Kicking up my game

 

I am not noted for spending a lot on this game. But over 7+ years I have been back playing, I finally gotten a decent collection. (and playing legacy is a challenge unto itself) One of my acquisition mantras has been, "buy artifacts and lands, try to trade for the rest." So far, this has worked well for me.

I think I finally turned a corner this year... I'm able to run multiple, tournament legal, decks without borrowing cards. There are one or two others I would love to say that about, but I don't know if I am going to run into several thousand dollars to get the dual lands required. So I will be fine with that.

Running commentary on what I have picked up this year:

- Original Antiquities Urza-land set. A friend game me his left over lands, and I was left with 3 blanks in the set. It took me longer than I expected to trade for the missing three lands. Including an awful mistake by one very nice Canadian who sent the wrong land, I sent back, he sent the correct one. That took about 2 months to finalize. I might trade this set one day, as I don't see myself ever playing Tron in Modern, but who knows.

- Set of original Painter's Servants. I had stated I wanted to learn to play painter correctly in Legacy. Hasn't happened yet, but I have the Painters! Its a very weird/niche card that really doesn't work outside of a Grindstone synergy. In the meantime- here we go. Thanks to CardMarket and my friend who lives overseas to be my collection point for these way cheaper cards.

- Set of Secret Lair Chrome Mox. Last year when I went to the Legacy Pit Open in Richmond, I was playing mono-red stompy, and I had to borrow a set from a friend. This year when I attend the big 10k in Baltimore, I won't have to borrow any. Plus, I really like the old school treatment they gave the card.

- One VERY minty original Karakas. This wasn't on my radar, hell, it was never even listed on the guy's Facebook group listing. Re-wind. After my brief attempt at acquiring a Mox Opal, I re-invested those funds to go after an original Karakas for decks that needed it as a one of. The seller does a TON of sales via FB groups. I found a MP one for a good price, but he had sold it. He replied almost right away and said, he did just get in two VERY minty Karakas. Like opened, put into a box, and forgotten about. He very rarely calls things mint because he deals in A LOT of cardboard, but those impressed him. I should have picked up both, but I was being good and sticking to my budget.  As I told him, "I almost feel guilty sleeving it up for play."

- Set of Grindstone. Can't play Painter with out the Grindstone! Turns out, I really only needed to get 2, but I overshot a bit because they were on the cheaper side of artifacts to add to the collection.

- A single Mox Opal for Painter. This one showed up due to my activity on CardSphere. I half jokingly added it to my wants list after the first one turned out to be a fake. Same printing, but 100% correct this time.

- An Alpha Mountain- also acquired via CardSphere and likely "overpaid" for it, but considering I simply shipped out a bunch of trade material, I was fine with not getting all the value out of every cent. Now I need to get one of each kind of Alpha basics. Thank goodness they only printed two of each type in that set.