual in the deck, so I am not adding this one to the official counter, which assumes a singleton format. If we include duplicates, the count is at 59 cards, so I am just a few lands short of being able to run a challenge table as a side event at some tournaments.

The damage on the Cloak of Confusion is very interesting. Topias may have explained to me what happened to it, but our friendly local game store was so busy at that moment, that I didn't quite understand what was said. It has some generic scratches and wear and tear but what has properly destroyed the card is the huge slash that has split the card neatly in half. To my trained card coroner's eye it doesn't look like it was cut by scissors, but I am truly at a loss on what else it could have been. People don't toss Magic cards to practice cuts with their swords and knives do they?

Jani got the pictured Dark Ritual as a part of a larger collection he purchased, so he doesn't know what has happened to it. It is bent badly enough that it would stand out as a huge gap in any regular deck, though in Wear 'n' Tear it paradoxically blends in nicely with the other cards that are bulging the pile this way and that. The bending is so heavy I actually felt what kind of contribution was in the envelope when I got my mail. The damage is significant enough to count as destroyed, but I don't know yet which Dark Ritual I have received will make it to any singleton lists I might make from this card pool.

Cards 55 and 56: Rustling Specter and Mud Plains

The Plains is from Joonas Himmanen and the very special Hypnotic Specter is from Pekka Ahonen. Thank you, gentlemen!

I got these cards during yesterday's FNM.  Joonas's Plains has been worn trough unsleeved play and has accumulated an impressive amount of grime. Pekka's Hypnotic Specter hasn't technically been damaged, but it is utterly unplayable due to a manufacturing error.

The Hypnotic Specter is a Player Rewards foil that Pekka got when they were originally distributed. It has an over sized foil layer due to a manufacturing error, which makes a delightful rustling sound whenever you touch the card. It is literally hypnotic; kind of like popping bubble wrap. Wizards of the Coast kindly sent him a replacement, but he held on to the flawed copy as well. It probably wasn't easy to let such a unique card go, so Pekka deserves superplusthanks for his contribution!

Cards 51 to 54: Worn Goods

All of the above cards were sent by user Jamu from mtgsuomi. Thanks!

The pictured batch of cards arrived in the mail a few days ago. All but the Crashing Boars had been lying on a shelf mixed with a random pile of junk. This has left them with quite a bit of wear and tear. The Crashing Boars was found in a box of cards and Jamu has no idea what had happened to it, but the damage seems deceptively similar to the other cards.

The Torch Song and Crashing Boars have missing corners so they are obviously damaged enough for Wear 'n' Tear. The Plains has a torn left edge but is otherwise not in completely horrible condition and the Swamp has a folded left corner. Basic lands are more than welcome additions, since Wear 'n' Tear has and will probably always have severe mana problems. The Plated Spider however also has a fold line across it, but the damage is hard enough to see that I decided to set it aside for now.

Card 50: Swidden Plateau

This Plateau is the second card sent to me by redditor Zombiesquisher. I owe him a huge debt of gratitude for this and the Sword of Reddit and Tumbling.

I knew to expect something special when I saw another envelope from Zombiesquisher, but I still shed a single manly tear when I opened it and saw what was inside. I cried both in horror of what I witnessed, and in gratitude for getting something this spectacular for Wear 'n' Tear. This card is the very definition of practically mint.

This Plateau comes from another one of Zombiesquisher's friends who was the unfortunate victim of a house fire. Miraculously his Magic cards survived the blaze, but while helping with clearing out the property and moving to a new house, his mother-in-law threw his Legacy and Commander decks in a trash bag. The trash bag was in turn left in a burn pit, but the fire was extinguished by rain during the night. In another miraculous recovery, most of the cards survived the second assault by fire and being doused by rain, except for his Plateau, Underground Sea and Volcanic Island. Zombiesquisher later got his hands on the Plateau and was kind enough to contribute it to this project.

I don't think I need to describe the damage this time, since the pictures above make it painfully obvious what has happened to this card. You can even see the blue layer that Magic cards have inside them as an anti-counterfeiting method. Only thing the photographs fail to capture is the strong smell of smoke emanating from the Plateau. Fittingly, it just became the thirteenth land in Wear 'n' Tear.

Cards ??: Recycled Gold

This time we have a slightly problematic batch of cards to deal with. The Food Chain pictured on the top row came from alias Prote from mtgsuomi earlier this week. The rest of the cards are from alias Jamu from the same site.

Prote got the Food Chain from the collection of a friend of his who had quit magic a long time ago. Among cards that were mostly in good condition he found one Food Chain that wasn't exactly in mint condition. His friend had gotten it in as a throw-in in a trade back when the card was practically a worthless junk rare. This individual card later saw play in a Goblin Food Chain deck in Type 1 but for the past ten years or so it has been tumbling in a desk drawer among other cards.

The Food Chain has a creased fold line across the middle and a curve created probably by pressing it with a thumb on one edge. Both instances of damage look irreversible, but the damage is still subtle enough that I will probably not add it to Wear 'n' Tear even though I wouldn't be comfortable playing it in a tournament nor selling or trading it. It is pretty high on the list of cards that almost made it and might be reconsidered at a later date.

The Angelic Page from Jamu is a very similar case to the Food Chain, but its bends are even more subtle. The rest of his cards are a bit more interesting though, since they aren't really real magic cards. They are the remnants of a 1998 Brian Selden World Championship deck, which was printed with gold borders and the nonstandard back you can see on the top row, so the cards have never been legal in any sort of official play. The deck had been tumbling in another deck drawer roughly since it was first printed and the remaining cards are indeed in a very worn state.

I have been thinking for a long about the inclusion of gold and silver bordered cards and I am still unsure about what to do with them, but I will set these aside for now at least. Every card in the deck is already illegal for tournament play, so these wouldn't technically change anything, but I feel it might be more dramatic if each card in Wear 'n' Tear has had at least some value as a sanctioned magic card before their demise. Feedback on what should be included and what should be excluded is welcome as always.

So far the pile of cards that haven't quite been practically mint enough contains about 25 or so unique cards plus some duplicates, which is a disturbingly large number, so some of them may get another chance at a later date, since it feels bad to reject this many contributions.

Card 49: Mirror Damage

Jaakko Vuorela found the pair of the previously seen Wolf-Skull Shaman. Thank you!

The Rhox and Dimensional Breach are from Jukka Jääskelä, thanks Jukka!

It is time for some more loot from FNM! Jaakko found the Bramblewood Paragon that wears the upper half of the Wolf-Skull shaman I got from him earlier. On it the most distinctive damage is on the reverse side, though it has some material stuck to its front as well. This is what I'd call synergy in a deck!

Jukka had found me yet another foil Rhox and a Dimensional Breach. The Breach has a severely bent bottom edge, but it is probably in too good condition to count for Wear 'n' Tear. The Rhox has the foil layer peeling off from its bottom edges, but since I will probably build this deck using the Singleton rule, I will include two Rhoxes in the deck only for initial 60-card games and remove one of them once we get closer to one hundred cards. This is why the official count is still at 48 cards.

Cards 44-48: Borderline Benchers

Dear readers, please help me figure out where the line between bad enough for Wear 'n' Tear and a playable card goes!

The day after the fat envelope from Oulu, I find an even fatter one in my mail from Vantaa, the maze of suburbs that is almost the capital of Finland. Most of the cards are from the collection of Kalle Saleva, alias Salevanen, one of the L1 judges in the south, but the Ajani's Chosen and Bile Blight are from Toni Routasaari, alias Routton.

Routton's cards are victims of a tragic accident involving a glass of the sugary drink Sprite. Fizzy drinks clearly aren't good for cardboard, since both of the cards are bent badly enough that they almost resemble turbine blades.

Salevanen's contribution to the cause is a massive pile of mostly green and white cards that have been damaged in various ways involving water, rolling around the floor for years et cetera. Not all of the cards have the damage visible enough to count, so I will only mention some highlights.

My favourite inclusion is the fabulous Sphinx Ambassador that came from an anonymous friend of his. It has gotten slightly moist in a pile of cards and the cards had gotten so intimate with each other that she still carries a piece of some other card's back on her. You can even make out the text ''Deckmaster'' on it. The other easy inclusion is the water damaged and slightly worn Pili-Pala that is barely rustic enough for my tastes.

A third standout is the chewed up Remodel, but since it is an un-card I am not entirely sure what to do with it. Since all of the cards in Wear 'n' Tear are technically illegal to play, adding an un-card wouldn't really change the legality of the deck for any format, but I am still tempted to use cards that would be legal for some format if they were not destroyed. I'd like to hear the readers' opinions on this!

The rest of the cards are fairly lightly damaged, and since I have a high tolerance for wear on cards I use in my real decks, most of them feel fineish to me. The played Forest gets a pass because most people don't save destroyed basic lands, so I will have to lower, or raise, my standards when it comes to basics if I am ever going to cast any spells with this deck. The rest of the cards will have to wait on the team bench. Reader feedback about these cards would also be welcome!

Cards 40, 41, 42 and 43: Oulu Ruins Everything

When I came home yesterday, I found a mysterious envelope from the northern city of Oulu in my mailbox. The Magic players of Oulu are known for their fondness for multiple substance abuse with a mix of Magic and alcohol.  In a recent gaming session in a local bar a group of fine gentlemen had pooled their practically mint cards together and sent it to me. I find this awesome.

The Ninja is from Vesa Kauppinen, alias Naabi. It bears marks of a rather typical bending accident, which is more clearly visible on its back side. Those of you who have made the mistake of storing decks in a Fat Pack box certainly know the cardboard ledge inside the lid of the box. I know I do, and this Ninja is evidence that Naabi found out about it when he was a fresh Magic player. The consensus in Oulu is that the creature must have used Ninjutsu to save some more expensive card and entered combat with the box in its stead. Kids, be careful around Fat Packs! There won't always be a Ninja around to save your investments.

The Mind Bend and Crookshank Kobolds are from Sami, alias Neuroosi, who is the diligent gentleman who gathered these cards. The Mind Bend matches its name by being more than a little bent. It comes from a shared pool of cards and none of the involved players know or admit what exactly has happened to it. It seems safe to assume it has had beer poured on it when games have gotten a little wild. The kobold that kept it company on the journey to Central Finland isn't actually destroyed, but Neuroosi thinks that all proper decks need a kobold. I am not convinced, but I do know that all proper decks need a Tarpan, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt in case they also need a kobold.

The NM- Deep Spawn, Swamp and Morinfen are from the alias Edvin. The Deep Spawn was found behind the radiator of his old rental apartment. How it got there will forever be a mystery, but the card looks like it has been lovingly played with for quite some time. The Swamp and Morinfen were included in a cheap purchase of bulk cards Edvin made. The Swamp has its foil layer partially peeled off very much like the Rhox from the previous post, but this is a bit harder to see on it. I still find it barely bad enough for Wear 'n' Tear. The Morinfen is a bit wavy and has probably been damaged by water, but the damage is so light I am not comfortable with adding it to the deck.

Cards 38 and 39: Collegial Veterans

These practically mint cards were given to me by a fellow student Otto Ikäheimonen at the Department of Physics. Thank you!

The Practically Mint editing office has received a veritable flood of cards the past few days, the first two of which are these two creatures that have seen a good amount of play. I saw Otto in the university yesterday and he surprised me by donating a foil Rhox and a practically mint Urborg Drake for Wear 'n' Tear.

Both of the cards have been damaged trough continued use and slight carelessness, so there is no specific event that led to them being this way. The Rhox has had its foil layer partially come loose and the drake has had both of its top corners folded or crushed. Damage like this on foils is often hard to see in photographs, but luckily the top right corner of the card happened to catch light in just the right way so you can see the damage.

Cards 34-37: FNM Spoils

These three cards were donated by Jaakko Vuorela.

The Aetherling is from Ville-Veikko Vähäaho and the Sunstrikers are from Antti Kosonen.

The environmentally conscious Magic players in Jyväskylä recycled some more cardboard yesterday, when I was given the above cards during Friday Night Magic. It's a win/win for everyone and everything. Trash gets properly recycled and my deck gets bigger. Thanks to everyone involved in this!

The Shadowmage Infiltrator, Wolf-Skull Shaman and Goblin Replica from Jaakko are otherwise unrelated to each other. The Finkel he got as a throw-in with some trade and the Goblin Replica has suffered the sorry fate of being stuffed in the pocket of young Jaakko's pants way back when. Carrying Magic cards in your pockets really isn't a good idea, but we can forgive little boys that mistake. The Wolf-Skull shaman has had some sticky drink spilled on it and a bunch of other cards. The distinctive damage is from the drink getting it stuck to some other card and the surface layer ripping off when the cards were separated. Jaakko was unfortunately unable to find the other half of this puzzle yet, but we might see a mirror image of this pattern on some other destroyed card in the future.

The Aetherling from Ville has suffered typical water damage, but I am sadly unable to remember the details of how this happened. It lacks the typical white spots, but it is instead so wavy that you can even see the sexy curves in the picture.  The Ajani's Sunstriker from Antti actually came with an identical pair. They have both been folded to act as protectors for sleeved cards in an envelope. Since they have been intentionally destroyed, I came to the conclusion I can not use them here, so one of them is fulfilling its original purpose again  and is on its way to Sweden bravely protecting some cards I sold via magiccardmarket. Sorry for mistakenly saying they are OK, Antti!

Card 33: Rainstorm Kolaghan

This practically mint Kolaghan was sent by redditor strionic_resonator. Many thanks to him, and everyone else on reddit!

This Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury was destroyed by another storm's fury when strionic resonator was caught in a rainstorm. It was in his backpack along with the rest of the cards of his unsleeved deck from previous night's FNM. I am glad he saved this card so I can give it a new home in Wear 'n' Tear.

The card has very typical water damage with white splotches on the most badly soaked parts of the card and bending and waves all over the card. Unfortunately the disfigurement is poorly visible on a photograph, but when handled, it is obvious that the shape of the card would stand out in a deck like a skinhead in a hippie rally.