Battle for Zendikar Basic Lands

Total Card Count: 93

Yeah, still keeping a count, but really all these cards that are in standard, but currently there are 3 cards I have found that I am still missing.

So I am currently going through and counting every card in the collection, to make sure that I have 4 of each, and I am correct in my collection statement.  And through that process I have found 2 Portal cards, and 1 Portal Second Age card I still need.  Once I get done with this, I am going to purchase those cards, most likely from Card Kingdom, and then I will move on to the next stage of the spreadsheets.

The next stage will be to add condition columns and then go through and grade each of my cards.  This is so I can compile a list of upgrades I can get for any card I am needing.  This way I can try and get a playset of NM cards.  This of course is very low on the priority list, just because I am pretty happy with what I have, but if I can get an upgrade while trading, I want to know what I might need.

So yeah, had to pick up some BFZ Basic Land non-Full Art lands.  There was a set of basic lands that were released in the Gift Boxes and Deck Builder tool kit.  I have had the hardest time trying to find these.  Not only are they basic lands, and they are non-full art, and they were only released in the Gift Box and Deck Builder toolkit, NO one has them in stock.

Through TCG Player I think I paid $1.99 for a single Plains.  Seriously, impossible to find anywhere.

I think they are pretty available, it is just no one sells them or trades them, or gives a shit about them.  I ended up paying way too much for these basic lands.

Here we go!

So here, I needed to pick up the lands along with these two Planeswalker deck cards I needed.  The only reason I needed to add the extra cards were because I needed to meet a $2 minimum from the seller.  So yeah, suckage.  But another good reason to not fill out Standard needs right away.  It is always good to need something.

And my final 2 to make the set of 5 basic land cards!  It was pretty nice to pick up the last Planeswalker deck card I needed in Amonkhet.  Again, needed to fill out a sale to be larger than $2.

I also got a trade in from CardSphere for the Planeswalker decks from Ixalan I posted.

I am loving CardSphere for this!  People really open those decks up, and I am just happy they are willing to send me the stuff.  I am lowering what I will pay for these cards, so I am able to get them for cheaper than what people actually sell them for.

So yeah, finally done with BFZ, had to add a couple more cards to the needs, but hopefully I can get through this new count, and pick up my needs from Card Kingdom.

Speculation Ixalan

Card Count: 110

The Greatest Magic the Gathering Collecting Blog in the world!!!

Today, lets talk about speculation.  The speculation of the Ixalan set in general.

 Bam!  Thank you Alpha Investments!

So I picked these up, and might actually pick up a couple more cases for as long as I can.  Why Ixalan?  Well as you read in my preorder blog, and my box opening blog, I see a long runway with this set as a whole.  The value cards are in the rare spot, and there is a lot more value cards in the set than what is being sold.

Commons
- Opt
- Spell Pierce
- Duress
- Rile

These 4 commons just look too juicy to not think this set will have a good following moving forward.  Three are reprints, but one of them is brand new.

Abilities
- Explore
Explore is liked as much as Cycle, and I think just makes the set better in the long run.  It translates into Modern play with the ability use these cards as utilities for those decks.

- Raid
Raid is just sexy.  Again, this is something to add to any stompy deck in Legacy or Modern.

Merfolk
- Because now you can have green creatures within the whole theme.

Cards
So let's go over some of the cards that I just see as some really big power houses in the set, and why I think it is smart to speculate on this set.

I could go through all these, and why I think they are great for speculation, but everyone is on that train.  Honestly, these are the low hanging fruit of speculation of the set, so let's just post these and move on to the good stuff.

Same cost Ley Druid with a better power/toughness, and better yet it is Modern playable.  Win / Win!

Come on!  Trample with draw a card.  Granted, this is only going to be good for larger creature decks, but being able to replace the card for a single 1 Red, in a color known for it's haste creatures?  I think this is a great common!

All I want to say is 5/5 for 5.  That alone is a win, but this card also has Trample and Haste!  With more and more cards getting put out there referring to low casting cost, this one is just pretty.

 So for 1 and a Blue I can attack and then draw two cards?  That is just value!

 So I am putting this in there because there are other Dinosaurs within MTG outside of Ixalan, and this card could technically be a 3/3 mana dork for 1G.  Strong uncommon!

 What the heck is that?!  I can see this being a powerhouse in Modern and Legacy for a single color decks to just destroy non-basic lands.  You get to replace your land with a basic, while the other player is just going to lose out.

 Each non-Pirate.  Each!

2/2 for G.  Great Simic card.  I do have to say, I am a Simic leaning player, so these might have some bias involved when I picked them.

I am just putting this out there because it gives you the ability to cast some cards cheaper, and it is not a Legend card.  This is just like any Lord card that gives a creature type +1/+1. 

Tribal all day long!

 This card has a high cost, but still it has a great ability and it has any source.  That is direct damage or creatures.  Just like it.

 Tribal!

This is just going to be a great sideboard card and will keep bringing the folks to the set to pick this up.  This will be a reprint card, but it does give you 3 years before they reprint it in a Masters set.

 This one might have a high cost, but I am just all about bringing cards back from your graveyard into play for free.  Did someone say Sun Titan?  Yeah, it is just a good White ability.

 Graveyard hate to Explore!  Two target cards, not creature or Land.  Card.  Value!

So I could see this in a merfolk deck with a ton of non-creature spells.  This could just get huge fast, and it does not need to be in a merfolk deck.  You could put this in any stompy deck to just stomp.

 Merfolk, and that is it.

I know a lot of people would hate on this card because giving your opponent a free land drop on your turn is just too much of a bad thing for you, but it is a basic land.  That means in Vintage, Legacy, and Modern you have a very good change to get a 3/3 for a G and have no downside.

 Players can't gain life.  That is basically it.  Well and if someone plays a creature they take damage.

If they block, you draw.  No chump blocking...  And if they do you get advantage!

 So, this might be a stretch, but if there would be a Vampire deck, I can see this one getting a bit wanted.

 Wrath of Exile, Path to God.  Instant board wipe of 2WW.

 Don't care!  Fan Tas Tic!  Spell or Ability...

 Yeah, this is a bit of a stretch, and it is just a sideboard card, but I see this pulling some gains.

 Direct damage for black, and you get to draw 3 cards for 3 mana.

This is just like a Thalia card.  I can just see this in a Legacy / Modern Human Soldier deck.

I know, this is just a chase card, but I do think it has possibilities to make a deck or at least be a good EDH card.  There has been a lot of life total cards that have been coming out, and I think this is just another one for the brewing.

So the main thing to take away from this blog is that the Uncommon and Rares have all the power in this set.  The mythic cards tend to cost way too much, but have really crazy abilities.  That means the value you can get from a single box is spread out so well that someone opening a box will get back enough to make it worth it for them.  That means the worth of the set is spread out, and the entire set will go up because of it.

Planeswalker Deck crap...

Today in the Greatest MTG Blog in the world!

These things are the bane of my Standard Existence.  Literally the crappiest thing they could keep printing.  Not only does my stupid self need to pick up one of each of these for the collection, I decided to pick up playsets of the cards printing in these decks that you can only get in the decks.

Lucky, CardSphere is here and I can pick up the fodder at a discounted price, and people actually SEND me these fucking cards!!!!

Here we go!

So yeah, these came in a while ago, but waited to post there because I did not want to make my last blog with finishing Phase 1 and 2 tainted with this filth...

Yeah, CardSphere where I can actually post a price that I would feel good about picking these up at, $5.00 each, and Bam!  Saved me close to $2.00 each, and I got my playset of stupid ass Planeswalker deck mythics...

Here is another lovely trade I got in, and it is just filled with a bunch of the commons, uncommons, and lands from those stupid ass decks!

So yeah, basically what you get to watch now is the slow death of me waiting for rotation to pickup the standard cards that I did not get during my pre-order box opening.  Fuck these Planeswalker decks in the ass!

The posts will be here and there, and I still do need to re-org my collection spreadsheet a bit.  I also want to make labels for all the sets in the new format.  I need to figure out a way I can post them somewhere so I can link them to share.  Not sure how I am going to do that just yet.

But yeah, my collecting has just begun now that I am allllllllllllll caught up with everything I need, so it is time for me to show you what I want!

Fun sexy times, with the Butt Sets.

So the End is here

Card Count: 0

And so there were none.  That is right!

I started on July 15th, 2013 with a beginning target of 25,576 cards needed to finish up my playsets of every Core set, Expansion set, and special release set.  All the while, I would still attempt to finish up with all the standard sets along the way, and keep up with all new releases.

So I started around 1994 with Fallen Empires and Revised Edition.  I kept playing up until around 1998 right after Exodus.  I remember thinking to myself, "How the hell am I going to keep up with all these new sets that are coming out?"  At the time, I was working everyday of the week at 3 different jobs.  I would work at one restaurant Monday - Friday morning, then I would work another cooking job on Saturdays at another place, and a comic book store on Sundays.  I was also going to school full time at night. 

I would use my discount at the comic book store to pick up booster boxes pretty close to cost, and then try and find time to play at night hanging out at the local 24 hour dinner.  As time went on, I just had to grow up and try and make a name for myself.  I was pretty lucky, and I only sold my cards to my father so my collection did not go far.  He kept playing until around 1999 but he never got rid of the collection.  He actually kept buying some cards, and some collections.

Every so often I would get together with my cousins and play a game or two, so I decided to bring the collection to live with me with my father's permission.  It was around 2003 and we would only play with the cards I had.  Basically from Urza's Destiny and back.

Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised, 4th Edition, 5th Edition
Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, The Dark, Fallen Empires, Homelands
Ice Age, Alliances
Mirage, Vision, Weatherlight
Tempest, Stronghold, Exodus
Urza's Saga, Legacy, Destiny
Chronicles, Portal, Portal Second Age, Unglued

Now I did not have playsets, and it was definitely more of a player's collection.  What I mean about that is, I had multiple playsets of dual lands and other deck building cards, but not every card in each set.  You could say that I had the more expensive cards because those were the cards that everyone used to build decks.  I think I counted 7 playsets of dual lands.

Race up to 2011 where I started to play again.  My boss and I would travel the country installing phone systems, and one night he brought up playing D&D.  I brought up Magic the Gathering and that started me getting back into the game.

It had been so long, that I actually went into my old comic book store looking for a Scry price guide.  When I asked the front desk, they just kind of looked at me and said, "Have you heard of the internet?"

So by the time I started up again, I was buying Magic 2012, Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi, Scars of Mirrodin, and Mirrodin Besieged. 

And by the time I started to write the blog I was picking up my Magic 2014.  This was putting New Phyrexia, Innistrad, Dark Ascension, Avacyn Restored, Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Dragon Maze, Magic 2012, and Magic 2014 under my belt.

I was pretty much missing most of Modern, a large chunk of the later Legacy cards, and there were still some Vintage cards I needed to fill out my single sets of the older releases.  They had also released a ton of smaller sets since I was away, so I needed to pick up those as well.

25,576 cards later, with the addition of the running Standard sets, I am now done with Phase 1.

Single Sets
Arabian Nights - Legends

Playsets
The Dark - Eldritch Moon
Revised - Magic Origins

I was also able to complete Phase 2, which is all the special sets they released.

Single Sets
Starter 1999
Starter 2000
Unhinged
Conspiracy
Conspiracy: Take the Crown
Modern Masters 2013 - Modern Masters 2017
Eternal Masters 2016

Playsets
Portal
Portal Second Age
Chronicles
Unglued

So with the addition of these cards, I can say goodbye to Phase 1 and Phase 2!

Here we go!

Phase 2 - Final cards for Portal Second Age!

Phase 1 - 7th Edition
Phase 2 - Starter 1999

Phase 2 - Starter 1999!

So yeah, we are off to the races on Phase 3 (sealed booster boxes) and Phase 4 (ABU full set).

In the next coming days, I will go over what I plan to do with the spreadsheet and the recount.