Oversoul
The Tentacled One
Even though some of them have been fairly short, I've kinda enjoyed the "Memories" threads that were about cards I've mostly explored in recent years, rather than the ones I played with back when I was a kid. Stuff like Evolutionary Leap (a card that is only three years old) and Elephant Guide (a card I only started paying much attention to this year). So it occurred to me to do more of those. And I will! But obviously, not quite yet...
When pondering which cards I've taken an interest in relatively recently, I got a bit stuck on a card that is actually among the oldest. Er, among the second-oldest? Whatever. Library of Alexandria has been in the game almost from the beginning. But at first, I didn't take much interest in it because I didn't own the card. It was the most expensive card in Arabian Nights and was one of the old, broken cards anyway. It was the vaunted "Tenth Power." Mysterious. Elusive. And assuredly super-powerful. I didn't play with Library of Alexandria early on and my opponents didn't own it either. So it was outside my experience as a real card, instead being something I knew only as an icon.
But I did begin, using proxies, begin experimenting with friends in playing "powered" Type 1 decks, starting sometime in 2002, I believe. This wasn't very extensive, but technically it would have been my first gameplay with the card. Later, I'd try out Library in the "Shandalar" computer game. And later still, I'd buy my own real-life copy of the card. But that last part was only a couple of years ago.
I've found Library of Alexandria to be one of the most fascinating and subtle cards in the game. Its power and fame are undeniable, but it actually seems to see very little real gameplay, owing to its rarity and to the paucity of environments in which it is legal and available. So I'm not sure how many people can really evaluate the card properly. In fact, I'm not really sure if anyone can. Perhaps that statement seems odd or overly bold, but to some extent it might apply to almost any interesting card. Personal attempts at evaluation are necessarily just incomplete summaries. But for most cards, most of us have some pretty extensive experience to draw on, either looking at the usage of the card itself or looking at the general effect and the usage of similar cards. But even though Library of Alexandria's actual text is pretty simple, the practical applications of the card make it, I've come to believe, among the most unique cards in all of Magic.
When pondering which cards I've taken an interest in relatively recently, I got a bit stuck on a card that is actually among the oldest. Er, among the second-oldest? Whatever. Library of Alexandria has been in the game almost from the beginning. But at first, I didn't take much interest in it because I didn't own the card. It was the most expensive card in Arabian Nights and was one of the old, broken cards anyway. It was the vaunted "Tenth Power." Mysterious. Elusive. And assuredly super-powerful. I didn't play with Library of Alexandria early on and my opponents didn't own it either. So it was outside my experience as a real card, instead being something I knew only as an icon.
But I did begin, using proxies, begin experimenting with friends in playing "powered" Type 1 decks, starting sometime in 2002, I believe. This wasn't very extensive, but technically it would have been my first gameplay with the card. Later, I'd try out Library in the "Shandalar" computer game. And later still, I'd buy my own real-life copy of the card. But that last part was only a couple of years ago.
I've found Library of Alexandria to be one of the most fascinating and subtle cards in the game. Its power and fame are undeniable, but it actually seems to see very little real gameplay, owing to its rarity and to the paucity of environments in which it is legal and available. So I'm not sure how many people can really evaluate the card properly. In fact, I'm not really sure if anyone can. Perhaps that statement seems odd or overly bold, but to some extent it might apply to almost any interesting card. Personal attempts at evaluation are necessarily just incomplete summaries. But for most cards, most of us have some pretty extensive experience to draw on, either looking at the usage of the card itself or looking at the general effect and the usage of similar cards. But even though Library of Alexandria's actual text is pretty simple, the practical applications of the card make it, I've come to believe, among the most unique cards in all of Magic.