This format is fun. It's what a lot of us grew up on. Unfortunately, it's basically four viable decks: U/W CounterPost, ErhnamGeddon, Turbo Stasis, and the boogie man, Necro. R/G Landkill and White Weenie aren't bad either.
For people saying it's too late to get into Legacy, I don't envy the uphill battle of breaking in at this point, but it's definitely still doable. Perhaps too late to build a big collection, but for the price of a competitive standard deck you can easily sleeve up Burn, which has become a Tier 1 (or 1.5 at worst) deck with the printing of Eidolon of the Great Revel. In the past 3 weeks Burn has won an SCG open and been in the top 4 of another (in the hands of a 13 year old!). Several other decks are affordable too. Blue duals are expensive and not coming back. Force of Will and Wasteland are expensive, and apparently not getting much cheaper. But there are several competitive decks that can be put together in the $500 - $1000 range. Obviously a lot of money, but if you slow build it over time, it's definitely doable. Most of that will be in fetches too, which is good to have in any eternal format collection. The vast majority of any Legacy deck is going to be playable in Modern too. If you slow-build a Legacy deck, it'll be your baby, you'll be proud of it, and you'll become an expert in the deck. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't give up on Legacy people! It's an amazing format.
I sympathize OP. I'm in a similar spot as you personally and professionally, and I've often felt the same way. The only thing that has kept me from burning out is that I limited myself to Legacy (for several reasons), and there's only a limited Legacy scene here. There's some good advice in this thread. If I could offer one thing, I'd say don't sell your cards. Most people come back to the game at some point, and I'm sure you've heard the sad stories of those who regret selling them. I'm one of them.
As a side note, if you stick it out, I'd recommend finding some friends to play with on Cockatrice (hell, look me up on there sometime). I just played a game recently where I had to "play Dad" and try to teach a kid about winning / losing with grace after he made some stupid comments and rage quit after he won game 2 and tied our best-of-three at 1-1. That kid and his attitude are everything that's wrong with the game, and those people seem to be growing on Cockatrice. However, I've met a couple friends through this site that play regularly on there, and those games are always fun...and at the most basic level, that's why we all play, right? To hang with friends?
Point well taken on the buylist issue. And I agree, that's typically pretty indicative of the market as a whole (SCG's buylist). I want to know who actually buys at their prices though. I've never met anyone who does, save for rare purchases of premium cards when they're on sale. Their customer service is fantastic, their cards are always in the condition specified, but the prices are still usually 15-20% or so higher than available elsewhere.
Turning back to topic though, I really think we're hitting the breaking point for Legacy. A couple weeks ago I watched a local kid who is trying to build his first Legacy deck do whatever he could to trade for a Wasteland from a local shop. He was able to pull it off...barely. He's still working on the deck, and in the process several of the staples have mysteriously shot up as documented in these pages just over the past month or so. I have to imagine it increased the time it'll take him to finish (if he chooses to do so) but a matter of months. I haven't seen him recently, but I feel bad for him and others like him. Wish there was something we as a community could do other than just loaning out decks at events (which I always try to do).
PhantomLotus - I agree that's stupid from a business perspective. Then again, alot of what SCG does doesn't make sense from a business perspective. Why jack up all the duals at once? Better yet, why jack the price on Sea and Volc twice in the span of weeks. They didn't even give the market a chance at the lower prices.
Plateau is in the newest incarnation of Painter, which recently was in the Top 8 of a Grand Prix. Not saying I think everyone should rush out and buy Plateau -- R/W is easily the most non-complimentary of color combinations -- but there is at least a plausible reason for it's rise. Of note, it's rising along with City of Traitors, Imperial Recruiter, and Ancient Tomb, the other difficult-to-find staples of the Painter deck. Everything else in that deck is "budget," so it's an attractive entry point to the Legacy format.
I really just think all the dual are rising...just because. Taiga, Badlands, Scrubland, and Savannah are hardly used in anything that's been winning much lately, and all of those rose along with all the others.
It sure feels like StarCityGames is trying to kill off Legacy so they can move to Modern. I really can't imagine the format is going to continue to grow with duals priced like this. The alternative, I suppose, is that people are unwilling to sell at current buylist prices, so SCG's increase is so they can increase supply to make it available for demand. Either way, the costs are going to become prohibitive at some point, and prospective Legacy players will start thinking and doing what everyone did with Vintage back in the day: "Damn this is expensive...nobody plays Vintage anymore...StarCityGames isn't supporting Vintage anymore...oh, what's this new Legacy format? I can afford this!"
It's sad. Modern is lame (IMO, I recognize others don't feel that way -- though I can't imagine many people with equal access to both prefer Modern over Legacy). Collecting for Modern is also like collecting baseball cards in the early 90s -- none of the cards will be worth anything over time for the same reasons (huge print runs, everyone takes care of their cards so everything will always be NM, they can be reprinted at any time, etc.). Once StarCity stops supporting Legacy, the format will effectively die unless another enterprising company takes their place to support the format with touring tournaments.
$300 on Underground Sea and Volcanic Island at SCG. We're now at prices of Moxen when Vintage effectively died. Totally unsustainable. I wonder if this is a tax return pump and dump
TomCat's advice is good. I'd add one more suggestion. If you can't buy from a reputable seller (SCG / ChannelFireball / etc), consider buying graded cards (BGS / PSA / SGC / etc). Yes, the slabs can be doctored, but it's pretty obvious when that's happened. The slabs guarantee the authenticity, and from there it's pretty easy to bust those things open if you don't mind destroying the slab itself (and the proof of authenticity that comes with it).
The prices recently rose on all of them, but I think a lot of people in the game are getting jobs and coming into money, and they want to complete their sets before their gone. If you're committed to this, I'd start at the top and go down from there (Lotus, Ancestral, Sapphire, Time Walk, Jet, Ruby, Emerald, Pearl, Vault, Twister).
Wow. Imperial Recruiter up to $175 on SCG now, and $200 on TCGPlayer. Where does it stop?! The card is basically used in one deck. Granted, it's a 4-of in a deck that is otherwise a "budget" deck (which is really how Rishadan Port exploded I think, being a 4-of in former "budget" deck Death and Taxes), and probably sees EDH play as a 1-of. Still though, just seems crazy that it's basically doubled in price in a couple weeks time.
And yes, Shardless BUG and Esper Deathblade are mind-numbingly boring decks to play and watch. They lend themselves well to a big tournament though because they don't have any truly terrible matchups except Painter decks, which are fringe for the most part, and in the hands of a skilled pilot they are threats to go all the way any given weekend. Doesn't change the fact that they're lame decks though.
It'd be nice if there was some fresh blood in Legacy. Even storm decks seem like they've been beaten down. It's all Esper, BUG, Delver and Sneak and Show it feels like. All are boring to watch IMO.
I doubt Shardless BUG or Esper Deathblade, at least the versions we saw last weekend, will stick around at the top tables here the next couple weeks. When both decks were all the rage in the middle of 2013, Imperial Painter came along with its Blood Moons and destroyed these decks two weeks in row (winning, then getting second the following week). After that, Shardless BUG almost completed disappeared until the past month or so, and Deathblade went back to just Stoneblade. Sneak and Show and Delver variants saw a huge surge at that point (Painter is terrible against Sneak and Show). Then Death and Taxes got big in response to that. It's a huge circle it seems like. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sneak and Show doing really well over the next couple months as people panic about Blood Moon again.
It is super cheap though. Surprisingly so.
As a side note, if you stick it out, I'd recommend finding some friends to play with on Cockatrice (hell, look me up on there sometime). I just played a game recently where I had to "play Dad" and try to teach a kid about winning / losing with grace after he made some stupid comments and rage quit after he won game 2 and tied our best-of-three at 1-1. That kid and his attitude are everything that's wrong with the game, and those people seem to be growing on Cockatrice. However, I've met a couple friends through this site that play regularly on there, and those games are always fun...and at the most basic level, that's why we all play, right? To hang with friends?
Turning back to topic though, I really think we're hitting the breaking point for Legacy. A couple weeks ago I watched a local kid who is trying to build his first Legacy deck do whatever he could to trade for a Wasteland from a local shop. He was able to pull it off...barely. He's still working on the deck, and in the process several of the staples have mysteriously shot up as documented in these pages just over the past month or so. I have to imagine it increased the time it'll take him to finish (if he chooses to do so) but a matter of months. I haven't seen him recently, but I feel bad for him and others like him. Wish there was something we as a community could do other than just loaning out decks at events (which I always try to do).
I really just think all the dual are rising...just because. Taiga, Badlands, Scrubland, and Savannah are hardly used in anything that's been winning much lately, and all of those rose along with all the others.
It sure feels like StarCityGames is trying to kill off Legacy so they can move to Modern. I really can't imagine the format is going to continue to grow with duals priced like this. The alternative, I suppose, is that people are unwilling to sell at current buylist prices, so SCG's increase is so they can increase supply to make it available for demand. Either way, the costs are going to become prohibitive at some point, and prospective Legacy players will start thinking and doing what everyone did with Vintage back in the day: "Damn this is expensive...nobody plays Vintage anymore...StarCityGames isn't supporting Vintage anymore...oh, what's this new Legacy format? I can afford this!"
It's sad. Modern is lame (IMO, I recognize others don't feel that way -- though I can't imagine many people with equal access to both prefer Modern over Legacy). Collecting for Modern is also like collecting baseball cards in the early 90s -- none of the cards will be worth anything over time for the same reasons (huge print runs, everyone takes care of their cards so everything will always be NM, they can be reprinted at any time, etc.). Once StarCity stops supporting Legacy, the format will effectively die unless another enterprising company takes their place to support the format with touring tournaments.
The prices recently rose on all of them, but I think a lot of people in the game are getting jobs and coming into money, and they want to complete their sets before their gone. If you're committed to this, I'd start at the top and go down from there (Lotus, Ancestral, Sapphire, Time Walk, Jet, Ruby, Emerald, Pearl, Vault, Twister).
It'd be nice if there was some fresh blood in Legacy. Even storm decks seem like they've been beaten down. It's all Esper, BUG, Delver and Sneak and Show it feels like. All are boring to watch IMO.