Ink & Antiquities #5, Josh Burgoa

 

Ink & Antiquities

    Welcome back to another Ink & Antiquities. This time we look toward Tennessee as long standing OS player, tattooed card collector, and winner of the "best AirBNB guest award" Josh Burgoa. Josh was kind enough to share his journey toward "Every restricted card group signed" as well as several cool prize cards and alters he has picked up along the way. 

An original Josh B, from the best event in the Midwest! 

    A particular vibe is felt from this one that many "night sky" type alters seek to achieve. I especially love the 3 color gradient to a glowing aura around the cliffside folk. We were also lucky enough to have Susan herself at Thrash IV to sign! 

Having a sick Quail alter is an OS right of passage

    Possibly the coolest Quail preacher alter (of which many have been done.) Josh is the lucky holder of this one. How does Q get white posca down so smoothly? 

Bootlegger's Xmas 2018

    My favorite yet, an original Brossard. Being able to make paint look like needle-pointing is insanely impressive, and what an incredible job with the reflection inside the orb. Brossard now does a yearly raffle alter for Bootlegger's ball. "True king" in Josh's own words! 

    

It would be a shame to exclude great stuff due to age! 

    This is Josh's favorite "Pre- OS" alter. Like many of us before we found OS, we had invested into what we were able to play! 

CamJam prize card!

    While we were all stuck inside during covid, Cam Wall was keeping it alive with virtual tournaments. This was Josh's prize card for an 11-0 win streak in the original Cam Jam, which was played with the Alpha to Alliances format. 

Great theme matching the card!

    Sometimes a card just works perfectly with an idea. A very well done Dragonball alter to match the demonic tutor from before! 

Heroes in a half shell, turtle power!

    Many of you might not  know this, but the reason for universe beyond was Josh staying up for several days and nights filling out WOTC intake forms that he wanted Dragonball and Ninja Turtles magic cards. 

New-frame or not, that's a Klug!

   Really incredible to own a Klug seeing what they are going for on ebay these days! This one is from 2011. The glowing effect on the sword really speaks to me with this one, and an incredibly appropriate alter for the Sword of Feast and Famine. 

Hating something you did in the past is a sign of growth

    Josh picked these up when he met Quail at the Oldschool Player's Ball in 2018. He gave me the note that Quail hates these. I always think its funny to find older work from great artists that they can't stand that are still infinitely better than anything 99 percent of the population could create. The amount of "GET OVER HERE" spam I received from friends as a kid make these resonate with me. 

Secret Santa still Secret

    Many OS groups do some form of gift swap. This was what Josh received in his very first OS secret santa. To this day, he does not know who sent it to him, and he still plays it! Maybe if the person who made it sees this they can reach out! 

Josh's first posca alters, with an interesting method of distribution

    If you want one of these bad boys or similar, you have to beat Josh with a rather specific win condition. These Karma alters go only to those who beat Josh in a game of magic with the card "Karma." Ben Revell, Cam Wall, and Charlie Hahn are the current holders of this prestigious award. 

Josh collecting Dogtags

    Unlike many group signed cards, these were not obtained simply by attending. These Berserks were signed by Josh's early OS opponents who died to berserk during his "Rug Berserk" days. He mentioned that it is like collecting ears from killing a player in Diablo II. 

Blue gets all the breaks

    Possibly my favorite misprint, Josh, the madman that he is, not only has a full playset of this pricy time elemental Angel, he got one group signed! Yes these do function as Serra angels on the battlefield! 

First alter of his own he liked

    Josh claims that this was the first altered card he made that he actually liked. In OS for 8 years and I can still count on one hand the number of alters I have produced that I actually like. 

Out there somewhere in the world waiting to be reunited

    Josh recalls Bootlegger's Ball 2018. Jaco won the event, and one of the prizes was this bottle of Jack Daniels. Upon winning he gave everyone a shot, where in typical Fashion, Josh asked for another. (It was his birthday after all, he gets a pass.) Jaco gave Josh the rest of the bottle and he had all 26 people at BLB 1 sign it. It travelled from event to event with him being refilled and collecting names from all that drank from it. Tragically, at the Orbvitational, the bottle was thrown away and was not recovered. This bottle is truly missed and will likely remain Josh's favorite OS item floating out there in the world somewhere. 

Strip mines with a story to tell

    While all 5 of these strips are included, Josh noted the top left in the picture of 4 is the most special. Josh managed a 3 way tie for third place at the 2018 Oldschool player's ball, sharing third with Aaron West and Will Magrann. Jaco had all 120 people at the event sign a strip mine of his own to give out as a prize. It says "3rd place" on it but is impossible to make out due to all of the signatures. 

    Following his impressive placement in OSPB, he snuck back to Chicago in 2025 (for the first time since 2019) for Fall Brawl and stole the win, his prize card being the 5th strip mine pictured. 

Kumite Mural alters!

    A prize card foreign to me, apparently 6 alters of local Murals were made as prize cards. Josh mentions that all 6 Kumite Mural Alters are owned by MCOS and the Knights Taplar (the local group,) with MCOS being the majority owners. 

Yes, this is a real Chaos Orb. 

    Josh's favorite type of OS card is "tattooed." He has a longstanding goal of having a group signed card of every single restricted card. You can see his progress above. Several of these are real, including Chaos Orb, Ancestral Recall, and Time Walk, making this endeavor quite impressive. 

Bring back unsolicited gift alters!

    Before Nick Viau went boating off into the sunset to live off of Fish and Photography, he was known for his hand in the original "Fuck the Cards" movement. This was an unsolicited gift alter he gave to Josh, featuring himself (Josh) and some amount of the inside of his head as the subject for the alter. What an awesome gift! 

    A strong OS career comes with many amazing cards, items, and friends along the way. Josh has certainly upheld that spirit and we thank him for sharing with us!