Scenic Magic

Hello Everyone! Earlier this week, one of my friends picked me up, and we drove out to Mark's college to hang out for the evening. While we were there Nick and Defo both joined us for a short time, and we hung out, relaxed, and of course played a lot of magic. After a couple hours, I expressed interest in checking out their local game shop called That's Entertainment! (TE!).

TE! is a small store that also sells everything geeky like comic books, collectables, and other TCGs in addition to Magic. They also have a very nice collection of Legacy cards that was very exciting to see. What was especially interesting is how they had all of their cards in glass cases like a museum. Naturally they had a ton of cards I was interested in, like Show and Tell and Argothian Enchantress. So I went to the man behind the counter (they had ~6 people working, which gos to show how big TE! is!) and handed him my binders, hoping to scrape maybe $30 and get a Show and Tell for my efforts. 15 minutes later, I got the binders back, and a very nicely printed out chart came with them that pointed out every card in my binders they wanted and what they would give me for straight cash and store credit. As it turned out, they pay REALLY nice! One that sticks out in my mind is they gave me $10.50 in store credit for my Olivia Voldaren!

So because they were giving me 70% in store credit on many of my cards, including Geist of Saint Traft, Jace Memory Adept, Godless Shrine, and Sacred Foundry. So after I crossed off the 2 or 3 cards I didn't want to sell, I was sitting on $80 credit! I immediately snagged 2 Show and Tells and an Argothian Enchantress. But then I found out that the slight whitening on the back of one of the Show and Tells dropped its value by $7, and I was able to get a second Argothian Enchantress for a whopping green Lincoln.

Unfortunately, there weren't any players there at the time, so I wasn't able to get any real trading in, although I was getting such good rates at the store that it felt like I was trading anyways. It's simply great when you don't even feel like you're getting a bad deal when you're selling into a store. I had that experience once before during a PTQ at TJ Collectables where I traded jank into 3 Burning Wish. Also, whenever I go to Star City Opens, it is very easy to sell out to dealers and get rid of all the jank and bulk and turn it into either cash or store credit.

So what's the common denominator between all of these examples?

These aren't my local store.

Time and time again I rediscover how important it is to have variety in your atmosphere when it comes especially to your trade binder, but also your play testing. Regarding your binder; it can be very difficult to grow your trade stock when you look at the same collection of cards week in and week out. By taking a day and going to a far off land exclusively for trading is how I have gained some of my greatest assets, including 2 Tarmogoyfs, 3 Glimpse of Natures, Gaea's Cradle, 2 Serra's Sanctum, my Belcher deck, my Enchantress deck, 4 Dark Confidant, etc etc etc... Also, by going to far off lands, I can also move stock I no longer want that I can't move at home.

In terms of play testing, determining how good your deck REALLY is is very important, especially in Legacy where you may have subconsciously tuned to your local meta, but the deck itself isn't actually that good. Taking a random day with your tuned decklist and jamming it in other stores' Legacy events can be crucial, especially if there are major popular decks, like Goblins, that aren't accounted for in your local meta. And worst comes to worst, you have fun, make more friends, and expand your network.

I find the best ways to get out beyond your local store is in 2 ways: bigger events, and through friends. Bigger events are awesome, as things like SCG Opens, PTQs, GPs, and States bring in players from the large local area and are tons of fun with plenty of trading and gaming. On the other hand, visiting all of your friend's local stores is another simple way to expand your horizons, similar to how I visited TE!.

Overall, I would say the best way to accelerate yourself in your binder, play skill, and network is to constantly expand your horizons to many new local stores and events. In the same way how when a new player comes to your store, they bring a mass of fresh cards to liven the local trading, the same is especially the case when you go somewhere new yourself. That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
@ThingsILack