I sold my collection a few years ago for about $1800. At the moment it was alright, because I did it to please my ex-fiance by using the money to take her on a nice vacation. But, like I mentioned, things didn't go too well, and we ended up breaking things off.
I have regretted selling my collection ever since.
So, I saved up my money, and I have amassed somewhat in the area of $1600 that I'm willing to sink back into the game, specifically, the EDH format as it was my favorite.
My challenge to you guys is to tell me how you would best spend it?
My only condition is that I am able to at least have one completed deck of the commander format. Chances are, I'd like it to be based off of Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
Buy the older out of print cards like ABU duals and Onslaught fetches before they creep up farther in price. Don't buy anything that may be printed in the upcoming Modern Masters until we get the spoiled list.
Are you looking at building anything else (modern, legacy, etc)? $1600 will get you a lot of product. You could probably build just about any mono-B deck you were after, as long as you don't want it foiled out or anything.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
I'd invest most of it in lands - 1 (or more) of each of the revised duals, onslaught fetchlands, zendikar fetchlands, lorwyn/shadowmoor filterlands, ravnica/return to ravnica shocklands, odyssey filterlands, ice age/apocalypse painlands, m10/innistrad taplands, scars of mirrodin fastlands, alara block shardlands, etc. Once those cycles were complete, I'd get a few copies of various utility nonbasics that you'd run in an EDH deck like Strip Mine (cheaper than Wasteland!) and Vesuva.
The one thing I've learned from my years of playing Magic is that prices on most cards will fluctuate, but lands always retain their value and will always be useful, as you can't run a proper deck without the right mana base.
Since you already know you want to build a xiahou dun deck, I would build the deck first and then buy lands. Dual lands won't do you any good in a mono colored deck >_<
Buy the older out of print cards like ABU duals and Onslaught fetches before they creep up farther in price. Don't buy anything that may be printed in the upcoming Modern Masters until we get the spoiled list.
THIS, QFT.
Get them while you can.
At worst, you can trade them in a couple of years for more than what you paid to get cards you want.
Dont bother w/ any cards that are expensive just b/c they are in standard, wait till they rotate out.
I'd check out the Chainer, Dementia Master Primer if you want to play mono black commander. I love the deck, and it really utilizes Xiahou, you could basically run him as the commander there anyways.
The deck is about 500-550, should leave you a good chunk to get off color staples.
What I would do if i had to start over is build a commander cube.
Buy all of the staples and a ton of sleeves.
Buy cards as you need them to build decks, and eventually you will have a box of a ton of EDH cards that you can build any deck you feel like playing on the fly.
Its what I plan on doing when I "sell" my collection.
Get all the shock lands while they are cheap, and any fetches you can get your hands on.
ABU duals if you can, but you an probably live without them.
I'd go through both of these threads to help you look for what other cards to get- and theres always just asking people if they have any extra staples to throw at you if you dont mind asking.
Since you already know you want to build a xiahou dun deck, I would build the deck first and then buy lands. Dual lands won't do you any good in a mono colored deck >_<
I second this. Purchase your dream mono black deck; buying each card individually on eBay or stores. Use excess funds to purchase staples that you can use for future trades.
I second this. Purchase your dream mono black deck; buying each card individually on eBay or stores. Use excess funds to purchase staples that you can use for future trades.
Buying the deck makes sense. Buying cards for the purpose of trading does not. If you think you're going to want to build a multicolored deck or three in the future, it can make sense to pick up the lands. If there's a chance you're just going to build and tune the one deck, rejoice that you came in under budget. There's no obligation to spend the money on things you won't use, and speculative buying of cards is a pretty poor idea.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
Either build that Xiahou deck then pick up duals, or pick up duals, then build that Xiahou deck. Whilst I hate the whole Magic as an investment thing, the prices of duals are only ever gonna increase. On the other hand, an awesome Xiahou deck is truly awesome.
EDH, on the other hand, is more like a monster truck rally. It's more about the spectacle than the race, the games go long, and it's not usually clear who's in the lead until there's only one truck left.*
Single player EDH is like two guys smacking each other with pillows... until one of them pulls out a shotgun.
Buy one of each dual, fetch, and shock. Get one or two of the commander precons. Spend what you have left upgrading them by buying staples. This way if you ever sell again, everything is pretty liquid. And you will have plenty of trade bait
For 1600$ you can build 2-3 nice decks from scratch. It sounds like you have a deck idea in mind, build that deck, then as you get interested in having another deck I would use the rest of the money to buy that deck and go to limited events.
I have six decks together, even with revised duals (four bicolour decks, two monocolour), and decent stuff (most staples, some gems like unlimited Timetwister).
Unless you want to foil it out, and then, maybe it'll cost you a bunch.
But, yeah, I think the advice here rings true; if you like playing EDH, buy revised duals, onslaught/zendikar fetches, Sol Ring, and other cards you might consider a staple and want to play with.
how competitive do u plan on being? prob wont need to drop too much $$$ in a deck if u just casual. try getting the commander boxes to start off. ya they've gone up in price, but i still see them at the local store at a 'fair' price.
welcome back!!
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GU Experiment Kraj- all your abilities belong to us WB Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts- battlecruiser GUB The Mimeoplasm- when graveyards are not safe RGW Mayael the Anima- i luv the fatties
1) Think about the styles and colors I like to play. I'd try to keep it down to 3 colors.
2) Get multiple generals I like that fit those colors and all the staples for those colors. I would ensure that I could switch around generals and other cards so I have a card pool can support a variety of generals so I don't get bored.
3) Buy playsets of the most playable primordials from the new set as well as a whole bunch of hellkite tyrants. These are all really cheap and they'll trade really well to edh players. This will ensure you have a sexy trade binder so you can keep trading for other stuff you need.
Edit: 4) ensure that blue is one of your colors and use cards that copy or steal other people's creatures. After step 3 you've given all your opponents the best EDH creatures, so you may as well steal them back.
Wow, thanks a lot for sure timely responses guys. Seriously, kudos.
Alright, so first to answer a few questions...
Are you looking at building anything else (modern, legacy, etc)? $1600 will get you a lot of product. You could probably build just about any mono-B deck you were after, as long as you don't want it foiled out or anything.
There's a group at my college who plays EDH once a week. So, besides playing with them, I also am thinking of playing T2 (is it called modern nowadays? Wow, leave for a year or two and things change). I figure in this way I can kind of have a good collection for EDH, and gradually work on a more substantial collection as time passes. Plus FNM is a blast, no?
I'd check out the Chainer, Dementia Master Primer if you want to play mono black commander. I love the deck, and it really utilizes Xiahou, you could basically run him as the commander there anyways.
I've actually taken a look at Chainer. While I think that he's really awesome, something just keeps pulling me back to Xiahou Dun. From a flavor standpoint (which, is somewhat important to me ... somewhat), he's just awesome.
Although for the sake of argument, I'll go and look at the primer and think about it more thoroughly.
I also loved playing Zur, the Enchanter, but (and I don't think I really have to say this but I will) he gets a lot of hate at the table. So I prefer something more innocuous and diplomatic.
How many EDH decks did you used to have? Atleast 4-5 im guessing, since you sold your last collection for 1800
At my peak, I ran about 4 or 5 decks. My favorites were Zur, Xiahou Dun, Rafiq, Intet, and Uril. None of them were fully tricked out, really. I had few gems, but many cards. I collected since I was about 10, so I had about 9 years worth of accumulation. I also had a generous donation to my collection from an older family friend.
how competitive do u plan on being? prob wont need to drop too much $$$ in a deck if u just casual. try getting the commander boxes to start off. ya they've gone up in price, but i still see them at the local store at a 'fair' price.
No too competitive. Even before I quit I was a pretty casual player. Among my friends I could pull a win pretty easily. I'd consider myself kind of between casual and competitive, if that makes sense.
welcome back!!
Thanks!
----
Now, I wanted to talk about how I feel about revised duals.
I know that they're staples. Believe me, I do. However even when I was playing before, I didn't have but maybe two? And truth be told, I rarely missed them. I looked at Card Kingdom and Starcitygames, and some of those duals reach into the $120 range I've found.
If I was to buy one of each, that would be a substantial portion of what I have to spend. And in this instance I'm wondering if it would still be worth it. I'm a great trader, and have a track record of trading up pretty consistently. I'm sure that if I was able to establish some sort of collection I could probably trade for the ones that I needed.
You can always hunt for them on ebay over time and just try to get lucky w/ cheap ones.
If youre going to play modern, you should most definately pick up shocks and fetches.
Nongreen decks will obviously be more likely to be color screwed. You could atleast pick up the cheaper ones for deck colors you plan on playing. Volcanic Island is really expensive right now, and theres a chance it'll go down if Sneak and Show doesnt do well over the summer in tournements (or it'll go up if it does really well )
If you dont plan on selling your collection again buy beat up ones and have someone alter them at a later date if you decide to 'pimp' you decks- theres a lot of people who are great at it on these forums that will do it for a fair price.
Also, places like tcgplayer.com and cardshark.com are usually more competitively priced than starcity and cardkingdom. Definitely make sure you shop around to find the best prices.
Your other option is to buy as many staples as possible, then see how much $$ you have left and prioritize what order to spend on duals afterwards
Also, places like tcgplayer.com and cardshark.com are usually more competitively priced than starcity and cardkingdom. Definitely make sure you shop around to find the best prices.
Your other option is to buy as many staples as possible, then see how much $$ you have left and prioritize what order to spend on duals afterwards
TCG player is near objectively the best prices in online magic retail you can get, because they will actually find you the best prices among other online distributors because they are not actually a retailer themselves. (I believe)
If you didn't sell your whole collection I would endorse Pucatrade.com because that's how I pick up my staples, since I'm too cheap to spend actual money and you can't get screwed on there. I also would have recommended grabbing a precon if they weren't at a stupid premium, though they still might be worth it on your budget. (I believe the BUG deck has the greatest range of staples if you're interested.)
Ultimately my suggestion is that if you don't know your local group, (maybe you moved) get to know them before rebuying anything for the format, because as much as EDH deck building is a personal affair building a deck no one in a group is going to want to play against is like slamming your head against a concrete wall to break it down. Eventually you'll he there, but it'll ****ing hurt.
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Check out the thread for my cube if you have the time, and tell me how terrible it is.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
Don't play T2 unless you don't care about the cost. Most of the cards only hold there value for a year (depending on how much the meta shifts) and when they rotate out, unless they're played in legacy, they bottom out in value.
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The EDH stax primer When you absolutely, positively got to kill every permanent in the room, accept no substitutes.
Now, I wanted to talk about how I feel about revised duals.
I know that they're staples. Believe me, I do. However even when I was playing before, I didn't have but maybe two? And truth be told, I rarely missed them. I looked at Card Kingdom and Starcitygames, and some of those duals reach into the $120 range I've found.
If I was to buy one of each, that would be a substantial portion of what I have to spend. And in this instance I'm wondering if it would still be worth it. I'm a great trader, and have a track record of trading up pretty consistently. I'm sure that if I was able to establish some sort of collection I could probably trade for the ones that I needed.
Thoughts?
If the revised duals (and possibly even the Onslaught/Zendikar fetchlands) are something you don't feel comfortable investing in, at least pick up 1-2 copies of each shockland (Breeding Pool, Watery Grave, etc.) along with the Mirage/Visions fetchlands (e.g. Bad River, etc.) and filterlands (Odyssey ones are way cheaper than the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor ones). Common options for rebuilding a pool of lands from which you can build your decks include the new guildgates, shard-lands (e.g. Crumbling Necropolis, Savage Lands, etc.), and the M10/Innistrad tap-lands.
Also, mono black seems like an odd choice for a "less threatening deck," though compared to Zur/Uril/Sigarda/Jhoira, I suppose it would be. If you really want to get some laughs, build a group hug deck around Phelddagrif; you might not win much, but you get to basically play kingmaker and warp the game state by giving people cards/lands/stuff.
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I sold my collection a few years ago for about $1800. At the moment it was alright, because I did it to please my ex-fiance by using the money to take her on a nice vacation. But, like I mentioned, things didn't go too well, and we ended up breaking things off.
I have regretted selling my collection ever since.
So, I saved up my money, and I have amassed somewhat in the area of $1600 that I'm willing to sink back into the game, specifically, the EDH format as it was my favorite.
My challenge to you guys is to tell me how you would best spend it?
My only condition is that I am able to at least have one completed deck of the commander format. Chances are, I'd like it to be based off of Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
How would youstart my collection?
Shop around - Compare prices on TCGplayer, Amazon, and Ebay.
Don't buy anything that is currently standard legal - for 99% of cards, this is when they are priciest.
When you start trading, trade with people who don't play EDH for their old standard staples (which are usually EDH gold).
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
The one thing I've learned from my years of playing Magic is that prices on most cards will fluctuate, but lands always retain their value and will always be useful, as you can't run a proper deck without the right mana base.
From there, I'd restock on edh staples (e.g. Sensei's Divining Top, Sol Ring, Krosan Grip, Swords to Plowshares, Hinder, Spell Crumple, et al.) and finally end with building a deck or two with whatever money is left over.
tl;dr: Invest in lands and staples, then build your deck(s).
THIS, QFT.
Get them while you can.
At worst, you can trade them in a couple of years for more than what you paid to get cards you want.
Dont bother w/ any cards that are expensive just b/c they are in standard, wait till they rotate out.
I'd check out the Chainer, Dementia Master Primer if you want to play mono black commander. I love the deck, and it really utilizes Xiahou, you could basically run him as the commander there anyways.
The deck is about 500-550, should leave you a good chunk to get off color staples.
What I would do if i had to start over is build a commander cube.
Buy all of the staples and a ton of sleeves.
Buy cards as you need them to build decks, and eventually you will have a box of a ton of EDH cards that you can build any deck you feel like playing on the fly.
Its what I plan on doing when I "sell" my collection.
Get all the shock lands while they are cheap, and any fetches you can get your hands on.
ABU duals if you can, but you an probably live without them.
I'd go through both of these threads to help you look for what other cards to get- and theres always just asking people if they have any extra staples to throw at you if you dont mind asking.
The 'voted' best 50 cards by color/type in commander:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=252037
Statistical Compliation of most played cards using the deck database here:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=388001
Building a cube will get you the most for your money.
Mimeoplasm Midrange, CHAINER CHAINER HIGH VOLTAGE
Rafiq of the Astral Slide, 67land.dec Child of Alara, Gisela <3 Sunforger
TRADE!?WUBRGMy Pauper Cube
Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper, Phage the Uncastable, Azusa Lost but Stompy, Crosis Combo Breaker, All-In-Skullbriar, Rafiq/Jenara ETB army, Hazezon Swarm, Glissa Voltron!, Jarad Zombie Tribal, Zedruu Pillowfort, Reaper King Artifact Shenanagains
I second this. Purchase your dream mono black deck; buying each card individually on eBay or stores. Use excess funds to purchase staples that you can use for future trades.
Buying the deck makes sense. Buying cards for the purpose of trading does not. If you think you're going to want to build a multicolored deck or three in the future, it can make sense to pick up the lands. If there's a chance you're just going to build and tune the one deck, rejoice that you came in under budget. There's no obligation to spend the money on things you won't use, and speculative buying of cards is a pretty poor idea.
How many EDH decks did you used to have? Atleast 4-5 im guessing, since you sold your last collection for 1800
Mimeoplasm Midrange, CHAINER CHAINER HIGH VOLTAGE
Rafiq of the Astral Slide, 67land.dec Child of Alara, Gisela <3 Sunforger
TRADE!?WUBRGMy Pauper Cube
Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper, Phage the Uncastable, Azusa Lost but Stompy, Crosis Combo Breaker, All-In-Skullbriar, Rafiq/Jenara ETB army, Hazezon Swarm, Glissa Voltron!, Jarad Zombie Tribal, Zedruu Pillowfort, Reaper King Artifact Shenanagains
The only things really beyond that are some super high-end cards like Imperial Seal (will probably run you $400-500), Mana Crypt (~$60), and some more "optional" cards like Maze of Ith ($40), Wasteland ($60), The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale (~$300) or Bazaar of Baghdad (~$300)
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
EDH Cube
Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!
On building a Celestial Kirin Stax EDH:
BRGrenzo, Dungeon Warden EDH
GAzusa, Always in a Rush EDH
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Warlord EDH
Trade thread on MOTL
I have six decks together, even with revised duals (four bicolour decks, two monocolour), and decent stuff (most staples, some gems like unlimited Timetwister).
Unless you want to foil it out, and then, maybe it'll cost you a bunch.
But, yeah, I think the advice here rings true; if you like playing EDH, buy revised duals, onslaught/zendikar fetches, Sol Ring, and other cards you might consider a staple and want to play with.
http://www.commandercast.com/category/articles/generally-speaking
Follow me on Twitter: @generalspeak
welcome back!!
GU Experiment Kraj- all your abilities belong to us
WB Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts- battlecruiser
GUB The Mimeoplasm- when graveyards are not safe
RGW Mayael the Anima- i luv the fatties
1) Think about the styles and colors I like to play. I'd try to keep it down to 3 colors.
2) Get multiple generals I like that fit those colors and all the staples for those colors. I would ensure that I could switch around generals and other cards so I have a card pool can support a variety of generals so I don't get bored.
3) Buy playsets of the most playable primordials from the new set as well as a whole bunch of hellkite tyrants. These are all really cheap and they'll trade really well to edh players. This will ensure you have a sexy trade binder so you can keep trading for other stuff you need.
Edit: 4) ensure that blue is one of your colors and use cards that copy or steal other people's creatures. After step 3 you've given all your opponents the best EDH creatures, so you may as well steal them back.
My G Yisan, the Bard of Death G deck.
My BUGWR Hermit druid BUGWR deck.
Alright, so first to answer a few questions...
There's a group at my college who plays EDH once a week. So, besides playing with them, I also am thinking of playing T2 (is it called modern nowadays? Wow, leave for a year or two and things change). I figure in this way I can kind of have a good collection for EDH, and gradually work on a more substantial collection as time passes. Plus FNM is a blast, no?
I've actually taken a look at Chainer. While I think that he's really awesome, something just keeps pulling me back to Xiahou Dun. From a flavor standpoint (which, is somewhat important to me ... somewhat), he's just awesome.
Although for the sake of argument, I'll go and look at the primer and think about it more thoroughly.
I also loved playing Zur, the Enchanter, but (and I don't think I really have to say this but I will) he gets a lot of hate at the table. So I prefer something more innocuous and diplomatic.
At my peak, I ran about 4 or 5 decks. My favorites were Zur, Xiahou Dun, Rafiq, Intet, and Uril. None of them were fully tricked out, really. I had few gems, but many cards. I collected since I was about 10, so I had about 9 years worth of accumulation. I also had a generous donation to my collection from an older family friend.
No too competitive. Even before I quit I was a pretty casual player. Among my friends I could pull a win pretty easily. I'd consider myself kind of between casual and competitive, if that makes sense.
Thanks!
----
Now, I wanted to talk about how I feel about revised duals.
I know that they're staples. Believe me, I do. However even when I was playing before, I didn't have but maybe two? And truth be told, I rarely missed them. I looked at Card Kingdom and Starcitygames, and some of those duals reach into the $120 range I've found.
If I was to buy one of each, that would be a substantial portion of what I have to spend. And in this instance I'm wondering if it would still be worth it. I'm a great trader, and have a track record of trading up pretty consistently. I'm sure that if I was able to establish some sort of collection I could probably trade for the ones that I needed.
Thoughts?
If youre going to play modern, you should most definately pick up shocks and fetches.
Nongreen decks will obviously be more likely to be color screwed. You could atleast pick up the cheaper ones for deck colors you plan on playing. Volcanic Island is really expensive right now, and theres a chance it'll go down if Sneak and Show doesnt do well over the summer in tournements (or it'll go up if it does really well )
If you dont plan on selling your collection again buy beat up ones and have someone alter them at a later date if you decide to 'pimp' you decks- theres a lot of people who are great at it on these forums that will do it for a fair price.
Also, places like tcgplayer.com and cardshark.com are usually more competitively priced than starcity and cardkingdom. Definitely make sure you shop around to find the best prices.
Your other option is to buy as many staples as possible, then see how much $$ you have left and prioritize what order to spend on duals afterwards
Mimeoplasm Midrange, CHAINER CHAINER HIGH VOLTAGE
Rafiq of the Astral Slide, 67land.dec Child of Alara, Gisela <3 Sunforger
TRADE!?WUBRGMy Pauper Cube
Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper, Phage the Uncastable, Azusa Lost but Stompy, Crosis Combo Breaker, All-In-Skullbriar, Rafiq/Jenara ETB army, Hazezon Swarm, Glissa Voltron!, Jarad Zombie Tribal, Zedruu Pillowfort, Reaper King Artifact Shenanagains
TCG player is near objectively the best prices in online magic retail you can get, because they will actually find you the best prices among other online distributors because they are not actually a retailer themselves. (I believe)
If you didn't sell your whole collection I would endorse Pucatrade.com because that's how I pick up my staples, since I'm too cheap to spend actual money and you can't get screwed on there. I also would have recommended grabbing a precon if they weren't at a stupid premium, though they still might be worth it on your budget. (I believe the BUG deck has the greatest range of staples if you're interested.)
Ultimately my suggestion is that if you don't know your local group, (maybe you moved) get to know them before rebuying anything for the format, because as much as EDH deck building is a personal affair building a deck no one in a group is going to want to play against is like slamming your head against a concrete wall to break it down. Eventually you'll he there, but it'll ****ing hurt.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
The EDH stax primer
When you absolutely, positively got to kill every permanent in the room, accept no substitutes.
If the revised duals (and possibly even the Onslaught/Zendikar fetchlands) are something you don't feel comfortable investing in, at least pick up 1-2 copies of each shockland (Breeding Pool, Watery Grave, etc.) along with the Mirage/Visions fetchlands (e.g. Bad River, etc.) and filterlands (Odyssey ones are way cheaper than the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor ones). Common options for rebuilding a pool of lands from which you can build your decks include the new guildgates, shard-lands (e.g. Crumbling Necropolis, Savage Lands, etc.), and the M10/Innistrad tap-lands.
Also, mono black seems like an odd choice for a "less threatening deck," though compared to Zur/Uril/Sigarda/Jhoira, I suppose it would be. If you really want to get some laughs, build a group hug deck around Phelddagrif; you might not win much, but you get to basically play kingmaker and warp the game state by giving people cards/lands/stuff.