So - if the real money is in the singles, why doesn't the source have a better selection? In my experience, the selection stays pretty stagnant - and as such (at least for me) leads to me coming in less frequently than I normally would. As time has gone by, I personally prefer to buy singles, because cracking a pack is taking a gamble, and generally only worth it if you're getting some other use out of it (draft, etc).
Another thing that _might_ be worth considering (depending on how much sway you have) would be to start keeping organized boxes/binders of the cheaper singles somewhere. Most stores that do this keep the cards behind the counter, and will go and find the singles you're looking for. Typical pricing on this goes from $0.25 for commons (save _good_ commons like lightning bolt, etc), and uncommons start around $0.50 and go up from there depending on demand.
It's a way to milk a bit more from the "bulk" cards that you guys normally just throw in the commons after cracking your packs for release singles. I can tell you, that it's well worth my time to just tell you what cards I want and pay a little more for them than it is to dig through the giant boxes of cards.
Personally, if the price of cards/packs/etc isn't too far out of whack, I much prefer to buy local (The Source/Beyond Shinders/Monster's Den, etc) - but the real problem with local is that often times cards are priced well beyond what they are worth. Having to pay an extra .50 to a dollar on an semi-expensive card? Not a big deal. Having to pay 3-4 bucks for a card that I can get elsewhere for 50 cents is where it becomes not worth it. I'm not sure where you base your prices on (and this is true for pretty much all local stores), but sites like www.apathyhouse.com and www.magictraders.com give you accurate pricing based on what cards are selling for on ebay. I think if you used this as a baseline (and obviously tacked a bit on here and there), you'd see a _lot_ more singles sell. Otherwise, www.magiccards.info will do a cross website comparison for a lot of the major online sellers, so that could be useful too.
Anyways, sorry for the long rant - with all the critisisms, it should be said that I do like your shop, and I've dropped a lot of coin there and will most likely continue to do so. Have a good one!
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- stuckpixel
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Standstill probably shouldn't be in this deck, as you have no way of really doing anything under a standstill lock. The only time it's good for you is if you get a dude down first - have advantageous board position - and then drop it.
Have you looked at any of the bant decklists?
Seconded.
Even high, high level players (think Kibler, Chapin, Nassif, etc) make multiple mistakes per match. They may be very subtle, but mistakes none-the-less.
Assuming you made no mistakes, with a 1700 rating at that, is rather short sighted.
Look, magic does have a random element. That's undeniable. You also made 3-4 obvious play mistakes (and probably many more, I can't see your hand). Maybe you should fix the mistakes you made playing before you fall back to calling your opponent a lucksac.
People who get legitimately angry at the results of a match
I get it. You're in your late twenties/early thirties and you just got steamrolled by a 15 year old punk. That's frustrating. Don't make yourself look like a douchebag on top of the embarrassment by shouting and throwing your cards about.
People who ask for a concession, and then get annoyed that their opp wants to play it out
Hey, you're well within your rights to ask me to concede. I'm also well within my rights to tell you to shuffle up. Don't get all pouty because you actually have to _play_ magic.
The slow drafter
I know, I know - magic cards are interesting. And hey, maybe you're not familiar with the format. But I'm pretty sure by the time you get towards the end of pack two, you should probably have a pretty good idea what colors you're in and you can probably start ignoring some of the cards in the packs at this point.
It also lends you a bit of credibility when it comes to rules disagreements - but those should probably go to the judge there anyways.
This is completely pointless. If you actually saw a benefit from it, it would be cheating. (which it is, unless you riffle like crazy afterwards, which makes it completely pointless)
If you're seeing clumps, pile shuffle first (to ensure you have the correct number of cards maindeck), then do riffles like crazy. Don't forget to do a few cuts every once in a while to break it up.
If you really want to get better at shuffling, a little tip I used was intentionally shuffling once or twice more than my opponent. Of course, if your opponent is doing this to you, you could have an issue - but I've found it lead me to shuffle my deck a lot more consistently and thoroughly.
What he meant was cards that you wouldn't include in the original deal. If I make a deal with someone to give them ten jank $1 cards for 2 of his $5 cards, I'd almost always make that deal. If he wanted to trade his two $5 cards for one of my $10 cards though, I might not be so apt to do so.
Though I'm on board with you re: people who put their entire collection of good cards in trade binders as opposed to just the cards that are available for trade.
If it was a legitimate mistake and the guy took cards one of his buddies already had for him, then I feel for him and I'm likely to be more lax - but if he's looking to try and squeeze a few more dollars out of you or to back out of the original deal - too bad for him.
I don't have any problem lending cards or even entire decks to friends to use - but if I split a box with anyone, that means we each get X packs. Whatever my playgroup partners crack is theirs, whatever I crack is mine.
That way, there's nothing to complain about if someone is suddenly strapped for cash and needs to sell some cards. Yeah, it might mean that you suddenly have less that you can borrow off your friend, but there's no ambiguity as to whether it was okay to do or not.
As far as what you should do going forward with your buddy - exclude him from 'shared' pools until he changes his tune on how he handles group property. People going out drinking isn't really a valid excuse IMO for selling something that didn't strictly belong to him.
If you want to do a lot of digging yourself, www.apathyhouse.com will give you the going rate currently on ebay.
Keep in mind, if you bring the cards to a shop and sell them in bulk, you will likely get less than the lot of worth, but it might save you hassle.
There's been a lot of thought on a lot of various cards there - go take a look.
Hypergenesis/Scapeshift/Dark Depths (naming Hexmage)/Dredge (naming Dread Return)
It might not be a bad call vs burn either if you don't have any other SB options - naming whatever spell they haven't played a lot of (or shrapnel blast). It's a shot in the dark, but Zoo has a pretty awful MU vs burn so anything helps.
Get rid of shock too. 2 damage for one mana is not worth it.
You really don't need to be running 23 mana sources in this deck. 20 is fine.
Burst Lightning is too conditional for me to like it very much maindeck. Most of the time it will be a shock. Only rarely will it be 4 damage.
I'd suggest running Flames of the Blood Hand main - as lifegain wrecks your day. Flame Jav is great and all, but Flames is better on the whole.
You also need to run magma jet as a 4 of. Your deck has no draw - the ability to scry some lands out of your next few draws can be the difference between a loss and a win.
Strongly suggest tossing in a couple blinkmoth nexus too. They turn into 1/1 flying artifact dudes that you can use as fuel for your shrap blasts, or late game they give you something to do with your mana if you are out of gas.
I've been working a bit on a list, I'll probably post it later tonight. I'm looking at running 6 spot removal main (4x Path, 2x Condemn). I'm currently debating between Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and Sygg, River Guide - Kira gives us spot-removal protection without having to spend any mana, but doesn't get pumped by our lords and doesn't make our fishies unblockable.
For starters, sygg costs WU to play, not sure where the 4 mana to play part comes in.
Beyond that, there's nothing that says you need to leave mana up for his ability. Sometimes you'll want to bait out removal, sometimes you might be running another counter that will keep him protected for less (pact of negation/spell snare/spell pierce).