Despite months of good intentions, many requests from friends and colleagues, I just hadn't gotten around to doing. Even though I had been playing the deck for months, and it had clearly become my deck of choice, I still had not documented a significant amount of my Deck. So what miraculous thing has changed that has allowed me address this startling shortfall of my attention? In truth it is a combination of many things.
For one, we finally have the proper amount of staff in my office. For those of you who had not heard one of my woe filled tirades over the last several months, 80% of the staff in my office turned over with in just a few weeks. This took me from "new guy" to "senior guy" in a frighteningly brief matter of days. This also had the impact of dramatically reducing my down time in the office, and made my off time an often exhausted blur.
Next up was the rigidity of the recent meta game. With nearly every tier1 deck out their revolving around the cards Cryptic Command, and Reflecting Pool, coupled with my lack of insight to have acquired these cards in the early days, I discovered a real disinterest in the current Standard Environment. My ever present budget constrains had nearly eliminated draft as an option. I sought refuge in what is often refereed to as the last refuge of a magic player, the lowest levels of play: the casual table.
I was really enjoying casual, probably more so then I have enjoyed any sort of higher organized magic in at least the last year. My vintage collection unfortunately was still in a mostly unorganized shambles. I had managed to get them into a single box, done several purges for duplication, and get then roughly organized by block (a step which I may not keep for vintage?). At any rate I still could not easily identify what I had, much less locate it for a deck. In fact my Vintage and Extended collections were being stored in my bedroom closet, as opposed to my office where I do all my deck construction and writing. I really don't know why other then my office was a disorganized mess, and I guess it was the only viable alternative at the time. A recent contribution to my retirement home for old sleeves, and an under-scheduled weekend of cold weather have allowed me to organize approximately 50% of my vintage collection, purge out about ~200 duplicate cards, clean my office, and relocate my vintage and extended collection to my office where they belong. Even with these additions to the space I have managed to clear a work area, enabling me to do some writing of late.
So now back to the real topic of this article. With no more further adu, or gilding of the lily, i bring you the Deck of Many Things 2.0.
As many of you will already know, I have been able to make extensive up upgrades to the mana base of my deck. I am happy to report that all of the dual lands were acquired through trade. In fact the only cards in my deck list which were purchased are the Maze of Ith, and the Kaldra trinity, totaling around $20 with transportation.
The following cards were literally found in my collection thanks to the recent organization and relocation. Nothing like literally finding $30 worth of cards on your to acquire list! I guess it really does pay to be organized.
Grim Monolith
Windfall
Transmute Artifact
Gamble
Entomb
Weather Wayfarer
Enlightened Tutor
Each of these cards is of the restricted list, and while not increasing the specific power level of my deck, does deliver a measurable increase in flexibility.
For one, we finally have the proper amount of staff in my office. For those of you who had not heard one of my woe filled tirades over the last several months, 80% of the staff in my office turned over with in just a few weeks. This took me from "new guy" to "senior guy" in a frighteningly brief matter of days. This also had the impact of dramatically reducing my down time in the office, and made my off time an often exhausted blur.
Next up was the rigidity of the recent meta game. With nearly every tier1 deck out their revolving around the cards Cryptic Command, and Reflecting Pool, coupled with my lack of insight to have acquired these cards in the early days, I discovered a real disinterest in the current Standard Environment. My ever present budget constrains had nearly eliminated draft as an option. I sought refuge in what is often refereed to as the last refuge of a magic player, the lowest levels of play: the casual table.
I was really enjoying casual, probably more so then I have enjoyed any sort of higher organized magic in at least the last year. My vintage collection unfortunately was still in a mostly unorganized shambles. I had managed to get them into a single box, done several purges for duplication, and get then roughly organized by block (a step which I may not keep for vintage?). At any rate I still could not easily identify what I had, much less locate it for a deck. In fact my Vintage and Extended collections were being stored in my bedroom closet, as opposed to my office where I do all my deck construction and writing. I really don't know why other then my office was a disorganized mess, and I guess it was the only viable alternative at the time. A recent contribution to my retirement home for old sleeves, and an under-scheduled weekend of cold weather have allowed me to organize approximately 50% of my vintage collection, purge out about ~200 duplicate cards, clean my office, and relocate my vintage and extended collection to my office where they belong. Even with these additions to the space I have managed to clear a work area, enabling me to do some writing of late.
So now back to the real topic of this article. With no more further adu, or gilding of the lily, i bring you the Deck of Many Things 2.0.
As many of you will already know, I have been able to make extensive up upgrades to the mana base of my deck. I am happy to report that all of the dual lands were acquired through trade. In fact the only cards in my deck list which were purchased are the Maze of Ith, and the Kaldra trinity, totaling around $20 with transportation.
The following cards were literally found in my collection thanks to the recent organization and relocation. Nothing like literally finding $30 worth of cards on your to acquire list! I guess it really does pay to be organized.
Grim Monolith
Windfall
Transmute Artifact
Gamble
Entomb
Weather Wayfarer
Enlightened Tutor
Each of these cards is of the restricted list, and while not increasing the specific power level of my deck, does deliver a measurable increase in flexibility.
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