New guy Dan got patched when he took down our Classic event night before Bootleggers Ball. The last few months he's hung out with us, it was clear to me that he was going to be a great fit. Part of that realization came after he shared that he had been collecting Scragnoths nearly his whole life. Here's a guest post from Dan on that journey...
I must’ve been in eighth grade when I mailed Jeff Laubenstein this Scragnoth, which he kindly signed and sent back with a nice handwritten letter answering my eighth-grade questions. Tempest was my first set and my journey of feeling mad at blue all the time was just beginning.
I’m not sure how I accrued all deez. People handed them to me after Time Spiral drafts ? Meme among friends ? Added a couple to get over random free-shipping minimums ? When I moved away many waited for a decade in a closet and somehow survived my parents moving houses.
At some point ~15 years ago a guy offered me this crimped one to borrow my Tarmogoyfs 😬
Scraignoss. Skragnoth. Scragnot. Schutz vor Blau. Not yet a global set but a fella can dream.
Finally met Jeff Laubenstein in person at Eternal Weekend in Philly. He’s a swell storyteller and invokes Young Frankenstein when asked how to pronounce his last name. I told him I want to better understand Scragnoth’s biology so he drew me this. And of course signed a bunch more:
He told me the assignment, I think from Jesper Myrfors, was basically “we need a beast with a green background.” This was the first card opponents couldn’t counter, and Mark Rosewater initially pitched it as a 2/2 for 3G called “Greased Weasel.” Scragnoth much better.
Saw Jeff again at Eternal Weekend in 2024 and he did this up for me. The dream is one day when he has time to get like a drawing of young Scragnoth? We agreed they likely hatch from eggs. But I think Jeff stays busy at EW just off this other card Show and Tell. To date he has not made a Scragnoth playmat but he told me I’m one reason he’d consider it.
I recently asked Chat GPT what Scragnoth was and didn’t mention Magic. Chat asked if I meant a mythical creature maybe from fantasy or gaming and I said sure, tell me about that creature. Some details it nailed: leathery hide covered in jagged spines, teeth like broken stone. Others it botched: four eyes ? But somehow it correctly guessed that bit about the eggs. And in a rare case of AI bringing me joy, it said young scragnoths are called “scrags.”
Quagnoth, son of Scragnoth. (We don’t have to talk about the other green 4/5 from Future Sight.) I like to imagine one day we’ll get a Scragnoth that somehow does direct damage called “Fragnoth.”
Scragnoth made top 8 in two Stupid Green Deck sideboards at US Nationals in 1998 (standard), and also top-8’d Worlds that same summer (block). The next year at Canadian Nationals (standard), top 8 saw Scragnoth in three decks, including as a 3x in a Tradewind/Awakening sb and even played main alongside Survival and Living Death. Its trail on MtgTop8 then goes cold for 23 years, until in 2022 it started showing up in random premodern sideboards again. If you’ve killed a blue wizard with Scragnoth you are stellar.
Anyway my wife knows what I’m about. Imagine explaining this to my in-laws on Xmas morning.
Jeff L. isn’t the only person I’ve encouraged to sign a Scragnoth btw. This one’s from Music City Old School’s 2024 “Bootlegger’s Ball” event in Nashville. Hope to see you at the next one.
Stay mad at blue,
Dan
PS bring me a miscut one and foreign foils. No puede ser contrarrestado.
