Dear Gonti, Love Sophie | The Story of a Priceless Commander Deck

Comments · 1.4K

• RH

  @RhysticStudies · 4 years ago · pinned

  Support Prof&apos;s Kickstarter campaign for the Academic 133+ XL here: <br><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tolarian/the-academic-133-xl">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tolarian/the-academic-133-xl</a>

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• ET

  @EtienneCitron · 4 years ago

  Everytime I&apos;m on vacation overseas, I stop at a local game store to buy a couple of singles (even if it&apos;s just a foil basic land) and doodle on one of them the date and place of my vacation with a sharpie. My decks are filled with cards that bear memories of my trips :)

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• GU

  @guywholived · 1 year ago

  When I was in prison, I noticed a poker table using magic cards that had been marked to signify poker chips. The cards were in horrid condition due to being used in such away. As I watched the table I saw duel lands, mixed in with the rest of the chaff and as soon as the poker table had dispersed I went to the guy who ran the table and offered to buy the whole lot that&apos;s how I got a copy of every single duel land.

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• BO

  @bobdole2122 · 3 years ago

  To give you another story about a card with character, there&apos;s a shop in College Station, TX called &quot;Clockwork Games&quot; nestled in the back of a strip mall and known mostly by the magic community and advertised by word-of-mouth. On the counter next to their register is a contorted, ripped, extremely damaged Bruna, Light of Alabaster from Innistrad. It&apos;s encased in a thick resin case screwed shut in the corners, entombed and suspended in a brick of transparency.<br><br>The story of it&apos;s origin is that during the Innistrad draft, someone actually pulled that Bruna from a prize pack, but it came fresh out of the pack with water damage, warping it and making it unplayable even with sleeves. The guy who drafted it was a regular and prone to fits of anger, and this was no different. He screamed, ripped the card into a hundred pieces, some rumors are he bit it at least twice, and threw them into the air and stormed out of the shop. The clerk behind the counter was irritated at having to clean up this guy&apos;s mess but wanted to see if the card could somehow be salvaged. He picked up every piece, used a tender amount of glue and tape to line it up as best as he could, then pressed it between the two slabs of resin to flatten it out as much as possible. Once he saw what he had made, he decided not to check if the card was made possibly playable again, but instead put it on display next to the shop&apos;s checkout computer.<br><br>The man came back in for the week&apos;s FNM a few days later, saw the Bruna which was unmistakably his sitting there like a trophy on a shelf, and promptly left. I don&apos;t know if it was his last time in the shop, but I&apos;d like to think he was either too embarrassed at his antics or angry at the cause to be near that thing.<br><br>If you&apos;re ever in that town, see if Bruna&apos;s still there. I bet she&apos;d like the visit.

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• SO

  @Solereaper21 · 4 years ago

  When I was in university I was pretty poor but wanted to get into edh. I didn’t have sleeves, I didn’t have good cards, and I had illegal double faced cards because they were pennies compared to the full price. The people I played with were cool and each birthday I would be gifted a full art land. These lands were special though because my friend would draw a dumb/bad/cute little dragon into the background. (I was running a kartthus dragon deck). Each time I played those cards I would always say, “I play a birthday land”

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• A.

  @a.strain2786 · 4 years ago

  My absolute most valuable card is a proxy. It’s a Gaia’s cradle that my girlfriend commissioned which depicts the two of us in a grotto of trees. I love it. If I ever get rid of my collection it will remain forever.

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• LO

  @Loozar402 · 4 years ago

  I&apos;ve always joked about preferring beat up cards because &quot;they have character&quot;, but that Gonti deck cranks it up to 1000%

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• NO

  @noomi_tpg · 4 years ago (edited)

  I first saw the deck a few years ago, and I was initially horrified at how beat up it was, more to the ideal of knowing the price of, rather than the value of the cards. This video showed me a new perspective on what it means for some piece of cardboard to be “valuable”. Thanks Mr. Studies.

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• VE

  @versedesign190 · 4 years ago

  I love Gonti as the commander for another reason: the aether born in nature are destined to die young, and therefore are more aware of their mortality than we are and value experiences over much material value.

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• IN

  @int0th3v01d · 4 years ago

  The blacked out mana rocks are low key cool af. I love that idea. It’s like a new version of minimalism.

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• TR

  @TreeWithAChainsaw · 4 years ago

  There is a concept in Japanese literature called “mono no aware,” literally “pathos for things.” It describes the wistful sadness one feels at the passing of beautiful things, the cherry blossoms which last only for a few short days, the memories worn into fading ink and cardboard, a reminder of the transience of life and of time which moves ever forward. This was a beautiful video.

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• DA

  @dangerousbeing150 · 4 years ago

  Hearing that naked ripple shuffle. . . That takes me back. It takes me back to boy scout meetings, parents laughing in the other room, organizing, goldfishing, crying over them about unrelated drama and lost loves. Brings me back to looking at a chance to by Unlimited packs and choosing Ice Age because I could have more cardboard to build more things. I cared more about experiences over things instead of the value of those things. My mom who is now into collectibles as a sort of hobby/savings asked me if any of my cards were worth something, I never told her about the Bayou I traded for the Birds of Paradise. Instead I smiled softly and said &quot;yeah I had a few, sold them for less than I should have, bought more on the playground for more than I should have&quot;. I got hustled more than I hustled others, and in that moment maybe even in this moment as I type this out to you realized my childhood was ultimately a good one. Maybe not the one I wanted but a good one, I could imagine worse childhoods.<br><br><br><br>Thanks, for this. I wasn&apos;t expect to cry on All Fools Eve.

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