Spire of Industry doodle

A friend of mine went to a GP event and John Avon was signing. He was willing to get some of my cards signed for me. I just don't have the time to spend 2 full days at a Magic event, though I am willing to give it a go...

This is one of the last things he got for me. He texted me, "Do you want a John Avon doodle?"

Honestly, he didn't even have to text me that. If the funds allowed it- he was free to do whatever he wanted to get stuff signed.

Its a cool doodle on a decent Modern and Standard card.

This made me think- do I really have time to spend outside of my own head on Magic? Does it matter? Would I like to spend more time doing, heck, any of my 15 hobbies?

Currently Magic is spending more time on my brain than most other hobbies. Second is photography by a long shot. If push came to shove, and I could only pick one primary hobby, photography would win out in the long run. But for now, Magic occupies the top spot. I can pick it up and put it down. Plenty of easy on-line resources about playing and doing. Photography scratches a different itch. Magic is a HIGHLY complicated game, and is challenging on many levels.

Do I really want to spend all weekend at a Magic event? Honestly- not really. I like doing too many other things. I have a hard time just allowing one thing occupy my brain for long stretches. I like to combine hobbies if possible. I would LOVE to take my kids to Philmont and photograph it all... not just the trip. I can't do it. There are multiple things to do about it... much like attending a U2 concert. I Is that Adult Attention Deficit Disorder?  I doubt it, because I am engaging to the activity with other things. Maybe its more multi-tasking with things I understand... who knows.

Give me lots of stuff to chew on and rattle around in my brain. For now, I am a FNM player at best with the best of intentions. Will I ever be more? Doubtful, but I am happy with that end point.

Crawling back to Legacy?

I've been enjoying drafting on Friday nights with a low key crowd, but I am still itching to get to play Legacy more. I recently, yesterday, found out that a local store has a vibrant Legacy scene. MTG First has a Thursday night legacy play, 6:30 start, $10 entry, 2 dozen or so players, and proxies allowed. That hits most of my sweet spots.
All winnings are confined to store credit, so whatever. They usually have some pretty good deals there on singles, and product. This is unregistered so it won't count on the Wizards radar of DCI, which I don't care about at all.


The interesting bit for me is actually playing Legacy again. I've haven't really cracked at it since, the winter?


I'm still a big fan of two primary decks: Sneak and Show, and Death and Taxes.
The problem right now with D&T is that its utility in fighting off Miracles decks was pretty much neutered when Top was banned.
Sneak and Show is all the broken things, trying to get out insane big things, and beat your opponent. Screw long drawn out games. I am not a fan of the Omniscience version of the deck.


[Disclaimer for the blog: For the record, I HATE, HATE, HATE dredge decks. With the passion of a thousand burning suns. Oh.My.God. If Wizards could go back in time and remove dredge from the mechanics they produced... Bah.
From Mark Rosewater himself: ".... it's one of the most broken mechanics we've ever made, so I have no expectation that we'll ever see it again."]




In the meantime, I've been trying out Reanimator Depths. It is a hoot. While it is basically taking two different decks and mashing them together with a possible third deck via the sideboard. It presents the opponent with a "which part do I protect against?" sort of problem. I suspect that's why I like it, it throws logic a bit out the door, and tries to run you over with multiple problems at once.


Legacy has open up bigly since Wizards banned Top. It feels new with a ton of different decks. It opened up so much that Wizards is actually supporting it as part of their 25th anniversary. Sweet.

Draft and Auction winnings

I went to my LGS last night for a regular FNM draft of HOU. (if you play Magic, those three letter things should be fine for you)

The store I go to is small, so small in fact that during the day they are a computer repair shop. In the evenings it becomes a Magic shop. They don't have a ton of product on hand, and that was evident last night. Twelve people showed up to draft, so they had to break it up in to two pods of 6. On top of that, they were short on AMK, it turned in to a triple HOU draft. Ugh. That makes for a VERY interesting draft. You will see a TON of commons in your colors to support your effort. That also means you will miss out on some of the extra material from AMK to supplement the theme you are going for.
I started out in B/U, but quickly shifted to U/R as black was being cut hard. I had 3 Firebrand Archers. Plenty of synergy with non-creature spells. At one point I did 6 damage from a Blur of Blades.
I dropped the land count down to 16... The decked seemed primed for some good interactions. However, land was not being my friend all night. I have no clue... no worries, I will fess up to losing, but man, some beats occurred. I had answers in forms of counters, direct damage, etc. But if you can't cast it- meh. Maybe I should have gone with 17, but I thought my curve was relatively low enough to support it. Oh well.

Match 1- Guy had a W/B wall deck? Was able to gain life, but I was able to control his threats, and fly over for both wins. Second game I had only three lands most of the game. Thank goodness for Aerial Guide!

Match 2- Against, arguably, the best drafter and player in the store. He does love green ramp, and last night was no exception. I got CRUSHED by a turn two Rhonas's Last Stand. *sigh*
Game two I put him on the ropes and sealed the deal. It was a pleasant victory.
The third game was close, but my land problem just completely thwarted my plans of victory. He cast Sifter Wurm at the worst time- basically I'm tapped out with answers sitting useless.
Damn.

Match 3- First game took forever, but my lands were the opposite. They flooded me out... thankfully the other player did the same, but he found his answers faster than I could. Oh well.
Second game I kept the WORST hand all night.. I was tired, didn't care at that point, scooped, and went home. Oh well.

====================

I won these cards in an on-line auction in mid-July. They finally got to my via VERY kind old neighbor who forwarded them on my way. *stupid moving*

The Rhystic Study alone paid for the entire lot. Everything else was gravy. Very happy with the basic pickups of:
Brainstorm
Portent
Ponder
Gitaxian Probe

I upgraded some versions in my real card collection, the rest went in to the trade bin. Nice!

The triangle of Magic

I took a project management class back when I was getting a masters. The class was taught by an awesome teacher who moved on to amazing things. (not the point) However, what he made a point of was that EVERYTHING could be broken down in to a project. From building a shed to plotting out world domination. Recently on my MtG friend text line, there was discussion about balancing what it takes to be successful in Magic. Is it money? Is it just sheer amount of time spent on it? Is it being successful in your preferred field of play? They were all valid points.



Can you make up effort by just spending a ton of cash?
Can you spend a VERY little and play?
Can you play a TON and spend a very little?

What is your desired goal in playing?

The same sort of formula is found between project management and playing Magic. You can typically only control two aspects, but never all three. (well, maybe) You can spend a TON of money, and spend time, but you can't control the scope/quality/output. Maybe you spend a TON of time and concentrate on quality, but the cost is out of your control. All of these points can be seen by a magic player because, we all have to play to win. And to play, you have to invest somewhere.

Oddly, there MIGHT be world where professional Magic players can somewhat control all three- which is to say they spend all their time, and money, and scope on this ONE thing. However, they are vastly under represented compared to the rest of the crowd playing.

My point is this- if you are a regular player, who likes to win- good luck becoming a professional. Because unless you want a regular life, you will never be able to tackle all three aspects of the project that is playing magic.

In the mean time, what you can control is your happiness in playing and various aspects of the game.

Do you like to brew new decks and trying them out? Go for it.

Do you like just collecting the art and history of the game? Hope you are rich or very good in predicting.

Do you just like playing various formats, without much thought to money? Perhaps proxies are you cheap answer.

Maybe you like spending all day Saturday at a GP, even if you don't win.

Or maybe you just play FNM events, and don't give a rats butt about the value of the game...

Magic is a VERY, if not the most, complicated game ever produced. There are so many aspects just outside of the game play as well... and many people get caught up in the swirl beyond that. Be sure, if you want to just play the game, to pay attention to the game. Ignore the shiny cards (aka full foil Modern deck), ignore the haters who bash your results, play your game. Be nice, be respectful, and follow what you like- that's all you can do.

On-line auctions

I am no where near the level of investment I would like to be to play the style and formats I would want to. I can't even think about a dual land right now. I will continue to poke and prod at the below $50 value cards until I can somehow pull off a miracle and afford the true investments... that may never happen, but I am going to keep planning like I can.

With that in mind- I found a new method to acquiring much without paying a ton. Its gambling a bit- on-line auctions. Not eBay or Craigslist, but honest to goodness auctions. Live on-line auctions, slow rolling auctions on-line, proxy bidding, and everything in-between. I've tried a few, and have found the following so far:

• Shipping is a bugger sometimes
• Not all auction houses can handle on-line auctions no matter how amazing the goodies are
• Things will generally go for more than you can afford
• Its a weird world, auctions- you are never sure of the turnout

With those thoughts in mind, here is what I have done so far, auction wise:

1. Won a Torment foil Grim Lavamancer for $35. Flipped it for a bunch of Beta Basics. Double the value.
2. Picked up what I had hoped was a clean random box of cards, but turns out there was not a single Rare in it. Likely lost a few dollars, but theoretically I broke even in desirable commons and uncommons. Thanks Coldsnap!
3. Won a $5 auction on a bunch of blue commons I needed, struggling to get the cards to be delivered still. *grrrrrr*
4. Won a blind auction on a 800 count box of cards which were all sleeved. $35 plus fees and shipping came to $52. More on that in a minute.

There are other auctions I have thought about, but without seeing more about the actual item in hand, it is a total crap shoot. 5000 card boxes with who knows what plus shipping- not my style. Context around the auction can really provide a lot of input to what to expect.

I've seen auctions which include everything from farm tools, old chairs, and a 5000 count box of Magic cards. How the heck are you supposed to figure out what MIGHT be in that box from 5 photos? Without being able to preview the box, I believe you are throwing away your money.

Getting back to the 800 count box... that auction was almost ALL role playing game stuff. It looked to be someone's personal collection. Role playing books, figures, comic books, and a bucket load of Magic cards. Boxes labeled like- Arabian Nights, Antiquities, binders full of cards, just chocked full of cards pre-2005 or so. The surrounding material was just very encouraging. The only hindrance was the location- outside of Chicago. No way to preview the lots. Buddy of mine and I teamed up and attempted to bid on the two big hitters- Arabian Nights and Antiquities. We lost both of those big time- the Arabian Nights went for over 500, the Antiquities over 200.

We both put in our own private bids on other items. I went after the box where every card was sleeved up. Ideally I was hoping that's where the guy stored some more valuable stuff, but I had no clue. I won on a relatively low bid... and finally got the box in. It was his collection of Weatherlight, in alphabetical order, up to O. I completely lucked out in getting 3 Null Rods. After going through the box, and pulling anything worth value, the total was over $200 for my $52 investment. Not too shabby. (actual haul on the right)


I will keep doing research, keep poking around, and keep trying to make sense of these auctions. They seem to be the best way for me to acquire value to trade up.  Plus the mystery rocks. Its better than an eBay auction by far.