2016. The attack plan

• I purposely skipped BFZ set as it is underwhelming and Overhyped. IMO.
• I am on hiatus on MTG as long as I have last posted. 

So what's next?

My new plan for 2016: Build back up my collection and get more involved in PROPER trading. When I used the term "proper", I meant that the trading I will involve myself is having an end goal of expanding my collection of EDH and Modern staples, and at the same time, it's time to cash out from this. So, here is my plan of attack for MTG this year:

1. I have decided (finally) on two extra 3 D-Ring Binders to hold my Modern and EDH staples, which those, are not for trade unless for really specific reasons like staple-to-staple trading or up-value trading. 
2. My current binder is left for the same purpose, as a trade binder. I'll be using that for most of my trades and will primarily be carrying that around for trades.
3. I'm opening up a land binder, which caters to EDH and Modern primarily, but actual fact, it will be open for any formats. This is a move I learnt from my friend after thinking through the uses of a land binder
4. The current 4x4 binder will be used to store my holding value cards, which I intend to sell them of after X amount of years or when the price spike. So, basically it's a store-and-forget kind of binder.
5. So what about bulk rares? I am still contemplating on that, but likely I'll put a closure to that aspect of trading as it is too time consuming and too much work to update the list every other week. In most cases, the work just breaks down. I have to be more efficient. I'll KIV on this, but at the moment, I won't be continuing bulk rare trading.
6. I'm still on PucaTrade and Deckbox and will continue to trade there. But, I'm only looking to trade into EDH and Modern Staples as targets.
7. I'm rebooting my excel spreadsheet by logging every trade I'll be doing this year! Time to get organised and stick to it! Also, time to log in an inventory of the cards I have. A major time sink, but it had to be done to get organised.
8. Great regret but, I'll probably only be posting and updating the blog as and when I can. I cannot maintain this blog without any passive income and this year is a busy year for me. I'll leave the blog open as a mark of whatever I have accomplished as a journey milestone. Maybe when I am able to get a passive income, I'll come back to blog. Maybe switch over to YouTube to do videos? I'm thinking of doing something that analyse cards in decks or something on the line that does critical analysis? I still have yet to find a niche spot to focus on, so at the moment now, I'll just stick to trading and play for the bulk of my time.

3 Reasons to why the revised banned list on 18 Jan 2016 is a stupid move

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/january-18-2016-banned-and-restricted-announcement-2016-01-18

1. Splinter Twin is a definitive deck in modern that kept a lot of decks in check from going rampant, and at the same time allowed a fair amount of decks to rise above it if they are good enough. Personally, I feel that it is decks like Burn and AFFINITY actually hinders the format more. Actually, it is more of the mindset of the people that hinders the format. Not just the card.
2. The loss of 2 meta decks at one go is a kill buzz for modern fans. It's a rejoice for most people who hated the deck. But, on the fair side, killing off 2 decks in a single banning really makes me think that if I should even play top tier decks when the risk of banning my key cards for "diversity and consistency" reasons.
3. Meta shift. The recent uprising of the Eldrazi decks and the loss of Twin and Amulet bloom decks is a very drastic change to the meta shift. No, it's not a fresh breath of air actually. It's just another deck, once proven, is going to dominate the meta like Jund, Affinity, etc. It's not really giving the diversity Wizards hoped for and with TRON and Eldrazi decks running in the same idea of unfair mana acceleration, I'm betting on one of these two decks getting banned soon and again, we go back to point 2.

Moving On, Part 2

Kept you waiting? In the past month or so, I'm on a sudden hiatus because of my schedule. From the last posting of my article talking about Allys in the (not so) new Battle for Zendikar block, I'm stuck in clearing my final examinations, preparing for my overseas trip, tying up loose ends for the MTG community I'm involved with. So... While I'm inactive here, I'm VERY active outside trying to finish up things. Now that I'm more or less settled down, let's carry on where I have left off.

First things first, I'm now in Munich, Germany! It's a fantastic place and I really love it here! Any German MTG players out there? Where do you guys play Modern events or just for fun? Any card shops to recommend? I found a few places, but I want to know from you guys!

For this article, it's more about a personal reflection. So currently, the regular readers will know I own an ally deck. But, I don't think many knows that I also pilot a Living End deck. I'm not exactly tournament proficient with it, but I do get by with a few wins here and there. The reason why I am bringing this up is that I started off the blog with the intention of blogging my trades, which then slowly shifted to talking about speculation and about my gameplay. However, somehow along the way, I lost the momentum to do gameplay blogs and just focused on speculation and occasional reviews. Well, it seems that as the time passes, I have jumped around different types of articles, trying out and experimenting what works and what do not. 

Mentioned in an earlier, and similar entry, I found what works and I will continue to develop on those as my cornerstones. However, this proved to be tougher than expected for a simple reason: I failed to look up what is already around in the web. Not specifically that I'm enclosed in my own little world, but I just failed to take into account that there are many article sites and blogs similar to this competing for the same number of people. Often, sites like MTGGoldfish, MTGPrice and even on Youtube, the Mana Source and Tolarian Community College have means and resources to upload videos or articles on the latest trends, analysis and news for the players, while I can only become what is called a second-hand resource site. I took a hiatus for a month or so for a second reason; if I am continuing to do this blog, I have to find a voice among the hundreds of articles and websites that are out there and even more on those coming out. Not that I'm discrediting anyone, including myself. The amount of work and effort to generate out an article consistently is a lot and I trust that most of you who have ever wrote an article will know how much effort and time goes into making one.

I have created a Patreon site for the blog and honestly, that was the biggest risk I have done so far in terms of this entire project. To date, I stand at $0 with no supporters. The reason is simple, there is nothing I have to show. A very good comment came up on Reddit, when I started posting there 9 months ago, mentioning that I should find something that is worth people coming to my site to read. I mentioned back then that I do have content that is worth reading and there are a few that are interesting, accordingly. But, this comment came back to hit me when I realised how my content and quality stood among the others out there when I set up the Patreon site. Yes, I know that many blogs are not funded, but honestly, the entire end point for Project: Zer0 was to fund my MTG expenditure and possibly a side income. That was the ultimate goal and reason why I started this in the first place. 

I wanted to do this article as a means of self-reflection for awhile now, but being caught up in chasing the number of views, promoting my page and trying to find a unique spot in this vast internet has made me put off this article until now. Initially, I dedicated that I have to post on average of 3-4 articles a month but as time pass, it becomes tougher to dedicate that same amount of time I could 1 year ago. Hence, I sought for the Patreon as a means of sustaining the funds required to put my mind at ease to continue doing this. Eventually this comes to a realisation that I have to continue searching something that is worth people paying me.