At the beginning of the year, I drew what I felt at the time was a bold new line in the sand, setting a $0 budget for my Magic activities for the year. I am very proud to say that so far so good. Not only have I not spent a dime on my Magic collection this year, but I am still projected to be at zero for the end of the year.
Now that doesn't mean I have not been able to expand my Magic collection, grow my deck options, and have a lot of fun in the doing. In addition to a play set of all the released un/commons this year, I've managed to collect a number of meaningful cards for my collection.
3 Arid Mesa +1 foil
4 other enemy fetches
one of each of the M11 titan
16 other rare/mythic cards for my casual deck
7 foils for my casual deck
4 signed rare/mythics for my casual decl
2 signed foils for my casual deck
1 each of the aligned fetchlands +a second Wooded Foothills
2 Taiga
3 Plateau
Savannah
Underground Sea
2 other Dual-lands, but I can't remember which ones
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Goyfs
4 Grim Lavamancers
4 Wasteland
Foil Promo Jitte
3 Aether Vial
upgraded my Lightning Bolts to foil textless promos
Elspeth vs. Tezzert box set
FtV: Relics box set
Now I really don't mind saying, that is hundreds of dollars which I have been able to trade into. I don't believe I'll miss any of the cards I gave up for them, even for a moment. My Zoo deck now has 13 foil cards, and 8 signed cards. I've also been able to build "10 proxy Belcher" for Vintage, although I did have to scrap my efforts to build Belcher for Legacy. I've refocused my Legacy efforts in building Merfolk, but I'm still several critical cards short. I hope that I can finish the deck in the coming year, but FoW's can be hard to trade into.
I also manged to build two similar budget Standard decks, Warp World and Mass Polymorph, with no financial outlay. I'll really be watching Standards shift over the next few weeks to see if it's something I want continue being a part of or simply give it up all together.
Now that doesn't mean I have not been able to expand my Magic collection, grow my deck options, and have a lot of fun in the doing. In addition to a play set of all the released un/commons this year, I've managed to collect a number of meaningful cards for my collection.
3 Arid Mesa +1 foil
4 other enemy fetches
one of each of the M11 titan
16 other rare/mythic cards for my casual deck
7 foils for my casual deck
4 signed rare/mythics for my casual decl
2 signed foils for my casual deck
1 each of the aligned fetchlands +a second Wooded Foothills
2 Taiga
3 Plateau
Savannah
Underground Sea
2 other Dual-lands, but I can't remember which ones
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Goyfs
4 Grim Lavamancers
4 Wasteland
Foil Promo Jitte
3 Aether Vial
upgraded my Lightning Bolts to foil textless promos
Elspeth vs. Tezzert box set
FtV: Relics box set
Now I really don't mind saying, that is hundreds of dollars which I have been able to trade into. I don't believe I'll miss any of the cards I gave up for them, even for a moment. My Zoo deck now has 13 foil cards, and 8 signed cards. I've also been able to build "10 proxy Belcher" for Vintage, although I did have to scrap my efforts to build Belcher for Legacy. I've refocused my Legacy efforts in building Merfolk, but I'm still several critical cards short. I hope that I can finish the deck in the coming year, but FoW's can be hard to trade into.
I also manged to build two similar budget Standard decks, Warp World and Mass Polymorph, with no financial outlay. I'll really be watching Standards shift over the next few weeks to see if it's something I want continue being a part of or simply give it up all together.
Comments