The recent changes with in the 5-color world have brought the issue of proxies to the surface in a most disturbing manner, and I have spent much of my time of late bashing on this issue. I've talked about how it cheapens the game for everyone, and in it's final stages, becomes a black sharpie free for all where there is no need to buy real cards.
Today, I'm going to talk to do something that many of you may not be expecting, I'm going to talk about why/when proxies are good, and what may be the best proxied deck for testing of all time.
In my mind proxies need to be the exception, rather then the rule. Proxing a card to allow you to test it, or it's place in a deck, is a good thing. It will often make you realize that it's not the best choice, before going to the time and expense to get the real card. That is a good thing, especially from the budget perspective. Next up is proxies of cards you simply can't afford to get. In both these cases proxies should be used for a limited period of time, or total uses. People who buy real cards won't appreciate you plains with "MoxP" dashed on it nearly as much as you due. Sure, it's fun to break out your Sharpied Nine from time to time, but if you are playing thte deck to often, you are just going to drive folks away.
The most interesting use of proxies I have everseen was a test deck used by som eon the tour, and refered to as the last deck you will ever build. The reason for this is simple. It's 60 basic lands with enumber 1-60 written on them. These number s corispond with a deck list maintained in a spreedsheet of some sort, which can be adjusted and retested, without he ned to really adjust the cards. I find this to be a great way to test decks out of the gate, mulligan options, land base, etc can all be tweaked and tested with a very small investment of time, since you don't have to pull the cards, until you feel you have it right.
So in the end proxy isn't all bad, but it is very easy to over use it.
Today, I'm going to talk to do something that many of you may not be expecting, I'm going to talk about why/when proxies are good, and what may be the best proxied deck for testing of all time.
In my mind proxies need to be the exception, rather then the rule. Proxing a card to allow you to test it, or it's place in a deck, is a good thing. It will often make you realize that it's not the best choice, before going to the time and expense to get the real card. That is a good thing, especially from the budget perspective. Next up is proxies of cards you simply can't afford to get. In both these cases proxies should be used for a limited period of time, or total uses. People who buy real cards won't appreciate you plains with "MoxP" dashed on it nearly as much as you due. Sure, it's fun to break out your Sharpied Nine from time to time, but if you are playing thte deck to often, you are just going to drive folks away.
The most interesting use of proxies I have everseen was a test deck used by som eon the tour, and refered to as the last deck you will ever build. The reason for this is simple. It's 60 basic lands with enumber 1-60 written on them. These number s corispond with a deck list maintained in a spreedsheet of some sort, which can be adjusted and retested, without he ned to really adjust the cards. I find this to be a great way to test decks out of the gate, mulligan options, land base, etc can all be tweaked and tested with a very small investment of time, since you don't have to pull the cards, until you feel you have it right.
So in the end proxy isn't all bad, but it is very easy to over use it.
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