Grading
Overall 9.5 GEM MINT
Centering 9
Corners 9.5
Edges 9.5
Surface 9.5
In my opinion, this particular card is misgraded on centering and could be justified as a quad. Although there is an ever so slight left-right misalignment, it's so minor that so many cards have been graded a 9.5 with worse centering than this card. Either way, this is a very special example of the first printing of the iconic Tundra dual land.
Rarity & Collectability
This Tundra is 1 of approximately 1,100 total printed in the original alpha set of Magic the Gathering in 1993 and is part of the reserved list so will never be reprinted. Because this original printing was prone to centering issues, it is an extremely difficult card to find in overall BGS Gem Mint or higher grade. Because the many of the alpha Tundra cards were printed off-centered, this card requires 9.5 subgrades of corners, surface and edges to make the overall grade of BGS Gem Mint 9.5. Of the 139 total alpha Tundra cards graded, only 11 have made BGS 9.5 and 1 has been graded a BGS 10 Pristine. This makes some sense, given how hard it is to have a high corner grade for alpha cards that had a larger radius of curvature leading to a more difficult cut.
In my goal to obtain a Gem Mint (9.5b or better) set of Alpha dual lands, I knew that Tundra was going to be one of the hardest to obtain! I am grateful that I was able to find one in 2021, 28 years after it was originally printed.
Impressions & Artwork
One of the 10 original dual lands ("OG dual"), this one has to be one of my favorite because of the artwork from Jesper Myfors. Although later printed in the revised edition with white borders and also in foreign black border cards (FBB), the bold and rich colors of the original alpha, beta, unlimited printings are unparalled in depth and richness.
The artwork depicts a barren and cold land. Only the hint of frozen vegetation as the small herd of animals wander nomadically, in search for shelter that is nowhere to be found. The muted colors of white, gray and navy match the yellow and blue-gray pattern behind the text describing the card's use. The winter night sky that is illuminated shows continuous snowfall that is painted at an angle to show the movement of the wind. I can hear the howl and feel the crisp bite of the air in my lungs when imagining the frozen Tundra.
Usage & Gameplay
The land itself is very powerful and is a mainstay of EDH and vintage decks alike due having minimal downside of using them in a deck. This dual land counts as both islands and plains (so is fetchable in your library), and also does not come into play tapped while offering the optionality of one white or blue mana. The original dual lands enabled incredible color combinations of vintage decks that could use up to four at a time. I remember running 5 color decks in 1995 when I was a teenager playing casually with my friends.
I loved to tap a revised Tundra to cast copies of Serra Angel and Serendib Efreet, which happen to be some of my favorite and iconic flying creatures from the game. Thinking about it takes me back in time to when life was simpler.
Nostalgia
My local game store called Club Bub was owned by an Asian man in his thirties. He had glass cases showcasing valuable cards from a big range of the first expansion sets of the game. My fresh-faced friends and I would lust over the cards on the weekend afternoons before getting owned in regular Magic tournaments by grown ass men with sweaty hands that actually knew how to play the game. One Saturday, the owner stepped away and had his father look after the store while he was gone. It was our chance.
I worked up the courage with my friends to ask how much the 20 copies of unlabeled dual lands (some of them were Tundra) stacked unsleeved in a plastic container were. The owner's father took a moment to think about it, shrugged his shoulders and said "$2 each" (they were worth around $15). Being the broke ass I was and only having no more than $5 on me, I rushed home and borrowed $40 from my own father exclaiming that an emergency had come up and that I would explain later. I returned to the store, just before the owner returned to buy them all. Karma is going to catch up to me and my friends any day now...but if the original owner of Club Bub sees this and can prove it, I will Paypal friends and family the $260 I owe him. Sorry man.
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