I know most people on here probably don't care about what I have to say here due to my criticisms with the way Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro has handled Magic: The Gathering as of late but I feel as though I'm at a breaking point with Paper Magic to where I've mostly been using this gaming hobby to take advantage of my parents by ordering card singles that my Local Game Store (LGS) doesn't carry on eBay while also allowing friends in my local playgroup to take advantage of me when it comes to obtaining cards me and my friends need for our EDH / Commander decks. One I'm not very good at purchasing my own stuff online which is why I rely on others to help me with it in order to deal with the monetary transactions while one of my friends I hang out with to play EDH / Commander refuses to get a part-time job to help pay for his own cards despite the fact that he's unable to pay me back though I had a bad feeling this karma would come to bite me in the ass later down the road.
When you're stuck with a gaming hobby that's become a luxury item almost too difficult to get out of because getting back in is just as hard due to how predatory the Secondary Market is and you're depending on building up a In-Person community to play to the point where you're trying to find shortcuts over someone's trade bait that is less of a guarantee than card singles then you're going to have problems like I am right now. It becomes more of an uphill battle especially when you take into consideration how the cost of Paper Magic has gotten to a point where there's not enough disposable income for playing other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games that don't drain your wallet as much. I don't want to leave Paper Magic but I didn't really want to come on here and start a pity party over my own problems when there's one global crisis after another. I know I've caused a lot of problems for you guys in the past so take it for what you will.
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America Bless Christ Jesus
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Here’s the thing about Magic, you don’t have to continually buy cards to play. If you and your friends have cards, play with those cards. I never get the point people have issues with what WOTC does. If you don’t like a product, or WOTC’s pricing structure, don’t buy.
The entirety of the second hand market is not “predatory”, cards achieve a market value, based upon what people are willing to pay. If some cards are too expensive just don’t buy them.
I rarely buy much in the way of new product unless it tickles one of my Magic fetishes. I don’t need new cards. I do collect all things dragon tribal, so when a new set is dragon heavy I “have” to spend a little more. But I’ve noticed that when some new release is more than I’m willing to pay if I just wait a little while things get less expensive, for the most part.
One way to mitigate the expense is to play budget deck formats. There’s a very popular youtube channel dedicated to budget commander decks where every card is under a dollar.
So many people get hooked into the idea of always needing to get the latest and most sought after cards, but it’s not necessary for enjoying the hobby.
Sound like your issues have more to do with your ability to navigate reality and some people in your peer group than with WOTC or paper Magic.
It's easy to say that If cards are too expensive that you don't buy them but when there's fewer good alternatives and certain decks demand certain cards in order to properly function then you're basically being priced out of being able to play the deck. At least that's the case with the EDH / Commander format based on my personal experience. I don't have a desire to collect Magic cards when I just mainly want to play while running as few proxies as possible If it's possible but yet again that seems to be getting harder and harder the more Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro reprints less and less to avoid getting in actual trouble with local authorities or the U.S. Government even.
I don't like how this gaming hobby forces players to take advantage of other people even If it's family members to obtain certain cards just to be able to play the game. Sure Budget Commander is an option but If I'm allowed to help my local playgroup with decks and they don't give me something in return for putting in the effort then they're basically taking advantage of me. Think of it as being stuck in a toxic relationship even when it doesn't feel that way. It's not that you hate the people in your playgroup when you're mainly just putting up with them or you feel obligated to be around them. Everyone is having difficulty navigating their own realities with the ongoing pandemic, staff shortages, and now the threat of looming war.
If I hadn't been into EDH / Commander then one of the last friends in my local playgroup would've quit Paper Magic a LONG time ago. It's hard when nobody wants to work a full or part-time job for their own cards either because the pay is too low, they don't want to put up with vaccine / mask mandates, or they're still getting free money from the Biden Administration with leftover money from Stimulus Checks in the last two years. So many people work from home nowadays that they don't want to have anything to do with the outside world anymore while the economic hardships are so bad that people are needing to look after their families more because their resources are being stretched incredibly thin right now.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
WOTC’s reprint policies have zero to do with “getting in trouble with local authorities or the U.S. Government”. How and why they do or don’t reprint cards has no legal impact what so ever. And if you’re talking about the reserved list, that’s been a fixture since ‘96. And WOTC hold’s to it not because of any trouble they’d get into with the government, they’re just avoiding a class action law suit and all the headaches that would bring. Any cards not on the reserved list they could reprint at any time and in any numbers they choose. They do it the way they do to maximize profits now and im the future.
If you’re not willing to entertain options or solutions to your dilemma fine, but if you’re unwilling to go down different roads don’t be surprised if nothing changes for you.
If you’re the one supplying your play group then you have the power to control the card pool and deck archetypes.
When it comes to MTG, no one “needs” any of it, it’s just a giant list of “wants”. Sometime you have to tailor your wants to fit your situation.
I only pro offered the solutions I did to help you out, maybe try looking into budget commander. I my group the most powerful commander deck is, for the most part, a budget deck. “Budget” is not synonymous with “jank”, there are a ton of great budget options. It’s easy to complain about our situations in life and a whole lot harder to effect change. But to create change you have to be willing to let go of your preconceived notions of things.
No one is forcing you to build cookie-cutter net decks, get creative. It’s not like you're playing for cash prizes.
I don't like how this gaming hobby forces players to take advantage of other people even If it's family members to obtain certain cards just to be able to play the game.
No hobby does this to a person. A person does this due to a myriad of existing factors including genetics and upbringing. It doesn't matter what the hobby is, it's interchangeable with any other expensive hobby. This problem is a personal problem.
Don't allow the sunk cost fallacy drag you under. I had over $20,000 in EDH decks three years ago. I walked away and while I constantly look back I will never get that deep again.
Personally I think I'd be much better off not buying card singles online anymore so I don't end up putting my family in a position to support me in Paper Magic ever again because even If it's just for me they still might worry about it. We take too much for granted in life that we don't know what we got until it's gone. I remember when I was faced with a choice of seeing my late grandmother in the hospital before she passed away in 2013 and getting something done in regards to my Gaming Hobby and I ended up going with my Gaming Hobby knowing that not getting it taken care of would be just as costly as the other choice. Fortunately I was able to stand by her just before she passed away at home but it was one of those moments where I felt like I was being tested where my real loyalties lie and what I needed to do to better improve myself so it doesn't happen again.
Even If I venture into other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games I still see the companies behind these games repeating the same mistakes that Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro has been making with Paper Magic because it's still tied to a system that creates the kind of sunk cost fallacy of not being able to have enough disposable income for other games when the pay wall for the one you're spending the most amount of money on is too much to handle. This is another reason why it's an uphill battle to get Organized Play for these card games to get off the ground and because the risk isn't often times worth the reward that's another reason why Local Game Store (LGS) owners and staff members refuse to publicly advertise for these things. With Social Media getting a bad rep from Wokeness and Cancel Culture, it also hinders any progress they're wanting to make as well.
This is what happens when a Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game like Magic: The Gathering has too many formats for it's Secondary Market to absorb the price point of cards for. It only leads to a much bigger pay wall. Even Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon TCG weren't stupid enough to fall for this terrible business move. If Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro had the ACTUAL balls to trim the fat out of their Non-Singleton formats by officially discontinuing Modern, Pioneer, Legacy, Vintage, and Pauper to make EDH / Commander more affordable as a format that still wouldn't drop the price of Fetches or even God forbid Dockside Extortionist! Nobody wants to touch Paper Standard anymore and DesolatorMagic just posted a YouTube video explaining how Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro can ACTUALLY fix Paper Standard but they won't do it because they put all their chips on the table for Arena.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I think with MTG WOTC is in the unenviable position of balancing support for the profit oriented secondary market whose continued existence is a primary draw for the more competitive side of the community against pricing potential new players out. I am by no means a WOTC apologist, but that type of balance is a lot trickier to pull off than a lot of people think. It's sort of like Netflix knows that their customers are going to share their passwords, but since their proprietary content needs exposure to attract new customers they simply have to accept that they're only going to be making money off part of the market in an already overcrowded field. All I can really say is that at least we're lucky enough to live in an era of MTG where there's a lot of different options for every type of player, many of which are specifically designed to avoid or mitigate some of the "pay to win" problems that are inherent in any collectable card game. Personally I simply set a limit to the amount of money I'm willing to spend on any individual card, and mainly enjoy the more casual kitchen table formats.
I don't like how this gaming hobby forces players to take advantage of other people even If it's family members to obtain certain cards just to be able to play the game.
I will echo a senitment from a poster above.
No one is holding a gun to your head to do those things. That is YOU. You are looking for a scapegoat to blame what is indeed a personal issue. Don't play the victim card here as you are not one. I have recommended this to you before and I will again, get some professional counseling or support to deal with your issues. You will thank yourself someday that you did.
I don't deny the predatory nature of aspects of this game. But it is up to the individual to rise above the morass to higher ground.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Dude, I think it’s time to openly acknowledge that you have an addiction and take action to remedy it.
Yelling at Wizards to be less predatory is like a smoker yelling at the tobacco industry or a gambler yelling at the lottery industry to tell them to make their products less addictive so they can keep their vice in their life in a healthy way.
While I can understand why you would wish that, that is simply not a realistic wish.
While the game is addictive by nature, the actions that you take to satisfy that addiction (relying on family for support, missing a meeting with a dying relative, willfully allowing a friend to take advantage of you) are things that you bear at least partial responsibility for.
If you feel that this cannot continue, then you need to change. Make new friendships that are not toxic. Stay away from activities that cost more than you feel you should be paying. Increase positive engagement with your family. Possibly seek out therapy for behavioral addictions if you feel it is that severe.
I thank you for your willingness to share what you have been struggling with. That is a very big step. At the end of the day, though, you have infinitely more power to change yourself than you do to change WotC.
I think with MTG WOTC is in the unenviable position of balancing support for the profit oriented secondary market whose continued existence is a primary draw for the more competitive side of the community against pricing potential new players out. I am by no means a WOTC apologist, but that type of balance is a lot trickier to pull off than a lot of people think. It's sort of like Netflix knows that their customers are going to share their passwords, but since their proprietary content needs exposure to attract new customers they simply have to accept that they're only going to be making money off part of the market in an already overcrowded field. All I can really say is that at least we're lucky enough to live in an era of MTG where there's a lot of different options for every type of player, many of which are specifically designed to avoid or mitigate some of the "pay to win" problems that are inherent in any collectable card game. Personally I simply set a limit to the amount of money I'm willing to spend on any individual card, and mainly enjoy the more casual kitchen table formats.
Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro acts like they can please everybody in Paper Magic when the Secondary Market is becoming much harder for them to live up to that expectation. Mark Rosewater acknowledges the fact that everybody has their own way of playing Magic: The Gathering yet he refuses to talk about it publicly because then it would just lead to potential class action lawsuits. It's something that Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro has been actively trying to avoid for years now. These companies behind Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon TCG simply refuse to do anything in regards to mitigating the "Pay to Win" and "Pay to Play" aspect of their games and products because they know how consequential it would be If they actually went out and tried to fix the problem when their only goal is to follow the money.
I don't like how this gaming hobby forces players to take advantage of other people even If it's family members to obtain certain cards just to be able to play the game.
I will echo a senitment from a poster above.
No one is holding a gun to your head to do those things. That is YOU. You are looking for a scapegoat to blame what is indeed a personal issue. Don't play the victim card here as you are not one. I have recommended this to you before and I will again, get some professional counseling or support to deal with your issues. You will thank yourself someday that you did.
I don't deny the predatory nature of aspects of this game. But it is up to the individual to rise above the morass to higher ground.
What's really been holding a gun to my head to do these things is something called "FOMO" otherwise known as "Fear of Missing Out". What exactly am I missing out on If I decide to quit and come back to play Paper Magic later? Having to pay double or triple the price of a card I once owned due to new cards entering the game that cause these price fluctuations? No player should have to be punished for that sort of thing. The Reserve List was already bad enough to help cater solely to collectors. Now you have Whales hoarding TONS of sealed product to create artificial scarcity in order to make it harder for players to obtain certain cards they need for their decks. This system is unsustainable and players shouldn't have to be punished by Whales and collectors just to enjoy Paper Magic.
As for the whole counseling thing, the Lord recently reminded me of Ecclesiastes in that we mustn't be wasting our lives in pursuits that in the light of death ultimately mean nothing. It also warns about intellectual accomplishments. Ultimately, the wise person and his works, like the fool and his deeds, perish. Ecclesiastes also warns about wealth and luxury. Those who pursue riches waste their lives in anxiety and toil. Wealth of itself is a fraudulent substitute for true contentment. Materialists seek to find life's object in the abundance of possessions or achievements. Sensualists seek to discover meaning in physical pleasure (food, sex, excitement, adventure). Scholars seek to find purpose through intellectual inquiry (wisdom). Life's meaning cannot be discovered; it is only revealed by God Himself.
Dude, I think it’s time to openly acknowledge that you have an addiction and take action to remedy it.
Yelling at Wizards to be less predatory is like a smoker yelling at the tobacco industry or a gambler yelling at the lottery industry to tell them to make their products less addictive so they can keep their vice in their life in a healthy way.
While I can understand why you would wish that, that is simply not a realistic wish.
While the game is addictive by nature, the actions that you take to satisfy that addiction (relying on family for support, missing a meeting with a dying relative, willfully allowing a friend to take advantage of you) are things that you bear at least partial responsibility for.
If you feel that this cannot continue, then you need to change. Make new friendships that are not toxic. Stay away from activities that cost more than you feel you should be paying. Increase positive engagement with your family. Possibly seek out therapy for behavioral addictions if you feel it is that severe.
I thank you for your willingness to share what you have been struggling with. That is a very big step. At the end of the day, though, you have infinitely more power to change yourself than you do to change WotC.
Here's the conversation I had with my friend online via e-mail messaging in my local EDH / Commander playgroup. My friend says that he does feel responsible for some of the recent actions we've made and regrets that he didn't stop me sooner. My problem is that I'm too trusting of other people and I don't like how society expects you to ALWAYS get something in return for helping someone else even If they aren't able to pay you back in full. If they aren't able to pay you back despite doing the good deed then why should I be punished for it? Well society also tells us that If you keep doing good things for other people and you keep doing it thinking what you're doing isn't wrong then that's basically the person you're helping taking advantage of you.
I asked my friend why he doesn't have a part or full time job to help pay for his own cards and he told me that it's a story more complicated than I would think that he'll get into with me later. We also talked about the idea of building Zedruu the Greathearted in EDH / Commander to where I could build it in an opposite way from other players building their own versions by "donating" good cards to opponents instead of "donating" bad cards even though I would gain some form of card advantage from my own Commander. Didn't really know If he was open to the idea or not as we were also in the process of building Satoru Umezawa in EDH / Commander which was ultimately scrapped due to these recent turn of events. So now we're both dealing with karmic payback.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
What's really been holding a gun to my head to do these things is something called "FOMO" otherwise known as "Fear of Missing Out". What exactly am I missing out on If I decide to quit and come back to play Paper Magic later? Having to pay double or triple the price of a card I once owned due to new cards entering the game that cause these price fluctuations? No player should have to be punished for that sort of thing. The Reserve List was already bad enough to help cater solely to collectors. Now you have Whales hoarding TONS of sealed product to create artificial scarcity in order to make it harder for players to obtain certain cards they need for their decks. This system is unsustainable and players shouldn't have to be punished by Whales and collectors just to enjoy Paper Magic.
Quit with the victimhood crap. YOU ARE NOT A VICTIM!!! (Although you may indeed have a mental disorder of some type.) The sooner you realize that the better. FOMO is something you put upon yourself!!! Nobody is FORCING you to buy cards. Get that through your head. Get yourself some some help. Or don't and continue to say "poor me, I'm just a victim of circumstance, its all WotC's fault." Do you want help or not? Sometimes help hurts, grow up, you sound like a petulant child.
Keep looking for enablers, you won't find it from me though.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Nobody was FORCING me to buy cards. That wasn't the problem. The problem was me relying on my parents to spend their own money on cards that my Local Game Store (LGS) didn't have in stock and ordered directly through eBay that I ended up giving away some of these cards to my friends in order to help complete their decks. The money didn't come from my own paycheck but my parents which was the big issue with them. I'm not very good at making my own online purchases that involves mail which complicated things. There's some parents who don't like their sons and daughters taking monetary advantage of them for a luxury gaming hobby like Paper Magic. I've gone over this with them and decided that whatever cards my parents order directly through eBay that my Local Game Store (LGS) doesn't have in stock that those cards are only going to be for decks that I run and nobody else. If my friends want to borrow my EDH / Commander decks to get a few games in with me then that's fine as long as they aren't gaining permanent ownership of the cards.
Unfortunately this is the sort of gaming hobby that punishes you for not working a part-time / full-time job or an online job as a side hustle via e-commerce (eBay, Amazon, Etsy, etc.) or to get paid by companies like YouTube, Twitch, etc. for posting certain types of content while having to publicly advertise for them in order to stay relevant. This is why it's hard to multitask multiple Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games simultaneously especially when it involves Paper Magic eating up most of someone's disposable income unless the format they play is only EDH / Commander because it doesn't cost as much to keep up and doesn't rotate like Standard and Brawl does. One of my friends ended up trading two out of three of his EDH / Commander decks for Digimon CCG since he's been into that card game a lot lately while he's also wanting to complete Satoru Umezawa in EDH / Commander while relying on one of his other friends to help pay for his cards instead of me and my family. Luckily they don't spend as much on Paper Magic.
I'm not trying to make excuses for why I'm not good at making my own online purchases by sending money payments to sellers on eBay for cards that I obtain for decks that I run or how I'm not very good at operating a cash register at work when I mainly stick to sacking groceries and doing carts at a supermarket I've worked for nearly 20 years. That's not playing the victim that's coming to terms with my own limitations based on my own life choices and experiences. That's like saying a handicapped person can do something that they aren't physically able to do. Sure they have the willpower to defy the odds and make something good out of it but unless a supernatural event occurs where they aren't burdened by it anymore then that's another story. This reminds me of a Bible verse from Mark 10:27, "With Man it's Impossible, but with God Anything is Possible!" Anyway, don't want to go too off-topic here but hopefully you understand where I'm coming from now. I'm sorry If any of you took this the wrong way and If you did then I apologize.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Nobody was FORCING me to buy cards. That wasn't the problem. The problem was me relying on my parents to spend their own money on cards that my Local Game Store (LGS) didn't have in stock and ordered directly through eBay that I ended up giving away some of these cards to my friends in order to help complete their decks. The money didn't come from my own paycheck but my parents which was the big issue with them.
I might be misreading things a little. From what I'm reading, one of three things is happening. Possibility 1: You pay for cards with your own money when there are singles at the LGS. When you need to get something online, your parents buy it for you and you pay them back. You are doing nothing more than making a slight inconvenience for them in this case so I am not sure of the source of guilt, though they may be worried about you giving out cards to your friends and possibly being taken advantage of by friends who apparently ask you for cards in spite of transparently having no means by which they can pay you back. It's your money, though, so you can do what you want. Possibility 2: Your parents pay for your cards with their money whether it is at the LGS or online, in which case online or not doesn't really make much of a difference and I don't understand the guilt. I could certainly understand why your parents are getting angry at you giving away cards they buy for you in this situation, though. Possibility 3: You pay for cards with your own money when there are singles at the LGS. When you needs to get something online, your parents buy it for you and... you never end up paying them back? I really hope that it isn't this one because this is kind of... not the best? I really would not understand how being unable to make online purchases would magically translate to being unable to pay people back with cash (even if it means mailing it to avoid all electronic systems if they live far away) after they help you. While something bad could happen to something to money in a card, the alternative of just... ya know, never trying because something might go wrong... wouldn't exactly paint your situation in a positive light.
Nobody was FORCING me to buy cards. That wasn't the problem. The problem was me relying on my parents to spend their own money on cards that my Local Game Store (LGS) didn't have in stock and ordered directly through eBay that I ended up giving away some of these cards to my friends in order to help complete their decks. The money didn't come from my own paycheck but my parents which was the big issue with them.
I might be misreading things a little. From what I'm reading, one of three things is happening. Possibility 1: You pay for cards with your own money when there are singles at the LGS. When you need to get something online, your parents buy it for you and you pay them back. You are doing nothing more than making a slight inconvenience for them in this case so I am not sure of the source of guilt, though they may be worried about you giving out cards to your friends and possibly being taken advantage of by friends who apparently ask you for cards in spite of transparently having no means by which they can pay you back. It's your money, though, so you can do what you want. Possibility 2: Your parents pay for your cards with their money whether it is at the LGS or online, in which case online or not doesn't really make much of a difference and I don't understand the guilt. I could certainly understand why your parents are getting angry at you giving away cards they buy for you in this situation, though. Possibility 3: You pay for cards with your own money when there are singles at the LGS. When you needs to get something online, your parents buy it for you and... you never end up paying them back? I really hope that it isn't this one because this is kind of... not the best? I really would not understand how being unable to make online purchases would magically translate to being unable to pay people back with cash (even if it means mailing it to avoid all electronic systems if they live far away) after they help you. While something bad could happen to something to money in a card, the alternative of just... ya know, never trying because something might go wrong... wouldn't exactly paint your situation in a positive light.
To answer your question it's Possibility 3 unfortunately. They know I'm not able to pay them back since I only make $200+ every two weeks working paycheck to paycheck at the supermarket I work at nearing my 20 year milestone with the company. They don't expect me to pay them back, they do it because they love me as their son and want me to be having fun with my gaming hobby. This is a situation where I was taking advantage of their generosity towards me and now that I've learned from my mistake I'm going to make sure not to repeat it again. If I had the money to pay them back in full I would but I'm only a Middle Class citizen in the United States. Realistically If I was a millionaire or billionaire I would pay them back. But I'm not and that's okay.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Not trying to class-shame (if that is the proper term). Having a hobby that you love but that you cannot afford to keep up with is a perfectly understandable source of frustration, especially with increased releases and general complaints of “wallet fatigue” are hitting a wider swath of the player-base.
With that said, it seems that you feel trapped in the current situation you feel guilty about by Wizards’ practices. While some people on this thread (myself included) have said this with less tact, however, you do have options.
As those options do not include “change Wizards’ reprint policies by force”, however, most of those options would be behavioral changes on your end. If you want to change the situation that is causing guilt, a part of the solution may mean recognizing FOMO as the mental trap that it is and reaching peace with the fact that a slightly increased price tag here and there if it means that you save money in the long-term by exercising better discretion. It would be a tough change, especially as you seem to be a fairly anxious fellow, but I know from experience that it can work.
The decks I play with friends have not been changed since 2018 but I still have fun with friends and do not regret lacking newer “staples” in them.
I am going to be very blunt. I have some questions you can answer if you feel so, if not understandable.
1. Are you developmentally or physically disabled? No shame in that, just a point of note. It would help me help you.
2. How old are you? You say you have been working as a bagger for 20 years at a grocery chain. That would peg you at least 36 years old.
3. Why so few hours a week work? Answering that first question could clarify this one.
If you aren't comfortable answering those here, feel free to PM me on the site. Again, I want to help and yes I have been very blunt in my replies to this point, possibly unfairly so to you, and if I have I want to make amends. More info could help me be more helpful to you.
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
It sounds like one of your issues is trying to play multiple games all at the same time. If you don't have a lot of disposable income, you may need to decide which game(s) you really want to play and focus on that/those. When I was a kid and didn't have much money (weekly allowance and lawn mowing/snow shoveling money), I had to choose one game to focus on from the 3 I played at the time (Star Trek, Star Wars, and Magic). I chose Star Trek, and put all of my money into it. To play the other two games, I borrowed decks from friends and accepted that this was the best option for me at the time. As it so happens, the Star Trek game was eventually discontinued (as was Star Wars), so I was able to put my money and focus back into Magic.
I would recommend, especially for kitchen table Magic to Proxy expensive cards, or any card you are not willing to pay for.
Only buy cards if you actually WANT to own them, that can be a long-term project, you dont have to buy everything immediately.
I even enjoy it way more if you remotely know who and where you traded cards with, thats way more memorable than i ordered them online.
A color-printer is far cheaper and you can print proper proxy cards reasonable easily, which are fine for any casual kitchen table.
Is really nice for that, you add all the cards you want to print out, as an PDF , you can even add a Proxy-Watermark, if you have any doubts to mark them as proxy cards (but frankly, normal prints are totally obvious in that regard).
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So the more games you want to play, the more it becomes a money drain.
But you really only need the actual cards if thats mandatory in a tournament, otherwise, screw it, its not worth it just to have some fun.
Especially standard cards completely crash and burn in value when they leave standard and not see play.
You can order them super easy with the wizard and find the "cheapest" sellers without any work.
But if you have an entire Commander deck or extremely expensive cards, dont bother, proxy them, unless you actually have the money to slowly buy the cards you TRULY love.
I am going to be very blunt. I have some questions you can answer if you feel so, if not understandable.
1. Are you developmentally or physically disabled? No shame in that, just a point of note. It would help me help you.
2. How old are you? You say you have been working as a bagger for 20 years at a grocery chain. That would peg you at least 36 years old.
3. Why so few hours a week work? Answering that first question could clarify this one.
If you aren't comfortable answering those here, feel free to PM me on the site. Again, I want to help and yes I have been very blunt in my replies to this point, possibly unfairly so to you, and if I have I want to make amends. More info could help me be more helpful to you.
To answer your questions:
1) I was diagnosed with autism when I was at least 13 years old roughly back between 1995 and 1996 If I recall If that helps.
2) I'm 38 years old and I've been working at a grocery chain since I graduated from High School in 2003 which was the same year I was first employed.
3) I work few hours a week so that I don't have to work on Saturday and Sunday. I started getting Tuesdays off back in 2008 when my grocery chain needed other employees to get their shifts filled.
It sounds like one of your issues is trying to play multiple games all at the same time. If you don't have a lot of disposable income, you may need to decide which game(s) you really want to play and focus on that/those. When I was a kid and didn't have much money (weekly allowance and lawn mowing/snow shoveling money), I had to choose one game to focus on from the 3 I played at the time (Star Trek, Star Wars, and Magic). I chose Star Trek, and put all of my money into it. To play the other two games, I borrowed decks from friends and accepted that this was the best option for me at the time. As it so happens, the Star Trek game was eventually discontinued (as was Star Wars), so I was able to put my money and focus back into Magic.
I normally didn't have a problem playing multiple Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games at once in the past where as now I think it's become harder due to gaming companies profiting off of the pandemic by focusing more on Online Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games that are 100% Digitally Exclusive with no In-Person Client in terms of a Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game option when they feel as though it doesn't fit within their overall budget or rather it costs more resources for them. Resources in which they probably don't have or they don't want to lose money on.
To be fair they don't want to deal with the logistics of Organized Play and Judge Programs for Local Game Stores (LGSs) because they feel as though they can advertise for their products much better online than at a physical location where they may or may not get as much traction. They've seen this time and time again with many discontinued Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games in previous decades and lost millions of dollars because of the risk these game developers took to try to get something like this off the ground.
I would recommend, especially for kitchen table Magic to Proxy expensive cards, or any card you are not willing to pay for.
Only buy cards if you actually WANT to own them, that can be a long-term project, you dont have to buy everything immediately.
I even enjoy it way more if you remotely know who and where you traded cards with, thats way more memorable than i ordered them online.
That's what my friend did when he used to play EDH / Commander. He would proxy all the ABU Duals, Fetches, and "cheap" mana rocks like Mana Crypt and Mana Vault just to get those optimal turn 1 plays that you'd normally see in cEDH games but he refused to run Jeweled Lotus though. In fact he tailored most of his decks around cEDH more than Casual EDH. I just recently picked up his gold bordered Yawgmoth's Will for my Chatterfang EDH deck while I'm still deciding If I want to run the Sharpie ink bordered Force of Will that my friend had that was originally gold bordered.
(No offense) but I started ignoring you last year so I won't see your reply. That said, I sincerely do hope you take these steps and I 100% know it will help you start to regain some sense of balance. Sounds like you need to take a forcible break from this game. There are many MANY Magic players out there like you (and I), for the record.
I don't plan on getting out of EDH / Commander when I'm only sticking to the four decks I currently have and that's it. Fourth being Zedruu the Greathearted though I haven't actually started on it yet. I don't want to get out of my gaming hobby entirely because it's a hobby that's meant to build positive skills in fun and imagination while requiring the use of math, reading, imagination (again), and problem solving.
Having that In-Person social aspect that I don't get from playing video games or playing online is really important to me. People these days don't appreciate the positive effects social gaming has and easily take it for granted. These are the kind of effects that give people more opportunities to play In-Person and society is telling us that it's bad and unhealthy especially with how predatory it's become with all the money involved unfortunately.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I know I've caused a lot of problems for you guys in the past so take it for what you will.
It's just words and discussion on a forum and you can't say many things that are going to "cause problems" for people, even if you've posted some conspiratorial stuff it's pretty much harmless, especially when you post something 19 lines long that people are going to skim
But hey if someone is taking advantage of you and by proxy taking advantage of your parents, that's no good. I understand it can be really hard to make new friends, especially in a position where your social skills are affected by a disorder as discussed above, but no one deserves to be in an abusive relationship like that, and it's not better than nothing.
As for a compulsive need to stay abreast of MTG content, I think it's ok to not have everything. The constant flow of new stuff might tempt you to say you need to buy more, but actually if you look at the stuff you've bought and the amount of it you've actually played with? You might only need a few cheap singles per set, and you might be able to skip over some sets entirely, because there's another set coming in a month, and another after that one. There's only 100 cards in each commander deck and some staples aren't getting forced out anytime soon, so rather than make new decks with every set sometimes it's better to just sit back on what you have and tweak decks until they become more fun.
1) I was diagnosed with autism when I was at least 13 years old roughly back between 1995 and 1996 If I recall If that helps.
2) I'm 38 years old and I've been working at a grocery chain since I graduated from High School in 2003 which was the same year I was first employed.
3) I work few hours a week so that I don't have to work on Saturday and Sunday. I started getting Tuesdays off back in 2008 when my grocery chain needed other employees to get their shifts filled.
Firstly let me say thank you for answering my questions. You were under no duress to do so and owe me zero explanation but I appreciate your candor. I would like to apologize to you for my curtness/bluntness/lack of tact in a couple of my above posts. With that said I do have some concerns.
1. I have concerns that some of your playgroup or "friends" may be taking advantage of you and/or your parents goodwill. They do not NEED certain cards to play the game. Same actually goes for you as well. Your group doesn't NEED to buy powerful and/or expensive cards to have fun. Set standards in your group on price of cards, amounts of rares, etc. Use proxies instead of buying the cards themselves. You can have just as much fun with lower power level cards if EVERYONE is using them in your group.
2. Keep an eye on your mental health in the form of "addiction" to the game. It is easy to become addicted to buying and playing if you have that proclivity. Give yourself parameters that you will not step out of OR talk/coerce your parents into buying for you.
3. This last one is a little more personal and I may be overstepping my bounds but I would say and do the same for my very own son. It could very well be because of where you are on the autism spectrum, I don't have any idea on that front, but do you have any aspirations or prospects of moving away from your parents and striking it out on your own? Again there could be physical limitations or autistic reasons why this could or could not happen. I am in no way encouraging this as your parents sound loving and caring, I am just curious. You in no way should feel like you have to answer this and if you do and want to keep it in a PM I will offer to keep it private.
I wish the best for you. If we lived near each other I would introduce you to my small playgroup and show you how you can play and have fun on a budget and resist the predatory nature of the game. If you ever do get onto MTGO I would gladly add you to my buddy list and we could set groundrules for play on a budget. If I can be of any small online help let me know.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I know I've caused a lot of problems for you guys in the past so take it for what you will.
It's just words and discussion on a forum and you can't say many things that are going to "cause problems" for people, even if you've posted some conspiratorial stuff it's pretty much harmless, especially when you post something 19 lines long that people are going to skim
Well considering that most people nowadays have really short attention spans to actually take the time to read and think that's not surprising.
1) I was diagnosed with autism when I was at least 13 years old roughly back between 1995 and 1996 If I recall If that helps.
2) I'm 38 years old and I've been working at a grocery chain since I graduated from High School in 2003 which was the same year I was first employed.
3) I work few hours a week so that I don't have to work on Saturday and Sunday. I started getting Tuesdays off back in 2008 when my grocery chain needed other employees to get their shifts filled.
Firstly let me say thank you for answering my questions. You were under no duress to do so and owe me zero explanation but I appreciate your candor. I would like to apologize to you for my curtness/bluntness/lack of tact in a couple of my above posts. With that said I do have some concerns.
1. I have concerns that some of your playgroup or "friends" may be taking advantage of you and/or your parents goodwill. They do not NEED certain cards to play the game. Same actually goes for you as well. Your group doesn't NEED to buy powerful and/or expensive cards to have fun. Set standards in your group on price of cards, amounts of rares, etc. Use proxies instead of buying the cards themselves. You can have just as much fun with lower power level cards if EVERYONE is using them in your group.
2. Keep an eye on your mental health in the form of "addiction" to the game. It is easy to become addicted to buying and playing if you have that proclivity. Give yourself parameters that you will not step out of OR talk/coerce your parents into buying for you.
3. This last one is a little more personal and I may be overstepping my bounds but I would say and do the same for my very own son. It could very well be because of where you are on the autism spectrum, I don't have any idea on that front, but do you have any aspirations or prospects of moving away from your parents and striking it out on your own? Again there could be physical limitations or autistic reasons why this could or could not happen. I am in no way encouraging this as your parents sound loving and caring, I am just curious. You in no way should feel like you have to answer this and if you do and want to keep it in a PM I will offer to keep it private.
I wish the best for you. If we lived near each other I would introduce you to my small playgroup and show you how you can play and have fun on a budget and resist the predatory nature of the game. If you ever do get onto MTGO I would gladly add you to my buddy list and we could set groundrules for play on a budget. If I can be of any small online help let me know.
There was one other thing that I forgot to mention earlier in regards to my answer in 3), that the other reason why I work fewer hours a week is so that it doesn't put as much stress and anxiety in my work week. The problem we have with work schedules nowadays is that we don't get enough rest when we should. COVID-19 changed the game on that with more people working from home without having to spend as much on gas and traffic which is both good and bad. Unfortunately more people working from home has led to less people willing to work out in public for jobs that need it like grocery chains for example. Don't want to get too off-topic on this subject so I'll just leave it there. But to answer your concerns:
1) My friends never asked me to get cards for them online when I did it out of my own good free will. It wasn't just for Paper Magic when it was also for other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games that my Local Game Store (LGS) stopped carrying due to lack of demand. We were lucky at the time that our local distributor still carried products for Cardfight!! Vanguard and Final Fantasy TCG when they did and it's hard enough as it is to find players who were willing to part with their own cards let alone trade them for other card games. It also didn't help that my LGS only carries card singles for Paper Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh! though they stopped carrying card singles for Pokémon TCG when the pandemic first broke out in Spring 2020. Unfortunately the Pokémon League Organizer we had fell ill with her son looking after her as I haven't heard from them since the pandemic started.
2) I know when it comes to buying card singles at my LGS they have a Wishlist for certain cards when someone Buy Lists off cards that people sell to the store though most of the time depending on Secondary Market price trends they only come in whenever a card is just getting reprinted or If someone has decided to sell off their collection to the store for store credit instead of cash which they would've gone somewhere else for that sort of thing. Most LGSs aren't really willing to give sellers cash for their cards instead of store credit despite wanting to be able to spend the money outside the store while it also makes it hard for the LGS to stay in business If they hand the money over when they need to pay for rent anyway. I don't think that sellers would have better luck at a thrift store or a pawn shop either since their expertise is more on other things.
3) Well If I'm going to be honest I never really had any aspirations of moving out of my house and living out on my own because it'd be too much responsibility for me plus I'd be more lonely than I am right now. I was never really "equipped" to survive out on my own especially with how public education has failed to teach us how to survive off grid. We've been too accustomed to be dependent on a society that wants to keep us in a concrete jungle. The current challenges we face in society is in a way training us to be less dependent on society such as learning how to live off the land as well as growing our own fruits and vegetables, why? Because we've been lied to by our own politicians in government who are only looking out for themselves instead of the people that they're supposed to be governing which is US! YES!! WE THE PEOPLE. As mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Thanks for answering, much appreciated but I wanted to touch on this one.
3) Well If I'm going to be honest I never really had any aspirations of moving out of my house and living out on my own because it'd be too much responsibility for me plus I'd be more lonely than I am right now. I was never really "equipped" to survive out on my own especially with how public education has failed to teach us how to survive off grid. We've been too accustomed to be dependent on a society that wants to keep us in a concrete jungle. The current challenges we face in society is in a way training us to be less dependent on society such as learning how to live off the land as well as growing our own fruits and vegetables, why? Because we've been lied to by our own politicians in government who are only looking out for themselves instead of the people that they're supposed to be governing which is US! YES!! WE THE PEOPLE. As mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.
I see this blaming and victim mentality creeping back into this response. The only restraints that are being put on you are by yourself. (Unless it is an issue related to Autism). I see blame of education, I see blame of government and in a roundabout way you may be blaming your own parents for not preparing you. (Which could very well be the case.)
Nothing is holding you back (again possibly Autism) except the challenge of making things better for yourself. YOU are putting those boundaries and shackles upon yourself and no one else.
The strength of a human being is in the SELF, not the collective. Embrace that and things will change, or don't and continue down this path you have paved for yourself. Again I may be promoting something that may not be possible with Autistic considerations. I wish you the best, but sometimes you can't look for other people to pull you up, you have to do it YOURSELF!!!
I am going to leave it at this and this will indeed be my last post in this thread...
I am not a psychiatric professional. I suggest and urge once again that you get some REAL help/counseling from a trained and professional counselor. I would ask that anyone else responding to you in this thread to urge you to do the same. Its okay to ask for help and there are even free counseling options out there if it is a money issue. Do yourself the biggest favor you have ever done for yourself and seek some professional help. Best wishes, I mean that!
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
You can certainly find a community of like minded, but to get out and find them, you still need to do the first step on your own (if you are not born into it).
My friends never asked me to get cards for them online when I did it out of my own good free will
Fix the entire problem immediately by using Proxy cards.
Dont spend money on a game you only play casually for fun.
If the aspect of money involved becomes a issue, thats the first step to deal with.
If drugs would be free, people would use them more.
If people get addicted, they sooner or later run out of money, then they ask for money from others, and if they dont get it, they steal it and worse.
Its a spiral that is problematic in all kinds of life, avoidable, but difficult so lots of people struggle.
So dont give away anything of monetary value, it might give you a emotional kick, but thats just like a drug, its not good to do that in the long term.
For a hobby you need a budget, a very clear number thats acceptable to spend each month or year.
And if that number is reached, thats it, you have to be aware that spending money can become like a drug, having limits and control over that behavior is detrimental, otherwise it gets out of control and takes control of your life.
But in general, you can play Magic and other card games with a much smaller budget if you dont buy the original cards.
Get a printer, print the cards, thats much cheaper already. Get to know your limits, physical, mentally and financially.
----
You have family and friends, so your life is not bad as it is.
But something is dragging you down, and you cant just accept that to happen.
Outright tell your parents that you have a problem like you do here in a somewhat anonymous form, just have that talk, that helps already.
Then tell your friends, make sure they are aware that its a problem for you, dont blame them for it, but at least make them aware, they are to act accordingly at their own.
@TheOnlyOne652089 - My friend who used to play EDH / Commander only used proxy cards for the more expensive stuff as I mentioned earlier and I don't think he plans to entirely proxy out his Satoru Umezawa deck when he wants the real thing. I asked him last weekend If his friend was helping him buy / trade cards for his EDH / Commander deck for him though it sounded like he tried to dodge the question to move onto the next topic. I don't think he plans on leaving the format entirely but wants to have a deck in case someone challenges him. Right now he's more focused on other card games like Digimon and Vanguard which is understandable. He even offered me a deck to borrow in case I want to play him as well.
As for me I rarely ever proxy cards for my EDH / Commander decks since I avoid the more expensive staples that a lot of players run including Fetches which I refuse to run. On that note I also try to avoid buying expensive Reserve List singles for decks though sometimes I end up getting a pretty good deal at my LGS that's too good to pass up If the price is right. I'm not the kind of player whose trying to bling out all my EDH / Commander decks with nothing but foil cards because it's almost impossible to completely foil out an entire EDH deck and not save a ton of money while doing it. One of my other friends tried doing that with a Simic EDH deck not realizing the cost of Breeding Pool and Misty Rainforest in foil.
To give you a perspective of how much I've spent on the four EDH / Commander decks I currently own (Proxy Free):
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
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When you're stuck with a gaming hobby that's become a luxury item almost too difficult to get out of because getting back in is just as hard due to how predatory the Secondary Market is and you're depending on building up a In-Person community to play to the point where you're trying to find shortcuts over someone's trade bait that is less of a guarantee than card singles then you're going to have problems like I am right now. It becomes more of an uphill battle especially when you take into consideration how the cost of Paper Magic has gotten to a point where there's not enough disposable income for playing other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games that don't drain your wallet as much. I don't want to leave Paper Magic but I didn't really want to come on here and start a pity party over my own problems when there's one global crisis after another. I know I've caused a lot of problems for you guys in the past so take it for what you will.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
The entirety of the second hand market is not “predatory”, cards achieve a market value, based upon what people are willing to pay. If some cards are too expensive just don’t buy them.
I rarely buy much in the way of new product unless it tickles one of my Magic fetishes. I don’t need new cards. I do collect all things dragon tribal, so when a new set is dragon heavy I “have” to spend a little more. But I’ve noticed that when some new release is more than I’m willing to pay if I just wait a little while things get less expensive, for the most part.
One way to mitigate the expense is to play budget deck formats. There’s a very popular youtube channel dedicated to budget commander decks where every card is under a dollar.
So many people get hooked into the idea of always needing to get the latest and most sought after cards, but it’s not necessary for enjoying the hobby.
Sound like your issues have more to do with your ability to navigate reality and some people in your peer group than with WOTC or paper Magic.
I don't like how this gaming hobby forces players to take advantage of other people even If it's family members to obtain certain cards just to be able to play the game. Sure Budget Commander is an option but If I'm allowed to help my local playgroup with decks and they don't give me something in return for putting in the effort then they're basically taking advantage of me. Think of it as being stuck in a toxic relationship even when it doesn't feel that way. It's not that you hate the people in your playgroup when you're mainly just putting up with them or you feel obligated to be around them. Everyone is having difficulty navigating their own realities with the ongoing pandemic, staff shortages, and now the threat of looming war.
If I hadn't been into EDH / Commander then one of the last friends in my local playgroup would've quit Paper Magic a LONG time ago. It's hard when nobody wants to work a full or part-time job for their own cards either because the pay is too low, they don't want to put up with vaccine / mask mandates, or they're still getting free money from the Biden Administration with leftover money from Stimulus Checks in the last two years. So many people work from home nowadays that they don't want to have anything to do with the outside world anymore while the economic hardships are so bad that people are needing to look after their families more because their resources are being stretched incredibly thin right now.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
If you’re not willing to entertain options or solutions to your dilemma fine, but if you’re unwilling to go down different roads don’t be surprised if nothing changes for you.
If you’re the one supplying your play group then you have the power to control the card pool and deck archetypes.
When it comes to MTG, no one “needs” any of it, it’s just a giant list of “wants”. Sometime you have to tailor your wants to fit your situation.
I only pro offered the solutions I did to help you out, maybe try looking into budget commander. I my group the most powerful commander deck is, for the most part, a budget deck. “Budget” is not synonymous with “jank”, there are a ton of great budget options. It’s easy to complain about our situations in life and a whole lot harder to effect change. But to create change you have to be willing to let go of your preconceived notions of things.
No one is forcing you to build cookie-cutter net decks, get creative. It’s not like you're playing for cash prizes.
Don't allow the sunk cost fallacy drag you under. I had over $20,000 in EDH decks three years ago. I walked away and while I constantly look back I will never get that deep again.
Even If I venture into other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games I still see the companies behind these games repeating the same mistakes that Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro has been making with Paper Magic because it's still tied to a system that creates the kind of sunk cost fallacy of not being able to have enough disposable income for other games when the pay wall for the one you're spending the most amount of money on is too much to handle. This is another reason why it's an uphill battle to get Organized Play for these card games to get off the ground and because the risk isn't often times worth the reward that's another reason why Local Game Store (LGS) owners and staff members refuse to publicly advertise for these things. With Social Media getting a bad rep from Wokeness and Cancel Culture, it also hinders any progress they're wanting to make as well.
This is what happens when a Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game like Magic: The Gathering has too many formats for it's Secondary Market to absorb the price point of cards for. It only leads to a much bigger pay wall. Even Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon TCG weren't stupid enough to fall for this terrible business move. If Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro had the ACTUAL balls to trim the fat out of their Non-Singleton formats by officially discontinuing Modern, Pioneer, Legacy, Vintage, and Pauper to make EDH / Commander more affordable as a format that still wouldn't drop the price of Fetches or even God forbid Dockside Extortionist! Nobody wants to touch Paper Standard anymore and DesolatorMagic just posted a YouTube video explaining how Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro can ACTUALLY fix Paper Standard but they won't do it because they put all their chips on the table for Arena.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I will echo a senitment from a poster above.
No one is holding a gun to your head to do those things. That is YOU. You are looking for a scapegoat to blame what is indeed a personal issue. Don't play the victim card here as you are not one. I have recommended this to you before and I will again, get some professional counseling or support to deal with your issues. You will thank yourself someday that you did.
I don't deny the predatory nature of aspects of this game. But it is up to the individual to rise above the morass to higher ground.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Yelling at Wizards to be less predatory is like a smoker yelling at the tobacco industry or a gambler yelling at the lottery industry to tell them to make their products less addictive so they can keep their vice in their life in a healthy way.
While I can understand why you would wish that, that is simply not a realistic wish.
While the game is addictive by nature, the actions that you take to satisfy that addiction (relying on family for support, missing a meeting with a dying relative, willfully allowing a friend to take advantage of you) are things that you bear at least partial responsibility for.
If you feel that this cannot continue, then you need to change. Make new friendships that are not toxic. Stay away from activities that cost more than you feel you should be paying. Increase positive engagement with your family. Possibly seek out therapy for behavioral addictions if you feel it is that severe.
I thank you for your willingness to share what you have been struggling with. That is a very big step. At the end of the day, though, you have infinitely more power to change yourself than you do to change WotC.
What's really been holding a gun to my head to do these things is something called "FOMO" otherwise known as "Fear of Missing Out". What exactly am I missing out on If I decide to quit and come back to play Paper Magic later? Having to pay double or triple the price of a card I once owned due to new cards entering the game that cause these price fluctuations? No player should have to be punished for that sort of thing. The Reserve List was already bad enough to help cater solely to collectors. Now you have Whales hoarding TONS of sealed product to create artificial scarcity in order to make it harder for players to obtain certain cards they need for their decks. This system is unsustainable and players shouldn't have to be punished by Whales and collectors just to enjoy Paper Magic.
As for the whole counseling thing, the Lord recently reminded me of Ecclesiastes in that we mustn't be wasting our lives in pursuits that in the light of death ultimately mean nothing. It also warns about intellectual accomplishments. Ultimately, the wise person and his works, like the fool and his deeds, perish. Ecclesiastes also warns about wealth and luxury. Those who pursue riches waste their lives in anxiety and toil. Wealth of itself is a fraudulent substitute for true contentment. Materialists seek to find life's object in the abundance of possessions or achievements. Sensualists seek to discover meaning in physical pleasure (food, sex, excitement, adventure). Scholars seek to find purpose through intellectual inquiry (wisdom). Life's meaning cannot be discovered; it is only revealed by God Himself.
Here's the conversation I had with my friend online via e-mail messaging in my local EDH / Commander playgroup. My friend says that he does feel responsible for some of the recent actions we've made and regrets that he didn't stop me sooner. My problem is that I'm too trusting of other people and I don't like how society expects you to ALWAYS get something in return for helping someone else even If they aren't able to pay you back in full. If they aren't able to pay you back despite doing the good deed then why should I be punished for it? Well society also tells us that If you keep doing good things for other people and you keep doing it thinking what you're doing isn't wrong then that's basically the person you're helping taking advantage of you.
I asked my friend why he doesn't have a part or full time job to help pay for his own cards and he told me that it's a story more complicated than I would think that he'll get into with me later. We also talked about the idea of building Zedruu the Greathearted in EDH / Commander to where I could build it in an opposite way from other players building their own versions by "donating" good cards to opponents instead of "donating" bad cards even though I would gain some form of card advantage from my own Commander. Didn't really know If he was open to the idea or not as we were also in the process of building Satoru Umezawa in EDH / Commander which was ultimately scrapped due to these recent turn of events. So now we're both dealing with karmic payback.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Quit with the victimhood crap. YOU ARE NOT A VICTIM!!! (Although you may indeed have a mental disorder of some type.) The sooner you realize that the better. FOMO is something you put upon yourself!!! Nobody is FORCING you to buy cards. Get that through your head. Get yourself some some help. Or don't and continue to say "poor me, I'm just a victim of circumstance, its all WotC's fault." Do you want help or not? Sometimes help hurts, grow up, you sound like a petulant child.
Keep looking for enablers, you won't find it from me though.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Unfortunately this is the sort of gaming hobby that punishes you for not working a part-time / full-time job or an online job as a side hustle via e-commerce (eBay, Amazon, Etsy, etc.) or to get paid by companies like YouTube, Twitch, etc. for posting certain types of content while having to publicly advertise for them in order to stay relevant. This is why it's hard to multitask multiple Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games simultaneously especially when it involves Paper Magic eating up most of someone's disposable income unless the format they play is only EDH / Commander because it doesn't cost as much to keep up and doesn't rotate like Standard and Brawl does. One of my friends ended up trading two out of three of his EDH / Commander decks for Digimon CCG since he's been into that card game a lot lately while he's also wanting to complete Satoru Umezawa in EDH / Commander while relying on one of his other friends to help pay for his cards instead of me and my family. Luckily they don't spend as much on Paper Magic.
I'm not trying to make excuses for why I'm not good at making my own online purchases by sending money payments to sellers on eBay for cards that I obtain for decks that I run or how I'm not very good at operating a cash register at work when I mainly stick to sacking groceries and doing carts at a supermarket I've worked for nearly 20 years. That's not playing the victim that's coming to terms with my own limitations based on my own life choices and experiences. That's like saying a handicapped person can do something that they aren't physically able to do. Sure they have the willpower to defy the odds and make something good out of it but unless a supernatural event occurs where they aren't burdened by it anymore then that's another story. This reminds me of a Bible verse from Mark 10:27, "With Man it's Impossible, but with God Anything is Possible!" Anyway, don't want to go too off-topic here but hopefully you understand where I'm coming from now. I'm sorry If any of you took this the wrong way and If you did then I apologize.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I might be misreading things a little. From what I'm reading, one of three things is happening.
Possibility 1: You pay for cards with your own money when there are singles at the LGS. When you need to get something online, your parents buy it for you and you pay them back. You are doing nothing more than making a slight inconvenience for them in this case so I am not sure of the source of guilt, though they may be worried about you giving out cards to your friends and possibly being taken advantage of by friends who apparently ask you for cards in spite of transparently having no means by which they can pay you back. It's your money, though, so you can do what you want.
Possibility 2: Your parents pay for your cards with their money whether it is at the LGS or online, in which case online or not doesn't really make much of a difference and I don't understand the guilt. I could certainly understand why your parents are getting angry at you giving away cards they buy for you in this situation, though.
Possibility 3: You pay for cards with your own money when there are singles at the LGS. When you needs to get something online, your parents buy it for you and... you never end up paying them back? I really hope that it isn't this one because this is kind of... not the best? I really would not understand how being unable to make online purchases would magically translate to being unable to pay people back with cash (even if it means mailing it to avoid all electronic systems if they live far away) after they help you. While something bad could happen to something to money in a card, the alternative of just... ya know, never trying because something might go wrong... wouldn't exactly paint your situation in a positive light.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Not trying to class-shame (if that is the proper term). Having a hobby that you love but that you cannot afford to keep up with is a perfectly understandable source of frustration, especially with increased releases and general complaints of “wallet fatigue” are hitting a wider swath of the player-base.
With that said, it seems that you feel trapped in the current situation you feel guilty about by Wizards’ practices. While some people on this thread (myself included) have said this with less tact, however, you do have options.
As those options do not include “change Wizards’ reprint policies by force”, however, most of those options would be behavioral changes on your end. If you want to change the situation that is causing guilt, a part of the solution may mean recognizing FOMO as the mental trap that it is and reaching peace with the fact that a slightly increased price tag here and there if it means that you save money in the long-term by exercising better discretion. It would be a tough change, especially as you seem to be a fairly anxious fellow, but I know from experience that it can work.
The decks I play with friends have not been changed since 2018 but I still have fun with friends and do not regret lacking newer “staples” in them.
1. Are you developmentally or physically disabled? No shame in that, just a point of note. It would help me help you.
2. How old are you? You say you have been working as a bagger for 20 years at a grocery chain. That would peg you at least 36 years old.
3. Why so few hours a week work? Answering that first question could clarify this one.
If you aren't comfortable answering those here, feel free to PM me on the site. Again, I want to help and yes I have been very blunt in my replies to this point, possibly unfairly so to you, and if I have I want to make amends. More info could help me be more helpful to you.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Only buy cards if you actually WANT to own them, that can be a long-term project, you dont have to buy everything immediately.
I even enjoy it way more if you remotely know who and where you traded cards with, thats way more memorable than i ordered them online.
A color-printer is far cheaper and you can print proper proxy cards reasonable easily, which are fine for any casual kitchen table.
https://www.mtg-print.com/
Is really nice for that, you add all the cards you want to print out, as an PDF , you can even add a Proxy-Watermark, if you have any doubts to mark them as proxy cards (but frankly, normal prints are totally obvious in that regard).
----
So the more games you want to play, the more it becomes a money drain.
But you really only need the actual cards if thats mandatory in a tournament, otherwise, screw it, its not worth it just to have some fun.
Especially standard cards completely crash and burn in value when they leave standard and not see play.
I usually make a list of cards i want at:
https://www.cardmarket.com/en/Magic/Wants
You can order them super easy with the wizard and find the "cheapest" sellers without any work.
But if you have an entire Commander deck or extremely expensive cards, dont bother, proxy them, unless you actually have the money to slowly buy the cards you TRULY love.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
1) I was diagnosed with autism when I was at least 13 years old roughly back between 1995 and 1996 If I recall If that helps.
2) I'm 38 years old and I've been working at a grocery chain since I graduated from High School in 2003 which was the same year I was first employed.
3) I work few hours a week so that I don't have to work on Saturday and Sunday. I started getting Tuesdays off back in 2008 when my grocery chain needed other employees to get their shifts filled. I normally didn't have a problem playing multiple Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games at once in the past where as now I think it's become harder due to gaming companies profiting off of the pandemic by focusing more on Online Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games that are 100% Digitally Exclusive with no In-Person Client in terms of a Paper Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game option when they feel as though it doesn't fit within their overall budget or rather it costs more resources for them. Resources in which they probably don't have or they don't want to lose money on.
To be fair they don't want to deal with the logistics of Organized Play and Judge Programs for Local Game Stores (LGSs) because they feel as though they can advertise for their products much better online than at a physical location where they may or may not get as much traction. They've seen this time and time again with many discontinued Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games in previous decades and lost millions of dollars because of the risk these game developers took to try to get something like this off the ground.
That's what my friend did when he used to play EDH / Commander. He would proxy all the ABU Duals, Fetches, and "cheap" mana rocks like Mana Crypt and Mana Vault just to get those optimal turn 1 plays that you'd normally see in cEDH games but he refused to run Jeweled Lotus though. In fact he tailored most of his decks around cEDH more than Casual EDH. I just recently picked up his gold bordered Yawgmoth's Will for my Chatterfang EDH deck while I'm still deciding If I want to run the Sharpie ink bordered Force of Will that my friend had that was originally gold bordered.
I don't plan on getting out of EDH / Commander when I'm only sticking to the four decks I currently have and that's it. Fourth being Zedruu the Greathearted though I haven't actually started on it yet. I don't want to get out of my gaming hobby entirely because it's a hobby that's meant to build positive skills in fun and imagination while requiring the use of math, reading, imagination (again), and problem solving.
Having that In-Person social aspect that I don't get from playing video games or playing online is really important to me. People these days don't appreciate the positive effects social gaming has and easily take it for granted. These are the kind of effects that give people more opportunities to play In-Person and society is telling us that it's bad and unhealthy especially with how predatory it's become with all the money involved unfortunately.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
It's just words and discussion on a forum and you can't say many things that are going to "cause problems" for people, even if you've posted some conspiratorial stuff it's pretty much harmless, especially when you post something 19 lines long that people are going to skim
But hey if someone is taking advantage of you and by proxy taking advantage of your parents, that's no good. I understand it can be really hard to make new friends, especially in a position where your social skills are affected by a disorder as discussed above, but no one deserves to be in an abusive relationship like that, and it's not better than nothing.
As for a compulsive need to stay abreast of MTG content, I think it's ok to not have everything. The constant flow of new stuff might tempt you to say you need to buy more, but actually if you look at the stuff you've bought and the amount of it you've actually played with? You might only need a few cheap singles per set, and you might be able to skip over some sets entirely, because there's another set coming in a month, and another after that one. There's only 100 cards in each commander deck and some staples aren't getting forced out anytime soon, so rather than make new decks with every set sometimes it's better to just sit back on what you have and tweak decks until they become more fun.
Firstly let me say thank you for answering my questions. You were under no duress to do so and owe me zero explanation but I appreciate your candor. I would like to apologize to you for my curtness/bluntness/lack of tact in a couple of my above posts. With that said I do have some concerns.
1. I have concerns that some of your playgroup or "friends" may be taking advantage of you and/or your parents goodwill. They do not NEED certain cards to play the game. Same actually goes for you as well. Your group doesn't NEED to buy powerful and/or expensive cards to have fun. Set standards in your group on price of cards, amounts of rares, etc. Use proxies instead of buying the cards themselves. You can have just as much fun with lower power level cards if EVERYONE is using them in your group.
2. Keep an eye on your mental health in the form of "addiction" to the game. It is easy to become addicted to buying and playing if you have that proclivity. Give yourself parameters that you will not step out of OR talk/coerce your parents into buying for you.
3. This last one is a little more personal and I may be overstepping my bounds but I would say and do the same for my very own son. It could very well be because of where you are on the autism spectrum, I don't have any idea on that front, but do you have any aspirations or prospects of moving away from your parents and striking it out on your own? Again there could be physical limitations or autistic reasons why this could or could not happen. I am in no way encouraging this as your parents sound loving and caring, I am just curious. You in no way should feel like you have to answer this and if you do and want to keep it in a PM I will offer to keep it private.
I wish the best for you. If we lived near each other I would introduce you to my small playgroup and show you how you can play and have fun on a budget and resist the predatory nature of the game. If you ever do get onto MTGO I would gladly add you to my buddy list and we could set groundrules for play on a budget. If I can be of any small online help let me know.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
1) My friends never asked me to get cards for them online when I did it out of my own good free will. It wasn't just for Paper Magic when it was also for other Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games that my Local Game Store (LGS) stopped carrying due to lack of demand. We were lucky at the time that our local distributor still carried products for Cardfight!! Vanguard and Final Fantasy TCG when they did and it's hard enough as it is to find players who were willing to part with their own cards let alone trade them for other card games. It also didn't help that my LGS only carries card singles for Paper Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh! though they stopped carrying card singles for Pokémon TCG when the pandemic first broke out in Spring 2020. Unfortunately the Pokémon League Organizer we had fell ill with her son looking after her as I haven't heard from them since the pandemic started.
2) I know when it comes to buying card singles at my LGS they have a Wishlist for certain cards when someone Buy Lists off cards that people sell to the store though most of the time depending on Secondary Market price trends they only come in whenever a card is just getting reprinted or If someone has decided to sell off their collection to the store for store credit instead of cash which they would've gone somewhere else for that sort of thing. Most LGSs aren't really willing to give sellers cash for their cards instead of store credit despite wanting to be able to spend the money outside the store while it also makes it hard for the LGS to stay in business If they hand the money over when they need to pay for rent anyway. I don't think that sellers would have better luck at a thrift store or a pawn shop either since their expertise is more on other things.
3) Well If I'm going to be honest I never really had any aspirations of moving out of my house and living out on my own because it'd be too much responsibility for me plus I'd be more lonely than I am right now. I was never really "equipped" to survive out on my own especially with how public education has failed to teach us how to survive off grid. We've been too accustomed to be dependent on a society that wants to keep us in a concrete jungle. The current challenges we face in society is in a way training us to be less dependent on society such as learning how to live off the land as well as growing our own fruits and vegetables, why? Because we've been lied to by our own politicians in government who are only looking out for themselves instead of the people that they're supposed to be governing which is US! YES!! WE THE PEOPLE. As mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I see this blaming and victim mentality creeping back into this response. The only restraints that are being put on you are by yourself. (Unless it is an issue related to Autism). I see blame of education, I see blame of government and in a roundabout way you may be blaming your own parents for not preparing you. (Which could very well be the case.)
Nothing is holding you back (again possibly Autism) except the challenge of making things better for yourself. YOU are putting those boundaries and shackles upon yourself and no one else.
The strength of a human being is in the SELF, not the collective. Embrace that and things will change, or don't and continue down this path you have paved for yourself. Again I may be promoting something that may not be possible with Autistic considerations. I wish you the best, but sometimes you can't look for other people to pull you up, you have to do it YOURSELF!!!
I am going to leave it at this and this will indeed be my last post in this thread...
I am not a psychiatric professional. I suggest and urge once again that you get some REAL help/counseling from a trained and professional counselor. I would ask that anyone else responding to you in this thread to urge you to do the same. Its okay to ask for help and there are even free counseling options out there if it is a money issue. Do yourself the biggest favor you have ever done for yourself and seek some professional help. Best wishes, I mean that!
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Fix the entire problem immediately by using Proxy cards.
Dont spend money on a game you only play casually for fun.
If the aspect of money involved becomes a issue, thats the first step to deal with.
If drugs would be free, people would use them more.
If people get addicted, they sooner or later run out of money, then they ask for money from others, and if they dont get it, they steal it and worse.
Its a spiral that is problematic in all kinds of life, avoidable, but difficult so lots of people struggle.
So dont give away anything of monetary value, it might give you a emotional kick, but thats just like a drug, its not good to do that in the long term.
For a hobby you need a budget, a very clear number thats acceptable to spend each month or year.
And if that number is reached, thats it, you have to be aware that spending money can become like a drug, having limits and control over that behavior is detrimental, otherwise it gets out of control and takes control of your life.
But in general, you can play Magic and other card games with a much smaller budget if you dont buy the original cards.
Get a printer, print the cards, thats much cheaper already. Get to know your limits, physical, mentally and financially.
----
You have family and friends, so your life is not bad as it is.
But something is dragging you down, and you cant just accept that to happen.
Outright tell your parents that you have a problem like you do here in a somewhat anonymous form, just have that talk, that helps already.
Then tell your friends, make sure they are aware that its a problem for you, dont blame them for it, but at least make them aware, they are to act accordingly at their own.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
As for me I rarely ever proxy cards for my EDH / Commander decks since I avoid the more expensive staples that a lot of players run including Fetches which I refuse to run. On that note I also try to avoid buying expensive Reserve List singles for decks though sometimes I end up getting a pretty good deal at my LGS that's too good to pass up If the price is right. I'm not the kind of player whose trying to bling out all my EDH / Commander decks with nothing but foil cards because it's almost impossible to completely foil out an entire EDH deck and not save a ton of money while doing it. One of my other friends tried doing that with a Simic EDH deck not realizing the cost of Breeding Pool and Misty Rainforest in foil.
To give you a perspective of how much I've spent on the four EDH / Commander decks I currently own (Proxy Free):
* Heliod, Sun-Crowned - $716.15.
* Chatterfang, Squirrel General - $531.16.
* Esika, God of the Tree / The Prismatic Bridge - $458.36. (All Shocks No Fetches)
* Zedruu the Greathearted - $252.40 Currently.
As for how much was spent on my friends' EDH / Commander decks before being sold / traded off (With Actual Proxies):
* Breya, Etherium Shaper also formerly Eleven, the Mage / Dustin, Gadget Genius - $1,385.35 (cheaper with certain proxy cards)
* Omnath, Locus of Creation - $1,200.92 (Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt, and Mana Vault added. Other proxies included ABU Duals and Fetches)
* Alela, Artful Provocateur - $557.44 (Ultimately scrapped due to not enough Faerie support).
* Tymna the Weaver / Thrasios, Triton Hero - $1,362.34. (Ultimately scrapped).
He wanted to see how far he could get with Artifacts Matter and Lands Matter. Turns out Lands Matter won in the end.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta