Buy and Trade

BAM!

KACHOW!

SWOOSH!

Eh...

Ok, so yeah.  Before the Magic weekend my friend and I were frantically building decks so we could have a flavor to choose from when we were up there playing at the Source.  He ended up needed a couple cards, and I saw they were up for sale at Mead Hall Games, so I offered to pick them up for him before we met up at the Source.

And yes, this was just a huge excuse for me to go to Mead Hall and find some stuff I could buy.

What did I buy?  I picked up all 3 Inventions, 1 Torrential Gearhulk, 1 Saheeli and 1 Grim Flayer. Oh and I also picked up 4 more packs of Worldwake because I am an idiot, and no I am not going to open them any time soon.

So the Inventions are self explanatory, and the Gearhulk is just something I pick up whenever I see it for sale.  But the Grim Flayer finishes up Eldritch Moon for me, and Saheeli was the final Kaladesh card I needed.  Two more sets down, but they are standard sets so I don't get too excited about it, and normally I wait until after rotation but for some stupid reason I could not do it this time.  I also know that if you go back in my blogs you will see that I normally buy all the standard cards I need while they are still in Standard and I end up paying higher prices...  I am working on it!

And I know, you are like "Dude, there are more cards in the pictures, sup with that?"

So on Magic Weekend at the Source I did some trading and picked up some good stuff.  Normally when I do in person trades outside of deckbox I go for stuff I am interested in rather than get cards for the collection.  This nice fella came up and asked for my trade binder.  Looked through and asked if he could get some of my cards, so I took a look to see what I could find in his.  Basically ended up trading Marsh Flats and Nahri from SOI for 2 Torrential Gearhulk, 1 Dig Through Time, and 1 Magus of the Will.  I might end up down from this, but I am expecting Nahri to drop in price and Torrential to go up in the long term.  Marsh Flats will more than likely have a dip when they do the reprint, but it will go back up.  This trade was all about those Torrentials and the value I see in that card.

I do want to add in there, that I think that Magus is also a pretty good Vintage pickup.  I want a playset of them and that card was the main reason I bought so much of the Commander 2016 decks, that ended up never being opened.  So I think if I see anyone willing to trade that card away I will try and grab them.

The second trade I did was with the same fella, and I traded away a Fatal Push from my Aether Revolt bundle pack for the Staff of Nin and the Mindslaver.  I feel like it was a good trade for some cards that I like using in Commander.  Let's see if I ever get to those decks.

So yeah, finished a couple of sets, got some Inventions, did some speculation and had a great weekend!

Magic Weekend!!!!

What is this all about?  Oh yeah, another Magic Weekend from the Source Comics and Games!  All weekend long!

In this all weekend long event the LGS puts on a lot of events.  I mean A LOT of events.  There was modern, commander, cascade, mini masters, draft, sealed, standard and some that I have no idea what they were.  On top of that, you can bring a group and play what ever you wanted.

I was only there on Saturday, but it was a packed house.  From what I could tell, most people were there to play in the events that were setup, and there really wasn't that many casual players.  I would say there was well above 10 different tables setup for 16+ players.  I actually saw 6 events going off at the same time.  The way they ran everything was quite impressive.  There was pre-ordered games that you could buy tickets for, but then they had a board that you could sign up for pick-up games. They also provided prize support for personal games.  If you showed up with 7 other friends, you could all play for a box of any of the new sets.

My friend and I just went up there to hang out and play, maybe do a little trading or maybe do a little buying.  It was a really good time.

We started out with Legacy and I found out that the Lands deck is pretty boring to play.  I am actually going to be taking that one apart and setting up a new Legacy deck.  But I did get a chance to play my Miracles deck, and let me tell you!  That was a great deck to play!  I was having a lot of fun with that deck.

From there My friend decided it was time to buy something and picked up 4 Eternal Masters, and I followed suit.

Nothing too great, but I did get a couple of Mythics.  Unfortunately that trading fodder is not that sought after, and the foils are nothing to get excited about.

We then switched it up to Modern, and I started with Lantern Control but I was not really understanding what I had to do and got beat pretty bad.  My friend was playing Burn, and so I switched to Infect to make it a bit more challenging.  That was pretty fun, but I really wanted to see how Lanter Control was supposed to work.

The second time around I had a lot more fun, and I just needed to figure out what the game plan was.  All that deck does is control what your opponent is going to draw in their next turn, and you are basically supposed to play with an empty hand.  And now that I just said that, I am going to try and put Lupine Prototype in that deck somehow.  But really, I enjoyed that deck very much, and I think I am going to be tweeking that deck some more to make that my Modern deck.

Modern - Lanter Control

2 Spellskite 

4 Mox Opal 

4 Ancient Stirrings 

4 Codex Shredder 

4 Ghoulcaller's Bell 

2 Inquisition of Kozilek 

4 Lantern of Insight 

2 Pithing Needle 

1 Pyxis of Pandemonium 

1 Surgical Extraction 

3 Thoughtseize 

2 Abrupt Decay 

2 Sword of the Meek 

3 Thopter Foundry 

4 Ensnaring Bridge 

1 Ghirapur Aether Grid 

2 Academy Ruins 

1 Blackcleave Cliffs 

3 Darkslick Shores 

1 Forest 

2 Ghost Quarter 

4 Glimmervoid 

4 Llanowar Wastes 

Sideboard

2 Welding Jar 

1 Duress 

2 Grafdigger's Cage 

2 Gut Shot 

2 Nature's Claim 

1 Pithing Needle 

1 Surgical Extraction 

1 Ancient Grudge 

1 Life from the Loam 

1 Sword of the Meek 

1 Thopter Foundry 

And yes, after some modern was time to pick up more product.  My friend decided to grab a Fat pack of Origins but also came back with a huge surprise.  He thought it was a good idea to pick up a pack of Revised as well.  Now I can tell you that I did not agree with that purchase, but I can't tell you I kept that to myself.  I gave him a lot of stick for buying that pack, but in the back of my mind I was secretly opening that pack.  He did not end up getting a Dual land, but he did get a Demonic Tutor. And I think he said the only thing he got from the Origins Fat pack was 1 foil card (common card). So yeah, pulls, and I decided to follow suit.

I did not do as bad as him in general, but I did not get anything like a Revised Demonic Tutor.

Starting out with the Origins Fat Pack only real thing to call home about is that Lilly, but I did get more foils than him.

I did not pick up a pack of Revised, but got 2 packs of Innistrad instead.

And yeah, Delver was the only good card I got out of that.

From there, we moved on to Standard.  I was playing UR Dynavolt and my friend was playing WR Tokens.  It took me a bit to figure out what I was supposed to do, but it almost seemed like the Dynavolt part of the deck was not required.  But considering what is going on the Pro-Tour right now, the deck would be too slow.  It does require a long runway to kick off, and there is removal to allow it to kick off, but I don't think it will be very competitive in Standard.  I might tweek it a bit to see if I can get something out of it.  I do have to say, I just love Torrential Gearhulk the more I play it.

After standard we needed to pick up some more product, so we went to Aether Revolt Bundle pack

Picked up 2 Mythics, 1 foil Rare, and just the standard fodder.  I did grab 3 Fatal Pushes which was pretty exciting, and I was able to trade one of them for some stuff, but I am will go through trades and singles in another blog.

It was getting to be pretty late for us old folks, and we did put in a good 8 hours of playing.  My brain was mushy, and I hope my friend's brain was the same or I am just that out of Magic shape.  But while we were packing up my friend wanted to get some more stuff so he picked up some more Eternal Master packs.  After some friendly banter I pulled the trigger on some Modern Master 2013 packs, and yes the pissing contest was in full effect.  In all honesty, I was just using this as an excuse to buy more packs.

I do have to say it paid off on this one.  Picked up a Doubling Season and Aether Vial for trading fodder.

I did not get anything I was looking for the collection, but it was a great time just hanging out and playing.  I got a lot of good comments for my Pupathon playmat, and it is always a great environment to play at.  People there are really friendly and welcoming at that LGS.  The only thing I wished was that there were more causal tables.  We were afraid the whole time that if we left, we would have lost our spots and would be moving around a lot more.  But besides that, it was great!

A piece of advice if you do go to the Source, pick up their yearly membership card.  It gives you 10% discount on most things in the store, and helps with purchases at the store.  They normally charge a bit more than any other store, so doing pickups there does cost more.  I can only assume that the increase of cost accounts for the discount card.  But yeah, this is not a store that tries to give out the best prices, and I normally just buy there during their sales events.

Great day playing, and great fun.  Hope I can post more of these types of playing blogs.

Speculation + 4 to the Countdown!

Countdown: 1612

Traded a LP Demonic Tutor from Revised for these beauties!

These were all good pickups because all of them were above $1 and have a chance to go higher. Normally I find it harder to find people trading away fodder less than $1 because no one wants to clutter up their tradelist with those types of cards, so these cards are readily available, but it is still good to be able to pick stuff up like this in these types of trades.

I consider these types of trades the benefit of using Deckbox.org because people might fill up their tradelists with these types of cards, but trade binders at LGS are not filled with these cards, and they are hard to find with in person trades.

Here is another card I am speculating on, and this is a second copy I have grabbed.  Let's see where it goes.

Traded for a Dissension Card, 1677 left

Deckbox comes through again with another Rare for Dissension.  This card came with a wonderful price, and leads me to think that Deckbox is getting some more new traders.  I was able to pick this card up for some Standard cards, 4 Elder-Deep Fiends and 1 Stasis Snare.

You normally know it is newer traders because they trade for Standard cards, or maybe they are big on trading and they just want the Standard cards?  I am only saying this because there is such a huge drop when the Standard cards go out of rotation, so trading a value card for Standard cards is not the norm for the power collectors.  Those traders usually wait until after rotation, or trade away fodder for the Standard cards.

Anyway, this was a nice pickup for the price.

I call it supporting my LGS, others just think I am crazy

Yeah, I know.  But really I always want to buy these from my LGS if I can.  It helps them stay open, and makes them profitable.  Some would say, "You just bought 2 of them from the other LGS!"  And to that I say "Good Day Sir!"

But in reality, this was all the Masterpieces that they opened on their set release opening, so I really expect it to slow way down from here on out.

Still have no idea if I can keep up with all these Masterpiece cards, but we will see.

Alpha my Origins for the Investments in Jan!

Alpha Investments Patreon deal for Jan 2017 was Magic Origins for $79.99!

So yeah, I am a Patreon for this guy, mainly to just support him, but from time to time he has some merch that I am very interested in getting.  This month was Magic Origins!  This totally was up my alley as to what I have been trying to grab because I really enjoy the set.  There are so many useful cards in the set, and I am not talking about the high priced cards.  It is just chalked up full of cards for decks that the casual player would love.

Maybe it is just me, but really the value in this set is just never ending.  I have said before in previous trade blogs, I am really picking up any Origins cards to even out any trade.

So yeah, picked up a case of these.

There is a bit of buyer's remorse on this one, since I put the order in before I heard about having a baby, but hey how many diapers will we really need?

Couple of Trades! 1678 is the number...

First trade to talk about was a first time trader.  Five of the cards will go to the countdown, but one was a mistake and I did not need it.  Still working on evening out the wishlist on Deckbox and what I have documented in my spreadsheet and Notes.  The card in question was the Seize the Soul from Guildpact.

So the condition was not perfect, but I traded away a lot of bulk so I can't complain.  For a first time trader I don't think I will trade with him again unless it weighed heavily in my favor.

******

Next trade that I got to come in was filled with countdown cards and some speculation.  Lets hit up those first.

Some Shadowmoor additions, still need a bunch from this set, so everything helps.

Lovely Tenth Edition!  I need the most of this set, so I just love it when I can grab anything from this set.

Guildpact is a good grab.  All uncommons, and it is hard to believe I still need these.

Some Kamigawa and one Ravnica card.  I think next time I will keep the pictures combined with the block.  Just looks better.  But again, just some countdown cards I really needed.

Ugh, more Core sets and one first print from Conspiracy: Take the Crown.  Remember I am trying to get a playset of the first print cards outside of the expansion sets.  I really think the Core sets will be the end of me.

Here comes the fodder!  So yeah, I have really just started picking up more and more fodder with these trades.  I just hope some of these cards will start to pop in the next 5 years, and I can see a return from them.

And here is the final fodder cards.  This picture pretty much sucks, and I really need to get a better setup for pictures with better light.  One thing I want to point out here, you should be seeing more Magic Origins cards in my trades.  I have a funny feeling about this set, and I really like a lot of the cards that is contained in the set.  They are good utility cards for almost any set, and I see a lot of good value for EDH in these cards.