Deck Archetypes

When people consider decks generally as Aggro, Control, Combo, It's just a general classification. The definition of what a deck is not so simple as to just the 3 classification. We consider various factors when designing a deck; the win cons, colors, favourite cards, combos, synergy, meta, etc. This becomes the main guideline to how we want to achieve the common goal in the end. To win. And, have fun at the same time.

To the main point, describing a deck as either in the above 3 categories is too generalized. It points no direction to specifically what the deck is designed to handle. In the past 2-3 years I've realized there is more than one way of aggro, likewise more than 1 way of control. No, I don't just mean the win cons/deck archetypes, but I mean the style of deck and to what the approach. 

I'll attempt to expand the classifications with my thoughts;

1) General Archetypes: 

• Aggro
• Combo
• Control 

2) Pace:

• Late game/stall
• Midrange
• Rush

3) Shell:

• Offense
• Defense

4) Synergy: 

• Curve
• Interaction
• Tempo

5) Conditional-Based win cons

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1) General Archetypes:  The general 3. I won't discuss much as we know what the different categories. 

• Aggro:

Aims to win as fast as possible, often with an army, or with fast creatures or a relatively early drop of a big creature to win the game. 

• Control/Tempo: 

Aims to prolong the game or lock down opponent's options and win with a relatively large creature or any viable win cons.

• Combo:

Basically, is the kind of decks you just want to play with yourself, setting up and pulling off grand plans and combos that goes infinite or some sort of instant-win conditions. 

Notice that just the above 3 categories don't tell you much about a deck; sure you know that the deck is fast, has a powerhouse win con, but is that it? Is there more to the deck than just beating down? How fast is the deck running? 

My point is that though the categories will give a rough idea how a deck should typically run, I feel that that alone won't help in knowing the deck well enough. Knowing the card interactions, synergy, and how the deck is meant to be played can give a better understanding to counter their strategies.

2) Pace: Generally describes how fast the deck. Does the deck aim to rush in to win fast or going at a slow, but steady pace?

• Late game/stall: (t9+)

Generally meant for Tempo/Control decks. These decks aims to prolong the game into late game for 2 primary reasons; forcing the opponents to exhaust their early game resources into a longer game plan than expected for a easier game in late, or stall the game into their advantage, allowing them to establish a dominant board control.

• Midrange (t4-8)

This is what most variants aim for. Combo/Midrange decks are versatile and relatively resilient, but they are prone to inconsistency if poorly designed. The plan is generally take 2 turns to stabilize their mana and board, before winning via their combos or their threats. While some of the decks can be designed for early/late game endurance, they prefer to win the game within 2-3 turns upon establishing board control rather than taking the chances unless the deck is running control.

• Rush (t1-4)

The infamous RDW, Infect, Affinity decks will fall into this category. Aggro decks will dominate this category, although some form of control can be found here (discussed later).

3) Shell: Defense is the best offense or offense is the best defense? I've looked several articles posted by other players but I rarely seen them talking about this. I feel that knowing your shell of the deck is important; Are your strategies mainly offensive, or you are actually defensive?

• Offense

Offense strategies don't just mean all-out aggro. This shell can be generalized for decks that are very reactive with the board; having wide reach with removals and counterspells, high damage output, early game win cons; any of the listed. Offensive shells tend to have cards like Path to exile, Doom blade, lightning bolt and swords. Decks like Jund, Infect, Tokens, RDW, Esper Control, USA Midrange are all considered offensive shells. 

• Defense

Vice-versa, Defense shell don't mean you have a deck full of walls and just wall out! (I'd admit this will be a fun deck!) Defense shells have strategies of protection. This means they sacrifice reach for more defensive cards like Remand, Fog, faith's shield, brave the elements. Sure, some the cards can be used offensively, like protecting your creatures when they go all out against your opponents, but note; you chose to protect your creatures. Decks like Bant, Hatebears, Pods, Tron are considered defensive shells.

4) Synergy: This, to me, is the core of the deck. How the deck primarily function from one threat to another, or one removal to the next

• Curve

The curve looks at basically, your mana curve. This sort of synergy means you're heavily top-decking, or maybe a small draw engine to curve your drops like t1 - 1 mana drop, t2- 2 mana drop or 2x 1 mana drop, etc. Usually such curves will curve off early at cmc 3 or 4 to maximize top-decking.

• Interaction

I can write a book on this, but I'll stick to just the general idea. This is the core of any decks running lock-down or infinite strategies. Even some mechanics like devotion or cards like wild defiance will rely on interaction to play out. Even triggers like ETB, LTB, Morbid all falls into this category! Disruptions like Thoughtseize, Duress, Stone Rain are another form of interaction. These are primarily interactions to give disadvantages to your opponents. 

• Tempo

If you don't run interaction, the next likely you run is tempo-based synergies. Strategies like card advantages, fast ramps into early-game heavy spells/drops, SOME form of disruption all falls into this place. Ideally, you want two things here; Maximize the mana: effect cost ratio and/or cantrips/card advantages. Cards like Remand, Sphinx's revelation are great tempo cards. Also, efficient ramps and drops can be considered good tempo plays.

5) Conditional-Based Win Cons: This is basically how a deck wins. Like the conventional 20-life/10-poison win/loss condition as this is usually the main win con for most decks and there is nothing much to discuss, really. The ideas however grant still voice you to shaving off your opponents life to 0 or 10 poison. Minority of the decks have alternate wins which may or may not be obvious at first glance.

Cards like Near-Death Experience, Battle of Wits, Laboratory Maniac, or anything that says if/at (____) occurs, you win. These decks have alternate design strategies to pull out their win con of the classic 20-point hit is impossible or vice-versa, that the former is their primarily designed win con but may switch to conventional combat if proven impossible. A good example would be a match-up against Tron and Pod decks; If the pod combo pulls off with infinite life, Tron decks can slowly wreck the board and play a long game with annihilation and top-decking to force the pod deck into concession or deck out.

Having roughly explained, it's easy to see that most, if not all the decks are designed such that they do not suit into just one category. It becomes crucial to know how the decks you are facing or piloting works; just like how to maximize the card's potential is important.

It's not a wise idea to have something that counteracts your strategy, like you won't want to run fog in an infect deck, likewise lightning bolt in maybe let's say a combo deck? okay, maybe the examples can occur, but usually you'll end up dropping the cards for alternative cards either to aid in your win; be it protecting your key pieces or giving that extra reach you need as removal or to for that last few points to take the game.

Lastly, knowing the deck pieces can help you in your side-boarding to remove/disrupt or avoid key pieces, but knowing how the deck pilots may sometimes give you advantages when you least expect. If you can take advantage of how the deck is played it really opens up more opportunities to how you can interact/counteract with the deck.

Rabbit and the Turtle

In the previous post, I posted about tips and advice I have picked up from fellow traders. I would like to reflect upon them here. I'm sure many have heard about the fable about the rabbit and the turtle. A short summary, an overconfident rabbit who could have easily won the race has lost to the turtle, who went slow, but steadily finished the race. The story taught us that how slow and steady wins the race. I agree. However, I have learnt another lesson from that same story. Persistence is key. Going slow and steady don't win you anything unless you are persistent. This occurs to me in life; I'm slower than most people when it comes to learning and while I'm certain I don't have a learning deficiency, I am aware I pick up things much slower than many people. I get jealous at times, seeing people picking up new knowledge at a snap while I have to grind my way there. I put more effort in my work just to be on par with my peers. Sometimes, it can get rather depressing.

There will always be a silver lining however gloomy the sky is. I've grown to become persistent; whenever I have set a goal in mind, I work hard towards it. I'm willing to put in however much effort just to be as good or better than my peers. It's not about winning. It's about understanding myself better each time I compete, fight and struggle against my weaknesses to become better. I just want to show to myself that I can achieve with hard work and persistence. But sometimes life is not so simple. There are times where I find that however much hard work I put in, or no matter how persistent I am, it would never equate, results is the amount of hard work I've put in.

I'm learning to grasp the wisdom that every step I take must open doors. My motivation lies in my own persistence in reaching my goal. As much as I am concerned, I want to get there. My point in this is a simple reflection on how I started trading to my 6-months old Project: Zero. I started out trading and I did disastrously. I cracked boxes and speculated the wrong cards, incurring losses which I could not recover. Thankfully I was working at that time so I could afford the losses. I slowly learnt the market, took advice (reluctantly sometimes) and slowly worked my way. I still make mistakes and bad choices, but it is a learning journey that has changed how I saw things. I'd admit, the Project is not a novel idea by me; If you do a google search, there are similar methods out there that are doing almost the same thing. I'm taking that step to offer an option as a learning opportunity for me to learn from others, talking to them and sharing info with each other, while I learn to manage and move my inventory.
(Actually I did not know about the existence of the other schemes until I google-ed it up myself. I actually took inspiration from a walking store trader who was offering bulk rares in exchange for cards.)

This is true for anywhere in life too. Every choice I make should give me the option to grow myself as a stronger bargaining chip for future work, career options and maybe one day, maybe this could be a stepping stone for entrepreneurship? My options shouldn't be narrowed as my I grow up. I should grow my options as I build my capabilities. In reflection over the past week, as well as my heavy school commitments with exams are around the corner, my activity in MTG is rather slow at the moment, but it is a good resting point for me to reflect and plan in my next move.

With the following advice;

File the rares into albums (I'm using boxes atm), but standardize the price at $0.50 or $1 each to make things easier for myself.

I did work with this when I'm doing the test pilot for my project. It's easier, yes, but it means more folders to carry and sort. I want to reduce my workload in my inventory management. Yes, about that, time to streamline that (inventory management) too!

Work on cards that are easier to liquidate, rather than cards that have value but no demand locally.

Issue with Singapore market is that people tend to eye for only the best. Casual demand here is rather low. I actually believe that casual demand makes up most of the card prices. Competitive seasons have a large share too, but most cards are kept at their prices is also due to casual/EDH demands. I have a friend studying in Australia telling us how easy it was to liquid/trade casual cards for Modern staples. Back here, moving a Doubling Season can be a pain in the ass...
Most of the time would be that $40 card that everyone will play but earning that small profit margin is not really worth my time to go around buying at $38 and selling at $40 to earn that $2 unless it spikes overnight and I'm on the right trend. That only covers my transport. In the end, it's not even a profit. The first step I did was to reduce the amount of time travelling. I'd rather consolidate the trades to a single day and settle them to reduce the expenses. Second, I buy from players and shops when I'm at the shop. I won't specially go down to find the card. I would also look at online stores to see if there is any good deals to hop onto. Most of the purchase will be via mail so this also reduces the need to run around.
Third, I'm not keen in the $40 card to make the $2 profit. If it's a repeatable sales, if I can actually find that margin of $2 easily, I may still not consider unless I can move high volume, but the upkeep can be expensive. Hence, I target the casual/EDH market more. It may not seem much but if I can move a bulk amount of $0.50 cards at the same rate of that $40 card, I actually may get more. Bulk rares to me are the safest to work with. The upkeep for it is cheap, and as mentioned earlier, the returns even at minimal is usually a great percentage of the value ($0.10 of $1 is still 10%). So unless I have the money to play around with, or I'm hitting the goldmine with the speculation, I'm not really inclined to work with higher demand cards.

Modern is the best bet now.

Yes. But, it's really expensive to upkeep the inventory. I'm looking ways to dent the market. So far, no success. But my speculations are pretty spot on for the moment. When I meant upkeep, I mean the initial down payment, purchasing of sleeves and if I sell the card and I want repeat sales for that card, I have to spend another bomb just to buy the cards. (with a profit of course!)

In view of the 2 points above, I'm preparing to bulk most of my rare for some modern staples for modern season. I'll look to see how it goes in the coming months to decide in that decision

"Play or Trade?" Justification

This is a main justification I wanna pick up. That decision in whether I buy or trade or decline that card will be by this motivation. If I'm picking up for play, am I going to play for long? Factoring for the cost over the length of play it may seem worth it, especially in eternal formats like EDH and Modern. Also if under the justification of play, is the deck solid enough to see actual plays or is it still a goldfish thinking it's a shark? These are some thoughts in mind I must consider. 

In the justification to trade the cards, I have to ask myself if I'm planning to keep it for long term or resale, if the latter, I must be confident in selling out, or the cards will just sit there to rot. 

I'm inclined to be a better trader. I'm even more inclined to be a smarter trader. Persistence and willing to learn will be my guiding motivations to succeed.

Viability

I was out trading last evening, and I met a few traders who were prominent in the scene. I was talking to them about my Project: Zero. The general feedback was positive; I even bumped into one of my previous customer who wants me to keep going with the project. However, I need a steady flow of crap rares coming in or eventually, my card pool will get stagnant, and/or the card pool runs out dry and I have no ways to replenish it, eventually leading to the end of the project. At the moment now I'm using whatever I have from my previous booster sprees as my pool, and occasional buys to put into the project. Both methods are not financially viable; They basically eat up my finances faster than what my project can recover! Basically loss in money! I have to solve the supply for the crap rares, but at a cheap way to ensure it's viable to do in the long run.

The second thing about the viability of the Project is that I need to ensure either have a wider market reach or create that market demand. Wider reach = more people = more chance to trade out the cards! Probably that would take some time to really go and promote. But, the issue with this Project, is that the trade is viable via meet-ups and mail trade only. There is no one who will bring a bulk of crap rares around (other than me) and start asking people who wants etc. So I may have to look at options that I either widen the reach like international markets (eBay?) or alternatively just get a large bulk and dump it into the project and wait for people to start clicking for their wants. I have also opened up options for common and uncommon cards to be sold, but that requires updating of my inventory, and I do not have the time at the moment.

Hence, to ensure the viability of the Project temporarily (and maybe permanently), I'm looking to buy them in (1000 pcs first) at $0.12 each, but will progressively increase my price if more is offered at one go. Hopefully I can hit a seller that will be willingly to sell me to ease my supply issues.

Now, I have to make it clear, my intention of the project is to let traders and players alike find it as an alternative method to dump their crap rares so I can recycle them into my decks or to put up into this project for others to get them, for a small price (or cards). Making a huge profit is secondary; I have my main trades for that, which I'm taking it slow due to studies. Sometimes it's good to slow down, deal small but smoother trades that requires little money or none at all and focus more on the conversations. The many people I have met through trading have great stories to share and I really enjoy my time chatting with them. See, the thing is that I sometimes prefer to hang around and talk to people; learn from them and see what I can gain to better my trading skills and hopefully one day work to reap a small profit. 

While on that point, I picked up a few tips which I'm considering to put into effect if it helps;

• File the rares into albums (I'm using boxes atm), but standardize the price at $0.50 or $1 each to make things easier for myself.
• Work on cards that are easier to liquidate, rather than cards that have value but no demand locally.
• Modern is the best bet now.
• "Play or Trade?" Justification

Summary for this week:

• A friend who runs a small store willingly gave me $0.125 for every bulk rare I traded in. I spent 220 rares to trade in for a Jace VS Vraska Duel Deck for the 2 foil planeswalkers. In addition, I now have the Remand, Body Double, Future Sight, and some other cool stuff which I can put into the Project!
• Spent $72/- on a playset of Batterskull. I should be able to liquid these at $30/ea at least
• Spent $45/- on 3x Spellskite (Investment)
• Spent $30/- on 3x Abrupt Decay (Investment)
• I'm getting a bulk deal of 180+ cards for $50. Last saw there are some valuable cards in there! I can't wait to get hold of it!
• 5 pieces of Phyrexian Unlife at $0.50 each! Now we wait for the deck to perform!

Strategic Plans in Investments and Trading

Money is never enough. That's why in any moment, where there is an opportunity to make a quick buck, most of us jump into it. I, too, took the plunge 2 years back when I decided to start to learn trading and speculation. I have learnt a lot in the 2 years, as well as get to know a lot of friends by trading and playing. In the 2 years, I have experienced both good and bad trades and lessons learnt behind them are often valuable but at times I can be stubborn not to heed my own advice.

In view of this reflection, I have put together the Top 3 lessons I have learnt in the past 2 years; some which I have learnt and adapted, some which I still have yet to fully understand and learn to listen.

1) Trust yourself.

More often than not, I don't. I made a sound judgement and later only to be swayed and crumbled in my lack of trust in myself. This has occurred many times and sometimes when I look back, I can feel like kicking myself. 

An example to quote is at the point where Theros is spoilt, I have speculated Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx will be a $10 card within 2 weeks of release. A friend rejected my speculation and claimed it's a terrible card which will only see play in EDH. I eventually gotten hold a copy of it during pre-release, and at that point, Nykthos is only a $5 card. After the event, I contemplated holding on to the card and ended up selling at $6 (the same point when Devotion decks in standard went wild) to another player, when the actual value is $10. Because of my distrust in my own judgment, that trade had undercut me $4. The point here is not about how much I was undercut in value, but it's about the fact I don't trust myself, I made a poor decision. If I made a bad speculation which undercuts my profit, it's a different learning point altogether. 

Another point in relation, I have to trust that time is the best investment. More often that not, I offload cards at a sound price at a point of time, only to see the cards go up in price the next day or week. Yes, while such things at times are unpredictable, I should see the trend. The fact this was raised is because in most cases, I went against my instincts to make the quick buck and later fall short by undercutting myself, because again, I don't trust myself. 

In addition, the fact that I did make good decisions and speculations, targeting cards like Desecration Demon, Consecrated Sphinx, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Voice of Resurgence, Geist of Saint Traft, Snapcaster Mage, etc... it means it's no luck that I'm predicting the price increase. I am able to do it and should trust myself more.

2) Nice Guy finish last

I have to admit... I'm too nice. More often than not, I discount my prices because of distrust in my judgment, also because I'm just being nice to the trader; a fact that anyone will take advantage world. Many describe "it's a dog eat dog world out there". The world can be cruel. Many times we are exploiting the benefits from others to our own benefits, squeezing any last drop of such from people who are weak to give into such pressure. I crumbled at times. I'm not firm enough to protect my own interest and my valuation of cards. 

In a slight twist of the same point, I am open to negotiation of prices, but sometimes I crumbled at the negotiation where people often try to lower the buy price and I give in. For this isn't too bad sometimes (-$1 from a $11 deal, etc) as at times, it can be advantageous; the trade proceeds smoother and the cash transaction is much easier to handle. Now I made a stand that the prices I trade would not deviate more than 5% in general.I would only give a more generous discounts to my regular traders and friends who supported me in my journey as a player and trader in the past 2 years. 

Sometimes, nice guys have their benefits. Personally, I'm able to uphold a good reputation which serves me well, which when I meet fellow players, they are more willing to trade/sell/buy cards to and from me, enabling an easier and smoother trades to move my stocks.

3) "It's a Trap!"

I hate doing maths but it doesn't take a genius to realise that booster packs are the number 1 trap in any TCG. For those out there not convinced when I say that you are better off buying singles; you save more money in the long run and guaranteed to acquire the card. In fact, many published articles too state the exact same things. More often that not, you spend more than what you are looking for. Buying off singles may cost you hundreds at a go, but you basically have a trade in what you want to acquire. Going by the booster route, cracking a $40 card from a $4 booster pack can be rewarding, but googling the odds of such occurrence happening, it is not viable in the long run.

Cracking booster boxes and cases are actually better off buying packs. A lesson learnt from my recent booster spree, (yes, guilty as charged) it's best not to crack booster packs. But, if I really have to or the urge is too overwhelming, spree 36 packs at a go (equivalent to a booster box) and ask for a box price. You're getting a better value off the booster packs and makes covering up losses easier. Alternatively, I can get a box straight and play drafts with friends to improve my drafting skills. But bottom line: Don't buy boosters.

Lessons learnt over the 2 years are simple, but often forgotten or ignored. I have to step up in my game to continue to trade effectively and turn profits. In fact, no. I should not be looking to profit; I should look to maximize the value of each dollar spent. How I should position my trades; Instead of looking to just make a profit, I have to look at whether the card I am trading for has a better investment value. The value can be evaluated from the prospect in price increament due to rarity and/or decrease in supply, playability of the card and timing. As of now, the best investment is to invest in Modern cards. The demand is increasing with the growing player base, and certain cards are getting more and more difficult to obtain.

Personal speculation: 

• Modern prices in general will not see a stop in the rising trend due to the increase in player base, the increase in demand and as well as the approaching modern season in june/july.
• I'm eyeing at Domri Rade to be the next $40 planeswalker; He has potential in the recent resurge of zoo decks and possibly in Naya Blitz or Gruul decks. Noted that modern SB techs are well-equipped for Zoo hate as they expected the resurge since the unbanning of Wild Nacatal.
• I'm looking at Restoration Angel, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Voice of Resurgence, Geist of Saint Traft, Snapcaster Mage as potential long term investments
• Longer term investments would include: Skylasher, Plasm Capture, Burning-Tree Emissary, Charms and Split cards from RTR Block. Young Pyromancer is a good uncommon to hold
• $8-$10 for Shocklands are a safe bet. Just don't expect them to double anytime too soon.
• Since fetchlands are hitting the roofs, hope for reprints, then snag a playset! Just expect that the prices will not increase too soon post reprints.

Right now I'm working on the Project: Zero to grow the collection of bulk rare I have. It's also a platform for me to meet traders and interact; observe and speculate cards from their opinions and determine which cards a better for investment and what to avoid. Next I have to decide proper as which format I want to follow; as of now, I'm following more into Modern and EDH, but my collection is not exactly following any format. It would be wise to match the format, but modern is getting expensive to invest proper. Fetchlands are reaching $100+, the staples are breaking new records and random cards are spiking due to speculations on new decks. I ever had thoughts in selling off everything and restart my collection, but in the light that everything is going up in price, it's difficult to do so. Pretty much what I can do now is focus in acquiring more bulk rares from people and sort out which are true bulk and which have value; from there I'll change the true bulk for better rares and sell the rares at specified value. 

My point here is that instead of jumping onto the already filled bandwagon that is going crazy in the prices, I'd rather take the time to build my own kart and eventually ride the waves. To me, bulk rares are the safest bet for investment. They always have a resale value at 20%; highest for any kind of card, really. Demand is forever there and when they spike, their increase are at least by the 100-s in percentage. In terms of investment, I'd find that is the best form of investment, but I have to learn to hold onto the cards.

Finally, the end point goal is to complete the foil planeswalker collection with every alternate art printed. It'll be darn cool! 

Foil Planeswalkers

I'm contemplating to start off a collection of foil Planeswalkers, but there are few factors are affecting my decision; 

The first factor is no doubt, the most important factor; Price. The cost of foil walkers are averaged at Between $20-$30 for "normal demand" walkers which see play in EDH and casual formats, $40-$50 for walkers that are either new or in demand for standard format, and we have >$60 walkers which are either incredibly rare and/or extremely in demand in eternal formats like Legacy and Modern. A quick gauge of the full collection will cost me $2000 to finish just the basic collection. (when I mean basic, means no special prints, judge promos, event specials, etc.) Looking at tight Budget constraints as a full-time student, it will be a long-term project to finish the collection. The fear would be the prices soaring up to exaggerating prices, or the market crash and leaving my collection worthless. 

Continuing on, the price and availability of different prints forms my second point; To what extend? To what extend am I looking to complete my collection? As mentioned, $2000 is just to cover the basic prints of the walkers in foil in singles. I'm not even including every print edition for the planeswalkers ever to be printed! Take core set walkers as example, (best example actually) Ajani Goldmane had 3 prints over the Lorwyn, M10 and M11 set. Am I going to collect the same card thrice cos it's printed in 3 different editions? How about Jace Beleren? he has 3 prints in the same sets as Ajani; not to forget a Duel deck version. If given that there are alternate arts for a single planeswalker like Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, whose expansion and Duel Decks print have different art, it may be valid to grab a duplicate copy in an alternate set. Actually, all planeswalkers have an alternate art for Duel Deck reprints. Similarly, judge promos do have alternate arts. but, back to point 1, Price! How about Book Jace? It's a sweet new art that is super rare, costing about $200 just to keep a copy! I've yet to go to Jace, the Mind Sculptor! A foiled Worldwake print is a whooping $700, FTV:20 is costing $180 as per mentioned date of writing!

My third point, Appeal. I have just completed my Foil Theros Gods collection. The total cost of the entire package cost me about $120.00, and I'm looking to complete the BOG and JIN minor god collection in the later part of the year. While collecting, there are other people also jumping into the bandwagon and the demand is pretty high for the foil gods. Why? It's unique. It is unique to the Theros set and upon post-rotation and post prints, the rarity of these cards are going to climb slowly due to EDH, cubes, collector's demands. Planeswalkers are unique to Magic: the Gathering since the first printing in Lorwyn block. The demand as a whole collection is there, but specific to collectors. If I ever were to do a resale. It would take a search to find the right guy to get a good price for my collection of planeswalkers.

Fourth, Consistency. This is a major factor which affects how much I spend and how my collection will look like in the end. Consistency in the sense that if I were to get EVERY print available, means I will have to get EVERY print! If SDCC 2013 Collection is calling at $1000, judge promos are valued at $100+ per piece, I will have to get them! Organisation would also be an issue as to how the collection to look like. At the moment, I have drafted a general outline, which sorts the Planeswalkers into Alphabetical order. With the inclusion or alternate arts or duplicate prints, it's not too bad; I can shift around the cards and make way for these alternate prints. The only issue is the hassle to do it and the condition of the cards must be taken care of to preserve the conditions. Emblems aren't an issue here, I could easily get them at $1 each at specific sites I have sourced and just slot them in on the go.

Fifth, Time. With limited budget and the near exponential growth of the foil cards, it's a race against time and budget constraints to make it there. The only 2 options I have is by trading and profit from buy/sell. At this point of time, I can still choose; the collection is considered just starting out, I have less than 10 foiled walkers in my collection and backing out now can still be an easy option to sell everything and move on. Various school of people has told me various perspectives. The top is being that the collection will be expensive to start. To maintain, I only have to buy the foil walkers every 3-4 months upon release. But, as mentioned, the start up capital is steep due to budget and time constraints.

Eventually, the sense of satisfaction in having completed something I have started is something I look forward to. Also, as a self-address to my worry in the value, foiled cards will increase in demand and value as the edition/set gets rarer; the prices will no doubt increase together with the set.  It'll be a long journey to complete the collection, but once I set up my mind to complete this collection, I'll update here on this blog on the progress.

First Post

Notable purchases this week:

1. Batterskull ($18.00)
2. Plasm Capture ($0.50)
3. Phyrexian Unlife ($0.50)

Batterskull is on the rising trend; At the point of purchase this week, it's worth $24 on several websites and buying a playset at $18/pc is really a steal! The number of decks in modern using them as a 1-2 off is pretty much alot, and fueled by legacy decks like stoneblade and EDH demands, I'm looking at this to go back up to $30/pc soon when modern season hits in its full swing.

Plasm Capture is a long-term spec; mana drain was a popular card by demand in casual and in EDH. It's not a strictly-better upgrade, but it's a good alternative or addition to decks that can play it. Current pricing is at $1.50 each. I would not pour my investments into this card, but I will be on a lookout for this card in the couple of months, maybe over this year in the price trends. Currently I'm looking it to hit $2.00 mark over this year.

Ad Nauseam combo decks is coming back into modern. Phyrexian unlife's price spike is mainly due to this. Depending how the deck fare in longer run, we will see the price rise / fall accordingly. As of the moment of writing, it's $3.00 now.