Prep for Modern Madness (4)

I've missed out PTQ earlier this week for several reasons. Some are rather personal, some is due to the lack in time to sort my cards for sale or trade there (I'm still logging the cards into an inventory list). Honestly speaking, I haven't even had time to actually sit down and plan what do I want to do in the 2nd half of the year for MTG in deck and finance-wise. In this article, I plan to review what pick-ups I plan to pick up and what I plan to do as investments and use. Note that I have restricted budget at around $100 a month.. Honestly with that kind of budget, I'm not sure what to throw my cash into as investment. Right off my head, I can think of the two Ravnica Expansions' Shocklands as the safest bet. But, honestly, getting them at a good price now is not impossible, but quite a difficult task as everyone is planning to hoard it until they rise. It's a safe bet to be precise. If I want to join in the party, I either quickly grab them up ASAP before the prices going to soar up higher or trade off what I have at the moment for them. I'm contemplating both options. But, I want to know which is options is worth more value.

Targeted pick-ups during Modern Season (June) till Post-RTR rotation:

• Shocklands (complete playsets)
  This one is a no brainer. I'm not going to hoard. but if possible, I want foils to keep until the price increament before selling. I'll want to hold on to 1 complete playset worth of shocks and trade accordingly for other things needed. Alternatively, just trade for what I need and done deal. But in priority, this is a major pick up in June till August.
• Courser of Kruphix
  This badass is going around! He's a definite standard staple and he sees modern as a beam of hope! If he does get to be played in modern, expect his price to be anything but cheap. $8 grab would be great but this is mainly a standard card; the prices are up due to the appearance in decks in the recent GPT event.
• Thoughtseize
  Do I really need to explain why? It's highest price hit $50! And the recent reprint in Theros block meant another year of play in 2-3 formats! I'm grabbing him between $20-$22
• Mutavault
  I'm running a tribal deck. Also, it's one of the best man-land around. Period. I'm grabbing him at $30 value
• Voice of Resurgence (if below $15)
  Insane card. I'm speculating this to be the next Vendilion Clique-type of spike after he's power is seen in hatebears or GW aggro.. He'll be a victim of the post-RTR rotation price fall before climbing back up fast. Sad thing is that Geist of Saint Traft didn't climb for awhile and even if he did, it wasn't as high as I hoped it would... Maybe a crossed-finger for this. There is chance; Dragon's Maze is an expansion that was avoided. so there may be a chance of this guy seeing very little supply.
• Foil Gods / Planeswalker
  I think Foil planeswalkers would be my goal eventually. I'm not too sure about Foil Gods, but I'm keeping them in for the appeal in EDH. However, whether the casual appeal will allow the prices of the gods to go up is another question in mind. Foil Planeswalkers are something unique to me. I started out hating them, to eventually accepting and liking them. They are a unique set of cards existing solely in MTG. The appeal and demand will be there and as the planeswalkers get older in set, the price will go up unless a reprint.

I'll avoid Fetchlands* and other staples like Tarmagoyf and Snapcaster Mage. Reason being is that these staples already have reached their maximum value as of now. Trading into them basically locks your cash value as that. Unless they spike, there is no potential for any growth in my money. Likewise, if a reprint is announced, just looking at prices to fall flat is seriously aggravating. (I mean... in the end it'll still go up right? It's just that it would not climb as high as it would be without the reprint.)

* I may get Arid Mesa and Marsh Flats at $50 each in near future due to the decks I'm building. I'm thinking of building a BW tokens deck with the Modern Event Deck and a casual G/x aggro (this deck won't require Fetch/shock base but probably SOM fastlands or core set duals).

I'll also avoid most of the standard powerhouses like Brimaz and the Gods unless they smell a hint of play in modern. If not, I think I'm not going to touch those until later on. (Or never for the fact that I don't play standard.)

I mean... it's not a long list thanks to my limited budget. If necessary, I'm prepared to exchange my bulk rares for the cards though I feel this would not be a great idea. Speaking of bulk rares... I really really need to find where I can get them!

Conspiracy....

Image source: http://www.magicspoiler.com/conspiracy 

Magic: The Gathering – Conspiracy is a new standalone booster set where the intrigue begins long before the first spells are cast! 

Release Date: June 6, 2014 

The set is designed to be drafted and then played in Free-for-All multiplayer games.
Revolutionary new abilities impact every part of the experience, from drafting and deck-building to playing the game.
New Magic™ cards with new mechanics, as well as returning favorites, will help draw players into your store for this unique multiplayer booster draft experience.

• 210 card set
• Black-bordered
• Set includes 65 unique new cards
• Sold in 15 card booster packs
• 36 booster packs per display

The Conspiracy format is best suited for drafts with approximately 8 players. After players draft and build their decks, they divide into two groups of 3-5 players that will play Free-for-All multiplayer games. Source: http://www.magicspoiler.com/conspiracy 

I'm not sold on this product. To be honest, what am I supposed to be doing with cards after I have drafted? The mechanics are draft-specific and unless I am able to make some use of them in constructed play, I'm really not sold. If I were to whack this, there are 5 things I want to see in Conspiracy...

1. Full-Art Lands
2. Legacy/modern playable chase rare or reprint
3. New playable cards
4. A good low-cost white/green removal
5. Cards or mechanics that are easily integratable into other multi-player formats like EDH, Horde, Archenemy, Planechase, etc..

As of now, we have a few mechanics which are pretty interesting.

• Conspiracy
• Hidden Agenda
• Dethrone
• Will of Council
• Parley

Surely, yes... this will change the format for drafts and yes, while these cards (some) are legal in legacy and vintage, I have yet to see a card which will be welcomed into the meta. EDH will be screaming for this as a side option kind of game with the new cards. But as of now, there isn't anything in my opinion that is worth the chase. Reprints are coming in and sourcing around the web have shown that many of us are keen in the fetchland reprint. However I personally still think it's not the time for a fetch reprint. My reasoning is the same as shown in the previous post; that the new border design print are coming and honestly, it is not worth their ink to print them now. They'll rather wait for the new borders to introduce the reprint. This means that the original prints will retain their value due to old border design. 

Personally, I'm rooting for the following to be reprinted/seen in Conspiracy; Note that this set is legal in Legacy and Vintage... Not modern! So modern staples may not make the cut.

• Tarmogoyf
• Demonic Tutor
• Squirrel Nest
• Fact or Fiction
• Swords to plowshares
• Force of Will
• Syndri, Galvani Genius

I know there are still several others that is yet to be re-printed or have a reason to see a reprint and my list is pretty much baseless other than Squirrel Nest, Fact or Fiction and Swords to Plowshares. I don't want to guess what's in it and make the move to whether I want to jump into this set or not. As mentioned above, I'm not persuaded yet but having full art lands will swing me into a yes automatically. Anything else falling into the 5 points I mentioned wanting to see in conspiracy, I may be persuaded, but I still want to see full art lands. I made a wrong move in throwing out my full art lands 5-6 years ago in Zendikar block... I don't want to miss this boat again.

Modern Event Deck. An expected fail?

This is pretty much the most anticipated Event deck for the year! (at least for the first half..) In Janurary 2014, The deck was announced by Wizards. Speculations have been going round forums and among players about what kind of deck and reprints we will be expecting to see. I had this discussion with a few fellow players and we had sort of agree in general that this will be a BW Token deck (Bingo!). There were other suggestions which included Faeries, TRON, Affinity, RDW and even Jund! Not sure why, but BW Tokens was more of the ripe picking for an Event Deck reprint. In my opinion, It's a good deck for an event deck for 3 reasons;

1. Relative cheap deck to make; Most of the core cards are C/U staples. Assuming no Fetch/Shock landbase, the deck is quite cheap to make and play.
2. Relative ease in piloting the deck; Yes, the deck require a certain level of skill, but which deck don't? It takes awhile to get the hang of it but once with enough practice, you'll see the potential threat of a good BW Token deck. The pressure with many small guys is just as (or probably more) annoying or dangerous as a big guy.
3. It's no Tier 1 deck, but it's still a force to be reckoned with. Token decks are Dark horses in the metagame; no one expects them but still, yet having half-guesses in the existence in the meta. Thing is that if a Tier 1 deck is reprinted, Secondary market of the staples in that deck will be affected firstly, and with many people surely jumping in to buy off a pre-con deck like this, there is no more diversity in the metagame, since it's Tier 1 and well, everyone wants to win in an FNM or PT/GP right?. 

We were expecting reprints of Fetchlands (Marsh Flats to be exact..), Token deck staples like Lingering Souls, Spectral Processions and even Path to Exile and Inquisition of Kozilek! (Bingo again!)

The first spoilers were Elspeth, Knight Errant, Honor of the Pure and Intangible Virtue. All are pretty much staples in a BW Token deck. We were speculating Marsh Flats and Bitterblossoms to be reprinted as the chase rares or value for buck cards...

Well, the guess is over. Here is the decklist below:

Main Deck 60 cards
4  Caves of Koilos 2  City of Brass 4  Isolated Chapel 5  Plains 4  Swamp 1  Vault of the Archangel 4  Windbrisk Heights 24 lands 2  Soul Warden 3  Tidehollow Sculler 5 creatures	3  Honor of the Pure 2  Inquisition of Kozilek 4  Intangible Virtue 4  Lingering Souls 3  Path to Exile 4  Raise the Alarm 2  Shrine of Loyal Legions 4  Spectral Procession 1  Sword of Feast and Famine 3  Zealous Persecution 30 other spells 1  Elspeth, Knight-Errant 1 planeswalker Sideboard 2  Burrenton Forge-Tender 2  Dismember 3  Duress 2  Ghost Quarter 3  Kataki, War's Wage 3  Relic of Progenitus 15 sideboard cards

What do you think? Is it worth it? When I woke up earlier, I received hate messages from my playgroup about the Event deck. They hated the list because "It does not have anything like powerful Shock/Fetch land base and worse, where's the Bitterblossoms!!?" There is no Fetchlands or Bitterblossoms... Thus this means everything is crap.... Seriously? Personally, I honestly think it's a good deck for buy at its $74.99 MSRP. Look, it's not going to guarantee wins like how Pod or Jund decks might. (Ironically, they lost in the recent GPT..) 

If you are like my friends who are only interested in the chase for Fetchlands/Shocklands in order for it to be called a good deck, hold on to that thought for a moment. The reason why I say it's a good buy is because the core of the deck is readily available and the deck by itself is playable. In my previous post, I mentioned that Modern decks can go up to $1000-1200 just to complete the deck. (I forgot to mention with Sideboard included.) at $74.99, the deck has ALL the core cards. Yes, ALL. The key cards are in exact playsets and honestly, that's a huge bonus in my opinion as normally event decks may not even have a full playset of anything or worse, have nothing which can be considered the core of a deck. Yes, some staples are missing from the deck, but honestly speaking, the other staples can be found easily with the right price if you really want them. At least you have the skeletal base or the primer of the deck already given as a package.

Landbase may be crap, but it's playable. Hey, be honest with yourself (and myself). How can Wizards print Marsh Flats at a $74.99 MSRP event deck an even if they do and they print 1, what sort of sense does it make? Also, we all know that Magic: the Gathering cards are getting an overhaul in the card design, with M15 being the first to be printed in the new design. With that in mind, why would they want to print such in the older border when the new design print is scheduled just around the corner away? On the same point, 4x Isolated Chapel, 4x Caves of Koilos, 4x Windbrisk Heights are pretty much difficult to source out thanks to the demand and the set they are printed in. (At least for my case here..) So, having them as budget options are pretty okay. City of Brass works well actually. If I were to change the deck, that would go but as a budget option, it's a good card. (Sadly Mana Confluence will be strictly better now)

The other cards thrown in are also great! Look! It's freaking Elspeth, Knight Errant!! It's the 2nd best Planeswalker printed! (YES I'm Biased! I'm an Elspeth fan!) No, Karn works only in TRON and  Liliana goes for the 3rd in her irritating ability and just die after that. Sword of Feast and Famine is not a bad sword either. It's pro-colours are relevant and the abilities are devastating if used right. (Laugh now, Godsend.... or as for the matter, Sword of ... ugh.. nevermind...) Come on! Even Path to Exile and Inquisition of Kozilek is re-printed! If not for use in this deck, they are in HIGH demand in any deck that plays the similar colours! 

The only crap part about this deck is probably the queer addition of Soul warden and some of the sideboard cards I would rather see. Why soul warden? Yes, you can take advantage of the creatures Entering the Battlefield to gain life, but wouldn't Auriok Champion be a better card? Yes, I would wish for Fracturing Gust or Stony Silence as these would be better cards as hates. Pithing Needle is also good. Maybe Wrath of God anyone? No, really, if you can pull off a Wrath in a Token deck, you can sometimes take advantage since most of the spells you cast will spawn at least 2 bodies. I would be like to add Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Hero of Bladehold for the aggressive kick. Thoughtseize is priority as a replacement for Duress, though the latter actually works wonders and is severely underrated. But alas... budget is the mindset here. They already gave some incredible cards and really, you can't ask for more without going off the budget mindset here. 

In short, I personally think if it's available at its MSRP or even below $200, grab it! It's a good deck on budget and is a relatively easy deck to pilot for beginners or players who are new to modern format and wanting to pick up a solid deck and test it. The deck do contain several staples for OTHER decks and some are severely underrated cards or cards that are being forgotten in the chase for more powerful stuff. I would buy 1 if I have the budget.. else I may skip this as I'm already building my own deck. Else worse case, you can just buy the deck and sell the Token staples to another guy who can't afford them and keep the other cool stuff for your own Cubes, EDH or for your own modern inventory/deck! Speaking of which... Sleeves, dice and a Deck Box is given too right?

Note: Yes I know MSRP does not mean the actual sales price... In fact at that price I can expect the event deck to be at around $500 price range. But, read above carefully, I said IF I can get them at MSRP price, my opinion holds as above. Otherwise, work out the value of the individual cards and see if it's worth buying at whatever price its sold at. Also take  your budget and your playstyle into consideration before jumping for this event deck. BW Tokens are generally in the form of Aggro decks, which can also be disruptive as it's control style. If you don't like playing  white weenie or aggro in general, consider avoiding this deck. 

Prep for Modern Madness (3)

Continuation from the previous article, but this episode of series will be different. So far, I have been talking about how I want to trade and sell to make money, but what about the playing aspect? Surely we need to play to indulge in the Madness for Modern! In fact, the PTQ and GP season for Modern is picking up already; GP Minneapolis has started off the modern event, with the Top 4 going to the following decks:

1. Scapeshift
2. Jund
3. U/W Control
4. U/W/x Kiki-Midrange

Full result: http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=7306&f=MO

So what are we going to play? What to expect? I'm sure you know your local meta, but if in case this article is being read by someone who is new or unfamiliar to the format, I hope this will be a good starting point to gauge and understand what you will face in the meta. 

As a short intro for modern, it's a non-rotating (Eternal) format with cards legal up to 8th Edition with it's own specific banned-list. The meta has a healthy range of aggro, control and combo decks, with combo decks taking the percentage dominance of about 40% of the meta. It is currently still shaping itself as more deck ideas are created, tested and played, but there are several decks in the different archetype of decks that has proven or established themselves to be the contender. These decks are what you'll see in general in a typical Modern metagame:

Aggro

• Affinity
• Jund
• GW Hatebear
• Death & Taxes
• RDW
• Merfolk
• GW Hexproof
• Tokens
• Infect
• Zoo

Control

• U/W Control
• U/W/R Midrange
• U/W/R Control
• Gifts Control
• Cruel Control
• Mono-U or U/x TRON
• The Rock
• Faeries
• The Rack

Combo

• Melira Pod
• Amulet of Vigor Combo
• Kiki- Pod
• Soul Sisters
• Twin-Exarch/Kiki-Twin
• UR Storm
• Scapeshift
• Ad Nauseum
• Living End
• R/G TRON
• Reanimator

I'm not an expert in the game or the play for most of the decks, so I'll leave links to primers on MTG Salvation.com for references. If you go ahead to explore the other areas of the site, you'll realise other decks are not listed but exist as minority. Some are unproven for tournament results, but are still a force to be reckoned with. 

I personally do have a few decks that I have worked on. They are complete but lacking the physical cards:

• Bant Midrange (abandoned)
Idea is a Turn 1 mana creature, followed by a Turn 2 Geist of Saint Traft. If opponents cannot answer him, I'll swing in for 6 the next turn and continuing to apply heavy pressure on the opponent. Cards like Elspeth, Knight Errant and Swords are added to boost damage and pressure while cards like Bant Charm, Remand, Snapcaster Mage provides utility.


• 5C Ally Reanimator (currently playing)
  Dump/Draw the library until you have Angel of Glory's Rise and Unburial Rites in the graveyard. Then reanimate Angel of Glory's Rise, triggering her ability to bring back all Human cards back onto the battlefield. Most cards are there to dump cards into the graveyard. A very small amount of cards are present to protect the combo.

Bant Midrange was abandoned due to the high cost of Tarmogoyf... The deck works without him, but seriously, it's Tarmagoyf... "The best green creature in any constructed format..." ~ Everyone. 

See? If you looked through the list above, you'll realise that the meta-game is although diverse, the staples will forever remain staples. Powerhouse cards or incredibly powerful staples will see a slow increase in price overtime unless banned or reprinted and on the finance point of view, it's really worth throwing some money as investment. That brings to my point of starting out in the finance aspect of MTG in the first place. Sure, other formats like Standard and legacy do bring in some lucrative deals and trades for their chases cards, but legacy is expensive to buy in, while standard rotates every year and upkeep is constant. Modern is slightly cheaper than legacy, but still expensive in general to buy in. That's why it's best to jump onto the ship before it's too expensive to take the leap! 

Given the choice I would not have abandoned the Bant deck, but given the circumstances of my situation in my studies and finances, I can't afford to go for modern events regularly or the remaining physical cards for sanctioned play, so hence, I decided to sell the deck. (I have played several otherdecks before but not in modern format.) At the moment now, I play mainly EDH and Modern on a casual level, but I believe that the decks can pit against other decks in the minority range. (That's not the point though...)

Back to topic, the point I'm trying to make is that don't just blindly jump into the format just because everyone (including me) is asking you to jump. Stop! Evaluate your schedule and your plans outside MTG. Do you have the time and commitment to play the events regularly? Even without playing the events, do you play with your friends or group regularly? The word here is regular or frequently.. It's not so much as about how well you play or how far you plan to go into it as a career. Modern is non-rotating, which means that cards will never rotate out like Standard, with more cards being added in. Also, this means that staples will be on the rise, but it also means that any reprints will automatically be Modern-legal unless banning of the card. If there is stock out there or supply available, you can always jump in later. For my case, I have to down-grade my cards to a cheaper deck because I want to start a foil Planeswalker collection and focus more on my studies; which means lesser play time for such events so no point for me to hold onto the cards (that's what I thought back then...) It's not a wrong move. I made back about 90% of what I had spent on the deck, maybe a little surplus, which I used to start off my Planeswalker collection. (The entire stupid move of this was to buy the Avacyn Restored and Theros Booster box...... I could have bought my Foil Elspeth, Knight Errant!!)

Second point to note is Budget. If your budget is relatively low and you want to have a good time playing rather than worrying yourself over how to save $100 for that staple card, (I don't know... A Karn or Liliana maybe?) then may I suggest that you probably stick to kitchen table casual or standard as a start, then slowly collect the pieces until you are ready to break into the format. Just note that a Tier 1 Modern deck will rob you of about $1200 to $1500 depending on your country's exchange rate to stores' quoted prices and the deck you play. Staples like Fetchlands and Shocklands will cost you about $60-90 and $15-18 on average. You're talking about at least 1-2 playsets of these for maximum mana efficiency for your deck! Creature/non-creature staples also can cost you a bomb. Some staples are cheap pick-ups while others can go into the range of $10+ till $100+ (Tarmogoyf...). So just know what you are going to jump into before really taking the jump.

Third point is knowing what you want to really play. Yes, at the start, all decks seems cool to play! but if you don't know what you want, you end up spending more and required and ended up selling off and re-starting all over again. Do your research; know what you are buying into for the decks and plan out your budget and see if it fits (see point 2). Also research on the deck if it's still under development or is a proven or established deck that see a lot of play. Just note that developing decks are cheaper and if they happen to be proven effective or strong in the meta, you'll see the price of your cards just suddenly doubled or tripled in value without you doing anything (other than play the deck to test the results of course!) however proven or established decks are like a "safe" zone which decks out there are more expensive but more likely to be complete and are generally to be more powerful, giving a better value for your buck!

To end off, there is not much for the finance aspect as I'm still having my exams. I've planned to skip Journey into Nyx and several other sets until M15. For now I'll save the money for the purchase of the singles or probably for September/October Post-RTR rotation buys. (Hope price will reduce enough for relatively cheap pick-ups!)
As a leaving note, I honestly have to consider, what do I really want in the end? I'm still torn between wanting to sell off my cards for the money or should I keep them till later, but if I do, until when? This would probably be for my next article to reflect upon. But for now, Keep your heads up for Modern season! The prices of the staples WILL be going up and if in case you are still lost, the season has kicked off already! Expect the full swing coming in a couple of weeks time and by then, enjoy the season! Hopefully I can post at least 2 more articles in this series before the season hits full swing.

• Side note: I finally have done up my Inventory log for all my rare and mythic rare cards! Yay! Next is for my Uncommon and Commons collection!

Honesty; Best policy?

I haven't been completely honest... I broke my own promise to buy the following:

• 3 JOU boosters ($4)
• 2 Avacyn Restored boosters ($6)
• 2 RTR Boosters ($4.50)

That's $33 wasted. My point here is a relation back to the previous posts; that the boosters are the fastest way to drain money without you knowing it. Just like that, I've spent $33, without getting any good returns. Of course, if you are talking about hitting the jackpot you may recoup but, odds are you won't. In this case, I went bust; I got nothing which allows me to recoup back the money spent.

On the other hand, I managed to pick up the following;

EDH

• Foil Terramorphic Expanse ($0.50)
• Foil Tempest Light ($0.50)
• Wood Elves ($0.50) 
• Jap Wood elves ($0.50)

Deck

• 3 Jap Ravenous Trap ($0.50)

Investment

• 3 Brushlands ($1.50)
• 1 Karpulsan Forest ($1.50)
• 2 Fabled Hero ($0.50)
• 4 Steam vents ($31.3 after trades) 
• 1 Goblin Electromancer ($0.85)

Look at the above; the $33 spent on booster can already get the 4 steam vents or probably something else that is bulk worth, but possibly in demand or have potential to spike. The second point is that it is easier to track the amount on singles bought as compared to the amount spent on boosters. Recoup rate is also better.

Now to the main topic; Honesty. I don't mean about cheating in games etc. I mean if you were to "cheat" by buying out cards from vendors who don't update their prices, or by falsifying the condition of the cards like a slightly con-ed card to be NM. Worse still, had any of you tried to con off a person by quoting a price much lower than the market rate? Big question here is, what's the limit of such activity before it's deemed to be dishonest acts? While under the definition, all will be deemed to be dishonest but ask yourself, I'm sure you have encountered scenarios like that, be it being at the receiving or giving end or as a third party witnessing it. While most of us close an eye on such, provided if the deal is agreed and fair. We would be quick to deny that we are fair in our trades so even if the deal is unfair to our advantage, we have many reasons to rebut arguments. 

See, understand that when we trade, we stand to lose in order to gain something. the only thing we can try is to shift the trade to our advantage and to do that, we "cheat" the trade. It's simple understanding of such mentality, "if i lose something, I must gain something which reaps me a benefit"; rephrase, "there is no free lunch in this world". An example, if I were to purchase everything at the market price, I can need not deal with people because I will never make profit.

More often that not, the motivation is often driven by greed. we want to gain as much as possible from a trade to profit or just to get the upperhand. I personally have encountered several relatable situations. I have rush-ordered cards from vendors who failed to update their prices and I have "cheated" by negotiating trades to get off a few dollars or cents to acquire cheaper cards. Yes, I have "scammed" people who do not know their card values in order to make a profit. But, it's still a fair deal in the end. 

Surprised? So where's the line? How is it that we have done things like what I have given as examples, and still let go as a good trader instead of a dishonest bloke? Firstly, the gains and returns will determine the fairness of the trade. Yes, you may have gotten what you want, but what about the other guy? Does the guy get something back that he deemed fair? Fairness can be in perspective. I can "eat" his cards at an extremely low price, but in return, the guy may only want to get rid of the cards in bulk and don't mind the profit margin. Alternative, the person may be keen to trade off his better rare for a stack of cards near or not equal to value because he may be just a casual player. Or maybe the guy wants to trade off that rare for other cards for deck building or investment. 

Examples are endless, but they all have something in common; both parties agrees to the trade and whether one person gains the upperhand in that trade, both parties agree to the stakes of the trade and their returns. It is also to note that the gains and returns need not be just on cards. The point here is that we "cheat" the trade by giving consensus; taking into consideration that two parties may not just negotiate for a single deal, but for future deals as well, like maybe a person buy off cards at a low price from me, but in return, he may be willingly to sell me his at a discount in future. 

Accountability is the second factor which draws the line. This is important to the credibility of the trader. However the trade is fair, it is still a true scam or cheat if one party changes the negotiation deal without prior consent. The only difference in a fair trade with upperhand to a true scam or cheat is that the trader uses underhand means to manipulate without giving a accountability to the other party. If you can't trace your trade back to the trader, I won't think it's a legit trade. Also, if you get what back less than what you expect, and/or the terms is not what you initially agreed, this is the red alert call. On the other hand if you have agreed to the trade prior to the deal, any changes in prices causing you to change your deal, is a re-negotiation subjected to the other party; it's not a right for you to just change the deal, losing the credibility as a trader and accountability of the trade.

The main point here is that honesty is still best policy. You can manipulate the trade to your advantage, but in return, give a credible accountability or return to the other trader. Knowing and understanding what he wants from the trade may help. It's not wrong to walk out from a trade without any agreement, but the former does not hold if any agreement has been made. In the end, the networking practice of knowing other people is more important than that profit margin or how much you can optimize your value from unsuspecting people. Sure, you may make that trade walking away happy, but what about your next trade? Your reputation, as who is going to trade with you once your action is exposed to the community? Know that the magic community may not as big as you think. (For here at least...)

I'm not sure how you feel, but basically I feel that this is my own trading principles. I will want to get the best out of my trade, but I still value my credibility as a trader and the networking with other traders is just as important to me. Sometimes honesty may not be the best policy but the credibilty and accountability of your actions is the most important policy

Organisation and Inventory

I was reading this article from MTGPrice.com and found it to be very true and helpful. I have a small collection which I am still cracking my head on how to log my inventory in the most organised and efficient manner. I also want to create an in-out transaction for me to keep track of things. (More on this later)

To me, this is really a simple thing, but essential. I already have some sort of the skeleton out now, but I have to fill in the blanks. The main question is, how?

I have paragraph extracts from the article which summarises the tips for inventory management and logging I found useful. The main points are highlighted in Bold font.

1. "The first phase involves combing your collection for rares and other money uncommons and commons. If you generally know the era of Magic where your cards come from you can print out a buylist from those sets and look through it before going through your cards. Once you pull out the cards with value, you can organize them into a few different binders. Yes, this means you might be taking apart your current trade binder. Do not fret: this will get you more value in the end."
2. "I like to have three binders: One for the hottest standard cards. Shocklands, scrylands, and Standard playable cards galore. I generally try to trade into newer sets with this binder. One for Modern/Legacy cards. Any kind of dual land, Modern and Legacy commons, uncommons, and rares all go here. Commons like Serum Visions trade surprisingly well and are not that difficult to obtain in trade. One for Casual/Commander cards. This one is typically the bulkiest. There will be tons of foils, Commander staples, etc. that move out of this binder. Keeping this one stocked will net you massive gains from seemingly silly foils and trade you into cards that hold more weight. I might even say this pool of cards will trade the most."
3. "you should go back to the bulk commons, uncommons, and rares. You should now take out any rares and mythic rares. You can save these in a separate box for bulk at a later date or keep in a dusty old binder in case they spike. This is a good way to utilize MTGPrice’s collection tool. You can input all of the cards that you have in a junk binder and be able to see if any spiked recently. Needless to say, you could make a whole bunch of money. Going forward, if any of them spike, you will be able to see that too."
4. "Generally the advice is: do what the card shops do. You should know what quantity you are speculating in and how much you bought in for. You should also know how much you spent on shipping. I like to keep this in a spreadsheet."

With the basics done, I have to log into the inventory, Here are the useful information that I have fished out that helps on how to use them;

1. "you should be evaluating how much the buylist / eBay price is going to have to rise before you make any money at all. You should do a gauge on shipping costs and factor that in to a spreadsheet."
2. "In your spreadsheet or somewhere else you should also write a serious evaluation of why you bought in to this card and what trajectory you expect to see.... By gathering as much data as possible we can make better decisions in the future."
3. "When I am at an event, I can pull up the spreadsheet of the cards I am speculating on and seeing if I can pick up any more copies at similar prices minus shipping. I really like the spreadsheets for when I am watching coverage of major events as well. I can quickly plug in the expected prices of a card and find out how much it would have to go up in order to make any money at all."

The points are just paragraphs that I took from the article (credits due to the original author) and if you really want the full detailed article on what he has written and discussed about, go to the link I have provided above. So, as to what I have done on my part, I have the following for logistics management:

• 2 Bank Accounts
• A couple of Excel sheets
• Google Drive 
• 10+ Boxes of commons and uncommons, semi-sorted.
• 2 9x9 Binders, 1 4x4 Binders
• 3-4 Storage boxes, 1 used for bulk rares
• 2 Medium-Sized drawers for storage

Essentially, now I must create a work flow for logistics processing. I'm not the kind of person who will  or like to diligently update stuff in a complicated system with much backlog. I prefer a fast and efficient manner to log my inventory and manage my logistics. While I do not currently have a full work flow, I am working on an ideal case and tuning it from there. While I am on it, why not also account for logging my daily expenses? As mentioned in the previous article, I have to separate my trades from my daily expenses. 

In this case, I have done / will be doing the following:

• 2 Bank Accounts + 2 Wallets
  - Savings Account: For my Personal Saving. I will credit at least 10% of my Monthly Allowance into this account.
  - Main Account: My main account for my daily expenses, which includes Food, Transport and other non-MTG related expenses
  - Wallet 1: My wallet "Duh.."
  - Wallet 2: An old wallet will be used as a "Bank" Account for my MTG Trades.
• A couple of Excel sheets
  - Budget/Expenses: The main excel sheet which delegates my budget into the various areas of expenditure.
  - Collection: This holds my MTG Trade inventory and my collection. The MTG Trade Inventory is the same as the Project: Zero List I have on Google Drive. I may need to streamline this part.
  - The Inventory (2 Sheets); Rares and C/U. I may expand it to 3 if necessary or 2 would suffice at the moment.
  - Collection (1 Sheet); This holds the Foil Planeswalkers and Gods and the amount I buy at.
  - Speculation List (1 Sheet); My speculation list
• 10+ Boxes of commons and uncommons, semi-sorted.
  Bulk out my commons if possible once sorted and update the remaining to my Inventory List
• 2 9x9 Binders, 1 4x4 Binders
  - 1 9x9 Binder: Planeswalker Collection
  - 1 9x9 Binder: This one is a ring file with 9x9 Sleeves. At the moment, it is holding some of the more valuable commons and uncommons. I may use this for trades
  - 1 4x4 Binder: This one will hold as my Trade Binder. But I'm looking to change this as a 9x9 ring binder as well, which then I can use it to store my rares for trade and the 4x4 binder will be used as a secondary binder for trades too. (More on this later)
• 3-4 Storage boxes, 1 used for bulk rares + 2 Medium-Sized drawers for storage
  I'll leave it be. My prioirty is to expand the Bulk rare collection first (Storage Boxes?). I also need to account space for Mail trade and deck building logistics. (2 drawers?)

I'll spring into action upon this post. But, some will require time and I do not have the time until after my exams. Hopefully this new organisational structure and workflow will help out in closing out the finance taps I have been facing prior to this. Expect to see the results in my efforts within 2 months! Good luck to myself!

I know these are simple things for some of you, but understand that I have no business and finance education background and what I am doing is learning these by experience. I've failed enough to learn a few lessons, but the lesson will not end. I'm merely improving on what I have learnt so far. The things I've learnt so far are applicable.