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.

Cards 31 and 32: Catling and Growing Pains

All of the above cards were given to me during a board game night in my neighbourhood yesterday. The Thornling is from Risto Sarja, the man who most actively organizes Cube nights in Jyväskylä and the Giant Growth, Abu Ja'far and Guardian Agel are from Ismo Virtanen, another player who lives near me. Thanks to them both!

The Thornling has had its upper edge chewed by Risto's epileptic cat Rölli, who was kind enough to pose for us with the card. Otherwise the card is in excellent condition, but the tear on top makes the card both worthless and illegal to play, so it qualifies for Wear 'n' Tear, Cats certainly are eager fans of Magic, judging from the number of cathandled cards I get.

The set of older cards was found by Ismo while searching his collection for forgotten valuables. Both of the white cards have been damaged by water, though the damage is light enough that I am not adding them to Wear 'n' Tear, at least not yet. The Giant Growth has a large tear in the middle, but no one knows where it may have come from.

Card 30: Black Armageddon and Too Mint Welder

This heavily altered Armageddon was sent by Väinö Hirvelä, an active player from Tampere.

This Goblin Welder was sent by Johanna Virtanen, an L3 Judge and the Regional Coordinator for Northern Europe.

As of this post, Wear 'n' Tear includes a total of 30 cards. We are at the half-way point to a 60-card deck, or roughly at one third of a highlander deck. The thirtieth card added was the Armageddon pictured above.

The Armageddon has been so heavily altered it is barely recognizable as a magic card anymore. Väinö originally had it in one of his Commander decks, but when he was forced to swap it to an unaltered Armageddon even in Commander tournaments, he got so frustrated with swapping it in and out of his deck, he decided to send it to me to get rid of this nuisance. Even though the card is physically fine and the altered artwork is rather amusing, the card has indeed lost all of its value as a Magic card, and is fit for this project.

A day before Väinö's letter, this Goblin Welder arrived in my mailbox. It is badly bent and worn from having been loitering on Johanna's floor and who knows where. Even though the damage is absolutely horrible for such a nice foil card, it is in so much better shape than other cards in Wear 'n' Tear, that after extensive Pondering, some Brainstorming and a little bit of considering the Preordained criteria, I decided to leave it out of the deck.

A big thank you to Vainö, Johanna and everyone else who has helped me get this project this far!

Cards 28 and 29: Bend Test Dummies

These cards were sent by user Reflektio from mtgsuomi. Thank you, Reflektio!

Both the Demigod of Revenge and Inferno Fist have been badly bent in the middle of the card. Even though the damage on these cards is almost identical, their stories are not actually related by more than having the same original owner.

The Demigod has been used way back when in an attempt to test or demonstrate how the Bend Test works. The Bend Test is a well known way to test for counterfeits, since a normal undamaged Magic card can be bent several times and it should return to its original shape without folding or creasing, whereas counterfeits usually break when bent. This Demigod stands as a proof that the Bend Test is not suitable for every card, as foils, played or old cards usually do not survive it, and this card definitely did not.

The Inferno Fist on the other hand was not used in a Bend Test but was instead folded to act as a cap for packaging another card in a sleeve. After folding it in half, Reflektio found out he did not actually need a cap for that particular package, so this card died in vain. I am glad to be able to provide both of these fine cards a new home.

Cards 21-27: Mystery Cards from a Mystery Contributor

These seven cards were in the mail on the same day as the cards from Co and ruusuv were, but they came in an anonymous brown letter which had no postmark on the stamp. Normally this would mean that the cards might have been delivered directly to my mailbox, but since they arrived at the same time as my regular mail and Finnish postal workers have been pretty lazy with their markings lately, I can not be sure about it. If my anonymous benefactor wishes to identify themselves and share the story of these cards, they may do so in the comments below.

The Lonely Sandbar, Remote Isle and Aether Spellbomb are severely bent and spotty in a way that is typical to cards damaged by water. The spots are light brown and the cards have a faint smell of coffee, so I deduce that they must have had coffee spilled on them. The forest has similar damage to it, but the spots on it are clear and it has a scratch on the artwork, so it might have been damaged in some other incident.

The Swamp has been badly scratched and it has been bent on the lower half, but I am unable to guess the source of the damage. The Ulamog's Crusher is otherwise practically mint but it has been folded badly enough that the two halves of the card have been partially torn loose. The Death Denied has probably been under the leg of a table or some other heavy piece of furniture as it has a very heavily dented perfectly round shape in the middle of the card.

Cards 19 and 20: Crushed Avenger and Top Tier of Cat Meta

This batch of practically mint Magic cards was sent by user ruusuv from mtgsuomi. The users of that site are really diligent with properly recycling their cardboard!

The pictured Firemane Avenger is another card that has fallen victim to a speeding office chair. The driver of this hit-and-run vehicle has been more thorough than the previous ones, since the ridge on this roadkill Creature is very hard to miss and makes the card definitely marked and definitely destroyed.

Office chairs are not the only destructive force of nature to make a comeback today, as ruusuv also sent me this Skeleton Ship that his cats had been playing with for quite some time. Judging from how much wear it has gained from frequent play, Skeleton Ship must have been a real staple in the metagame of catkind's favourite gaming venue under ruusuv's sofa.

With the addition of Firemane Avenger, Wear 'n' Tear is now officially a five-colour deck.

Cards 15, 16, 17 & 18: Monoblack Projectiles

These uniformly damaged black cards were sent by alias Co from mtgsuomi. Thank you!

These Nether Spirit, Pox, Dark ritual and Tombstalker all come from the same deck, and there is an amusing story explaining why they all have their bottom left corner crushed. Once upon a time Co was arranging their cards and toppled a drinking glass on them.

You are probably thinking that this does not look like water damage, and you would be right. It turns out that almost all of the wet cards survived the incident in playable shape, but before noticing this, Co had thrown the deckbox with their old casual deck in it against the wall in rage. Hitting a wall at high speeds did do more permanent damage than the actual accident, which is why these cards ended up in my mailbox.

Card 14: Sword of Reddit and Tumbling

This absolutely fabulous Sword of Feast and Famine was sent by redditor Zombiesquisher, an obviously awesome person.

This Sword of Feast and Famine has tumbled trough a washing machine after one of Zombiesquisher's friends forgot to empty her pockets before washing her pants. This tragic accident has left the card in a sorry state, but amazingly all of the text is still legible! I am glad to be able to add it to my collection, as this card will both be one of the more powerful plays in Wear 'n' Tear and one of the finest examples of what this project is all about.

In the previous post we concluded that office chairs are a low-end threat to magic cards, but now we can supplement that observation by the fact that washing machines are among the worst threats to cardboard. Dear readers, always check you pockets before doing the laundry!

Card 13: National Deed

These cards were sent by Ville Kovelo, a judge and a long time staple of the Finnish Magic scene.

You can clearly see that the damage on the Curse of Inertia is visible only from the right angle.

This Pernicious Deed was found on the floor of the venue of the second to last Finnish Nationals. The owner was not found, so Ville had held on to it until now. It was accompanied in the mail by this roadkill Curse of Inertia, which Ville rolled over on his office chair while taking apart a Commander deck for selling.

The Deed has been rather badly worn by being walked over, but the damage on the Curse is surprisingly hard to see unless you look closely, so it will be left out of the deck for now.  It will keep company with the Soulflayer that was also run over by an out of control office chair. I may add both of them to Wear 'n' Tear once we get to the point where it is only a few cards away from first playtests. It turns out that being rolled over by furniture isn't among the worst things that can happen to a card.

In other news, I passed my L1 Judge exam during the weekend. Yay!

Card 12: Rip Stream

Greetings from the Prerelease at Tampere. While I was working as an assistant judge at the tournament, I was handed this beautiful Full Art Foil Premium Mythic Rare Expedition (Sounds like Yugi Oh doesn't it?) Prairie Stream as a devious bribe.

As those readers who have been exposed to the darker side of the Internet will likely guess, this card has been horribly abused in a game of ''Flip it, or rip it''. While I do not normally accept cards that have been destroyed on purpose, I consider giving this poor card a loving home an act of charity worth making an exception for.

The lower half of the actual card is completely ripped off, and the stripped foil layer is just lying loose on it.

With the addition of an Island Plains, Wear 'n' Tear can produce all five colours of mana and even the fetchland has a target now.

The Deck Needs a Name

For inspiration, this is what we are currently working with.

Some friends of mine pointed out that, since there already is an established The Deck in Magic, the name I am using for the deck I build on this blog is a big misleading. I agree. The Deck is unlikely to become a version of The Deck, so it needs a name of its own.

I am making a Reddit thread where I will link this post. The most upvoted suggestion will be The Deck's new name.

The Thread

In other news, I am going to the Oath of the Gatewatch Prerelease this weekend where I will work as an assistant Judge and take my L1 exam. If any attending players have some practically mint cards to spare, please bring them along.

Card 11: Mysterious Delta

This Polluted Delta was sent to me by Markku Rikola, the baldest man in Tampere. May his scalp shine brightly forever.

This Polluted Delta was included in the collection that came to Markku from the Finnish Champion Mikko Airaksinen and Magic Online World Champion Anssi Myllymäki. This happened during the bygone era when it was common to pool collections together to enable a larger variety of decks to be played in tournaments.

The card is otherwise in very good condition, except for one corner that has been neatly sliced off with some sort of sharp tool. None of the three gentlemen know when or how this happened, but by the time Markku got it, the card was already in this condition. I am glad to be able to add it to The Deck, even though there are no islands or swamps to search with it for now. Markku sends the readers his greetings with: ''I hope this card makes the final cut''.

Cards 7, 8 , 9 and 10: Surprise Shreddings

These cards came as a nice surprise in the mail from the alias kanslerioikein from mtgsuomi. Thank you kanslerioikein!

These blue cards were reportedly found among the singles sold at a local game store. Both have seen a lot of wear and tear and the Contempt is missing a corner. The enchantment has also apparently been used as a proxy at some point in its history, as there is ''drake'' written with black marker on its back.

The Evolving Wilds and Jungle Hollow are both badly mangled, which is to be expected as kanslerioikein used them in an attempt to teach their dog to play Magic. It looks like the attempt failed, but I commend them for trying.

''Please, let there be no deck check!''

Card 6: Soul Chew Toy

This Soul Warden was sent to me by the alias Infrapunatulkku from mtgsuomi. Thank you very much!

Once upon a time, this wonderful white weenie was a veritable workhorse of gaining life, until Infrapunatulkku's dog got its teeth on it. Now the card suffers from severe teeth marks and a corner that is almost torn off. Fortunately, I am able to give it a home where it can spend its retirement still doing what it does best.

The Deck now contains all five colours! Unfortunately white, blue, black and green are found only in mana costs and our mana sources only produce red. There are still at least 54 cards to go, so there is a fair chance I'll get at least one source for every colour by then.

Card 5: Deceptive Rancor

This Rancor was given to me by Arto Liukkonen, a local player in Jyväskylä. He was kind enough to throw in a Mind Stone for my Pauper Cube along with it. Many thanks to him!

The fifth card added to The Deck is this Rancor Arto got as a throw-in when he bought the Rancors for his Infect deck. At first glance it looks practically mint, other than the wear on the left border. You'd almost think it wasn't in bad enough condition to qualify for this project.

On further inspection you just keep finding more and more damage, until the real state of the card becomes apparent. There are significant scratches and dents scattered all over the surface and it is bent and dented badly enough in the middle, that there is no hope that the cardboard could ever be forced back into shape.

Cards 3 and 4: Childhood Lobotomy and Pressed Valakut

This batch of cardboard was brought to me by Jukka Jääskelä; a local player known for his enthusiasm for Legacy.

Card number three is Jukka's first ever foil that he traded his Planar Portal and Crosis, the Purger for in elementary school. He never needed it for any deck, but he just had to have it because of the captivating artwork. The card has not aged well, and all of its edges are severely worn and the topmost layer is peeling off from one corner.

Card number four is a Valakut Jukka opened from a fat pack and left lying on his desk. It eventually drifted under his keyboard, where it got stuck and torn badly enough that a piece of the border was shorn off.

The Metapost: The Deck and contributing to it

My name is Jyri Hämäläinen and I am a competitive Magic player and prospective judge from Jyväskylä, Finland. I have been actively playing Magic in tournaments since the autumn of 2012, though I was already familiar with the game from having played it briefly as a schoolkid around the turn of the millennium. I am known for a strong tendency to play small disruptive white creatures in all formats.

I got the idea for collecting destroyed magic cards from Cockatrice, where some American player mentioned in passing about his Commander deck built out of ruined cards. The idea appealed to me and I started asking around if people had amusing stories about ruined cards in my area. The response on mtgsuomi and various local and regional IRC channels was very positive, so I moved ahead with the project.

Since all of the cards in it are strictly illegal to play in all games of Magic, The Deck won't technically belong in any format. At first I will try to conform to the card pool of some sanctioned 60-card format. Which one it is depends on which kind of cards I first happen to get my hands on, since I accept cards printed in any product published under the Magic brand. All the cards I am currently expecting correspond to cards legal in Modern, but I strongly suspect that by the 60-card mark The Deck will be a Vintage deck. Even that might fail, if I find some un-cards with interesting histories.

If the number of cards available grows large enough I will likely update The Deck to some 100-card singleton format. I enjoy playing Highlander much more than Commander, but the inherent silliness of this project might match the The Spirit of EDH so much better that I will have to go outside of my comfort zone.

Lastly, if this blog happens to go viral at some point and my apartment becomes flooded with cardboard trash, I promise to turn The Deck into The Cube.