The”Infalliabe” rule of 4

​5 AM Magic Theory

I am currently standing in line at 5 AM at an airport Starbucks on 0 hours of sleep because I had the really cool thought 4 hours ago: “Well, I may as well just stay up through it if I’m only going to get two hours of sleep.” What better to do than spew unasked-for Magic theory while my brain can’t think good. I also don’t know how to deal with formatting on mobile, sorry! 

The Rule of Four

The number of a card without the basic subtype or name Plague Rat you can run is 4—unless it's 1, but we decided that one, not the rulebook.

People have a lot of ways to quantify why they run a specific amount of a card. Playing a Burn deck? You are playing 4 Lightning Bolts. Control? You have 4 Swords and counters. We typically accept these answers to be infallible truths.

The Purpose of the Thought Experiment

First, I want to explain the purpose of this thought experiment. My thought is that we occasionally run 4-ofs for the arbitrary reason that is “we can.” If we can identify and analyze what cards we would not want a 5th of, we can reexamine the previous infallible truth of four being correct.

So moving forward, and to properly assess a card, we must assume a few basic things. For one, the card we are considering is the only card you are able to run more than your allotted 4-of. If we don’t restrict to one subject at a time, it warps the field we are actually trying to learn about. Of course, if we can have 8 Mishra’s Workshops, we also want 10 Triskelions. It doesn’t help us understand our choices any better.

Diminishing Returns: The Atog Example

A little background on this is my experience with Atog decks. 4 feels pretty good for Atog. You usually want one, frequently want two, and rarely want three (at least at the same time). Their benefit into cards not named Swords to Plowshares reduces dramatically based on how much you utilized its ability to eat artifacts with previously played copies.

The worst thing in an opener or off of a Wheel is having two or three copies sitting in hand fighting over the same food, relatively mediocre without it. Obviously, you can make opponents make difficult decisions by attacking with two, but your deck only has 14 or so artifacts in it, and your Factories.

Testing the Maximum

My thought is that if I could run an unlimited number of Atogs, I would not increase the number beyond 4. We default to 4 because the deck is Atog after all; why wouldn’t we max out the namesake? Well, to let you in on a little secret: I have been testing 3. It’s obviously matchup dependent, but 3 has felt really good in the “not clogging” department. I’m not claiming 3 is correct; I think it is likely that 4 just happens to be the correct number for Atogs in an Atog deck, as it errs toward the side of having it more consistently.

 Conclusion

Atog is only the most recent example I felt worth exploring with this methodology. It is the fact that you know you wouldn’t want 20 that makes it interesting. You would likely want 20 Lightning Bolts in some decks if you could have them. You would totally play 12 or maybe 16 Savannah Lions if your opponent would not complain. A lot of decks would love Swords 5 and 6. What other “4-ofs” do we accept as infallible truths that might be worth considering at lower numbers? 

Ink & Antiquities #4, Brett Attmore

Ink & Antiquities

    Welcome back to another Ink & Antiquities. This time we are with a long standing OS member and collector of many cool original artist alters, Brett Attmore. A little magic history on Brett; After starting like many of you in the summer of 94, Brett played mostly type 1 and vintage through 2005 where he sold his collection. He returned to Magic in late 2013 with a goal of getting back into vintage. While buying back, he discovered "The Blog" and quickly became enamored by 93/94. He particularly loved the format's tradition of deck photos from figures like Kalle Nord, Magnus De Laval, and the rest of the Swedish scene. 

    Brett began picking up cards at laughably low prices compared to now. He mentions how lucky he was on his timing of entry. He entered his first OS event in the Fall of 2015, Jaco's own Eternal Weekend II. Perhaps like a contact virus, Brett discovered his appreciation of original artist alters. Seeing Sebastien Dube's collection was his "altersexual awakening." At this point, he considers original artist alter collecting a big subsection of what he enjoys about Magic. That said, Brett's collection is incredibly personal representing tons and tons of hours spent in lines, meeting artists, and traveling. Lets take a look! 

No cards more earned than prize cards!

    

    One of the only photos without a single original artist alter, and my personal favorite classification of card. Those earned by doing battle to the highest degree, a prize card. Brett has had moderate success in at least making top 16s and top 8s over the years, he is still hunting that big win. 

Look at those round corners!

    The majority of Brett's collection are alters he himself acquired standing in lines and meeting artists. These Alpha Icy's are some of his favorites! Crazy to think this picture represents around 0.45 percent of the print run. 

Seasonal sets are always in style.

    Brett play's a variety of decks, including everyone's least favorite, Keeper! These look like fantastic inclusions that might take the sting out of losing your wood elemental. My particular favorite is the snowy Moat, although it looks considerably less effective when frozen over. 

    

Bringing something meaningful into Dominia!

    Brett recalls a hike he went on as a child that he still walks to this day. The tower here is Hublein Tower in Simsbury, CT. These alters were made personal by including a relevant landmark in Brett's own life. 

My fucking God. 

    This pic is sort of the crème de la crème for close to fully OG altered decks. You will see a lot of these cards in later pictures so I wanted to share what I would consider the "master work" or what it all comes together to first. Its hard to quantify the hours and effort spent on this through a few quick sentences. 

Hot and cold sideboard tech.

    A collection of Richard Thomas clearly made to live together. All featuring the little doll from black vise and friends. Its good to see him getting some screen time while not tied to some horrible contraption. 

The nongameiteers

    Only missing Mind Twist for this set of "cards that make you groan on turn 1." A somewhat starry night Evoking Library, a sneaky Starwars Ancestral, and a.. uhm, is it a Harvey Birdman reference?

Bottle Gnome's are only the second best bottle dwelling guys around.

     Why yes that is a complete playset of Arabian Dibs altered by Anson himself, why do you ask? A fantastic OS community artist by the name of Slum once told me "I think they should have a bigger emphasis on the lamp." in regards to the various lamp dwelling Arn dudes. These would be after his own heart! Its also great to see the Cyclopean tomb guy got out of his Amigara fault hole mostly intact. 

    

Frazier fantasy party!

  

    Frazier is pretty well known for those chromatic dragons, and these are no slouches. I would call these some of the more unique ones I have seen due to their second colors in the first 3. He was also generous enough to write most of his name on these! Genies and Dragons and Trolls Oh My! 

KMJ Semi Bipedal musclebound creatures.

    The primary two directions people take alters here living in harmony. "funny" and "classic." I am not even sure if Hoover altered Fellwar stones exist, and this is the best solution I think I have personally seen. 

    

So fucking jealous of those badlands. 

    A gorgeous set of blackborder duals, some sick old signatures (Snoddy doesn't sign his full name anymore and Rob signs everything but not like this.) As far as the Rob duals go having them back is a big win in itself, and Brett rolled HIGH on these badlands and underground seas compared to the common "what the fuck are these pen marks" alters you see on them. 

Getting one Tedin alter is hard, 14 is something else!

    I could write a paragraph about most of these but I love when people bring something personal to them into these alters. We see a ton of Starwars, Juzams, and Dragon alters everywhere. Something unique like bringing in a painting from a favorite piece of media (in this example, The Last Spell of Fistandantilus) it makes it all the more special. I am also pretty blown away by the lighting on the brainstorm. Mark Tedin is the master of creating on sight posca alters that look like they were painted with a brush over hours. 

    

Somehow getting Amy to do this many alters is masterful in itself. 

    Some of the better Amy alters I have seen. particularly the disenchants with their fantastic colors and shatter that go outside of the scope we normally see from her. 

Some meta warping lands.

    Some hot Foglio action. I love the little dudes on the different season factories. These gorgeous sigs make it a bit less biting to have your opponent open "workshop mox mox mox trike" on the play. 


    

Will must be honored to be among all of these OG artists!

    The last one I will leave a comment on, having a set of gorgeous alters from within the OS community is always a plus to go alongside your absurd original artist alters. These ones are particularly sweet. Having sick stuff from good friends always makes it a pleasure to smash some face or have your face smashed in good company. 


    

Stacks of absurdity.

    Here are several of Brett's builds that he plays featuring many of the sick cards he has shared with us above (and many more) so make sure you prolong your toilet reading time to scroll through all of them! Thank you so much for sharing what is clearly years of great taste and effort. Much of this is truly a part of both Magic and Magic artist history, as well as oldschool Magic history. We are lucky you took the time to share it with us Brett! 

Ink & Antiquities #3, Caleb Mikolajczyk

 Ink & Antiquities #3

    Welcome back to another Ink & Antiquities! This time with artist and OS player younger than me, Caleb Mikolajczyk! (or Dragonborn, depending on who you ask!) Caleb has a true appreciation for art and puts plenty of cool pieces out into the community. Lets look at what he's got! 

OG prints erasered for white borders! 

    Many OSer's favorite type of card is that which is covered in other people's names. The tradition of group signing lives within Caleb's Berserk Ball deck. Whenever he attends an event he white borders an original print card such as a legends chain lightning, stamps it with the group stamp, and collects names. I am lucky enough to be on a few of these! 

Easily one of the most aesthetically pleasing decks to exist.

    Caleb walks us through some of the history of his deck. Many of the alters he painted himself. Lets dive deeper into some of the favorites! 

Look at that Orb!

    The Chaos Orb. Truly a stunner! Mark Tedin (prounounced Te-Deen, not Teed-in) gave him props on it and signed it. You know you are doing something right when one of the greats loves your work!

Why is this picture backwards?

   I am not sure how this picture came to me backwards, but the Drain Life is another one of Caleb's originals that he had signed by the card's original artist, signified by the "CM" in the bottom corners. 

several certified OS hood classics!

    Most OSers have seen Merhan's swords around the block. I think my favorite is the combo David Mckinven X Caleb mind twist. If I recall, David did the Juzam's base and Caleb added a lot of color to make it pop. A great community colab. Caleb got incredibly lucky to pick up another OS art legend's playset in his winning Cream City Con's raffle for Park Cofield's city of brass set. I think my favorite is the Atlantis one. 

Gems and Dragons go hand in hand.

    A truly earned piece of power. Usually "flipping to power" is a meme to make fun of finance bros taking advantage of oldschool generosity, but this is an example of it being earned! Caleb purchased a scrublands and altered it for another player. He used the proceeds to take his foray into power, and this is the result! An ancient black dragon sourced from a recent DnD book, and painted by one of Caleb's favorite alter artists, "Jay Alters!" This is the first of a planned set of chromatic dragon alters so Caleb might live up to the name "Dragonborn." (what a nerd) 

    Thank you Caleb for sharing your awesome creations with us here! To anyone who might be interested in sharing what they collect, please reach out to me to be the next "Ink and Antiquities!" 

Ink & Antiquities #2, Kyle Wells

Ink & Antiquities

    Welcome back to another Ink & Antiquities! This time with beloved OS degenerate and best OS Kyle, Kyle Wells. I have had the pleasure of playing with Kyle several times and he is the definition of "Form over function." Lets take a look at his stuff! 

Kyle always gets first prize pick thanks to a strategy he uses called "come in dead last every time"

    This alter was a prize from last weekend's "Bootleggers Ball," an event I have extreme FOMO from missing. It was both a meaningful pick as his first time meeting Cam, our previous week's subject, in person, and a hot pick just for being a sweet and iconic alter on an A2A menace. He noted he is also going to Disney next week with his wife and kid so Rafiki just felt right. 

What ever happend to sketch books?

    Sketch books used to feel like a more common way to get an original magic artists works, before alters were as popular as they are now. A quick email to Melissa Benson yielded this awesome sketch of Xira for Kyle's sketch book. He promises he will work harder to fill out more of it in the future. 

I hope Kyle recycles, Regrowth shouldn't go to a landfill.

    Kyle is always working on an interesting project. Whenever he purchases a card from Foggie (not so local to Ohio Canadian player) it comes with an altered envelope. Kyle cut out the art and sleeved them up. This art project deck became the winner of "best partnership" in the 2024 Guildhouse choice awards, chosen by judge and "good arter" Slum. 

"Goonies never say die!"

    Speaking of Slum, Kyle met him at thrash bash 3. Slum offered to make him a Goonies alter, which turned into a friendship, and then all of this. Kyle rates him 10/10 alterist and 11/10 human. Kyle also states that The Goonies is the perfect movie. "It has action, Romance, Drama, Comedy, Nostalgia, Frodo Baggins, the lead character from Thrashin whose name I can't think of, and a pirate ship. So so good." - Kyle Wells

Continuation of Slum alters

"Our tour begins here in this gallery, here where you see paintings of some of our guests as they appeared in their corruptible mortal state. Kindly step all the way in, please, and make room for everyone. There's no turning back now."

    Speaking of beloved semi reclusive OS artists, MR created this "Stretching Room" inspired set of black goodies. For the uninitiated such as myself, the "Stretching Room" is a part of the haunted mansion ride at Magic Kingdom. 

Just missing Amy's Sig!

    Everyone has a grail. Anyone who knows Kyle knows he is an addict for anything "Serra Angel." with a minor alteration by Dick and signed by both him and Shuler, all he needs here is Amy's sig for the first legit triple signed card I will have seen. 

Visual clarity be damned

    Kyle's Thrash Bash II winning deck. He boasts that the alters helped confuse his opponents, giving him the win. I will note that to date, I have only seen Kyle get first place, or dead last. Ricky Bobby's father would be proud. 

He went the other way for Thrash III

Kyle's "Prize card" for coming in dead last at Thrash 3. He was rocking a mono green force of nature deck featuring Eureka and Lure. He claims to have pulled it off at least one time. I am not sure I believe him. Card above shows it went exactly as expected!

Baby's first deck

    Kyle's first deck. He had a certified nerd rage moment upon the release of planeswalkers in 2010, causing him to sell out. He had to get this one back given it was his first.  

Kyle's first prize card. 

The first prize card Kyle ever won, provided by the Cleveland Rocs. 

Did not know Kyle was a foot guy, upskirt aside. 

    Last, (and I hope not least!) was my very own secret scare gift to Kyle. Knowing he was a Serra addict this one was easy, shipping her less so (given she broke off her base and had to be reglued.) Created in heroforge and painted by Sargoth Studios. Kyle also has a running list of cards he needs altered for a full altered OS edh deck. Swole Angus joins the fold! (I think he just included this stuff because I'm writing it)

    Thank you Kyle for sharing some of your awesome toys with us! To anyone else who may want to do one of these, feel free to reach out and thank you for reading! 

Ink & Antiquities #1, Cam Wall

Ink & Antiquities

    This is to be the first post in a series designed to allow old-school magic players to show off their favorite parts of their collection. We spend so much time and effort collecting, altering, hunting, and gifting and I would like an outlet for people that feel like it to share that with whomever feels like reading about it. No type of collection is wrong, be it fully altered, not altered, a full set of beta or a stack of revised cards you feel are special because you had them in your youth. Like many things we do the point is connecting with each other. 

Typically this would be done in more of a text interview style, but I asked Cam to share a bit about his in the wrong channel of a discord chatroom, so I am summarizing his favorites for this first one. 

Without further adieu, Cam Wall's hand drawn rectangles and accompanying

words.

How it began 

    Cam is not your typical OS magic player. He is considerably detached from the value and collecting aspect of the game compared to a lot of players. He is much more interested in cards that have a meaning or were gifted to him by close friends. I am not sure if he coined the phrase "its about the gathering" but he certainly lives by it. 

Odin's Chosen (aka Shawn's chosen)

The first card Cam shares with us is his "Odin's Chosen, 2nd place" strip mine from Shawn's Ragnarök event in Seattle. Shawn typically has some type of award that goes to his few favorite decks with no specific criteria. Cam's was awarded for having a fully altered Atog deck. 

A couple of Cam's favorite characters in science fiction

Cam and Quail have a confusing relationship from the outside in. Not a day goes by where you don't read "Quail Sucks" from Cam. That said I see it as teasing your crush in elementary school. I am not sure if these were gifts or trades or something else, but no one doubt's Quails proficiency with a posca. 

Art Nouveau, a late 19th century style

    Cam says he loves Art Nouveau, and that he finds this one by Kyra particularly stunning. He used to run a blue red Machinegun deck with mana vaults, triskelions, and copy artifacts, and this was part of that core. (for the uninitiated, machinegun decks are based around spending these artifacts then returning them to your hand with cards like hurkyl's recall to use again) 

Its not anime, its Pacific Rim

    Perhaps the set with the most emotion around them, Cam's birthday bots. Gifted to him by Park Cofield, Quail, and Nick Viau. Notably Quail loves when you mess with his art, so cam brightened up the green one. 

More Quail and some Pez birthday commissions from Nick V

    If anything is clear, it is that Cam is a sci-fi and Marvel nerd. The top two done by Quail, bottom two done by Nick Viau for Cams birthday, commissioned by Pez.  

Cam likes aggro, from Q and "Aaron's Daughter" 

    On any given day you can find cam raging against the machine. (If the machine's name was swords to plowshares) 

Cam has better birthdays than most

    Another birthday alter, this one from Tony, is particularly awesome. 

The rare artist's own

    I think a lot of people who make things end up making mostly for others and not frequently for themselves. This can be by chance, or because they are critical of their own work. Anyway, These are two of Cam's rare "I did them and kept them" cards, and some of the favorites he has ever done. 

Cams face when he has to play EDH

This one done by David Velasco, a portrait of Cam waiting for someone to take an incredibly long turn in EDH. Being put on a card feels like an old-school right of passage. 

free cards and friendship

Cam explained that he absolutely had to have these when he saw them in James Portello's deck pic early in the old-school altering culture. James mailed them to Cam for free, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

Cam finalizes with the fact that this is really only like one percent of his alters. Cards don't frequently stay with him for long, often finding their forever home a trade or gift after. Thanks for sharing Cam! 

If you would like to do an Ink and Antiquities of your own collection, let me know!