The Curious Case of Birds of Paradise 

"Turn 1, land, bird, pass." "Turn 1, land, bolt, pass." Ahhhh nostalgia.

"Been spending most our lives tapping all our birds of paradise."- Coolio

That poor bird gets hit by lightning so many times, and they say lightning never hits the same spot twice!

The original art for BoP was for Volcanic Island, not Trop. That's why there is no Volcanic Island in Alpha.

"Bolt the bird!" it's been such a long time since i've heard that!

I know this video is old, but Birds did get that long awaited reprint in Conspiracy: Take the Crown.

with Gilded Goose being spoiled for Eldraine, it only seems fair to come back and watch this video. welcome back, golden boy!

Llanowar elves is still a thing in 2018

I bought my husband a shirt with the plant "Birds of Paradise" because many years ago he taught me about the magic of the plant and I discovered the lore of the bird itself. Fantastic personal history of mine. Glad to see MTG picking up the idea

super interesting channel. love the history of these iconic cards

Wasn't it Volcanic island that was the alpha land and not Tropical island? that's why there is smoke on the island. and why there is no alpha volcanic island. the red blue, not green blue. I love your content btw.

The origin for birds of paradise’s original art reminds me of how in the very early days of yugioh there would be monsters that would just be alternate arts of the same creature, but with different names. Sometimes if they looked too similar they would put a #1 or #2 after the name, just to save money I guess.

ive played mtg since 2003 off and on and have beem playing steadily for 5 years. i have never heard "bolt the bird". but as soon as i heard you say it i immediately knew.

Never head BOP. I just hear "Birds"

Really nice piece. I always refer to it as BOP, sounding out the letters. But there was one time when my opponents would play a turn one Bird, and I was playing Red, so I'd respond with "Mmm, Bop, uhm, ah, burn Bop...", and proceed to continue with the Hanson imitation for upwards of five to ten seconds. I've been advised never to do that again by judges. With dire consequences if it were to happen again.

Recently moved from standard into modern. And this video struck a beautiful chord with me. Thanks for the video. "Bolt the bird" still makes me sad :(

Amazing video! I discovered your channel just recently and I am watching each and everyone of your videos. They are all gems. Cheers!

Love the pro tour flashbacks

wow, i got randomly recommended this and thought it was about actual birds-of-paradise

neither the bolt nor bird will be heard of from again #bringbackmodernprotour

They recently printed paradise druid, i never knew it was referencing this card but it must be

Your channel has a huge replay value :) I don't get tired coming back

3:40 "and wizards seeks now to drift away from this tradition" *prints llanowar elves in core 19* Me: "so that was a fucking lie" nah jk, love your videos, huge respect for the format that you occupy!

That was very well produced. Great job with the research on the artists, history of the card, and footage of the bolting in action :)

Great Video! They're always so interesting, keep it up.

Awesome, informative and entertaining. I love your vids.

I honestly thought this video was going to bring up the fact that the alpha version of BOP is still 1000 bucks, whereas a newer playset can be bought for ~20 bucks, as an argument for reprinting power and/or getting rid of the reserve list haha

Excellent video for an equally excellent card!

Your editing is looking a lot better! Keep it up

Sam! Where have you been! i miss watching the regular videos you put up. I guess i'll take what i can get xD great work as usual! Keep it up!

Great videos! So much great information.

Great video! Great card!

Awesome as always.

I love this serie about 1 iconic card at the time.

Wonder video as always on a fun card to play. Winnning with a kessig wolfed BOP is always fun.

Great video dude

*The Ravnica: City of Guilds printing was in 2005, and not in 2003.

You are my favorite mtg channel!

Awesome story. That original tropical island also looked like a volcanic island.

Excellent video. Thank you for sharing.

2:54 the mad lad predicted the errata 5 years in advance

Awesome awesome awesome video, directly to my favourite videos

R.I.P. Jimmy Buffet. May you rest in paradise.

Fun fact: I bought my first play set of Birds of Paradise right before they rotated and were never reprinted.🙃

"Bolt the bird, twenty two years and counting" Superb commentary!

Got so many new printings now!

love it, I love that your back making videos, I felt something was missing from RU-vid.

Congrats on 15k Sam!

You gained a new subscriber. Magic forever!

Fantastic video as always from this channel.

Not sure if you'll read this... I rarely comment on youtube, but I am VERY intrigued at your videos. I've only watched Thoughtsieze/Thraggytusk/Sygg EDH so far; But theres ALOT of interesting information/very good visuals & evidence backed up in all of your videos. I subscribed. Keep pumping out the material man. I think it's SWEET.

I'm not really into magic anymore, but damn these videos are fun to watch. I don't really enjoy actually playing the game, but I love the lore, the philosophy and such both in card design and how it affects deck building, gameplay, and such.

With the reintroduction of Core sets and the new commander product including a 5-color deck, I'm actually sure that we'll see more of the birds within at least a year or two.

Bolt that bird! Bolt that Bird! Great video!

Bop it

great vídeo! You should try make a pack lore vídeo for each expansion of Magic ever made! It would be an incredible content!

please make more videos like this and the snapcaster mage video

Thanks for the vid! Link to the live games you put in it?

Birds has been my favorite card since I built my first Magic deck (Tooth and Nail during original Mirrodin). I mostly play Standard and it’s sad I don’t get to play with it anymore. Also, someone from R&D said during GP (or PT?) coverage last year that Llanowar Elves in Dominaria was initially Birds of Paradise but they changed it during set design because they didn’t want to enable too many 5c strategies. So close, yet so far...

I play old school and we still call it birds Never heard bop before

He's back!

I love Mark Poole's art!

Well done video.. one of your best. Would love to see more like it :)

RIP Llanowar elves in Standard. It never got a reprint after game night. Core 2019 was the last time the card got reprinted into standard.

Sam, one word - great!

Thank you, Mark Pool. Thank you so much

I'm broke so I don't donate to patreon, but I've gone through your videos twice. Thank you for you love for art and the art of the video

This video is obviously pre-Conspiracy2, but I still think it's a great video for it's time, and is still totally worth watching today. Great content. I subscribed. Keep up the good work.

I love your videos so much, im commenting on all of them to assist with the RU-vid Algorithm.

actually volcanic island was the card it came from hence the volcano in the background of birds

"WoTC have been more careful introducing fast mana dorks" Delighted Halfling: Let me Introduce myself

Great video on one of my favourite cards. At the end BDM called out Jacob Wilson as being younger than the card. Magic has reached a tipping point now where it's first generation have begun to retire and this will be the case more and more, as seen with Oliver Tui winning the last Vintage Super League.

Ornithopter of Paradise has reared it's head as a great any-color BOP

Dude you need to work for Wotc- you are so knowledgeable and in-depth with the cards. Like, this beautiful insight prevalent in every single video you are a part of. You are no joke the most cool, spiritual person on RU-vid.

You should make a video about Force of Will and the impact of cards you can cast for free. It would be interesting to go through all the ways they have impacted the gam and with the printing of two very powerful free spells back to back (Once Upon a Time and Force of Negation) it is topical and relevant and would be interesting to look at through your very in depth and thorough lens. Early on in my Magic experience, your videos really got me connected to the past of magic and how the game has evolved and it helped me learn about why certain things are important (always bolt the bird) or why cards that seem innocuous to a new player are $50 a pop (snapcaster mage). Free spells are a good example of that sort of mechanic that a new player might not fully understand the benefit of. "Why is a spell that makes me pay a life and exile a card from my hand to just counter a spell $100??" Just a thought.

First! Great video! Always great content Sam!

I never heard about that story on the origin of the birds... interesting

U make good content

haha jimmy buffet refference +1 but also -5

I'm guessing this will show up in Iconic Masters.

They should bring in all the iconic cards into standard. Such as bolt, birds, thoughtseize and pithing needle. It would make for an interesting standard and these cards cost would go down as well. These cards could work against each other and also help each other. It would be interesting to see what other iconic cards they could put with these cards as well.

The backbone of my mono green deck is made from four Elvish Mystics, four Arbor Elves, four Llanowar Elves, and four Birds of Paradise. Nothing screams “NATURE, MOTHERF**KER!” like dropping 8/8 trample creatures on turn three.

Is that why we now have Paradise Druid that can't be bolted untapped? Interesting story.

I ran Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar and Birds in an anti land deck back in the day. Good times. 😳

Now the term is actually mana value!

why are the links at the end no longer available, khans pack lore fx ?

And for the power level, I must (atleast in our kitchen table) BoP was the best creature to put on the "roxodon warhammer" (aka loxodon) :D

Is it legal in commander? If so I need a copy

The lack of one mana mana dorks is the death of standard

And now, we have Gilded Goose.

im relatively new to magic, so my favorite (albeit slower) mana ramp card is Sylvan Caryatid.

B.O.P should have a Modern Horizons or EDH reprint, even if it isn't in Standard. I feel a real sense of happiness when I pull an iconic card like this.

Ramp is a green color “thing” they WOTC would be changing the color spectrum forever if the get rid of our llanowar elves for example. “Bolt the bird”

I play Eternal now, but there's a creature called Initiate of the Sands which is basically a BOP, turn 1 ramp. Bolt the bird lives on in Torch the Initiate.

i would say that beastcaller savant isnt neccesarily slower than bop, and its better if you have a different one drop that would benefit you on turn one

it might make it in a green commander bird deck in 2016...

Give us more birds wizards!

Like this card so much more than power9

This hasn't aged well. We now have Gilded Goose, which is just a way more powerful version of the already broken Birds of Paradise.

Dominaraia is the return of the one drop mana dork with lanowar elves