Stretching your Multiplayer Dollars

One subject that I overlook far too much is how to stretch your multiplayer dollars as far as possible. As most of us know, multiplayer decks typically have to be built on a fairly strict budget and there's usually no two ways about it. Cards that cost 5 or more dollars are difficult to justify and you usually can't spring for many of them. How, then, can you satisfy your curiosity as a deckbuilder without having to put some strain on the old bank account? I may not have all of the answers, but as an 11 year veteran of the game I do feel like I can help in some areas.

#1: Don't get Married to Your "Finished" Decks.
What I mean by that is that you shouldn't feel as though each and every 60 card deck that you build must be sleeved, shelved and ready to pull out a moment's notice. While that works for some people, it's not practical if you have to be a frugal buyer. Still, regardless of your means, it's just plain common sense in my mind. To give you an idea, I own 1 copy of Demonic Tutor but I've played it in hundreds and hundreds of decks. Every Black deck I've ever built that I've been allowed to actually. I mean yes, the card cost me like $7.00 back when I bought it some 6 years ago, but at this point it's paid itself off tens of times over. Phyrexian Arena? Same thing. I bough it as a 4-of 11 years ago and to this day I still play those same 4 copies in most of my decks. Innocent Blood? Check. Exsanguinate? Check. More players need to accept the fact that decks can be volatile creations that you pull out for a few weeks before being disassembled. If you ever want to play it again, it's an easy build, you just have to throw it back together. I don't get why people keep saying "I have 5 playsets of Exsanguinate" or "I have 12 Primeval Titans across my Green decks." Why not just rotate the same 4 across them as needed? Notepad exists for a reason. Even if you can't remember decklists, your computer can do it for you. Stop letting yourself believe that a deck is a finished good and be more open to rotating cards across them. It'll save you a ton of time and money in the long-run.

#2: Invest in Utility and Scaling Threats
One of the biggest problems with creatures is that the best ones are expensive as long as they're played in a Competitive sphere. As such, it's often pointless to purchase a card like Thragtusk while it's in Standard because you have to fight tooth and nail against the people who want it for competitive reasons. Furthermore, creatures tend to become obsolete relatively quickly. Wizards keeps making creatures better and better and so investing in threats is often a fool's errand. They're just going to be trivial in a few months after all. That trend may slow down eventually, but eh, Wizards is still churning out some insane bodies.

Because of this, my advice is to invest in utility and scaling threats (that is, threats that get stronger as the number of opponents increases). The reason for this is 2-fold. First of all, spells aren't going to get much better. If there's currently a good utility spell in existence, it's unlikely to be obsoleted in the near future. Secondly, scaling threats will always be strong and they'll never cost much money. Why? They're terrible in duels. Forgotten Ancient will always be too slow for a competition but it'll make your deck 100% of the time in multiplayer.

Let's explore this tip a bit more closely. What do I mean by utility spell? Basically, you probably want to peruse my guides and look at the sections that deal with recursive cards, destructive cards and scaling cards. Take cards like Earthquake, Allay, Shattering Pulse, Rhystic Study, Wrath of God, Syphon Mind and Lurking Predators. How often will those cards fail to make your decks of their respective colors? Ever? Ok, some % of the time they might not fit the bill, but let's be realistic here. These kinds of cards are fairly timeless and are unlikely to be replaced any time soon. You could buy 2x Shattering Pulse and realistically play them in every Red deck that you ever build for the next 10 years. That's no exaggeration either. Syphon Mind? Same thing, except you probably want 4 of those. Most of these cards are extremely budget friendly and bring a ton of power and longevity to your decks. Given that they, unlike creatures, probably aren't going anywhere any time soon, you could do much worse than to snag some up.

With respect to scaling threats, this one is kind of a no-brainer. Let's take a random curve of Taurean Mauler into Havengul Vampire into Malignus. Is that the best curve ever? No. Is it pretty damn solid in multiplayer? 9 out of 10 times it will be yes. Look, I get that playing the same cards gets boring. Ok, that's a complete lie (I LOVE playing with the same overpowered cards :D), but I do sympathize with people who do. Still, let's get real here for a second. Let's say that your budget is like $20.00 a month on your decks. Isn't it worth grabbing that Red suite for whatever trivial cost it sets you back and calling on those bodies whenever your decks have some holes in them? Taurean Mauler might be a boring option for the 3 CMC slot, but like, isn't it nice to have it around when you do need something? It really doesn't matter what the rest of the deck is after all. It just naturally works in just about anything. Most scalers do.

Again, I'll plug my guide as a source for finding some good scalable threats. There's an entire section devoted to them after all.

#3: Keep your Color(s) Simple
This is one thing that people get so wrong. I see 3 color decks that are splashing for useless garbage all the time. That's fine if you own fetches, duals, etc. but that's not the case for the vast majority of the players out there. Why, then, are you playing these 3+ color monstrosities on a budget? I'll break it down for you. You can play pretty much any 2 color deck with basic lands and some Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanses. That's it. Seriously. Play 6-8 "slow fetchers" like that and a whack of basics and you're done. For the life of me I don't get why people are splashing for Saltblast and adding 7 Plains to their deck in the pitiful hope of having a stable mana base. Cut the infected limb off and ignore the color altogether. It's not worth adding at that point. If your deck is more than 3 colors, you better have a very good reason for making it like that. You probably also want to add some sort of fixing + acceleration in the deck because it's probably going to be slower and more mana intensive than a typical deck. Fellwar Stone, Coalition Relic, Chromatic Lantern and much more all fit the bill. Still you can also use Signets and such too if needed. There's no one right or wrong answer but you're probably not going to get the job done with basic lands alone. Do not build those decks with 7 Islands 8 Mountains and 6 Plains and expect things to work out smoothly every time. Strongly consider cutting the weakest color or get on the ramp train and get some fixing involved.

Furthermore, I strongly recommend playing "easy to cast" spells. Let's go back to some of my previous examples. Allay, Taurean Mauler, Syphon Mind. What do these cards all have in common? Well, they're all exceptionally easy to cast on curve. When you play spells that have "forgiving" mana costs, you lessen the likelihood of falling to mana screw. Now, that isn't to say that you can't ever get in there with Grave Pact or whatever, but you should take its cost into consideration when building your deck. It lends itself much better to mono-colored decks, and while you could play it in dual-colored ones, you probably won't be playing in ones that are 3 or more colors. A $500.00 mana base would solve that, but hey, let's ignore those for now.

The point here isn't just to play spells that only have 1 colored mana symbol in their cost, but to take the budget nature of MP into consideration. You're still going to be able to cast Lurking Predators on turn 6 with a great deal of consistency even if your deck doesn't have any duals. That's what's so nice about expensive drops like that. The point that I'm mostly concerned with expressing is that you probably want to avoid overly complex colored cards if your deck realistically can't support them. By sticking to things that are "easy" to cast you never really open the door to mana screw.

#4: Trade!
Now, let's make something clear. I'm not telling you to trade that bomb Constructed rare/mythic for a bunch of multiplayer staples. You are MUCH better off selling it or trading it up or whatever. Still, the point of this section is to highlight the fact that most multiplayer cards have little-to-no value. I don't just mean that in a monetary sense either. The fact is that most people don't care about them at all. If you're negotiating a close trade, ask for a few multiplayer cards that interest you. I guarantee you that you will get them "for free" a huge % of the time. I'm not suggesting that you rip anyone off or anything, don't misunderstand me, just keep in mind that their value is basically negligible. If you're already in the market to make a close trade, shore up the difference with some trash that he most certainly won't miss.

Still, I will say that trading is often a shark's game which is why I typically avoid it. People are usually doing it to make a quick buck and they're almost always trying to trade up for staples. Even if the combined cost of their cards is higher, they usually offer things that are much harder to move. This is probably more ranty than what I intended, but the point is that people should be weary of trading in general. It's much easier to do it between friends, especially if you know people will large collections. They know that their Mortivores are worthless and so they're not going to ask much for them.

#5: Scour the Dollar Rare Binder
Welcome to where I got half of my multiplayer collection. Does every LGS have these? No. Do tons of people buy their cards online? You bet. Is this still worth noting? In my mind it is. Half the decks that I built in the past came straight from junk rare binders across the city. Again, the key thing to remember is that multiplayer cards are generally inexpensive and are often very hard to move. That's why they tend to end up in "bargain bins" and such. Always take advantage of these opportunities to increase your collection of playable multiplayer cards. Laugh all you want, but that's a big part of what helped me build my first multiplayer Cube.

#6: Buy Online and Chince on the Shipping
I hope that it isn't against the CoC to suggest this or anything because I'm certainly not implying that you pursue any sort of illegal activity. I will also go ahead and warn people to do this this at their own discretion. There is some risk involved after all. That being said, this has always been a no-brainer to me. When I buy multiplayer cards, it's usually "a third of a deck" or so and it comes out to like 20 bucks or something at some online retailer (where it would cost close to double that at an LGS). I choose to ship it uninsured whenever possible for the $3.00 or whatever that it costs. While I could be looking at a loss of $25.00 or whatever in theory, in practice it's probably almost never going to occur. I've been doing this for about 8 years and have yet to get burned. My friends and family have been doing it for just as long and, to this day, none of us have ever failed to receive our package. Keep in mind that I am a Canadian who is often ordering from American websites. Despite that, it still has always worked out fine. Online stores live and die on their reputation and so they have ZERO incentive to screw with you. You are not worth the time and energy. Your package is going to be there a few days later and your cards will be fine an overwhelmingly high % of the time. Even if this method backfires a small % of the time, say once a year, it will still be profitable overall. LGSes tend to charge sizable premiums on cards, especially "trash" cards that have little-to-no value. They often charge you $2-4.00 for something that should realistically retail for 50 cents. Buying online slashes the price of most purchases in half, especially if you're taking my advice and not buying the current competitive staples. Ignore large shipping costs and realize that there's an extremely small chance of something going wrong. Again, I'm not suggesting that you do anything illegal and I'm not saying that it's a foolproof plan or anything, just bear in mind that that a group of ~8 Canadians have been doing it for the past decade (ordering from the U.S) and have yet to lose a single cent. I wouldn't do this for a $50.00 order mind you, you have to be reasonable with respect to the risk involved, but if you're just shoring up a few holes and are only looking to drop a few dimes then I highly recommend doing everything on the cheap.
5
Prid3's avatar
Prid3

Comments

  • To post a comment, please or register a new account.
Posts Quoted:
Reply
Clear All Quotes