The Glade 4.0

Hey guys- I'm thinking about getting back into M:TG as well as getting my wife playing with me, but when I went to look at card pack prices today I was a bit shocked- $13 each for starter sets (seems a bit more expensive than when I started.

Anyone know of some good places to get used/old sets? I know the newest packs are usually more expensive than older ones (save for some of the rares), and at least starting out I'm not really that picky.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Online? You could also go for one of those sets of decks they release to scratch that itch. I like MTG, but I don't like the idea of having to constantly buy cards. I find the MTG Planeswalker games satisfy that card oriented urge and it's easier than having to shuffle cards and keep track of HPs and etc manually.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Starter sets have changed dramatically since I was starting. They have not quite doubled in price since the mid 90s, but they have certainly doubled in play value.

The current Magic environment lends itself quite well to new players joining in or old players returning after a decade-long hiatus. I borrowed some commons from a friend, threw a deck together, and won two boosters at a Friday Night Magic tournament. I didn't stick with it, but some of the guys in my gaming group have been doing rather well. Honestly, you're probably better off taking your wife to a booster draft. You don't need to have any cards. The entry fee for the tournament is about the cost of three packs of cards, which you then use to make a deck to play with. Even if you come in dead last, you go home with a play deck containing the equivalent of three packs of cards.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

This, agree

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FNM Booster Drafts are all I play anymore. It's the best way to get cards. You're guaranteed 3 Rares per tourney plus any bonus cards from your pack.

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The starter decks of today are a bit different from the starter packs of yesteryear. Today, a starter deck provides you a complete theme deck, instead of 60 random cards. Booster drafts are nice, but the problem is if it's been a while since you last played, you've still got a steep curve in front of you. It took me a few FNMs before I started placing consistently, and even still, the wheels occasionally fall off. The holidays have messed up my playing schedule, and I'm pretty sure that's fairly representative. However, things should smooth out coming up. Depending on what formats are played in your area, older sets may not be found for as cheap as you might expect. Not only that, but the appeal of the Commander (Elder Dragon Highlander) format means that some older cards are retaining their value very well. The current block is Innistrad block, and the current core set is M12. Standard is composed of M12, Scars of Mirrodin block, and Innistrad block. Extended is Standard + Zendikar block and Alara block. The newest format, Modern, reaches back to 8th edition.

You may want to grab a box of M12 boosters to relearn the game. I don't know when you stopped playing, but you may have some rules to relearn. Myself, I stopped playing sometime around Homelands, so I had to catch up on about 15 years worth of changes when I started playing again. Which reminds me, if you've got any original dual lands (from Revised or previous), they fetch a pretty decent price and you could fund a couple of booster boxes with not very many dual lands in trade. However, getting up to speed wasn't too bad. MTGO and the Duels of the Planeswalkers games are handy to get some play time under your belt.

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Honestly, I'm not so much looking to get into competitive playing as something we can play around the house in the evenings. We like playing games, but most of our games are 3 person minimum- I was thinking of what else we could do the other day, and thought of almost any of the duel-type card games.

It's nice to know the starter packs now are themed- one of the biggest PITAs previously was having to go through several to get a decent deck with complimentary colors/cards.

I'll go through my old cards and see if I have any of the dual lands- I recall having one or two, but I'm not sure.

It's been a LONG time since I've played.. Like early 90s. So I'm sure I've got a good bit to re-learn.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Friday Night Magic tournaments are only competitive in that the organizer reports results. Most of the people I encountered were just playing for the pack of cards they got as a consolation prize. I think it's a real testament to the current state of the game that I wasn't the least bit interested in getting back into Magic, and I had a great time playing.

As far as what you're looking for, I believe they still have the duel decks, which are a pair of pre-built themed decks that are meant to be played against one another. You could just pick up a set and go to town.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

It depends on where you play. Some locations have more competitive play than others, and it also somewhat depends on what format (Standard, Booster Draft, Sealed Deck, 2-Headed Giant) is being played. Starting in 2012, FNM play can qualify you for a season-end tournament for cash prizes. So it may be getting more competitive across the board.

However, it looks like Neph just wants to play casually, and casual multiplayer, I'd recommend EDH (Commander) format. http://www.mtgcommander.com/rules.php

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We only have one place in town that does Friday Night Magic tournaments, and they're pretty large as well as fairly competitive. About 30-40 people show up, and they give out good prizes.

We do have Wednesday Night Booster Drafts, but they're also fairly large.

I think the idea I like the best are the duel decks- I looked at several, and they look like they have the benefit of being nicely arranged to play against each other, as well as having a few rares that are worth the purchase price of the pack. It seems most of the duel decks are going for around $20, which is a nice intro price to get two balanced decks.

::Edit:: Commander looks like fun- it also looks like it would be a good build to fill out from some of the duel decks. Thanks!

As to sources- does anyone have any suggestions for some reasonably reputable online dealers?

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

What are you looking for from online dealers? Singles, collections, or boxes?

I've had a good relationship with Noble Knight Games for a number of years. At least for RPG stuff, I've never purchased CCG stuff from them. I've purchased a few things from CCG Armory, and while the prices are very good, the process is, in my experience, a bit frustrating. While CCG Armory ultimately makes good, they haven't gotten an order right that I've placed on the first try.

If you just want a ton of cards, eBay is unbeatable. Somebody always has some obscene amount of assorted commons for sale.

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People have been offering me more for Underground Seas than Beta Lotuses of late.

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Wow, yeah- Underground Sea is going for 130 on Amazon with Tropical Island for 100.

I may have a couple of cards worth selling, I'll have to look. It's been so long that it blurs a bit what cards I remember I actually have vs which ones were decks from the old Win 95 game.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Ok, so based off the advice, above, I got one of the 285 card deck builder packs for $20 (not a lot of rares, but a lot of solid basic cards of each color) and one of the duel packs to supplement what I already have.

The duel packs should be balanced against each other for play, and the rest should let me make up some solid basic decks of other colors to play with.

Thanks again for the advice!

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Though not exactly cheap the commander decks are pretty fun, I actually enjoyed commander more than the regular play style when I got back into magic to play with my ex.

On the MTG cards theme, but I'm on the other side. I've got thousands and thousands of cards, mostly older, but I have no concept of prices any more and no idea on where to start or what to do to organize sell them. any advice would be appreciated. I mainly have cards starting from 3rd edition running through mid 2002 (yay internet, here are the active expansions while I was playing and collecting. I started colelcting in 95 and was very active until early 98 (so that is where the bulk of the cards are from including unopened boxes of Ice Age, Alliances etc...) when I was stationd in Japan. from 2000-2002 when I returned I played a lot of "Fridy night magic" (before the actul program started) and I was a "Game Guru" so have a number of promotional foils and such from that era.

2002
Onslaught October 2002 (27th expansion)
Judgment May 2002 (26th expansion)
Torment February 2002 (25th expansion)

2001
Deckmasters 2001 December 2001
Odyssey September 2001 (24th expansion)
Apocalypse June 2001 (23rd expansion)
7th Edition April 2001
Planeshift February 2001 (22nd expansion)

2000
Beatdown October 2000
Invasion September 2000 (21st expansion)
Prophecy June 2000 (20th expansion)
Starter 2000 April 2000
Nemesis February 2000 (19th expansion)

1999
Battle Royale November 1999
Mercadian Masques September 1999 (18th expansion)
Starter 1999 August 1999
Portal Three Kingdoms July 1999
Urza's Destiny June 1999 (17th expansion)
6th Edition April 1999
Urza's Legacy February 1999 (16th expansion)

1998
Anthologies November 1998
Urza's Saga October 1998 (15th expansion)
Unglued August 1998
Portal Second Age June 1998
Exodus June 1998 (14th expansion)
Stronghold February 1998 (13th expansion)

1997
Tempest October 1997 (12th expansion)
Weatherlight June 1997 (11th expansion)
Portal May 1997
5th Edition March 1997
Visions February 1997 (10th expansion)

1996
Mirage October 1996 (9th expansion)
Alliances June 1996 (8th expansion)

1995
Homelands October 1995 (7th expansion)
Renaissance August 1995
Chronicles July 1995
Ice Age June 1995 (6th expansion)
4th Edition May 1995

1994
Fallen Empires November 1994 (5th expansion)
The Dark August 1994 (4th expansion)
Legends June 1994 (3rd expansion)
Revised April 1994

I need to check for Underground Sea and Tropical Island, I'm pretty sure I have some of both.

The Plainswalker game is enough to satisfy my CCG fix when I have one, but I am not at a place where I can devote time into MTG and card collecting. Again any advice on where to start or someone that can be trusted to review, organize and make an offer on a massive set of cards would be appreciated.

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Gorse

Pull out all of that you might have of the following: original dual lands, Legendary Land (not all of them are worth much, but Tabernacle and Karakas are), Force of Will, Tolarian Academy. Those are going to be the $30 or more cards. There may be one or two others that I've overlooked, but those are what jump out at me from the sets you've listed.

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What I did for mine was to look in the rare dealer sites and find the too selling cards, then check those against my hands.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Some other events got me motivated to pull everything out of storage and take them to a local dealer.My rough estimate of the collection is the 25-30K cards range. I found 6 Force of Will and 14 other dual lands, as well as 10+ sheets of foil cards. We utimately settled on $2000 (cash and store credit). Overall, I am pleased, but it still feels like I gave up something special, even though it's spent ~10 years in boxes in the basement.

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Gorse

That's because it's a piece of your past that you'll never get back. At least, not without spending more than you got for it. I held onto my cards for a ~15 year hiatus, and I'm playing again. I'm glad I didn't dump mine, even when I could have used the money.

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Just though I'd bring this back up. Got my wife playing with a duel deck, and have been teaching her deck building by modifying the deck. Found some friends that also haven't played in a long time, and I think we're going to start a regular EDH game. Ordered some singles from Card Kingdom to flesh out my hand, and I'm quite enjoying running a green/white/red deck.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

If you want to teach your wife, trying using Cockatrice. Great free program for playing MTG online. That's where I brew and test decks(I play Standard). It's a good way to teach a new player the mechanics of the game as it shows you the different phases of each turn.

My handle is rustheman on there if you ever want to play. The newest set just came out this past weekend and I've got a deck idea I want to try out.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=334410

Here's my new build, if anyone wants to comment.

Based around life gain beefing up the Pridemates, primarily.

It's still a work in progress- id like to work in some nice red and red/white sorceress and instants, and ideally I need some more removal as well.

May remove some of the enchants in favor of them, honestly,but I'll have to see how it plays first.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/ ... eid=205361 ?

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Yeah, that's the main one I want to add. Got a couple of copies.

What I'm stuck on is what to take out.

I also had a couple of wax/wanes I wanted to stick in.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.