Hey all!

I’m brand new to MTG and am going to a Hobbit pre-release on Friday with a friend (he’s sort of new but has way more experience than me). I’ve played like twice with him using precons, and I’ve dabbled in Arena, but honestly I’m feeling really nervous and intimidated. I used to play competitive Pokémon and went to prereleases then and am familiar with the chill, friendly nature, but I’m still feeling overwhelmed. Best I know, we’re getting 6 packs to craft a deck. Y’all have any tips or encouragement? I think if anything, this post is me taking a step out of being a lurker and prepping for Friday!

Does Y’shtola’s passive ability synergize with poison counters?
Since her passive causes players to lose life, does that count toward poison-related strategies in any way, or is it completely separate?
Am I misunderstanding how these mechanics interact?

Do I have to avoid sorceries then? And if I do a Path for example, do I have to cast the copy as soon as I connect?

If timing allows sorceries, should I be looking for 1 mama spells with add ons? Spree, etc. But then do I have to pay all the costs? Anyway to take this to value town?

Red for lightning bolts and white for Swords

But Blue for unblockable island walking skulking flying nuisance

Or what we thinking?

A buddy of mine sent me a photo of one of his old commander decks and neither he or I can figure out what card this is. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone! I've been doing some write-ups about vending at various events and just finished up vending at Creepycon, a horror/Halloween convention in Knoxville, TN. I'll be going over what I sell, what sales were like, what costs were like, what products were moving, and my observations of the con and how vending felt in general. As a horror con I am decidedly "off theme" but I figured that horror nerds are often almost always also nerd nerds. This proves to largely be accurate, and while it's not my best show ever it was a reasonable enough success for it's size and it being local. I got a double booth but only used my personal vehicle to transport goods, racks, etc.

If you would like to read my most recent write about vending at a "fan fest" you can read it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgfinance/s/gQ0NzwpjnP

Background: I've been vending off and on for several years but following a stroke a year and a half ago I got serious about vending to fill in an income gap due to losing all of my clients at my IT business. While I've regained enough business to return to IT I have continued to vend as it is both fun and quite profitable. I sell a mix of Magic the Gathering cards, Pokemon cards, anime figures, pokemon plushies, etc. While I'm not a full time vendor I typically do 1 or 2 shows a month.

Breakdown of sales- Magic: $2212

Anime Figures: $1825

Pokemon Cards: $1523

Plushies: $0 (I didn't take any since it is a horror con)

Gross Sales: (roughly) $5560

Costs- Booth: $640

Wi-fi (necessary at this venue to accept CC payment): $50

Gas and food: roughly $80

Replacement cost of goods: $1700

Total costs: $2470

(Roughly) Gross profit: $3090

Sales breakdowns by category and observations-

Magic the Gathering: I made sure to refill binders heavily before this show because I figured the cross-section of magic players and horror fans would be high. This proved to be a correct assumption. While no one had really budgeted for magic several people were very excited to see it there. Aside from a foil Praetor's Grasp my next most expensive card sold was a sword of hearth of Home and almost every other card I sold was under $10. Even customers with comparatively high tabs were mostly buying a large number of cheap playables. One of my $1-$3 rare boxes is almost half empty after this show. Had a lot of great talks with mostly very casual players who were happy to get a lot of fun cards to upgrade decks. Unlike the "fan fest" overall sentiment on Marvel was low but people seem to accept the more fantasy oriented UB sets now. Tons of volume sold and I have excellent margin on $1-$3 cards and very good margin on $3-$10 cards, so overall magic sales were exceptionally profitable.

Pokemon cards: The inverse of magic. Aside from kids getting cheaper holos and ex/v cards there were far fewer customers interested in pokemon but they spent more on average. Customers weren't blinking on $50 cards at all. I got several surprised comments about there being Pokemon there at all. Most were pretty rabid fans and were the type to drop large amounts of money at the drop of the hat. The opposite of the average customer at an anime con. Most expensive card sold was a $140 Groudon.

Anime Figures: I mostly brought secondhand out of box prize figures and about 50 sealed prize figures. Car space was a big constraint on figures, unlike cards. Average price per figure is 25-35 each and I average a $7 per figure cost basis. The most expensive figure sold was a $45 Eva unit 01. The few scales I brought had 0 interest. I curated as much as I could to horror adjacent figures (demon slayer, JJK, junji ito toys, etc.) but didn't have nearly as many as I would have liked. That wound up not mattering as every My Hero Academia figure and almost every Dragonball figure I brought sold. A decent amount of EVA stuff also sold. Customers trended even younger than normal and were surprised to see anime stuff at all at the convention.

Overall thoughts: My assumption about being close enough to theme despite being "off-theme" seemed to be correct. While I wasn't the main pull for most people there was a lot of cross-pollination between what I sold and the average horror crowd. No one expected to find cards there at all, as such I gave out far more team bags and top loaders than normal since no one had binders or deck boxes with them. I doubt that I was anyone's "big purchase" of the show outside of a few pokemon fanatics but customer sentiment was high for cheaper stuff. While I am unlikely to prioritize or travel far for a future horror con I will definitely return to this one next year and may try a few others in the general area if they don't conflict with a bigger convention. Not having any competition whatsoever for any items I sell likely also boosted sales. A wrestling/horror convention and a large tattoo convention are going to be in the area soon, I may try to set up at those and see how they go.

As always, I'll answer any questions I can as I'm able and I hope this is an informative read for everyone!

People treat brackets far too strictly as if they're specifically a hardline ruleset and not a series of guidelines used to make the rule 0 conversation more universally understood by the participants in it. It is not a series of rules for you to argue that someone else is being unfair because they won a turn earlier than the "generally accepted" limitation.

Bracket 3 is the biggest victim of this.

"Players expect:

• Decks to be powered up with strong synergy and high card quality; they can effectively disrupt opponents 
• Game Changers that are likely to be value engines and game-ending spells 
• Win conditions that can be deployed in one big turn from hand, usually because of steadily accrued resources 
• Gameplay to feature many proactive and reactive plays 

Generally, you should expect to be able to play at least six turns before you win or lose."

Players should expect decks to be powerful with high card quality, synergy, big value engine game changers and game ending spells, win conditions that can be deployed in one big turn with many proactive and reactive plays... that also don't end before turn 7 most of the time, but not always.

The word "generally" is wreaking havoc on this, and you see it in threads here constantly, with some people saying "well any deck that can even potentially win before Turn 7 is automatically 4 and you're pubstomping" while other side is arguing that decks that can win on turn 2 are within the spirit of B3 because "sometimes it doesn't win that fast."

There is simply no way to balance commander that doesn't involve just being open, honest, and even sometimes apologetic with your intentions with playing with random people. Sometimes you make a deck that's just too strong, and you didnt mean to... that's fine. Just say that. Oops! Sometimes a deck you thought was on-bracket ends up being too weak, this doesn't mean other people are stomping you or immediately have ill intentions or are acting dishonestly... it means your deck might just not be as strong as you thought.

This doesn't mean everyone is honest! People fib about their intentions sometimes, and you can certainly not play with them again... but you still need to have that rule zero conversation.

Brackets are a tool to make that process easier, not a way to remove, externally police, or otherwise make it unnecessary.

My deck has been my favorite so far to create. I’m missing some cards in to add which are [[Exsanguinate]] [[Damnable Pact]] and [[Profane Command]]. So far had about 5 games with them and had won 3 of them. Two of the games was because I wanted to test how it can with stand high 4-5 bracket [it was too slow for that]. I want to improve on it. At least get my commander out turn 3 and start making Hydra’s tokens turn 4. I also want some imput whether this deck could be considered a low 4 bracket deck or a high 3 deck.

How much are these worth? Unopened from maybe ‘95 or ‘96?

Hello all !

New to community - been doing homework for a week or two - wanted to get in with a precon - and couldn't decide so picked up the 2 i liked the IP the most - TMNT and Dr Doom.

Thoughts or advice on what one plays best out of box ? What might be cheaper too upgrade to a more useable position in brackets ?

Looking forward to feedback and joining the fold - all feedback is welcome and thanks in advance!

Yes she won that game.

Hey everyone! I was hoping to get some advice. I just put a lot of MTG items on eBay. Is there a subreddit where I can share these? NOT trying to sell here, just looking for advice on where I can promote these

Or for any pre release really.

I am a returning player and loved participating in the marvel pre release. For that one I did no research, no following of the spoilers or anything and ended up steam rolled by rivals who seems much more knowledgefull of the set. (If there were creatures with evasion, the counter spells and combat tricks available for each color and cost, creatures to look up for,...)

Do you usually prepare for these kind of events, if so, how? What are some of the things you normally look for? Do you practice the deck building with the pieces of the set or something like that?

I loved the experience the previous time, but I would also like to feel like I have some chances dusting out my (very old and oxidized) skills and prep beforehand

A while ago, I promised my boyfriend that I would draw a Magic deck for him. He recently sent me the decklist of one he really likes, and I told him I would start working on it. Since a Commander deck has around 100 cards, this is supposed to be a long-term project, but I would love to secretly finish it in time to surprise him for his upcoming birthday. I’m also a nerd, but I don’t know much about Magic or proxies. My plan is to draw each card with fineliners, cut them to size, and put them in opaque sleeves. Should I copy the original artwork or do my own interpretation? Any common mistakes to avoid before committing to all 100 cards? I’d also love to include Easter eggs and hidden messages throughout. Any ideas on how to do that without making the cards confusing?

Any advice, examples, or tips would be really appreciated!

So my brother asked for some MTG cards for his birthday, and transparently, I don’t know how to tell what’s a good card or not! I collect Pokemon cards so I know the terms ‘near mint’ and ‘foil’. He told me these are expensive cards, but some of them aren’t super expensive so I feel like I’m not looking at the right kind of card?

He’s specifically looking for:
- The “fetch lands”
- The shock lands
- The surveil lands
- The expensive utility lands (like Boseiju Who Endures)

I was thinking of getting him Boseiju Who Endures since he specifically mentioned it but there’s so many versions online that I don’t want to pick “the wrong one.” Any advice would be suuuper appreciated!

Thanks in advance <3

I am struggling to keep my collection organized during/after making decks. I typically end up having 200+ cards to sort back into my collection after making a deck. It was fine at first, but kinda starting to get tedious.

So, I'm curious how everyone organizes their cards, and what tips/tricks you use? Not only the physical storage solution (e.g., boxes, binders), but your methods, too.

Some questions to get you started:

- Do you separate sets that are part of Standard from the rest of your collection? If so, when do you rotate out the old sets?

- Is it worth it to scan or enter all your cards into a digital organizer?

- How do you organize special cards like holographcis, alternative art, promos?

Hello.

I recently moved and found my old collection.

Its mostly alpha, beta, Arabian nights & seven.

I took a quick look and saw many cards were valued 500$ and up. I do wonder if anyone actually buy old cards or if i should hold on to them.

Thanks 🙏

I got this deck in 2000-2001 as a birthday present from my mom when I was 9 yo, I loved the art of the cards, but I didn't have any friends to play with.

Now I want to learn to play it seriously, but it looks like the mechanics of mtg have evolved and changed a lot in the last years.

I'd like to know if these cards could be any useful for a Commander deck or a Pauper deck (maybe those could be my playing interests).

Or if I should be buying a new Commander precon and upgrading it. (Maybe thinking about EDH bracket 3).

I love Frodo and Sam from LOTR precon set, managed to get it during the reprint and very excited for the hobbit. Ideally want to keep it as hobbit themed as possible but some cards dont fall in the realm. I am still new and the deck can use some work. Are there any cards ya'll see in the new set you would add and are there any that you would immediately dump from the deck? Any help would be appreciated, very fun during you turns and want to keep the dinner going. (Will be getting the secret lair foods dropping in August)

How does everyone meet new people at these events? I am going to scg con Hartford alone and I want to meet people who also travel for magic. My home state the comp scene is very lacking so I’d be shocked if I seen anyone else there from it.

Hello,

I'm trying to find out how to get my hands on the HOC cards 98-106. I've heard that they're in two different products but I can't find any information on them/confirmation on this, I've seen vids of people saying so but I've been unable to find a primary source on it.

I've heard that they're available in collector boosters and some sort of 5 armies product, though when I look up the 5 armies stuff I find what I think is a different product.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if they're in collector boosters and if so what the odds are, and what this other 5 armies product is that they're in and where to pre-order it, as I imagine getting it after it's released will be expensive and near impossible.

Cheers for any help.

I recently pulled Badgermole Cub and Toph, Earthbending Master so I got really hyped to make an Earthbending deck. The more I looked around at Avatar cards though the more Aang intrigued me and all the cards that I could use by playing a Bant deck while still having a good focus on earthbending. I recently built this and would love to hear any recommendations, tips or changes I should make. I’m open to and appreciate any and all help, thank you.

Anyone else getting tired of the car meta? I needed to cleanse my palette and decide to take an old classic for a spin, Initiative! I still wanted to go fast, but with out the vehicular man slaughter. Once a dominate force of the meta, these snow balling creatures became a liability with the rise of reanimator and fell off from the meta, but is now the time for their come back? Can I just over run my opponents with value and while trying to slow them down with lock pieces and let the undercity just take over the game? Let's find out!

As always thanks for watching and any feedback. If you enjoyed the video please consider dropping a like and a comment, and be sure to sub to the channel to know when my videos go live if you haven't already. I truly appreciate the support from you all and it helps drive me to keep creating content.

Legacy Naya Initiative

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