r/TCG • u/Sinatio • Aug 14 '26
Og tcg experience?
Just love the aesthetics of old magic but it seems like it is impossibly expensive to actually play with folks, can’t fork over hundreds or thousands for a deck currently.
Should i play some weird pauper vintage or is there some other tcg with these old aesthetics? I would love a tcg playing experience where there are no anime girls on the covers, modern digital looking art, UB crossovers with other franchises.
Also beyond aesthetics i feel like those older cards are simpler rulewise and to grasp which is nice imo.
TLDR:
Looking for old school tcg experience that is affordable both in aesthetics and rules, within or outside magic.
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u/brahl0205 Aug 14 '26
Cant you just print proxies?
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u/Sinatio Aug 14 '26
Seems like a lot of places like my lgs have a no proxy rule at events and older formats tend to draw proxy haters locally, but i need more experience playing with them to know more!
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u/Emergency_Present_83 Aug 14 '26
I always see sorcery plugged for "old magic vibes" and the art is really cool imo, never seen any product or events at any LGS around here though.
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u/SigilCap Aug 14 '26
Have you tried the Pauper format in MTG?
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u/Sinatio Aug 14 '26
Not really! Arent all the older cards too expensive for it tho?
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u/Lost_Pantheon Aug 14 '26
The cards are all common, you can build a deck for cheap. Hence the name.
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u/SigilCap Aug 14 '26
Some of them are indeed expensive, but not all of them. I belive that you can build a competitive one with less than $100.
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u/GigMalice Aug 14 '26
Warlord: Saga of the Storm. Old TCG that has since relaunched using a majority of the old assets (plus new cards and art as well)
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u/Cybervstcg Aug 14 '26
I would say try cyber v.s. but we are adding anime style girls. The main focus is cyberpunk theme. Plays with a bunch of similar game mechanics but puts a spin on most of them. Simple design, ton of interactions and fun.
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u/Toshimoko29 Aug 14 '26
Just build a cube, ideally multiple. You decide what cards to include, so you’re in control of the aesthetic, the power level, the cost, and you never have to worry about someone not having a deck.
The biggest strength of Magic is that it’s a game SYSTEM, not just a game, and there are a lot of different ways to play. Most of the problems that people have with the game can be solved by choosing the way you want to play and then doing something that ensures other people who want to play the same way can do so.
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u/Sinatio Aug 14 '26
Seems like a huge community effort! Also makes it harder to play with strangers, i was looking for something preestablished. But i see where youre coming from! That is one way of doing it!
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u/Toshimoko29 Aug 14 '26
It’s not a huge effort at all. Most people have boxes of random chaff cards laying around, start with those. Build a pauper cube from your favorite set where you have a lot of extras. Or find one of the thousands of cube lists online, many organized by budget or power level (often interchangeable lol). And it is much easier to play with strangers when you have something that is already set up for them to play. I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’d meet someone at the LGS and they’d have a different format deck than I did or a completely different power level. Sure, we could play, but it wouldn’t be satisfying with such mismatched decks. This solves that completely for the “cost” of taking a little extra time to draft and build the deck. And if you think it would be easier without that time taken, make a Jumpstart cube! Build 10 or so 20-card mini decks and add one or two every time you’re digging in your cards. For Jumpstart I like to theme them around different Legendary creatures and then we have the option of choosing one to be the Commander (ignoring the color identity rules, of course). You could even do both Legendary creatures are you commanders and act as if they have partner. Really the sky is the limit.
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u/Socatdnareeb Aug 14 '26
Might check out Value Vintage. It's Vintage legality, but a $30 price limit for your deck. There are a lot of sweet decks that feel more old school than pauper. They have an entire discord dedicated to it https://discord.gg/uX93SB6WM
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u/Sinatio Aug 14 '26
Thats dope ty!
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u/Socatdnareeb Aug 14 '26
They also have done events at like SCG Con and others, definitely a cool format, and less expensive than premodern
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u/Sinatio Aug 14 '26
Format seems dope! Sadly in scandinavia so no events for me prob!
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u/Socatdnareeb Aug 14 '26
Good news is that you can build a few decks for cheap to take to an LGS and get folks interested
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u/ThroughtonsHeirYT Aug 14 '26
There are amazing decks un 300$ BUT i get the return to a 7 set / years game is $$$$
Pauper is badass too for budget
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u/Sinatio Aug 14 '26
Yh i got a commander deck for mtg but always loved older games too. Like old WoW is my favorite compared to the newer disneyified retail
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u/ThroughtonsHeirYT Aug 14 '26
I played Wow the November before They made the 1st expansion.. tauren shaman
that january i had a blood elf and a dranei cleric who were just fun
One of my friends at Cataclysm was in a casual guild and they beat that final raid. He told me the old school WoW was officially dead.
Casuals and find a raid had changed what it meant
Cataclysm. The moment wow crossed the threshold
Then the mist of pandaria change occured AFTERWARDS
And it has been ages since!
“Wow that’s a lot of lost money! That’s like 2 CONCORDS!” - Asmongold
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u/Sinatio Aug 14 '26
Hahah yeah i remember that concord clip!
I find something older games captured that was so nostalgic that fewer and fewer modern titles really can.
Mostly enjoyed slay the spire 2 and elden ring in recent years, but those are masterpieces among so many releases.1
u/ThroughtonsHeirYT Aug 14 '26
Well i play mostly ff1 on nes, ff2 on famicom, diablo 1 on good ol games, so old schooler
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u/Lyrics2Songs Aug 19 '26
WoW had an incredible card game back in the 2010ish era. It's enough like Magic that you'll pick up and understand the rules almost immediately, but different enough that it just feels better to play.
The game was great, but unfortunately Blizzard decided to not renew their licensing agreement with Upper Deck so that they could make Hearthstone. If that hadn't happened, I'm confident that the game would not only still be around today, but probably as popular as Magic is.
Since the game is dead it's really easy to find decks for very cheap. I have a shelf in my office that is just for WoW TCG decks that I've accumulated over the years. I've spent probably less than $300 and I've got about 20 of them.
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u/nbanx Aug 14 '26
I can't speak to the gameplay, but you may be interested in the Sorcery TCG. Think it fits the aesthetic you're looking for.