I'm tired of people thinking a 500 dollar deck is 500 thrown down the trash. The only reason that this would be an obstacle is if you need that 500 and are living paycheck by paycheck. Purchasing a deck if you are a smart individual is a zero sum game.
In reality all you are paying is ebay fees, I have had multiple standard decks and before rotation or when I am ready to let them go I sell them for full/above what I bought them for.
"But nobody will buy them before rotation!"
Answer: I sold a standard 5-color frites deck for more than full price 2 weeks before standard rotated (and ALL of the cards in there rotated).
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Hi I'm Infecter4life and ironically I only play GBx decks.
I'm gonna' be honest here. I'm not so great with money. I buy cigarettes, good clothes, more expensive food and splurge on pretty much everything. My income is also what I would consider borderline poverty level, and yet---
I still have expensive decks. I've had binders and decks stolen from me before and have quit and restarted quite a few times over the years. So how is this possible?
Card evaluation and winning tournaments. Certain cards I consider no brainers that will go up in price (Snapcaster Mage, Deathrite Shaman) so I get a lot of them while they're cheap and then use them as trade fodder to get what I want. That plus store credit and going to multiple LGS's to trade and haggle with different people has made magic pretty much free for me.
Get better at the game and it will pay for itself. I promise.
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By: ol MISAKA lo
Cockatrice: Infallible
Mhjames: mtgsalvation: I DON'T SEE HOW THIS CARD IS GOOD. I KNOW PATRICK CHAPIN USED IT AND WENT 8-0, BUT THAT WAS A SMALL TOURNAMENT. THE CARD IS TOO SLOW. YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE THE OPPONENT HAS A SPELL IN THE GRAVEYARD
Cawgo often lost to Quest, and Delver often lost to infect.
Money doesn't win games unless you let it.
If Op always loses to expensive decks in top 8, how does he win the rounds to get there? Where are you playing where you face 6 rounds of scrub decks before top 8?
Honestly, if you can't afford to buy tier one decks, then trade, if you don't want to trade, then don't *****. My friends and I have a thousands of dollars collections without spending a quarter of that money.
Cawgo often lost to Quest, and Delver often lost to infect.
Money doesn't win games unless you let it.
If Op always loses to expensive decks in top 8, how does he win the rounds to get there? Where are you playing where you face 6 rounds of scrub decks before top 8?
Honestly, if you can't afford to buy tier one decks, then trade, if you don't want to trade, then don't *****. My friends and I have a thousands of dollars collections without spending a quarter of that money.
Okay, just kidding. I mostly play limited. But if you start playing a LOT of limited I'm not sure how much cheaper it really is.
Sealed every friday would result in $80-$100 a month. Draft would be closer $48. Simple math tells me that if you get even a little bit of money back from your pulls that draft is more manageable in the long run monetarily but not "cheaper" than investing in a non-rotating format.
Same concept as making car payments vs buying a car with cash.
Either way limited is really great for people to love to build decks and crack packs. Also better than Standard by a land slide save for GTC limited -_-
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By: ol MISAKA lo
Cockatrice: Infallible
Mhjames: mtgsalvation: I DON'T SEE HOW THIS CARD IS GOOD. I KNOW PATRICK CHAPIN USED IT AND WENT 8-0, BUT THAT WAS A SMALL TOURNAMENT. THE CARD IS TOO SLOW. YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE THE OPPONENT HAS A SPELL IN THE GRAVEYARD
Limited is so much better if you enjoy the competitive aspect of the game.
You get to punish people for not being experienced in the format (this is very common).
You get to punish people who don't build manabases correctly (this is also common.)
People who are bad at combat math, sideboarding, picking up on signals (in game and in draft). Limited format is best format.
If you must play constructed on a budget, try Pauper or Block Constructed on Magic Online. Or try to stir up block constructed interest at your lgs. There might be interest around the time of the PT.
This, limited is the great equalizer.
Then take up EDH, all the treasure & jank you walk away from limited with will be gold in commander (you'll only ever need one copy). Sell or trade the rest, grow fat, happy and old.
Many years ago, my roommate complained that I always beat him because my deck was worth much more than his and that Magic was just a game of who could spend more money. So I built a deck without rares and beat him 2 out of 3.
If you can't beat another deck's strategy, the solution isn't more expensive cards, it's a better understanding of the metagame. My roommate was a combo player and I could out aggro him almost every time. Or, if you don't do well at a format, try switching formats like so many others here have suggested. I don't do well at Standard but do great at Vintage, EDH, and drafting. So that's what I play.
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The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
Unless you have a large disposable income, there's no reason to spend hundreds of dollars on a few cards with pretty pictures and some game jargon printed on them.
Sealed every friday would result in $80-$100 a month. Draft would be closer $48. Simple math tells me that if you get even a little bit of money back from your pulls that draft is more manageable in the long run monetarily but not "cheaper" than investing in a non-rotating format.
Same concept as making car payments vs buying a car with cash.
Either way limited is really great for people to love to build decks and crack packs. Also better than Standard by a land slide save for GTC limited -_-
Here Draft is $14 with 1 pack prize support and constructed is $8 with 2 packs prize support. If you play draft vs constructed for a year you spend an additional $312 over the year and pull in half as many prize packs (lets say you're decent and pull 3 vs 6 packs per night). Those packs are worth an additional $468 in store credit assuming $3/pack in credit. So the cost of draft is $780 over a year. That's about what a constructed deck will run you over the course of a year. A good bit more if you don't play a really expensive deck.
That's playing at FNM once a week. Now if you start doing even more drafts, that limited cost is going to go up even further while your constructed costs never increase.
Over time limited is the most expensive format there is. It's way more pricey than standard which is way more expensive over time than either eternal format.\
Also, I'm very much a fan of proxies when playing casually but you can't do anything sanctioned with them.
I have a human reanimator deck that my friends refuse to play against.
Its four colour mana base is built with just guild gates. The very premise of Human reanimator is so powerful that it auto wins game 1 of most games off the back of a $2 rare.... game two is another story... but sometimes they don't draw the answer and you still win.
yes limited is often expensive but it is also fun... I think the best way to think of it is a night out. I went out of the house and I did something and it only cost me $15. (I happen to live in one of the more expensive cities in the world $15 is ridiculously cheap for a night out (its the cost of two drinks), $15 is also cheaper than three booster packs here :S).
I do understand the frustration.. I was testing a new deck and my opponent beat me with multiple huntmasters game 1 and game two was over when he played a giest of saint traft turn 3... what the hell! who plays a deck with giest and hunts master and thragtusk and resto angel.
Limited will get you cards quickly if you win..other than that it sucks for you I guess lol. Before when I started playing I was angry because of that too but now I'm in a playgroup and I can pretty much borrow anything for modern/standard.
Seriously collection management is part of the game. Until you have enough invested in your collection and know how to refresh it you will be at a disadvantage.
I honestly think about $50 + tournament entry fees is the real minimum. Really these days I'd shoot for $100. You don't have to do it forever, but you do have to do it till you build up your collection.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Play Legacy or Modern. Trade-up from standard playables that dont see play in those formats for cards that see play in multiple Legacy/Modern decks. You give up value in the short run, but the legacy and modern cards keep getting more and more expensive, so long run you win
Here Draft is $14 with 1 pack prize support and constructed is $8 with 2 packs prize support.
Good lord, that's horrible.
$12 Saturday Drafts have that kind of support round here.
FNM at the $15 level do a bit better (2 per)
The thing about my store that may make all of the difference is that they treat packs as being $3 for the purposes of sealed. So, you pay $9 to get in and the rest is for the prize support. Prizes are in packs or in store credit (although, sadly, you can't save store credit up), and the only real "downside" is the fact that packs saved up to redraft are valued at ~$2.50.
If you want to play standard on a budget, there is nothing for it but learning how to trade cards and how to detect overpriced and underpriced cards. If you pay face price for your cards, they are terribly expensive- but if you pick up the sleepers early, you can then trade them for the sinking overpriced cards. I don't know what your prize support is like, but winners at our FNM, and even the top 4 get a good amount of credit. If you do go 4-1 then lose in the top 8 at some point, I would think you still get something out of it. Or, you can learn to draft, and get good enough at it to do it near-indefinitely, growing your collection while possibly earning credit you can spend.
As far as net-decking and ''winning due to money'' goes, a game is a game. Frustrating or not, they took steps to win that you did not and beat you. There are no style points. Personally, I have never met a player who complains about net-decking that was skillful enough for it matter what their opponent was playing, but in theory they might exist. Of course, given that most competent players think that the opponent playing a copy and pasted list is a pretty useful advantage, these players might really be a myth.
Complaining about money is more valid because some people can't afford to ''perfect'' a deck with the best possible cards (I think anyone who can afford any magic cards at all can look up a decklist), but there are plenty of options. The best one, if you don't want to up your card finances game, is to have friends and borrow cards. If haven't managed to befriend any players at your local store after a few months...well, you might want to tune some skills other than your card-slinging ones.
Net-decking and money don't matter as much as you think they do. If they beat you, they were probably a better player than you. We have the foiled out Jund players at my shop, but one of the regulars never plays anything considered top tier. He also tends to play with bad cards. He ALSO tends to get 1st or 2nd everywhere he plays. If you're a good enough deck builder/player, you'll win without $30 cards. If you're not, you'd probably do roughly the same even if you had them.
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EDH WBRKaalia of the VastRBW BChainer, Dementia MasterB Legacy 0Manaless Dredge0 RGoblinsR Standard RBWThe AristocratsWBR
I have a deck that will go 4-1 or undefeated all night with 50+ people, then I lose out on Top 8 because someone who has hundreds of dollars invested in their deck beats me by flopping all the money on the table.
It is really discouraging and i making me considering quitting.
But that's not to say I'm not guilty of this either. My deck has somehow crept up to near a hundred bucks as well.
I also feel just as bad when I play against little kids that have good decks, but only get a 20 or so for allowance a week, and then I win with my money.
And thats just for standard.
I love EDH but then again is the money problem.
I want to get into modern, but jesus christ, 500 bucks for a competitive deck?
It sucks to know that you are somewhat of a good player that is limited but the 800 bucks a month I make that has to go towards bills and food.
How do you guys deal with this?
Most people accumulate these things over time. Like tools in the garage. Most players do not drop $500-$800 on a deck. Many do, but certainly not most. Especially with the dominant age group.
If you can't float $30 to $50 a month to throw at magic, then you'll probably be unhappy when facing people who can
Keep track of the decks you see week in and week out and try to craft a semi-cheap rogue deck that hates on them. Best advice I can give you if you don't want to spend the money.
Slowly trading up your collection for a while seems to help. I've been trading just for cards that people want to make it easier to trade into a particular format.
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"If you don't wear your seatbelt, the police will shoot you in the head."
- To my youngest sister when she was 6.
Everyone knows that good luck and good game are such insincere terms that any man who does not connect his right hook with the offender's jaw on the very utterance of such a phrase is no man I would consider as such.
Also, a new format I propose:
players exchange deck every round, passing the deck to their neighbor on the left. Whoa, fun! Game play skill true test. No deck building test, however.
No, I am not drunk.
Now that would be fun.
The only thing that may prevent this from happening is that some people are unscrupulous and could attempt to "slip" cards in or out of others' decks. There has to be some amount of trust between players to do something like this. It's not like you can borrow a $400+ deck to a complete stranger because of a new rule.
standard has become a "goodstuff.dec" format. you play the expensive cards because they are all that good. trying to play a rogue deck on the cheap won't get you anywhere because there is a set of good cards that go in every deck in the colors
This is actually the best solution to money issues, as long as you can afford to draft a few times, the money is there in most draft formats. Especially when new sets come out and new players want to draft, you can usually money draft like crazy.
I also want to pitch in the idea of limited. But not just for the "everyone is on the same ground" but also because you can build up your collection this way as well, and trade cards that you get that others want to go towards a deck after the draft is over.
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In reality all you are paying is ebay fees, I have had multiple standard decks and before rotation or when I am ready to let them go I sell them for full/above what I bought them for.
"But nobody will buy them before rotation!"
Answer: I sold a standard 5-color frites deck for more than full price 2 weeks before standard rotated (and ALL of the cards in there rotated).
I still have expensive decks. I've had binders and decks stolen from me before and have quit and restarted quite a few times over the years. So how is this possible?
Card evaluation and winning tournaments. Certain cards I consider no brainers that will go up in price (Snapcaster Mage, Deathrite Shaman) so I get a lot of them while they're cheap and then use them as trade fodder to get what I want. That plus store credit and going to multiple LGS's to trade and haggle with different people has made magic pretty much free for me.
Get better at the game and it will pay for itself. I promise.
By: ol MISAKA lo
Cockatrice: Infallible
Money doesn't win games unless you let it.
If Op always loses to expensive decks in top 8, how does he win the rounds to get there? Where are you playing where you face 6 rounds of scrub decks before top 8?
Honestly, if you can't afford to buy tier one decks, then trade, if you don't want to trade, then don't *****. My friends and I have a thousands of dollars collections without spending a quarter of that money.
delver would lose to a single thrun, the last troll with a rancor on it
Okay, just kidding. I mostly play limited. But if you start playing a LOT of limited I'm not sure how much cheaper it really is.
A comic about the world's most addictive game, Magic: The Gathering.
Sealed every friday would result in $80-$100 a month. Draft would be closer $48. Simple math tells me that if you get even a little bit of money back from your pulls that draft is more manageable in the long run monetarily but not "cheaper" than investing in a non-rotating format.
Same concept as making car payments vs buying a car with cash.
Either way limited is really great for people to love to build decks and crack packs. Also better than Standard by a land slide save for GTC limited -_-
By: ol MISAKA lo
Cockatrice: Infallible
This, limited is the great equalizer.
Then take up EDH, all the treasure & jank you walk away from limited with will be gold in commander (you'll only ever need one copy). Sell or trade the rest, grow fat, happy and old.
If you can't beat another deck's strategy, the solution isn't more expensive cards, it's a better understanding of the metagame. My roommate was a combo player and I could out aggro him almost every time. Or, if you don't do well at a format, try switching formats like so many others here have suggested. I don't do well at Standard but do great at Vintage, EDH, and drafting. So that's what I play.
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
Proxy. Play with friends.
Unless you have a large disposable income, there's no reason to spend hundreds of dollars on a few cards with pretty pictures and some game jargon printed on them.
Here Draft is $14 with 1 pack prize support and constructed is $8 with 2 packs prize support. If you play draft vs constructed for a year you spend an additional $312 over the year and pull in half as many prize packs (lets say you're decent and pull 3 vs 6 packs per night). Those packs are worth an additional $468 in store credit assuming $3/pack in credit. So the cost of draft is $780 over a year. That's about what a constructed deck will run you over the course of a year. A good bit more if you don't play a really expensive deck.
That's playing at FNM once a week. Now if you start doing even more drafts, that limited cost is going to go up even further while your constructed costs never increase.
Over time limited is the most expensive format there is. It's way more pricey than standard which is way more expensive over time than either eternal format.\
Also, I'm very much a fan of proxies when playing casually but you can't do anything sanctioned with them.
Its four colour mana base is built with just guild gates. The very premise of Human reanimator is so powerful that it auto wins game 1 of most games off the back of a $2 rare.... game two is another story... but sometimes they don't draw the answer and you still win.
yes limited is often expensive but it is also fun... I think the best way to think of it is a night out. I went out of the house and I did something and it only cost me $15. (I happen to live in one of the more expensive cities in the world $15 is ridiculously cheap for a night out (its the cost of two drinks), $15 is also cheaper than three booster packs here :S).
I do understand the frustration.. I was testing a new deck and my opponent beat me with multiple huntmasters game 1 and game two was over when he played a giest of saint traft turn 3... what the hell! who plays a deck with giest and hunts master and thragtusk and resto angel.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Seriously collection management is part of the game. Until you have enough invested in your collection and know how to refresh it you will be at a disadvantage.
I honestly think about $50 + tournament entry fees is the real minimum. Really these days I'd shoot for $100. You don't have to do it forever, but you do have to do it till you build up your collection.
Good lord, that's horrible.
$12 Saturday Drafts have that kind of support round here.
FNM at the $15 level do a bit better (2 per)
The thing about my store that may make all of the difference is that they treat packs as being $3 for the purposes of sealed. So, you pay $9 to get in and the rest is for the prize support. Prizes are in packs or in store credit (although, sadly, you can't save store credit up), and the only real "downside" is the fact that packs saved up to redraft are valued at ~$2.50.
As far as net-decking and ''winning due to money'' goes, a game is a game. Frustrating or not, they took steps to win that you did not and beat you. There are no style points. Personally, I have never met a player who complains about net-decking that was skillful enough for it matter what their opponent was playing, but in theory they might exist. Of course, given that most competent players think that the opponent playing a copy and pasted list is a pretty useful advantage, these players might really be a myth.
Complaining about money is more valid because some people can't afford to ''perfect'' a deck with the best possible cards (I think anyone who can afford any magic cards at all can look up a decklist), but there are plenty of options. The best one, if you don't want to up your card finances game, is to have friends and borrow cards. If haven't managed to befriend any players at your local store after a few months...well, you might want to tune some skills other than your card-slinging ones.
EDH
WBRKaalia of the VastRBW
BChainer, Dementia MasterB
Legacy
0Manaless Dredge0
RGoblinsR
Standard
RBWThe AristocratsWBR
Most people accumulate these things over time. Like tools in the garage. Most players do not drop $500-$800 on a deck. Many do, but certainly not most. Especially with the dominant age group.
If you can't float $30 to $50 a month to throw at magic, then you'll probably be unhappy when facing people who can
My Buying Thread
- To my youngest sister when she was 6.
Now that would be fun.
The only thing that may prevent this from happening is that some people are unscrupulous and could attempt to "slip" cards in or out of others' decks. There has to be some amount of trust between players to do something like this. It's not like you can borrow a $400+ deck to a complete stranger because of a new rule.
UB Sacrifice
RWU Miracle Control
Modern
UB Tezzerator
Clint Cearley ♥
Niv-Mizzet Ramp 'n' Wheel
Godo: Strap him up and turn him sideways!
This is actually the best solution to money issues, as long as you can afford to draft a few times, the money is there in most draft formats. Especially when new sets come out and new players want to draft, you can usually money draft like crazy.