Trader's Challenge

Hello Everybody! I haven't posted anything in 2 weeks, but that's not because I haven't been trying. I wrote my monthly financial article, and then the whole thing got auto-deleted instead of being posted. Then I had a cool idea for an article on trading, but I didn't know how to frame it and make it sound remotely interesting. That being said, the basis for the article was good, so I'm going to run with it anyways:

I frequently talk about how much I like trading and how it is a fantastic way to make any deck you want at a fraction of the cost, or even sometimes to profit by trading for cards before they go up in value or simply getting good value on a trade. I decided to establish a challenge for myself: build any deck I want without spending any money on it. I have many legacy decks that I have been interested in building, so now I can flex my trading muscles and demonstrate how I can build all these "expensive" legacy decks without actually clearing out my bank account.

7 decks I am interested in are:

Enchantress
Team America
Faeries
Aluren
Burning Tide
Belcher
Reanimator

I guess you can really say that I am only trading for 6 decks, as i already have almost all of the cards for Reanimator, but I did trade off cards like Reanimate and Animate Dead, in addition to some targets. So there are a couple cards to trade for there. With these decks, I grabbed decklists from SCG Opens withing the past 3 weeks and used those as a basis for what cards I need to trade for. I priced out all of the decks, eliminated the cards I don't need because I already have them (ex: Underground Sea, Tarmogoyf). I don't really see the merit in posting this up as it is just a pile of numbers that goes on for pages and isn't all too interesting to read. That being said, I think this is a challenge that I want to put up for the public to see and maybe get ideas from.

In the same way that "pack to power" is the new hot thing in town (I have received many requests to do one of those, so maybe I will after this project), I feel having target decks is something people should aspire for. Trading with a goal is very fun, and actually makes going to big events worthwhile as you gain access to cards that no one in  the local area has.

Since I started this project last week, I have attended a couple events:

Innistrad Sealed PTQ
MA States
Legacy 1K

I will have reports on States up soon, I didn't do well, but the deck was different and I feel I have an awesome tuned-up version. The PTQ can be described as this: it sucked. I don't enjoy sealed anyhow, and my pool had maybe 5 cards in the 1-3 mana range that were remotely playable, and they were all different colors. The Legacy 1K was a little better, but I was playing Dredge for the first time in a long time and I misplayed my way out of the top 8.

Each of these events attacted people who I have never met before and may never see again. Trading was hot all day, and I picked up some sexy cards. Like what? How about a foil chinese Mutavault!

I was also to actually pick up cards I wanted too, like a set of Burning Wish for TES (I decided to add red for Past In Flames). The next weekend included States and the 1K, where I was trading so much I can't even point out exactly when I got the cards I did. Notable cards included Savannah, Taiga, Korean Firestorm, 4x Aluren, Wastelands, and much much more!

Standard has a ton of financial things happening right now. Last week, Sun Titan blossomed in price up to 9 over States weekend because of how you can chain them with Phantasmal Image and the popularity of Solar Flare. Liliana wasn't played in the winning UB control list from last weekend's GP, and so her price has already dropped to $56 from the 70 she was at recently. Also of note there were 0 dismembers in the Top 8 of said GP. To say the least, it has become so format defining that it's no longer any good. My pick for card best profiting from this: Bloodgift Demon. Thanks to Wolf Run, Garruk 2.0 is above 30, and thanks to tokens Elspeth is above 15. Finances are always changing, and capitalizing on them is how you can fast-track to profits.

Quick Aside
{
My binder was almost completely emptied out recently by someone who took every card worth $2 or less, and in return I got 2 Lilianas, Arcbound Ravager, foil Sulfur Falls, and other assorted goodies. I learned the value of holding bulk in your binder first hand, and you never know when what you have been sitting on for the past year all of a sudden turns into goodness. It's all about capitalizing on the moment
}
End Aside

So I just wanted to put my challenge out there, and I will put in periodic updates as this project evolves. The 2 really challenging ones are Enchantress and Aluren as Enchantress features 2 Moats, worth 300 a piece, and Aluren has 4 Imperial Recruiter at 215 a pop. It is possible to make Aluren without the Recruiter, while less powerful it does work.

That's all I have for today, hopefully with my new laptop I will no longer get my posts deleted right before they go up, and i will have content again. Until next time, Stay Classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack