I’ve been trying to cull down my Magic collection for years.
I once had a collection that was around 30,000 cards and now I have it in a bit more of a manageable size… but I want to get it down into a SET size: one binder for each color with no more than 500 cards in it. Much of the internet advice talks about systems for sorting cards or whether they use binders or boxes to store their collection. I’m not looking for that kind of advice. I’m looking for tips on how to maintain a curated collection of the best cards, how you determine which cards to rotate out of your collection (assume that all of them are good), and how you judiciously add cards.
Like many of you, I’ve been playing magic for a long, long time. I no longer wish to maintain and organize a closet full of card stock. You can spend too much time and money sorting, organizing, and managing a collection than actually playing it. WotC is pumping out more cards and sets than ever before, so I want to slow down my acquisition of cards so that I get to actually play the ones I already have.
So I’m looking for advice on how you decide to keep your collection — if you do — within certain boundaries. Do you have a system? Do you have binders or boxes and say, “I will keep what can fit within these and no more”?
Thank you in advance for any thoughtful feedback! I appreciate your time.
This thread, along with Adam Styborski’s similar articles on GatheringMagic, are what has inspired me to (finally) cull down my MtG collection. It’s way too big. I don’t even know exactly how big it is. But it doesn’t really matter, because for the last 6-7 years I’ve only been playing Commander, and I can’t really see myself ever going back to Standard, Modern, or even Pauper.
My question for you is: how to you store your cards? It sounds like everything is sleeved (or double-sleeved), so I am guessing boxes. That would make for easy access. Do you use binders at all? And if so, why?
I just wanted to thank you all for your time and feedback. I really appreciate it. Downsizing a collection for someone who’s been collecting for so long is a large and difficult task, especially since I started out with the “collect four of everything” mentality. I no longer play Standard, am not interested in Modern, and have too many great cards to limit myself to Pauper! Commander and Brawl are my chosen formats now, so figuring out whether to reduce my collection to only a single copy of any good card — or keep multiples of them if they are a staple — remains the largest obstacle.
Based on everyone’s feedback and a bit of soul searching, I’ve opted to cheat a bit for the system I am adopting:
8 Colored Dex Protection Binders: These will be for multiplayer releases, each holding 480 cards. In here I will break down all the Commander decks I’ve bought over the years. This way I can see all cards of each color at a glance. Cards that I’ve kept from Conspiracy, Conspiracy: Take the Crown, and Battlebond will also be stored here. There’s plenty of blank pages left for future releases. Cards in here are in Perfect Fits.
8 Colored Dex Protection Single Row Boxes: In here I will keep cards from Core sets from 8th Edition to the present, coupled with most of the Masters sets (Modern Masters 1-3, Eternal Masters). Also in here are cards from the Modern blocks from Mirrodin to Innistrad. These cards are all double-sleeved and ready to play.
Block Binders: I have 1 Ultra Pro binders for each block since Return to Ravnica, so each will contain all the cards I plan on keeping from that block. These binders can only hold 360 cards, so that’s a nice way to limit what I hold onto. Cards in here are also in Perfect Fits.
Is this the lean, mean collection I should probably keep? No. Definitely not. But it’s going to be a big step from where I was. Now the biggest chore is sorting everything out, figuring out what to keep, and putting everything away. Looks like I have some long afternoons ahead of me!
It sounds like a lot of you prefer to build for certain decks and get rid of the rest of the cards that you don’t currently use, or only acquire additional cards when you know they have a home in a specific deck.
I’d be interested to hear on whether you prefer to use binders for those cards that don’t currently have a home in an active deck, or boxes. I currently have individually colored binders (each holds 480 cards) and long boxes (each holds 550 double-sleeved cards). My thinking was to strip everything down into colored piles and then filling either the binders OR boxes and getting rid of the rest.
Binder are nice for reviewing the entirety of what you have in a specific color. It can be helpful to flip through a binder to review what your card selection choices are, or seeing what cards you currently own or not own. The downside to binders is that they are slower to deck build with, since you have to yank cards out when you want to use them, sleeve them, and then do the reverse when you put them back. I use Dex Protection products for my storage choice, and I’ve found that they just get way too bulky when trying to pack them with double-sleeved cards, so I only use a Pro-fit for cards before putting them in.
On the other hand, boxes are great for double-sleeving all your cards so that you can quickly grab what you need to throw into a deck, and return them when you’re done. If you sleeve your collection the same way (color), you can avoid the sleeving/desleeving process. You can one-and-done it. The downside to this approach, of course, is that you have to rifle through your collection to find what you need, and lack the visual review you get when brainstorming. It’s also easier to accidentally pick up duplicate cards, since you have no visual cue like you do with a binder (a card missing from a page) to remind you the card is currently being used elsewhere. It’s definitely a trade-off.
From what I can tell, it sounds like many of you just keep your cards with your decks until you’re ready to dismantle them. Have you found that you prefer binders over boxes, or vice versa? Do any of you limit the total size of your collection to what your binders / boxes can hold? Or, do any of you have a cutoff point, and say, “My binder (or box) is filled up, something has got to go to make room for new cards”?
Lastly, it sounds like I’m the only one who picks up all the Commander decks with each release. Do any of you do the same?
I have a question regarding how you choose to maintain your MtG Commander collection. While this topic has been brought up several times before, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone discuss exactly what I am asking.
PREFACE: Like many of you, I am a long-time MtG player. While I sold off my initial collection around 2004, where I primarily played Standard, I got back into the game again during the Scars of Mirrodin block. Since then, my card pool has grown to some 20,000-25,000+ cards. With each passing set, it grows more. Since getting back into the game, I’ve changed my preferred format to Commander and, most recently, Brawl. I still have a “collect for Standard” mindset though, and own full playsets of many cards.
With such a large collection, I am in the position where I have far more copies of cards than I will ever play. This is a problem for several reasons: 1) it can be difficult to keep the cards in any kind of order, making organizing it a huge chore; 2) it can be difficult to find cards when trying to create a deck; 3) it doesn’t help when you have too many choices of the same card function when brewing a deck; lastly 4) it generates anxiety, a huge pile of shame of unused cards. Assume that I have removed the vast majority of vanilla / Limited-focused cards that no player in their right mind would keep.
I’m in the process of trying to cull down my collection. I want to maintain fewer cards. A “toolbox” for each color if you will. Whether I store them in binders or long boxes for each color is undecided yet, but ideally, I want to make it easier to just grab the cards I need and throw them into a deck.
With all that said, how do you maintain the size of your collection? Specifically:
Do you keep multiple copies of your cards, or limit yourself to a single copy?
Do you keep your collection to a set size, so that it doesn’t grow beyond a limit?
Do you choose to just maintain X number of decks and simply upgrade them in place of maintaining a card pool?
How do you determine what your “staples” are other than the obvious ones (at what point do you create a cut-off for keeping just one copy vs. four)?
I’m less curious about how you store your collection and more interested in keeping your collection lean. However, if what you store your collection in forces you to limit its size, that would be interesting to know… and what choice you made to use the format you store them in.
I realize this is a whacky question. First World problem, right? I would much rather be playing my (fewer) cards than organizing a (massive) collection. For those of you who choose not to reduce what you have, don’t feel that you have to respond. I am looking hear from those who experience a similar dilemma and made strides to rein in their collection.
Thanks to everyone who has made it this far and for your thoughtful advice, I could use it.
I once had a collection that was around 30,000 cards and now I have it in a bit more of a manageable size… but I want to get it down into a SET size: one binder for each color with no more than 500 cards in it. Much of the internet advice talks about systems for sorting cards or whether they use binders or boxes to store their collection. I’m not looking for that kind of advice. I’m looking for tips on how to maintain a curated collection of the best cards, how you determine which cards to rotate out of your collection (assume that all of them are good), and how you judiciously add cards.
Like many of you, I’ve been playing magic for a long, long time. I no longer wish to maintain and organize a closet full of card stock. You can spend too much time and money sorting, organizing, and managing a collection than actually playing it. WotC is pumping out more cards and sets than ever before, so I want to slow down my acquisition of cards so that I get to actually play the ones I already have.
So I’m looking for advice on how you decide to keep your collection — if you do — within certain boundaries. Do you have a system? Do you have binders or boxes and say, “I will keep what can fit within these and no more”?
Thank you in advance for any thoughtful feedback! I appreciate your time.
My question for you is: how to you store your cards? It sounds like everything is sleeved (or double-sleeved), so I am guessing boxes. That would make for easy access. Do you use binders at all? And if so, why?
I just wanted to thank you all for your time and feedback. I really appreciate it. Downsizing a collection for someone who’s been collecting for so long is a large and difficult task, especially since I started out with the “collect four of everything” mentality. I no longer play Standard, am not interested in Modern, and have too many great cards to limit myself to Pauper! Commander and Brawl are my chosen formats now, so figuring out whether to reduce my collection to only a single copy of any good card — or keep multiples of them if they are a staple — remains the largest obstacle.
Based on everyone’s feedback and a bit of soul searching, I’ve opted to cheat a bit for the system I am adopting:
8 Colored Dex Protection Binders: These will be for multiplayer releases, each holding 480 cards. In here I will break down all the Commander decks I’ve bought over the years. This way I can see all cards of each color at a glance. Cards that I’ve kept from Conspiracy, Conspiracy: Take the Crown, and Battlebond will also be stored here. There’s plenty of blank pages left for future releases. Cards in here are in Perfect Fits.
8 Colored Dex Protection Single Row Boxes: In here I will keep cards from Core sets from 8th Edition to the present, coupled with most of the Masters sets (Modern Masters 1-3, Eternal Masters). Also in here are cards from the Modern blocks from Mirrodin to Innistrad. These cards are all double-sleeved and ready to play.
Block Binders: I have 1 Ultra Pro binders for each block since Return to Ravnica, so each will contain all the cards I plan on keeping from that block. These binders can only hold 360 cards, so that’s a nice way to limit what I hold onto. Cards in here are also in Perfect Fits.
Is this the lean, mean collection I should probably keep? No. Definitely not. But it’s going to be a big step from where I was. Now the biggest chore is sorting everything out, figuring out what to keep, and putting everything away. Looks like I have some long afternoons ahead of me!
It sounds like a lot of you prefer to build for certain decks and get rid of the rest of the cards that you don’t currently use, or only acquire additional cards when you know they have a home in a specific deck.
I’d be interested to hear on whether you prefer to use binders for those cards that don’t currently have a home in an active deck, or boxes. I currently have individually colored binders (each holds 480 cards) and long boxes (each holds 550 double-sleeved cards). My thinking was to strip everything down into colored piles and then filling either the binders OR boxes and getting rid of the rest.
Binder are nice for reviewing the entirety of what you have in a specific color. It can be helpful to flip through a binder to review what your card selection choices are, or seeing what cards you currently own or not own. The downside to binders is that they are slower to deck build with, since you have to yank cards out when you want to use them, sleeve them, and then do the reverse when you put them back. I use Dex Protection products for my storage choice, and I’ve found that they just get way too bulky when trying to pack them with double-sleeved cards, so I only use a Pro-fit for cards before putting them in.
On the other hand, boxes are great for double-sleeving all your cards so that you can quickly grab what you need to throw into a deck, and return them when you’re done. If you sleeve your collection the same way (color), you can avoid the sleeving/desleeving process. You can one-and-done it. The downside to this approach, of course, is that you have to rifle through your collection to find what you need, and lack the visual review you get when brainstorming. It’s also easier to accidentally pick up duplicate cards, since you have no visual cue like you do with a binder (a card missing from a page) to remind you the card is currently being used elsewhere. It’s definitely a trade-off.
From what I can tell, it sounds like many of you just keep your cards with your decks until you’re ready to dismantle them. Have you found that you prefer binders over boxes, or vice versa? Do any of you limit the total size of your collection to what your binders / boxes can hold? Or, do any of you have a cutoff point, and say, “My binder (or box) is filled up, something has got to go to make room for new cards”?
Lastly, it sounds like I’m the only one who picks up all the Commander decks with each release. Do any of you do the same?
I have a question regarding how you choose to maintain your MtG Commander collection. While this topic has been brought up several times before, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone discuss exactly what I am asking.
PREFACE: Like many of you, I am a long-time MtG player. While I sold off my initial collection around 2004, where I primarily played Standard, I got back into the game again during the Scars of Mirrodin block. Since then, my card pool has grown to some 20,000-25,000+ cards. With each passing set, it grows more. Since getting back into the game, I’ve changed my preferred format to Commander and, most recently, Brawl. I still have a “collect for Standard” mindset though, and own full playsets of many cards.
With such a large collection, I am in the position where I have far more copies of cards than I will ever play. This is a problem for several reasons: 1) it can be difficult to keep the cards in any kind of order, making organizing it a huge chore; 2) it can be difficult to find cards when trying to create a deck; 3) it doesn’t help when you have too many choices of the same card function when brewing a deck; lastly 4) it generates anxiety, a huge pile of shame of unused cards. Assume that I have removed the vast majority of vanilla / Limited-focused cards that no player in their right mind would keep.
I’m in the process of trying to cull down my collection. I want to maintain fewer cards. A “toolbox” for each color if you will. Whether I store them in binders or long boxes for each color is undecided yet, but ideally, I want to make it easier to just grab the cards I need and throw them into a deck.
With all that said, how do you maintain the size of your collection? Specifically:
- Do you keep multiple copies of your cards, or limit yourself to a single copy?
- Do you keep your collection to a set size, so that it doesn’t grow beyond a limit?
- Do you choose to just maintain X number of decks and simply upgrade them in place of maintaining a card pool?
- How do you determine what your “staples” are other than the obvious ones (at what point do you create a cut-off for keeping just one copy vs. four)?
I’m less curious about how you store your collection and more interested in keeping your collection lean. However, if what you store your collection in forces you to limit its size, that would be interesting to know… and what choice you made to use the format you store them in.I realize this is a whacky question. First World problem, right? I would much rather be playing my (fewer) cards than organizing a (massive) collection. For those of you who choose not to reduce what you have, don’t feel that you have to respond. I am looking hear from those who experience a similar dilemma and made strides to rein in their collection.
Thanks to everyone who has made it this far and for your thoughtful advice, I could use it.