r/Shandalar

I've seen some playmats with Shandalar overworld graphics, but none that tried to capture the gameplay like this. I had to make some things bigger and move things around to make it work. It's not exact to the game, but it's a good interpretation that works for real world gameplay.

Excuse the Premodern jank deck...I mostly play Premodern, and mostly jank decks.

I used this Amazon listing. I have no affiliate link, or any stake in that listing fyi. I'm actually not totally happy with the colors (they're a little less vibrant than the image), so order at your own risk.

Here are links to the files if you'd like to order one there, or at whatever custom mat site you'd like:

Deck on Left Side
Deck on Right Side

I obviously take no responsibility for poorly printed mats, incorrect uploads, things different for different sites etc. This image at that link is what gave me what's in the photos....

I played MtG as a kid from roughly early '95 thru ~'98/'99. I'm getting back into Magic and want to play Shandalar also.

I've played the original + this 2010 edition (from this YT video) on/off. I've read thru the sticky + many other posts, and I still got a bit lost in the many different versions/patches/mods.

Here's my preferences/situation:

• More stable/less glitchy than what I've been playing. (Any graphics + QoL improvements would be nice bonuses)
• Manageable card pool: Probably not thousands of cards - like I remember many of the old cards pretty well, especially from my core playing years, but also want to relearn the card pool well enough to recognize cards, interactions, combos, and what I should be looking for while building a deck.
• I'd like to improve as a player/deck builder. I'm naturally not a great strategist, and wasn't at all as a kid, but now I'm quite interested in learning and experimenting with good decks/combos.
• My core era was roughly 4th Edition/Ice Age thru Mirage/Visions/Weatherlight, and I was decently familiar w/Revised + earlier sets. I remember Tempest too, but that's when I started fading out.
• Currently doing some 5th Ed. drafts w/the 2 friends I played with as a kid, so overlap with that card pool would be useful practice.

I've no idea what number of cards/sets is the sweet spot before it all becomes too diluted and difficult to learn/build around, so I don't necessarily need to have every card/set from my era.

Given all that, what Shandalar version/mod/patch setup would you recommend?

Is the code for the 2012 (https://archive.org/details/shandalar-2012) version anywhere? I want to play that version but make some changes to how the game handles starting life totals