Mid-April legacy stock report

I plan to give Legacy until the Gave Haven BCQ tournament towards the end of May. If I am not enjoying a deck by the, I think I taking a break until the huge CubeCon event in mid-July. 

I just haven’t found something I actually enjoy playing yet. Last year I was perfectly happy jamming the stock Dragon Stompy list. This year? I’ve bounced between Eldrazi, Moon Stompy, OmniTell, and now Sneak and Show. I’ve done… fine, I guess, but nothing has really felt like I have agency against the field at Level Up—which is skewing heavily toward combo. AlurenTell, SewerCam, Doomsday… plus U/W Phalia control and some other scattered stuff.

First off, I’m not a puzzle guy. I don’t need to find the “perfect” deck or the most galaxy-brain lines where every card matters at all times. That’s not why I’m there—I’m there to play a game I enjoy. But the room I’ve chosen to play in is full of really good players. Guys putting in a ton of reps every week compared to my occasional three matches.

Second, that BCQ feels like a good stopping point if I still can’t figure it out. I’ll get a couple people together, go have a good time, maybe grab dinner after we inevitably wash out.

June’s going to be packed anyway—end-of-school chaos plus a 10-day Europe trip. Then July is CubeCon, which is loaded: Pauper, Pre-Modern, Legacy, and Cube (obviously). At the very least I’ll be there taking photos for the league. I just don’t feel great dropping an $80 entry fee on something I haven’t prepared for. Maybe I sneak in a cube draft on the side for fun.

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A guy I talk to regularly at weekly is pretty much in the same spot as me when it comes to the Level Up gauntlet and expectations. A few months ago we decided to start a monthly “Legacy Brews” weekend thing at a brewery. Once he’s back from England, hopefully we can actually get one off the ground. Feels much more our speed—play some interesting stuff without getting completely run over.

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I ended up winning an auction for two Quinton Hoover signed cards. I know his signature carries a premium—I just don’t know how much. For one of them, the only comps I can find are eBay “buy it now” listings at $250 and $400… both sitting for a while. The other? Nothing. No listings anywhere, just a couple mentions in a Facebook group.

That one might actually be pretty significant if I decide to sell—which, realistically, I probably will.

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In this week’s “Adventures in CardSphere!”
Picked up an SP Null Rod, three Alpha Forests, and some colorless pieces for piles I might turn into decks. I’ve always wanted to get back a Null Rod after trading mine away years ago, and the value finally lined up. The Alpha Forests are… well, I clearly have a problem when it comes to Alpha/Beta basics.

On the flip side, I shipped out my playset of M15 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Haven’t touched them in at least four years, and they’d climbed over $50. Felt silly holding onto them when they weren’t seeing play. Pretty sure I picked them up back when Turbo Depths was a thing.

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One day I’ll actually put my Beta draft land set to proper use. Realized about a month ago that I never broke it down after Eternal Weekend… and it’s just been sitting there ever since.

Trading one hobby for another

I used to go to a regular game night, and for years I would take photos while I was there. This past winter marked 20 years, and I was one of the first guys to play in it. After I stopped going, no one really documented the regular goings-on. It made me sad. A couple of our older players had passed, which really hammered that feeling home.

Over this past year, I decided that I was going to actively upgrade my camera gear. It had been about the same amount of time since I got into Magic that I hadn’t made any real upgrades to my camera body—and definitely not to the lenses. I have zero regrets about selling my stock of dual lands and reinvesting in new (well, .... used) lenses from KEH. My driving force was my kids and supporting their school activities, especially theater. I’m going to be spending four years shooting their shows for the kids in their classes, and it was high time to get better, more current gear to support that.

I also realized I could help out the DMV Legacy League with my efforts. When I saw the attempts this past year, I knew I wanted to contribute. I didn’t want to play in the end-of-year championship nearly as much as I wanted to record it. That was at least as much fun for me—if not more.

Being able to look back, visually, is one of the biggest reasons I decided to offer some time and effort to document this league. I know others could do it better or worse—but no one is regularly doing it, which bothered me. So here I am, happily spending time documenting a game we all love and enjoy… whatever the results.

And before anyone says, “BUT YOU NEVER SELL RESERVE LIST!”
The stores I play at allow proxies. I hadn’t actively sleeved up my real duals since 2023. I’m much more of a stompy player, which requires almost no duals. And if I ever really needed them, I could borrow from several people in the league.

I was genuinely happy to trade one hobby’s gear for another that will get far more use—and do so with zero impact on my family’s finances for a while.

I believe this is what I would call winning.