My collection is very small compared to some of the collection sizes I've heard around here, at only 2000 cards, but I was wondering, how do I get the best usage out of every card in my collection? And how do you do it? By this, I mean optimal playtime and use of it, so you aren't missing out on the fun of a specific card you have.
I would argue that this is the wrong way to look at your collection. Instead of trying to make sure every card sees equal play time (which is pretty much impossible once your collection is above a certain threshold), you should just focus on the cards you *want* to play with. You can certainly work to brew with your cards not in current decks, but opening packs is pretty much guaranteed to give you "duds" that you would not want to put into decks and you will eventually acquire cards that just don't make the cut anymore in whatever format you are playing.
Now, if you want to really focus on getting use out of a lot of cards (not all, but maybe more than normal) you could look at Cube. I am not well versed in Cube but there is a lot of thought that goes into it to generate a working draft environment so there are a lot of directions you could take it. You could also do a peasant cube if you mostly have commons and uncommons which gives you a place to use those cards that may not be used elsewhere.
Commander is another option. I don't want to reinforce the idea that it is simply a "dumping grounds" for bad cards, but there are some cards that are fun or off the wall that just don't work well in other formats so you can try to make them work in Commander. This gives you the possibility of creating a number of decks from your collection and each can have its own identity which allows for a unique experience each time as you play different decks. And, since it is a Singleton format, it ensures that around 60-70 unique cards are used in each deck (depending on the number of basic lands).
I personally keep my collection fairly small (it is a little over 4000 right now) because I don't want to have a bunch of cards that I would never use just sitting around. But, the cards I have tend to be powerful or useful enough that when I decide to make a new Commander deck, I already have the cards I need to try something new. When I built my Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Teysa Karlov decks, I only needed to purchase about 10-15 cards for each deck since I already had the rest just waiting for the right deck to put them in. Sometimes holding onto cards waiting for the right time to use them is fine too. Just having cards doesn't mean they *must* be used right now.
PS: Sorry for the funky post, It's my first.
Now, if you want to really focus on getting use out of a lot of cards (not all, but maybe more than normal) you could look at Cube. I am not well versed in Cube but there is a lot of thought that goes into it to generate a working draft environment so there are a lot of directions you could take it. You could also do a peasant cube if you mostly have commons and uncommons which gives you a place to use those cards that may not be used elsewhere.
Commander is another option. I don't want to reinforce the idea that it is simply a "dumping grounds" for bad cards, but there are some cards that are fun or off the wall that just don't work well in other formats so you can try to make them work in Commander. This gives you the possibility of creating a number of decks from your collection and each can have its own identity which allows for a unique experience each time as you play different decks. And, since it is a Singleton format, it ensures that around 60-70 unique cards are used in each deck (depending on the number of basic lands).
I personally keep my collection fairly small (it is a little over 4000 right now) because I don't want to have a bunch of cards that I would never use just sitting around. But, the cards I have tend to be powerful or useful enough that when I decide to make a new Commander deck, I already have the cards I need to try something new. When I built my Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Teysa Karlov decks, I only needed to purchase about 10-15 cards for each deck since I already had the rest just waiting for the right deck to put them in. Sometimes holding onto cards waiting for the right time to use them is fine too. Just having cards doesn't mean they *must* be used right now.
Art is life itself.