"Do not, under ANY circumstances, sell your binder and deck for $1400 in 1996."
EDIT:
Almost the exact scenario I was in, save it was 2011. And 105 duals.
I think any of us who got into the game early have similar stories. Mine was a lot smaller, 40 duals (no moxen cuz I got in just as legends was going out of print and caught only the tail of revised), but still pretty big. When I started playing I was also 13-14 and working off a small allowance though. Now I'm pushing 30 and there's a lot of things I would love to tell my younger self.
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Currently Playing:UWBRG MAGIC: The Gathering UWBRG
"Those 1000 duals your bought in 94 for 10000? Buy Apple stock instead, you'll be a millionnaire. Also, hang around with the Google guys and found their startup. You'll be a billionnaire. Now you can get all the duals you want."
Well it's not advice to my starting magic past self but rather when I first heard of it in '93. It's not stupid, get into it now and keep all the stuff you get.
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For Lists, Click Here EDH: GW: Selvala, Let us help YOU. UB: Mirko Vosk, when outmatched cheat BW: Vish Kal, The Arbiter of Reanimation UG: Prime Speaker Zegana, the science of sorcery RB: Malfegor, Traitor's Haven UW: Daxos, Control-Fort-Tron BG: Pharika, Goddess of Stax RW: Gisela, Boros Control RG: Ruric Thar, a Primal Surge deck RU: Niv-Mizzet the Firemind, Spellslinger?!?! B:(Pauper) Mikaeus the Unhallowed R: Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient: The Power of Engineering
I would tell myself when to trade Standard cards for maximum value. I cringe to think of all the times I traded for Standard cards at their peak and traded them off after they rotated.
1) Never sell your collection. You will be back, and you will regret it.
2) Buy singles, not packs or boxes or cases. If you do buy packs, be honest with yourself that you are buying them because you think opening packs is fun, not because you think its a good way to get cards.
3) Practice with proxies (like from magiccards.info) before buying those singles. Sometimes a card can seem good, but not be good once you've actually played with it.
4) Play the minimum number of cards allowed in your deck (40 for limited, 60 for constructed).
5) If its a card you really want to see every game and can stand to see multiple times, play 4 copies. If its a card you would like to usually see each game, but never really want to see multiple times, play 3 copies. If you have a way to search for something when you need it, play 1. Adjust as you test out the deck to get to where feels best.
6) Lands are just as important as spells. Cutting a couple lands to fit in those two more spells you just have to have is not going to do anything good for you. Spending some money on your manabase is well warranted, you usually can't just spend all your money on spells and run with all basic lands and expect to get there.
7) Accept that there are going to be bad matchups. Don't get discouraged, play your best, and try not to make any mistakes. Sometimes you'll squeek by with a win, sometimes you won't. Often the best place to learn is when you are at a disadvantage from the very start.
8) if you play in a tournament thats going to last more than 2 hours, have a plan for what you are going to drink and what you are going to snack on. And then drink/snack, even if you don't feel that thirsty/hungry. Nervousness can sometimes mask the thirst/hunger, and you are going to regret not drinking/eating 8 hours later when you finally relax.
9) Never play because you feel like you "have to". Whether thats because your friends are, or you already took off work, etc. If your heart is not in it, you are just wasting your time.
10) Be nice to other players, and don't be afraid to talk to them. Its easy to think that no one is as much of a nerd as yourself, but most of the people there probably are. They may be nerdy about other things, but that might lead to you finding about something else cool that you might be into.
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I support WotC's goal of shaping Modern in favor of diversity.
I ran a thought experiment on my blog Modern in a Nuclear Wasteland
of an extreme case of banning 20 more cards to make sure they get everything, then scaling back where appropriate. WotC seems to be on a slowly build up approach. Both ways probably reach similar end points.
The post Gatecrash metagame is proving to be closer to the endpoint than I estimated, so its very possible that few (if any) more cards need to be banned.
Plains - John Avon - 230
Island - Jung Park - 235
Island - Vincent Proce - 237
Swamp - John Avon - 238
Mountain - John Avon - 242
Forest - John Avon - 246
I would tell my 15 year old self, "When your dad offers to buy you a box of Revised for your birthday, and the card shop worker tells you that you can get TWO boxes of Fallen Empires for the same price...you tell him NO THANKS, NOW GIVE ME MY REVISED BOX PLEASE!"
Two boxes sounded so much better than one back in the day. Damn Fallen Empires. Damn card shop clerk guy.
Teach myself the concept of card advantage and life is a resource.
"Go buy bazaars and workshops. And get every piece of power/dua;s you can get a hold of, even if you already have playsets. $20 for a mox and $3 for a dual may seem expensive, but you won't regret it."
"Buy sleeves. Yeah, yeah, you'll love odd because you're the only one with sleeves, but you won't regret it."
This right here, along with a list of every EDH staple that's in foil. Yeah FOILS!!
That and decklists maybe of what the winning decks of each era is, net-deck before it's called net-decking. lol
I started playing during Mirroden, and I opened some SICK cards. I just didn't know it. My Sad Robot, Chrome Mox, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of War and Peace, Crucible of Worlds, Arc-Bound Ravager, and of course all the Skull clamps/loxodon warhammers/lightning greaves/artifact lands. All beat to crap, all now worth nothing.
Dredge is good (when I first saw dredge, I thought it was the worst mechanic ever printed, now its pretty much my favourite mechanic ever printed).
Buy all the mutavaults you can.
Buy all the Stoneforge's.
Don't buy boxes, buy the cards you need.
PLAY BETTER
Stop relying on cute combos (although I am willing to bet that if it were me from 10 years time coming back to now, he'd be saying the exact same thing to me).
Know when to play for fun & when to go for the throat (I lost a lot of early games like that).
Don't but extended thopter depths & hypergenesis 2 weeks before extended drops to 4 years and hyper gets banned.
Lol why buy all the Mutavaults? Please explain? Isn't they were $50 in the beginning 4 years ago?
Anyways those things comes to my mind:
"Even through I had my Tarmogoyf at $50 ea, BoB's at $15, Clique at $10, I should buy them all in every LGS I go to"
"Not to give my buddy Foil Linvala for his angel collection..."
I started back in like 96-97. So I would tell myself to buy a ton of cards, from duals to moxen. I passed up some stuff at the time because I thought it was too expensive for a card, now I wish I had just bought it.
Dont buy booster packs to get a specific card. Just buy that card outright. If you want to buy a booster here or there for the novelty, then so be it.
Be more careful with what you trade, and who you trade with.
"You see that guy in the corner? He netdecks. BEAT HIS HEAD IN WITH YOUR OMNATH-LANDFALL-DECK."
Hatred of Netdecking aside, though, I'd personally tell myself not to unvalue commons, especially in Draft. I recall a Zendikar-Worldwake draft where I slam-took Terra FREAKING Eternal because it was Rare.
There was a Gnarlid Pack in there too...dammit all to heck...
That 40 for mox and 175 for a lotus isn't crazy expensive. Don't stop buying revised packs cause your tired of duals for rares. Don't buy 2 boxes of homelands.
Well, im going to cheat a little, I would have to tell myself never get pokemon cards. Theres MTG, its way better and well i know you will like it. Had I started magic instead i would have started around alliances and 4th and not have boxes of pokecrap sitting around.
Other magic related advice i would give myself would be stop being a bad deck builder. The people that give you decks to start with are not good and these decks are going to hurt your play for years. Theres a reason i cant win with those anymore no matter what i change, the base is still pure crap. Hold on to a deck you started with, then look at it a few years down the line. I have a red 75 card monster stacked full of fireball type cards, no bolts, hoping for a starting hand with 2+ cloudposts... sure it would win some multiplayer games if i didn't look like a threat building up mana hoping all my opponents tap out for a max power Mana Geysers into fireball, but that should have never worked.
"Ignore all these warped people who frantically try to make money on everything, keep buying Uncommon sets and 10 cent Rares, and have 15 years of fun playing homebrew decks with the kitchen table crowd."
I.e., As you were.
~This is a game, enjoy playing or stop playing and find something else to enjoy.
If I had told myself that years ago, I could've saved a lot of time and money funding competitive decks I didn't enjoy to play against people I don't like.
Now, it's all about Commander with friends, and trying to collect one of every card. Good times.
Stop wasting your money on cardboard and buy stock in Apple/Microsoft :).
I wouldn't have much to tell myself about the game. Back then I read a lot of magazines/internet articles about the game just like I do now. There's nothing I could have told myself that would have made me a better player back then. I didn't take the game very seriously at all and had a lot of fun playing but I could still put together a decent deck and play competetitvely. As for speculating on cards that are valuable now while they were "cheap" I'd hardly call it a good investment. I'd rather offer myself advice on how to make real money.
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Spike cares more about the quantity of wins than the quality. For example, Spike plays ten games and wins nine of them. If Spike feels he should have won the tenth, he walks away unhappy.
That pretty much sums it up...
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Agreed.
I would also tell myself to re-read cards before I sell or trade them, thinking they are bad.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
I think any of us who got into the game early have similar stories. Mine was a lot smaller, 40 duals (no moxen cuz I got in just as legends was going out of print and caught only the tail of revised), but still pretty big. When I started playing I was also 13-14 and working off a small allowance though. Now I'm pushing 30 and there's a lot of things I would love to tell my younger self.
If you hate the deck, I'm probably playing it!
For Lists, Click Here
EDH:
GW: Selvala, Let us help YOU.
UB: Mirko Vosk, when outmatched cheat
BW: Vish Kal, The Arbiter of Reanimation
UG: Prime Speaker Zegana, the science of sorcery
RB: Malfegor, Traitor's Haven
UW: Daxos, Control-Fort-Tron
BG: Pharika, Goddess of Stax
RW: Gisela, Boros Control
RG: Ruric Thar, a Primal Surge deck
RU: Niv-Mizzet the Firemind, Spellslinger?!?!
B:(Pauper) Mikaeus the Unhallowed
R: Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient: The Power of Engineering
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=341469
2) Buy singles, not packs or boxes or cases. If you do buy packs, be honest with yourself that you are buying them because you think opening packs is fun, not because you think its a good way to get cards.
3) Practice with proxies (like from magiccards.info) before buying those singles. Sometimes a card can seem good, but not be good once you've actually played with it.
4) Play the minimum number of cards allowed in your deck (40 for limited, 60 for constructed).
5) If its a card you really want to see every game and can stand to see multiple times, play 4 copies. If its a card you would like to usually see each game, but never really want to see multiple times, play 3 copies. If you have a way to search for something when you need it, play 1. Adjust as you test out the deck to get to where feels best.
6) Lands are just as important as spells. Cutting a couple lands to fit in those two more spells you just have to have is not going to do anything good for you. Spending some money on your manabase is well warranted, you usually can't just spend all your money on spells and run with all basic lands and expect to get there.
7) Accept that there are going to be bad matchups. Don't get discouraged, play your best, and try not to make any mistakes. Sometimes you'll squeek by with a win, sometimes you won't. Often the best place to learn is when you are at a disadvantage from the very start.
8) if you play in a tournament thats going to last more than 2 hours, have a plan for what you are going to drink and what you are going to snack on. And then drink/snack, even if you don't feel that thirsty/hungry. Nervousness can sometimes mask the thirst/hunger, and you are going to regret not drinking/eating 8 hours later when you finally relax.
9) Never play because you feel like you "have to". Whether thats because your friends are, or you already took off work, etc. If your heart is not in it, you are just wasting your time.
10) Be nice to other players, and don't be afraid to talk to them. Its easy to think that no one is as much of a nerd as yourself, but most of the people there probably are. They may be nerdy about other things, but that might lead to you finding about something else cool that you might be into.
I ran a thought experiment on my blog
Modern in a Nuclear Wasteland
of an extreme case of banning 20 more cards to make sure they get everything, then scaling back where appropriate. WotC seems to be on a slowly build up approach. Both ways probably reach similar end points.
The post Gatecrash metagame is proving to be closer to the endpoint than I estimated, so its very possible that few (if any) more cards need to be banned.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=4832736
Trading 10 full art zen basics for 8 of yours!
I want
Plains - John Avon - 230
Island - Jung Park - 235
Island - Vincent Proce - 237
Swamp - John Avon - 238
Mountain - John Avon - 242
Forest - John Avon - 246
Two boxes sounded so much better than one back in the day. Damn Fallen Empires. Damn card shop clerk guy.
How To Keep Your FOIL Cards From Curling: http://youtu.be/QTmubrS8VnI
The Best Deck Boxes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEwgLph_Pjk
The Best Binders: http://youtu.be/H5IauASYWjk
......Although I'd probably try to warn someone about 9/11
Standard:
GU Prophet
Legacy:
WBU Shared Fate
Trades
This right here, along with a list of every EDH staple that's in foil. Yeah FOILS!!
That and decklists maybe of what the winning decks of each era is, net-deck before it's called net-decking. lol
I started playing during Mirroden, and I opened some SICK cards. I just didn't know it. My Sad Robot, Chrome Mox, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of War and Peace, Crucible of Worlds, Arc-Bound Ravager, and of course all the Skull clamps/loxodon warhammers/lightning greaves/artifact lands. All beat to crap, all now worth nothing.
Soldier Primer
Sig by ol MISAKA lo
My Trades
Lol why buy all the Mutavaults? Please explain? Isn't they were $50 in the beginning 4 years ago?
Anyways those things comes to my mind:
"Even through I had my Tarmogoyf at $50 ea, BoB's at $15, Clique at $10, I should buy them all in every LGS I go to"
"Not to give my buddy Foil Linvala for his angel collection..."
"Foils are actually a thing"
EDH: Xenagos, God of Revels.
Dont buy booster packs to get a specific card. Just buy that card outright. If you want to buy a booster here or there for the novelty, then so be it.
Be more careful with what you trade, and who you trade with.
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B
Hatred of Netdecking aside, though, I'd personally tell myself not to unvalue commons, especially in Draft. I recall a Zendikar-Worldwake draft where I slam-took Terra FREAKING Eternal because it was Rare.
There was a Gnarlid Pack in there too...dammit all to heck...
Other magic related advice i would give myself would be stop being a bad deck builder. The people that give you decks to start with are not good and these decks are going to hurt your play for years. Theres a reason i cant win with those anymore no matter what i change, the base is still pure crap. Hold on to a deck you started with, then look at it a few years down the line. I have a red 75 card monster stacked full of fireball type cards, no bolts, hoping for a starting hand with 2+ cloudposts... sure it would win some multiplayer games if i didn't look like a threat building up mana hoping all my opponents tap out for a max power Mana Geysers into fireball, but that should have never worked.
You would waste the money anyway, and more than likely not have as much fun doing it.
I.e., As you were.
If I had told myself that years ago, I could've saved a lot of time and money funding competitive decks I didn't enjoy to play against people I don't like.
Now, it's all about Commander with friends, and trying to collect one of every card. Good times.
Review songs for money.
Get paid to get text messages
I wouldn't have much to tell myself about the game. Back then I read a lot of magazines/internet articles about the game just like I do now. There's nothing I could have told myself that would have made me a better player back then. I didn't take the game very seriously at all and had a lot of fun playing but I could still put together a decent deck and play competetitvely. As for speculating on cards that are valuable now while they were "cheap" I'd hardly call it a good investment. I'd rather offer myself advice on how to make real money.
That pretty much sums it up...