Three? It's four.
Four? It's three.

The definition of insanity is Rarran continuing to pick 3

Watching this made me realise why some MTG veterans feel "dissatisfied" with the modern illustrations of cards, those breathe and feel like the 80s/90s and old Dungeons and Dragons. They're so cool.

Rarran guessing 3 when its at 4, and the one time he guesses 4 its at 3 is too funny.

important to note, at the time, damage used the stack. Plaguelord as a top end threat was really strong since you could chump block a creature, sacrifice it with the damage on the stack, and get both the damage and the -1/-1. Insane sac outlet.

People don't understand how genuinely powerful the Urza's block era is, It's broken in a very different way to things now. Look at like vintage cube and notice how many off the uniquely strongest effects ever printed originate from this era.

One other reason they didn’t reprint Cursed Scroll: it was reserved list.

It's really fascinating reading "Destroy all Humans, they can't be regenerated" and seeing the cards here because they're from the same era.

It's hard to explain just how busted Masticore was in the summer of 1999, after all the crazy stuff from Combo Winter/Spring were banned. My friends and I had a joke that for a few months every deck should just be named "Masticore Red", "Masticore Blue", "Masticore Black", etc. Just choose whichever color you wanted to build around your four Manticores.

36:11- up until 2002, when Wizards finally began backing off from printing land destruction in every set, there was always a Tier 1 or Tier 2 deck in Standard whose main strategy was "you're not using your lands or playing the game".

CGB offhandedly said that Kai piloted the first deck and I immediately knew this was one of his worlds wins. Not only seems like the strongest decks but one of the strongest players ever.

IMO, damage on the stack being removed changes the game so much, its really hard to sell how much more powerful instant effects were.

Rarran reading a Phyrexian Negator for a black deck in the pro tour: "Would you sac-"
Everyone who's played mono black ever: "YES."

The best part of this video was CGBs facial expressions at Rarran going three eighty nine times in a row.

I own the gold border version of all 4 of these decks, and watching this brought me back to being a teenager and buying the world championship decks.
Edit: Seeing Rarran go all 😍over being absolutely toxic with Mishra's Helix made me totally lose it! 🤣
Edit 2: The reason mono red land destruction ran Arc Lightning was to kill off Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise, while also having the flexibility to take out 2 and 3 toughness creatures, or send the excess damage to face.
Edit 3: Mono black control was a weird and complex deck in a format that was all about speed. The deck was designed to have staying power. Ticking Gnomes answered most early game threats (while also being able to pick off a 1 toughness creature or finish off a Masticore), Bottle Gnomes did as well, while having that emergency life gain, and the deck ran several creatures that could sacrificed to -x/-x an opponent's creature, at a time when stack damage was a thing, and of course you had Powder Keg to answer the ever present Cursed Scroll. Then you could recur absolutely everything with Yawg's Will, including Phyrexian Negator after your opponent has nothing left to deal with it. Yeah, the Negator is awful in the early game, CGB didn't realize it was a closer after you nuked your opponent's hand and board, not an opener.

I WAS THERE FOR MASTICORE RAM RANCH!! I WAS THERE IT WAS A FUGGING NIGHTMARE!!!!   Seriously though people also forget that Morphling was also the nightmare of the Urza's Block

Rarran repeatedly correcting himself from "neutral mana" to "colorless mana" in these mana costs when it's actually "generic mana" keeps getting me.

Regarding Ticking Gnomes, it's important to remember that you could put damage on the stack back then. You could block/attack with the gnomes, put their combat damage on the stack, then sac it for the extra ping. Was that enough to run it by itself? Probably not. But it did mean it could threaten Masticore.

24:10 Wait, is THIS what Urza, Lord High Artificer si referencing with his 5 mana abaility?

This was such a throwback to the era of MTG I played the most of.

I even have a Hatred signed by Richard Garfield in which he doodled a speech bubble on with the words "Ban Me" spoken by Greven. I dont think he liked the card. lol

As a Tinker Colossus enjoyer in the late 90s, this is great. A note on Voltaic Key, I'm pretty sure that's not a painting, that's a retouched photograph. They were experimenting with the art even back then.