For a long time, I've been wanting to buy in to modern so I can play with a few friends. Now, I'm not wealthy, I'm in a position right now where I can't really afford magic, and I sold a lot of my cards, but finally I decided I needed an outlet besides my cube and buckled down to play Storm, since I used to dabble with it on MODO before Gitaxian Probe was banned and I sold all my cards. I went to my gamestore and picked up all the spare cards I needed totaling about $230 Canadian, and I got home at 6:50. My mom came around at about 8:00 and we talked for a bit. I resolved to take a nap while my new singles were on m computer desk and she said she'd play some games while I rested. I woke up at 10:30 but it was 11:20 before I noticed anything was wrong. It was incredibly humid in my old apartment, which was weird because it was never like that, lo and behold, my radiators are on and spitting humid air into my small domicile. My mother had turned them on because she was cold, which wasn't that odd, but then I didn't think anything of it. about 30 minutes ago, after my mom left to go home, I saw the cards on my desk. She had riffled through them, which wasn't unusual nor do I harbor any bad feelings. She used to play Magic, and she just wanted to see the cards after all. I started to pick them up... and they flexed. They made that telltale 'krik' sound and I knew I was screwed. I double sleeved them immediately but the damage was already done. Now... is there any way to fix this, card gurus? Is there any way I can make my new deck playable? I shuffled it a few times, but some of the cards are completely rigid and bent backwards, like draft chaff that's been on an Alaskan windowsill for days. No visible damage, but I don't even think they're casual playable. Is there any way to fix these cards and make them how they were? Or, at least something that I can play in a GP? I'll be honest, if they're unplayable, I'm probably just going to quit magic- sans cubing. I just don't have the money and dropping 1/3rd of my monthly pay just to have it go up in flames is more than a little disheartening. I'm a pretty stoic guy, but I'm almost in tears. I was so looking forward to playing 60-card magic with my friends just like back in middle school. I hope you can help, I'll be grateful forever.
I judged my second REL at a local prerelease. Since we're a small store we only had about 25 people show up and we did it in-store instead of at another location, so I was feeling confident. I answered questions, nobody got upset and everything was going well until round 4. I get called over to a 4-0 table and the players are a store regular and a guy who, to my knowledge, has never been in the store before. I was called by the regular. He says that the new guy is using Snow-Covered Islands and Snow-Covered Mountains, which he is, and the new guy tries to explain to me that they're legal. I say that they aren't and I explain to him that we have land at the front of the store and I would be happy to offer him and his opponent a game extension while he sleeved up his new land and shuffled it in. He says "Well, can't it just be considered a proxy?" and I explain that proxies aren't allowed in sanctioned events, even prereleases. Eventually I get him to agree and he re-sleeves his deck. I figure that's that and go to answer another call.
Next: The 5-0 round. New guy made it this far, props to him, and I was watching out of the corner of my eye because there were no other calls. I see him play Awakened Amalgam, land for turn: Snow-Covered Mountain. I go up to the table and stop the game. This guy told me he was running 16 lands and swapped them all out for land station basics. I ask him why he's still playing a Snow-Covered land and he says "Oh, I thought just one would be okay". I was quite explicit before about it being considered a card from outside the game and that it was illegal. I notice the dice he uses to represent his Awakened Amalgam's power: it has 4 pips. His land base consists of one Highland Lake, three Mountains and two Islands as well as one Snow-Covered Mountain. At this point, I believe him to be cheating and look through his deck and sideboard to see what he has. Three Awakened Amalgams, which I suppose is the reason why he decided to cheat, and 4 Ixalan rares, none foil. Obviously, this is more than enough for a DQ and that's exactly what I did. He ranted and screamed and told us he's never coming back and that we're all terrible people, you get the idea.
Did I do the right thing? Should I have handled this differently? I know I'm supposed to explain why things are wrong, but I feel like I didn't get a chance to do so. I feel like there was a way I could have handled this better, like looking through his deck when he went to the land station instead of going to another call. I'm feeling pretty bad about this one, like I failed at my first "big" REL.
Well guys, it finally happened. I cubed with somebody I didn't know and I got burned. The damage was a Steam Vents and a foil Thoughtseize I got from my first pack of Magic ever. Could have been worse, but this really stings if I'm honest. As soon as they open, I'm putting out the word about this guy to my local game stores. Even if I don't get my cards back (let's be honest, there's no way that's happening) at least I might be able to prevent it from happening to somebody else.
Remember: Stay vigilant, have fun, and practice safe cubing.
Sarcomancy is interesting as a 'non-creature creature', like Sram's Expertise or Spectral Procession. It's relevant to Prowess and some of the spells-matter package, albeit in the wrong colours, but it's relevant to some Stax effects which are very much in the right colours (and now Ascend, I guess). Of course, blink/bounce is a thing, but often overstated since there aren't that many cards that do it, and Sarcomancy is hardly a primary target - but it all adds to the intrigue of the card.
Oh, it needs a foil printing please.
Something something reserved list
That said, they have reprinted reserved list cards as judge foils before, like Wheel of Fortune. Speaking of, I'm trading for one at my LGS, but I have the option of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Mana Drain as well as Wheel of Fortune. Which should I trade for?
I have a real soft spot for Primal Command since it's the first rare I ever opened but it's objectively worse than Hornet Queen, especially in Green. I wouldn't run Harmonize since I have basically every green card selection effect other than it (Worldly Tutor, Sylvan Library, Sensei's Divining Top, etc.) already in my cube, but you could do worse.
Personally, I'd cut Animate Dead. I don't run it because it's wall of text is unfriendly to beginners and I have a ton of artifact removal (therefore, enchantment removal) and I rarely saw a fatty last more than 2 turns with it (if their opponent was playing Green or white) because of the enchantment restriction. Exhume is just a simpler, fairer, symmetrical effect that promotes critical thinking more so than most other reanimate effects. Maybe it's just the teacher in me speaking, but the critical thinking part of the card adds value alone.
My LGS is having a Christmas draft tomorrow,anybody who wants to participate brings/buys 3 packs and get a random one for free as part of the draft, so it ends up being a 4-pack draft. I was thinking of maybe grabbing a couple of Fifth Edition and hoping to crack a Mana Vault or a Sylvan library, but that doesn't exactly seem like a fun draft experience. What do you think is the best drafting experience I could help to provide for the players in my pod without breaking the bank?
Fevered Visions or Jori En, Ruin Diver for a budget spells matter section in my cube? I like having a body, but the enchantment is harder to remove and does extra damage.
Speaking of foils, (3 days ago, that is) how do we feel about prerelease promos? Personally, I'm torn. I like to get the most "swag" version of a card, but I'm not sure I like the gold date stamp on them. I am pretty attached to my prerelease Heart of Kiran, Liliana, Death's Majesty and The Scarab God, but I'm not sure if I should just trade them away for plain old foils.
Hello! I'm new here (first post) so please be nice
I've recently got two card sleeves from a singles dealer, and I absolutely fell in love with them! (the sleeves not the dealer)
After what felt like a whole day of googling, I found out they were Ultra Pro Deck Protector "Satin Silver" and "Satin Black"
Unfortunately there don't appear to be any sellers who ship to Germany (Actually I only found one seller at all in Canada and they only have the silver ones)
Does anyone know where one could find old discontinued sleeves, or maybe there is an alternative?
Thanks!
The thing about old UP's is they're simply the best. I know a guy who's had a deck sleeved in them since 2001. I don't think you'll find anyone who'll sleeve up one deck in old UP's and one in Dragon Shields/Eclipse/KMC Ultras/Legion Matte Illustrated sleeves that says new is better. The problem is, the price and supply reflects that. I knew a guy who worked at Wal-Mart, he found a case of the Blacks in the back and asked the store if he could take them. They said sure.
Long story short, he kept a couple packs and made a total of $1500 selling the rest on Ebay.
On another note, I've recently switched from Eclipses back to Dragon Shields. The problem is, the backs get marked really easily and it always feels like the corners are bent within minutes. I went to the trouble of sleeving up my EDH decks in them, so that's about 500 sleeves + tokens, leaving me 20 left. Well, I have now gone through 7(!) more packs of the Matte Green sleeves and they're all marked. I live with cats, so occasionally pieces of stuff finds its way into my deck box. A piece of cat food, a crumb, even a hair or a piece of cat litter can singlehandedly mark 20 sleeves, just in one journey to my LGS. Never had the problem with any color of DS, so that's where I'm staying.
Any thoughts on the Hour of Devastation full art basics?
I'm in the process of making my cube's lands singleton and I'm trying to include cool lands,* but the Hour of Devastation Mountain looks nothing like a mountain.
* Currently 1 cycle of Euro, 2003 and 2004 Arena promos, foil sets of 7th, Odyssey, Onslaught, and Invasion lands, my favorite foils from Kamigawa, one of each full art Zendikar and Battle for Zendikar, and then a few randoms that will eventually turn into stuff like APAC, the other Euro and Arena lands, Unglued and Unhinged, etc.
I like them, but I like literally every full art basic. The only reason I don't do what you're doing with the lands is A: It's a bit too expensive for me and B: I have super picky cubers. If I had singleton lands, there would be at least an hour of trading lands and people yelling "who has the John Avon 10th Edition Swamp?". It's easier to make everything a single printing.
**TLDR** Some of my cards got stolen, but the thief was an idiot and I got them back. Have your cards ever been stolen?
Not MTG, but I have a bit of a story. When I was 8 or 9, I went to a sleep over for a friend's birthday party. We had a decent night, although I was a bit pissed off when I couldn't get to sleep, and I woke to see my bag open. Note that I was the last to go to sleep and the first to wake up. Anyway, I didn't really think anything of it and went to go grab my copy of Pokemon Gold. Needless to say, it wasn't there. Neither was my Gameboy. I was super upset and I had no idea what had happened. I kept quiet about it until everyone had woken up and asked the kid whose party it was if he had seen it. He hadn't. He and I looked around for it for close to 2 hours, under couches and his bed, as well as him allowing me to look through all his stuff, although we had been friends for years and I didn't think he would take it. I was going to wait until his parents to get up to ask them to look through kids bags (I was too shy too ask) but two of the kids, neither I or my sleepover friend knew them that well, called their parents and said they had to go. I was really mad at them and insisted they stay, but they insulted me a bit and left. I'll admit that I cried pretty much all the rime for the next few days. I had a level 100 Blastoise from my Pokemon Blue who I was extremely attached to, digital as it may be, as well as a couple of shiny Pokemon and the loss of an expensive Gameboy and game, only one of which I have ever replaced.
The worst part is, my mom didn't listen to me and she ended calling out sleepover friend for stealing my game, and his parents didn't appreciate it that much. I never got to hang out with him after that. I lost a game and a friend that day.
Oh, and just so this isn't a complete off-topic post, I never had any cards stolen from me. Although I did accidentally steal a Flametongue Kavu from a cube once, given that a friend of mine had the exact same sleeves. I only noticed about 3 weeks later when I opened a pack and saw two in there! I realized that one was a CN2 printing, and asked my buddy if it was his, he said yes and we went on our merry way. No muss, no fuss.
Tireless Tracker was my pre-release promo, and I was super happy to have it in my cube. That said, she's not seeing a whole lot of play. My counters archetype needs an overhaul.
Generally speaking, there are very few cards I don't look forward to replacing. There are only certain staples I wouldn't ever consider replacing (Lightning Bolt, Serum Visions, etc.)
Next: The 5-0 round. New guy made it this far, props to him, and I was watching out of the corner of my eye because there were no other calls. I see him play Awakened Amalgam, land for turn: Snow-Covered Mountain. I go up to the table and stop the game. This guy told me he was running 16 lands and swapped them all out for land station basics. I ask him why he's still playing a Snow-Covered land and he says "Oh, I thought just one would be okay". I was quite explicit before about it being considered a card from outside the game and that it was illegal. I notice the dice he uses to represent his Awakened Amalgam's power: it has 4 pips. His land base consists of one Highland Lake, three Mountains and two Islands as well as one Snow-Covered Mountain. At this point, I believe him to be cheating and look through his deck and sideboard to see what he has. Three Awakened Amalgams, which I suppose is the reason why he decided to cheat, and 4 Ixalan rares, none foil. Obviously, this is more than enough for a DQ and that's exactly what I did. He ranted and screamed and told us he's never coming back and that we're all terrible people, you get the idea.
Did I do the right thing? Should I have handled this differently? I know I'm supposed to explain why things are wrong, but I feel like I didn't get a chance to do so. I feel like there was a way I could have handled this better, like looking through his deck when he went to the land station instead of going to another call. I'm feeling pretty bad about this one, like I failed at my first "big" REL.
Well guys, it finally happened. I cubed with somebody I didn't know and I got burned. The damage was a Steam Vents and a foil Thoughtseize I got from my first pack of Magic ever. Could have been worse, but this really stings if I'm honest. As soon as they open, I'm putting out the word about this guy to my local game stores. Even if I don't get my cards back (let's be honest, there's no way that's happening) at least I might be able to prevent it from happening to somebody else.
Remember: Stay vigilant, have fun, and practice safe cubing.
That said, they have reprinted reserved list cards as judge foils before, like Wheel of Fortune. Speaking of, I'm trading for one at my LGS, but I have the option of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Mana Drain as well as Wheel of Fortune. Which should I trade for?
The thing about old UP's is they're simply the best. I know a guy who's had a deck sleeved in them since 2001. I don't think you'll find anyone who'll sleeve up one deck in old UP's and one in Dragon Shields/Eclipse/KMC Ultras/Legion Matte Illustrated sleeves that says new is better. The problem is, the price and supply reflects that. I knew a guy who worked at Wal-Mart, he found a case of the Blacks in the back and asked the store if he could take them. They said sure.
Long story short, he kept a couple packs and made a total of $1500 selling the rest on Ebay.
On another note, I've recently switched from Eclipses back to Dragon Shields. The problem is, the backs get marked really easily and it always feels like the corners are bent within minutes. I went to the trouble of sleeving up my EDH decks in them, so that's about 500 sleeves + tokens, leaving me 20 left. Well, I have now gone through 7(!) more packs of the Matte Green sleeves and they're all marked. I live with cats, so occasionally pieces of stuff finds its way into my deck box. A piece of cat food, a crumb, even a hair or a piece of cat litter can singlehandedly mark 20 sleeves, just in one journey to my LGS. Never had the problem with any color of DS, so that's where I'm staying.
I like them, but I like literally every full art basic. The only reason I don't do what you're doing with the lands is A: It's a bit too expensive for me and B: I have super picky cubers. If I had singleton lands, there would be at least an hour of trading lands and people yelling "who has the John Avon 10th Edition Swamp?". It's easier to make everything a single printing.
The worst part is, my mom didn't listen to me and she ended calling out sleepover friend for stealing my game, and his parents didn't appreciate it that much. I never got to hang out with him after that. I lost a game and a friend that day.
Oh, and just so this isn't a complete off-topic post, I never had any cards stolen from me. Although I did accidentally steal a Flametongue Kavu from a cube once, given that a friend of mine had the exact same sleeves. I only noticed about 3 weeks later when I opened a pack and saw two in there! I realized that one was a CN2 printing, and asked my buddy if it was his, he said yes and we went on our merry way. No muss, no fuss.
Edit: I meant to say Kiln Fiend, not Flametongue Kavu.
Generally speaking, there are very few cards I don't look forward to replacing. There are only certain staples I wouldn't ever consider replacing (Lightning Bolt, Serum Visions, etc.)