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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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!

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.

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.