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.

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 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 1: Cathandled Pithing Needle

The first card for the Deck was a Christmas present from J. Ihonen, a well known L2 judge and  player from southern Finland. Many thanks to him!

The first specimen is a Pithing Needle that had been stuck between the skirting and the wall behind some furniture. Ihonen's cats had tried to salvage the card several times during the year, but their attempts had failed.

Some signs of these heroic efforts to reclaim this card can be seen on its surfaces, but other than that, the card is in practically mint condition.