Military buddies of mine have had similar issues - lots of free time when not on active duty and extra cash if not with wife and kids.
One of them blew through a few grand in a couple months - he then asked me how I afforded this hobby with a part time job and going through college (at the time and mind you this was about 4 years ago). I demonstrated to him how becoming more trade savvy and aware of trending card prices could help him cut down on his spending or even make him money depending upon how he went about it. He then went on to make Magic a self sustaining and sometimes profitable hobby for him.
Now that you're neck deep in cards you should follow the advise of many posters here and go through your collection to determine extras. But instead of trading them into the shop or selling them try to gain a better understanding of card values and start becoming more actively involved in trading.
Although currently I have a good job and usually get any cards I need through tournament prizes I still try to keep up with current card prices and keep a healthy collection just in case I need to assemble cards on the fly for a deck I'm interested in playing. Just always keep in mind what decks/cards you're not actively using and use them like a resource. There's alot of people out there that build a deck, play it twice, and then never pick it up again. But they still refuse to take it apart because of sentimental value.
You may have a point there Disil about the Peddle to the metal decks being an option.
I'm currently running some Esper control variant and it's been a pretty big problem matchup for me. I have a somewhat more aggressive build going but that still doesn't help me when trying to come back from a blinked and reanimated thragtusk. God I wish they had made the lifegain an aspect of casting thragtusk rather than CitP.
Funny way to work yourself out of a needlessly hostile situation. I think you were more than fair to him by actually walking with him to the managers office. Everything that happened afterwards just seems to be poetic justice. I can't say I never get upset about something silly but all the people attacking you/defending the old man for his irrational actions and mannerisms just seems pointless.
I mean, we are after all talking about an old man that got so upset about someone walking over a fenced off area that he decided to curse at him, drag him to the managers office, then follow him around for 15 minutes all without any real cause.
To be honest if I met someone who took that attitude with me even after I had dutifully followed him to the managers office to resolve the issue I would have most likely lodged a complaint. I mean from what it sounds like (and I could be wrong) you are a paying tenant at that complex and he is an employee of said complex? I know I would react pretty poorly if the staff member of my complex did something similar over something so silly.
Edit: If he is not an employee of the complex then it still doesn't make it all right for him to take such an attitude with a complete stranger or take it upon himself to follow you around to report your information to the management.
Just think of the set reviews and metagame predictions as an educated guess for what the format will look like before everyone has had some time to playtest and develop decks. It's a starting point, at least. Whether that's worth any money is another matter altogether.
That's not taking into consideration my criticism about poor decklists (as in here's an epic experiment deck everyone that I forgot to put the epic experiments in) which have been rampant lately. It's not just one writer in particular (though some have been doing their usual good job and I have no criticism for them in particular) but many who have failed the RTFC test recently or posted incomplete/incorrect decklists.
Also, these last few weeks I saw very little mention or focus around a miracles based control deck (I don't watch the videos so please correct me if someone was focusing on them) but instead a lot of fist pumping for zombies and other agro decks. Then the writing team brings a miracles based control deck that looks very form fitted to devour the very decks they were making a good show of doing test videos for.
I mean Todd Anderson, Brad Nelson, and Gerry T all played this deck (among others) and their content for the last few weeks have been devoid of emphasis or attention to an archetype they obviously thought was a serious contender.
Now, do I believe they need to give away all of their secrets and publish a decklist every time they brew a good one? No. I'm just stating (along with other people) that I feel slightly mislead by their lack of attention or content that at least somewhat addresses the archetype they evidently thought was the best deck to play in the room.
Is it worth the money? It used to be. Now? Not so much.
I don't really need more people doing test videos and articles where they don't read the cards before publishing content and I haven't bought singles from SCG in years. Their blatant price gouging and massive influence on the secondary market is infuriating mostly because it works and it only seems to because magic players as a whole have started to become easily scared into purchasing cards en masse in fear that they will miss out on the next Jace the mind sculpter or Tarmogoyf. Apparently however they forget all the damn times they purchase x copies of cards at their peak (courtesy of star city games) just to have them bottom out again shortly thereafter.
Not quite sure I agree with Jace being at 50. Seems like an awful quick price jump for a card that only had a few copies in the top 8 and, despite being a four of in multiple of their writers decks, didn't seem to do that well. This isn't a statement implying Jace is bad. I just don't really understand the logic behind his sudden price spike. I mean from my viewpoint it looks like their writing staff gave somewhat erroneous advice on what to play, then picked up a deck that "should" beat it, had somewhat unexciting records, and then either due to SCG price setting or fanboyism this card shot up in price.
I've played with Jace a bit and he seems decent but these price spikes kind of remind me of what sometimes occurs in the legacy realm. "Oh man did you see that deck that placed 5th at the last legacy SCG and played this random card as a two of? Yea I was going to buy them but it went from $2 to $25 over night."
I don't know. In short, I do agree with what Damaja is saying - to be honest despite having a premium membership I have been feeling more and more slighted by their content over the last year. I don't expect them to have the ability to anticipate the meta perfectly or give me the format breaking decks on a weekly basis. However I can't help but feel irritated when they pimp certain decks then play decks that beat it. Or when they put out articles chock full of decklists that seem like they wrote them down on a napkin the night before.
Fun tournament, nice turnout for the first SCG in Portland.
Placed 11th with Zombies - Had second lost in 8th round to guy that top 8'd with Naya because I flooded out game three and he held me off with a damn blade splicer and token I couldn't kill or swing through profitably.
You would have to frame those cards. IE what kind of Zombie deck are you putting them in? Pod, U/B, R/B, MonoB? Honestly, Ravenous is terrible unless you're going for a controlling monob hand hate build that utilizes lilianna and discard in the main. Vampire nighthawk may have a place some day but right now you have messenger, captain, metamorph, and cemetary reaper for possible three drops which are all better than nighthawk in this meta. Vile rebirth is an excellent sideboard card - and that is all it should be in the current meta.
Disciple is cute, but I think four drops aren't necessary in this deck and if you are looking for a four drop you're better served by skinrender or a phyrexian metamorph in that slot. Unfortunately unless you're in a position to sac a non-undyinged geralf's messenger it really doesn't seem to fit into our plan of play more creatures with low mana resources.
Traditionally wolf run was not a match up I looked forward to if the player had the mainboard tuned to beat weanie agro (4x slag 2x whip or some combination thereof) Not to mention follow up inferno titans.
As far as now with thragtusk? Meh, the life gain is annoying and so is the residual creature but thragtusk isn't going to win you the game - more than likely it's going to stall it a turn or so but it's doable. Not to mention as a U/B player I run 7 copy effects - if I'm that worried I'll just create a copy or two myself.
Wolf run traditionally for me has boiled down to watching the other player accelerate out, play a threat then pass for me to copy and then kill the original. Since ya'll stopped playing wurmcoil this matchup has gotten much better in my experience.
Yea, I wouldn't bother speculating if/how the deck will survive after rotation. I've been playing this game since Onslaught and every rotation people start up threads/discussions like this and it's truly pointless until we see what Ravnica has. Just keep playing the deck amigo and don't worry about rotation until September.
Yea, you should be fine amigo - a few negative feedback ratings isn't going to turn people away especially if you have other positive feedback ratings.
Good sideboard card but honestly I don't think my deck has any room for it in the main board and I'm not sure I would want it there either. But as a two or three of in the sideboard vs mirror, frites, and solar flare? Sounds good to me!
Placed 25th at the event with U/B zombies. It was a fun event and a good showing.
Quick note about Phil - I've known the guy for years and he's always been a home brewing black player. It was good to see him up at the top tables but you have to understand this guy usually plays at 4x or at most 5x round friday night magic tourneys and I'm not sure how much he play tests critically. I'm proud of him for doing as well as he did in the tourney and I can assure you the play mistakes you saw were most likely as much from pressure as they were from a prolonged amount of play time. I mean we started playing around 10 and I want to say Phil's top 8 match was still going after 11pm. That's a long damn day to be on top of your game while everyone is watching when your normally used to just chatting with buddies at the local shop while playing some fun FNM.
25th in SCG Seattle this weekend. Two match losses were round 3 in mirror where I kept questionable hand g3 that didn't pan out and round 6 vs esper control deck that brought in 3x celestial purge, 2x curse of deaths hold and oddly enough a few torpor orbs against me and topdecked the terminus g3 to win.
Played 2 Mirror, 1 U/G infect (the one featured in deck tech), 2 Naya POD, 2 RUG Pod, 1 esper control, and last round was delver. To be honest the two losses I had were very close and the only changes I made to below list were to remove the 2x Geth's verdicts as they were subpar almost all day and now run +1 Phyrexian metamorph +1 Dismember.
Don't pay attention to the sideboard as it is currently under construction.
Oh, and no - I didn't miss ponder or killing wave. But based off of how the mirrors played out and what I saw of other players throughout the day it may be just due to how I'm playing the deck.
One of them blew through a few grand in a couple months - he then asked me how I afforded this hobby with a part time job and going through college (at the time and mind you this was about 4 years ago). I demonstrated to him how becoming more trade savvy and aware of trending card prices could help him cut down on his spending or even make him money depending upon how he went about it. He then went on to make Magic a self sustaining and sometimes profitable hobby for him.
Now that you're neck deep in cards you should follow the advise of many posters here and go through your collection to determine extras. But instead of trading them into the shop or selling them try to gain a better understanding of card values and start becoming more actively involved in trading.
Although currently I have a good job and usually get any cards I need through tournament prizes I still try to keep up with current card prices and keep a healthy collection just in case I need to assemble cards on the fly for a deck I'm interested in playing. Just always keep in mind what decks/cards you're not actively using and use them like a resource. There's alot of people out there that build a deck, play it twice, and then never pick it up again. But they still refuse to take it apart because of sentimental value.
I'm currently running some Esper control variant and it's been a pretty big problem matchup for me. I have a somewhat more aggressive build going but that still doesn't help me when trying to come back from a blinked and reanimated thragtusk. God I wish they had made the lifegain an aspect of casting thragtusk rather than CitP.
Ugh.
I mean, we are after all talking about an old man that got so upset about someone walking over a fenced off area that he decided to curse at him, drag him to the managers office, then follow him around for 15 minutes all without any real cause.
To be honest if I met someone who took that attitude with me even after I had dutifully followed him to the managers office to resolve the issue I would have most likely lodged a complaint. I mean from what it sounds like (and I could be wrong) you are a paying tenant at that complex and he is an employee of said complex? I know I would react pretty poorly if the staff member of my complex did something similar over something so silly.
Edit: If he is not an employee of the complex then it still doesn't make it all right for him to take such an attitude with a complete stranger or take it upon himself to follow you around to report your information to the management.
That's not taking into consideration my criticism about poor decklists (as in here's an epic experiment deck everyone that I forgot to put the epic experiments in) which have been rampant lately. It's not just one writer in particular (though some have been doing their usual good job and I have no criticism for them in particular) but many who have failed the RTFC test recently or posted incomplete/incorrect decklists.
Also, these last few weeks I saw very little mention or focus around a miracles based control deck (I don't watch the videos so please correct me if someone was focusing on them) but instead a lot of fist pumping for zombies and other agro decks. Then the writing team brings a miracles based control deck that looks very form fitted to devour the very decks they were making a good show of doing test videos for.
I mean Todd Anderson, Brad Nelson, and Gerry T all played this deck (among others) and their content for the last few weeks have been devoid of emphasis or attention to an archetype they obviously thought was a serious contender.
Now, do I believe they need to give away all of their secrets and publish a decklist every time they brew a good one? No. I'm just stating (along with other people) that I feel slightly mislead by their lack of attention or content that at least somewhat addresses the archetype they evidently thought was the best deck to play in the room.
Is it worth the money? It used to be. Now? Not so much.
I don't really need more people doing test videos and articles where they don't read the cards before publishing content and I haven't bought singles from SCG in years. Their blatant price gouging and massive influence on the secondary market is infuriating mostly because it works and it only seems to because magic players as a whole have started to become easily scared into purchasing cards en masse in fear that they will miss out on the next Jace the mind sculpter or Tarmogoyf. Apparently however they forget all the damn times they purchase x copies of cards at their peak (courtesy of star city games) just to have them bottom out again shortly thereafter.
I've played with Jace a bit and he seems decent but these price spikes kind of remind me of what sometimes occurs in the legacy realm. "Oh man did you see that deck that placed 5th at the last legacy SCG and played this random card as a two of? Yea I was going to buy them but it went from $2 to $25 over night."
I don't know. In short, I do agree with what Damaja is saying - to be honest despite having a premium membership I have been feeling more and more slighted by their content over the last year. I don't expect them to have the ability to anticipate the meta perfectly or give me the format breaking decks on a weekly basis. However I can't help but feel irritated when they pimp certain decks then play decks that beat it. Or when they put out articles chock full of decklists that seem like they wrote them down on a napkin the night before.
Placed 11th with Zombies - Had second lost in 8th round to guy that top 8'd with Naya because I flooded out game three and he held me off with a damn blade splicer and token I couldn't kill or swing through profitably.
Source: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/resources.aspx?x=judge/resources/sfrmodern
So, where were these modern tournaments and how recent were they?
Disciple is cute, but I think four drops aren't necessary in this deck and if you are looking for a four drop you're better served by skinrender or a phyrexian metamorph in that slot. Unfortunately unless you're in a position to sac a non-undyinged geralf's messenger it really doesn't seem to fit into our plan of play more creatures with low mana resources.
As far as now with thragtusk? Meh, the life gain is annoying and so is the residual creature but thragtusk isn't going to win you the game - more than likely it's going to stall it a turn or so but it's doable. Not to mention as a U/B player I run 7 copy effects - if I'm that worried I'll just create a copy or two myself.
Wolf run traditionally for me has boiled down to watching the other player accelerate out, play a threat then pass for me to copy and then kill the original. Since ya'll stopped playing wurmcoil this matchup has gotten much better in my experience.
Quick note about Phil - I've known the guy for years and he's always been a home brewing black player. It was good to see him up at the top tables but you have to understand this guy usually plays at 4x or at most 5x round friday night magic tourneys and I'm not sure how much he play tests critically. I'm proud of him for doing as well as he did in the tourney and I can assure you the play mistakes you saw were most likely as much from pressure as they were from a prolonged amount of play time. I mean we started playing around 10 and I want to say Phil's top 8 match was still going after 11pm. That's a long damn day to be on top of your game while everyone is watching when your normally used to just chatting with buddies at the local shop while playing some fun FNM.
Played 2 Mirror, 1 U/G infect (the one featured in deck tech), 2 Naya POD, 2 RUG Pod, 1 esper control, and last round was delver. To be honest the two losses I had were very close and the only changes I made to below list were to remove the 2x Geth's verdicts as they were subpar almost all day and now run +1 Phyrexian metamorph +1 Dismember.
4x Diregraf ghoul,
3x diregraf captain
4x blood artist
2x skinrender
4x Geralf's Messenger
4x Phantasmal Image
2x Phyrexian metamorph
2x Highborn ghoul
3x tragic slip
2x geth's verdict
1x dismember
2x doomblade
3x mortarpod
4x cavern of souls
4x darkslick shores
4x drowned catacomb
9x swamp
3x surgical extraction
2x appetite for brains
2x fume spitter
1x dismember
1x phyrexian metamorph
3x skirsdag high priest
2x undying evil
1x Geth's verdict
Oh, and no - I didn't miss ponder or killing wave. But based off of how the mirrors played out and what I saw of other players throughout the day it may be just due to how I'm playing the deck.
Edit: Yes 61 cards.