Hello Everyone!
I haven't posted up here much recently aside from the weekly Pack to Moat updates, but last week I changed decks in Standard from Werewolves to Zombies. Not Bu Zombies that has been seeing lots of play, that would be too normal! Instead I brewed my own list for Br Zombies! I first designed the deck for CJ when he decided to start playing Magic a couple months ago. It started as Bu tempo do something with lots of 1 drops that included Delver of Secrets. As he got more cards though, CJ bought/traded for a set of Gravecrawlers and Geralf's Messengers so it actually because a real Zombies deck and the Delver + awkwardness was no longer needed. To support Messenger obviously dual lands are required, and we deemed the UB ones to be too expensive, so I put together a Br list for him. It was pretty sketchy at first and some cards could not be supported due to budget reasons (Phyrexian Obliterator), but the deck looked fine. In his first event with it, CJ went 3-1! Even though it was a fairly soft field, it still showcased promise for the deck.
In the weeks since then I have continued to refine the deck, and I played it in 2 Wednesday Night Magic events in addition to an FNM going X-1 in all of them! Here is my current version:
4x Diregraf Ghoul
4x Gravecrawler
2x Fume Spitter
4x Porcelain Legionnaire
4x Geralf's Messenger
3x Cemetery Reaper
2x Phyrexian Obiterator
1x Skinrender
2x Mortarpod
3x Galvanic Blast
3x Incinerate
2x Brimstone Volley
3x Go for the Throat
1x Geth's Verdict
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Dragonskull Summit
14x Swamp
Sideboard:
3x Hex Parasite
3x Black Sun's Zenith
1x Skinrender
1x Geth's Verdict
3x Manic Vandal
4x Nihil Spellbomb
As I have heard it eloquently put before: "That is aggro as piss!" Yes, yes it is. This deck plays a lot like animal RDW where all you really want to do is deal tons of danage. Let's take a look at our mana-to-power ratio on our creatures:
1 Drops:
1 power: 2
2 power: 8
2 Drops:
3 power: 4
3 Drops
2 Power: 3
3 Power: 4
4 Drops:
3 power: 1
5 power: 2
Total Mana Costs: 51
Total Power: 61
Power : Mana Cost: 1.19
Basically this means that on average were getting about 1.2 power for every 1 mana we spend on it. What this does not account for though is how Cemetery Reaper effectively has 4 sometimes 5 power because of its lord ability. Also, Geralf's Messenger deals 2 on the spot and then grows later in the game. Basically, we're going to deal a ton of damage very fast! Often times opponents will manage to pull off stabilization at around 5 or less life, which is where the blue version starts to suck because they lack the late game reach. I have had several games where I was against control and they were on the verge of complete stabelization and I had lethal burn in my hand. All I had to do was keep utapping and attacking until they finally cast ANY spell (usually it's an end of turn Forbidden Alchemy) and then they just die in response! It is VERY satifying when those games happen - you know you already have won the game, they just don't know it. I had one game against JunkWalkers where I was not able to identify what they were playing based off their mulligan to 5, so I attacked him to 5 when I had double incinerate in hand, and I just stopped attacking waiting for him to play more cards so I could tell what he was on - an option you don't have in Bu.
The sideboard has so much spice it gives Emeril Lagasse a run for his money! Let's just start at the top - Hex Parasite?? Well the decks that you want this against (mainly just control) you really don't want Fume Spitter. Sure you can still remove a counter from your messenger, but that's much more narrow than hacking and slashing any planeswalker they could play (and control decks play A LOT of planeswalkers right now).
Next in the sideboard is no less exciting - Black Sun's Zenith?! Tokens is getting more and more popular, which along with Pod decks create a ton of small dudes that aren't powerful individually but collectively they are terrifying! Black Sun's Zenith doesn't hurt you either as long as you form your game plan around it - Just play your recursive dudes and play a normal game of attacking and blocking until all of a sudden BAM! Everything dies, but all my stuff comes back. When turn goes back to you again just play a Reaper or Obliterator and ride the gravy train home!
Skinrender and Verdict are your typical tuning cards, adjusting your deck for individual threats like Geist-Delver. Manic Vandel is also very good against Delver decks, and is just an awesome tempo card as a whole. Because our deck plays like RDW, we want every card to get in as much damage as possible which gives Vandel the nod over Grudge or Crush. In my game vs Naya midrange pod, I had a Manic Vandel which was huge tempo gain by hitting his Blade Splicer token when all his other creatures were 1/1s or smaller and he had no birthing pod late in the game.
Quick Aside
{
Cemetery Reaper is SO much better than Diregraf Captain! In an open board, they both do the exact same thing - give all your zombies +1/+1. However in board stalls Captain plays like a Goblin Bombardment where Reaper plays like a Garruk Relentless! Also, and most importantly, with all the undying that is in the format Cemetery Reaper gives you an extreme edge! In my game vs midrange Pod, my board was Messenger untapped, Reaper without summoning sickness, and a couple lands. His board was infinite mana dorks and a Vorapede. He attacked his Vorapede in, and I snap blocked with Messenger. With the undying triggers on the stack I exiled his Vorapede with Reaper and then let my Messnger come back which gave me an insane board presence and helped me get very far ahead from there.
In a similar mannor, Reaper helps reduce your opponent's creatures for Moorland Haunt and obviously domnates the mirror match. One thing that is important to note though is that Reaper's ability starts by targeting a card in the graveyard before it gets exiled and you get a guy, so if your opponent has a Moorland Haunt, they can leave it and UW up every turn to deny you any Zombies from their graveyard.
}
End Aside
Finally, we come to the last card in the sideboard: Nihil Spellbomb. This card is for the mirror, and i like it much better than Surgical Extraction because it gives you the opportunity to draw a card, which I have found to be incredibly important allowing you to continually pour out threats while smothering your opponent's recursive nature.
This deck is incredibly powerful, and has been an absolute blast to play! As for matchups, I find Pod to be fairly difficult if they have a birthing pod in play, and Celestial Purge + Snapcaster Mage does work. I considered for 30 seconds playing Apostle's Blessing, but that's just not what we want to be doing here. If you really want to beat that, then you can play Surgical Extraction over Nihil Spellbomb, but one of the beauties of playing the red version is we aren't as reliant on our messengers.
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Pack to Moat, week 8
Hello everyone! This past week I went back to FNM, though not at Toys. I will save the story for later, but I went to another local store called Harrisons, which I haven't been to for an event since early 2010. I swung by Toys and Harrisons almost every day this week, and got at least 1 trade in each day!
March 21, 2012
My:
2x Lord of the Unreal (1.63, 3.26)
His:
Goblin Guide (5.06)
Net: +1.80
I was kinda bummed out when I got the Lord of the Unreals a few weeks ago because I thought I would never be able to move them. However, one of the guys at toys was building a friend of his an Illusions deck because it was really cheap and easy to put together and it was much better than anything his friend was playing. I was much more than happy to provide half of the necessary Lords for the deck for the low low cost of a playable!
My:
Ad Nauseam (0.64)
Infernal Tutor (5.63)
Brainstorm (1.77)
His:
Geralf's Messenger (8.39)
Chronicles Tormod's Crypt (1.27)
Net: +1.62
A huge part of trading is knowing you have a buyer. I picked up the storm cards on a whim, but I quickly discovered that a local player is trying to break into legacy by building Affinity and Storm. His affinity deck was almost done, so I didn't get any luck trading away my Thoughtcasts, but I did get a glance at his storm deck when he went to unproxy after the trade, and I noticed it was probably 80% proxies. So now if I see certain cards I can trade for them with the confidence that he will go for them.
March 22, 2012
My:
Elspeth Tirel (17.94)
Lingering Souls (1.81)
Grafdigger's Cage (3.71)
His:
Geist of Saint Traft (20.54)
Clifftop Retreat (2.75)
2x Daybreak Ranger (1.71, 3.42)
Net: +3.25
This is a trade I was very happy to make! I was a little weary last week when I traded my Thoughtseizes into Elspeths, but I feel having a Geist of Saint Traft is much more stable as it is a significant part of the best deck in standard whereas Elspeth is a speculative card. The other cards in the trade were cool and all, but it's the big cards that matter!
My:
Briarpack Alpha (0.15)
2x Moorland Haunt (2.37, 4.74)
His:
Vault of the Archangel (2.8)
Sulfur Falls (4.70)
Net: +2.61
This trade was pretty funny. We were working out the nuances of the trade, and when we came near the end, he said, "you know, I think I need something more.... Give me this dude!" *points enthusiastically to Briarpack Alpha* I happy laughed and just went along with it
My:
Vault of the Archangel (2.8)
His:
FOIL Island, Mountain, Forest (1.50)
Splinterfright (0.84)
Day of Judgement (2.68)
Net: +2.22
The moment I traded for the Vault, the guy I traded the Elspeth to came right back and asked for the Vault, before I could even sleeve it! The problem though, was at this point his binder was quite poor. The only card he had that was trade-able was Day of Judgement, but he said he kinda wanted to get a set of them. I looked for other stuff, but he really had nothing, so I got him to let go of the Day. The foil lands and Splinterfright was me pulling out basically every playable from his binder. Hopefully I will be able to get... something for these....
March 23, 2012
My:
Blade Splicer (3.53)
Elspeth Tirel (17.71)
His:
Seachrome Coast (18.04)
Copperline Gorge (9.68)
Net: +6.48
This trade was simple misunderstanding of values. He looked at my Copperline and muttered "8", so I just ran with it, pointing his Splicer out as a $5 card, so a $3 split really isn't that bad. He was cool with that, and the trade resolved form there. These lands are REALLY important right now, as 2 of the best decks are RG aggro and UW delver, so I think these should be easy to move!
My:
2x Inferno Titan (4.51, 9.02)
2x Daybreak Ranger (1.74, 3.48)
His:
Phantasmal Image (14.78)
Devil's Play (0.76)
Net: +3.04
Finally! I have been holding onto these Inferno Titans forever! Since I gained 50 cents several weeks ago by trading 2 Slagstorms for them, Inferno has gone down and Slagstorm has gone up to the point where there is a full dollar split between Titan and Slagstorm, in Slagstorm's favor. Despite what happened, I have to work with the cards I have been dealt. Daybreak Ranger was another card I wasn't too enthused to have on hand, but Phantasmal Image is a very welcome addition! Devil's play was a random decent throw-in. I don't think anything will come of it, but I don't care if I have random extra bulk cards in this binder, it's just a pile of opportunities!
My:
Black Sun's Zenith (7.73)
His:
Gravecrawler (9.07)
Hellrider (2.48)
Net: +3.82
This trade was awesome! Hellrider and Gravecrawler are 2 major aggressive staples of some VERY dangerous decks right now! I personally am not a huge fan of UB control, and I really haven't seen the deck doing well at all recently, so I am perfectly content shipping the sweeper.
My:
FOIL Mountain, Island, Forest (1.50)
His:
Stoneforge Mystic (7.44)
Net: +5.94
Note: this trade was NOT a gift trade, this was a completely legitimate trade! I valued my foil basics at 1 a piece, and he valued his Stoneforge at 5. He was ecstatic to get rid of the Stoneforge actually because he declared he will never play legacy. I was equally as happy to get what felt like a free Stoneforge!
March 24, 2012
My:
Seachrome Coast (18.04)
Copperline Gorge (9.68)
Mirran Crusader (5.17)
Geist of Saint Traft (20.62)
His:
2x Phyrexian Obliterator (27.70, 55.40)
Moorland Haunt (2.42)
Woodland Cemetery (4.98)
Net: +9.29
This is the first super big trade as a part of the project. These big trades are awesome because any small miscalculation of price values can lead to a very significant profit for someone. In the above trade, he valued his Obliterators at 25, and then when we got to a fairly balanced position, I asked for a throw-in Haunt for profit reasons, which he happily obliged to!
March 25, 2012
My:
Graveborn Cabal Therapy (4.00)
His:
Judgement Cabal Therapy (5.91)
Diregraf Captain (1.12)
Stromkirk Captain (1.09)
Net: +4.12
This was just a random trade where I was hanging out with the legacy guys and one of them wanted my art for cabal therapy instead of the old art. A couple random throw-ins later, and we have a couple dollars profit!
11 Trades
Week 8 Net: +44.19
This has been an awesome 2 weeks for the pack-moat project! I have done 27 trades in the past 2 weeks, and I have netted almost $90 in value! At this point the binder is worth about $180, which is starting to put me at the point where I should be able to trade up to some big cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Mutavault, Scavenging Ooze (holy crap is this card hot right now!), and maybe even something as epic as a Force of Will or a Dual land! Once I get up to about $250 value, I will be looking towards the end game and will be hunting whatever specific cards Matt wants to help close the deal, even if I have to take a small loss in the process. SCG Providence is in 6 weeks, and I very well could have Enchantress completely unproxied by the time that Legacy Open rolls around!
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
This is the first super big trade as a part of the project. These big trades are awesome because any small miscalculation of price values can lead to a very significant profit for someone. In the above trade, he valued his Obliterators at 25, and then when we got to a fairly balanced position, I asked for a throw-in Haunt for profit reasons, which he happily obliged to!
March 25, 2012
My:
Graveborn Cabal Therapy (4.00)
His:
Judgement Cabal Therapy (5.91)
Diregraf Captain (1.12)
Stromkirk Captain (1.09)
Net: +4.12
This was just a random trade where I was hanging out with the legacy guys and one of them wanted my art for cabal therapy instead of the old art. A couple random throw-ins later, and we have a couple dollars profit!
11 Trades
Week 8 Net: +44.19
This has been an awesome 2 weeks for the pack-moat project! I have done 27 trades in the past 2 weeks, and I have netted almost $90 in value! At this point the binder is worth about $180, which is starting to put me at the point where I should be able to trade up to some big cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Mutavault, Scavenging Ooze (holy crap is this card hot right now!), and maybe even something as epic as a Force of Will or a Dual land! Once I get up to about $250 value, I will be looking towards the end game and will be hunting whatever specific cards Matt wants to help close the deal, even if I have to take a small loss in the process. SCG Providence is in 6 weeks, and I very well could have Enchantress completely unproxied by the time that Legacy Open rolls around!
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Pack to Moat, week 7
Hello everyone! So after a couple really slow weeks for me, this week was INSANE for the project! I wound up spending the weekend at WPI, and in doing so I gained access to lots of people to trade with than I had before!
March 13, 2012
My:
4x Bloodbraid Elf (2.62, 10. 48)
Batterskull (14.13)
His:
Inkmoth Nexus (10.41)
Scalding Tarn (14.54)
Black Sun's Zenith (7.7)
Net: +8.04
I got a txt message saying "hey, are you going to be at FNM this week? I want to trade for you Bloodbraid Elves from the pack-moat. I want to build Modern Jund" to which I had to reply that no, I am going to WPI for the weekend and would be around. After a couple minutes of chatting we agreed to meet up at the same Dunkin Donuts as week 5 (in fact I was talking to the same guy), but this time he would try to see how many of his friends from around town he could get together. He wound up bringing two others and I got a good trade in with all three of them! In regards to this trade, I thought BSZ was only worth 4 or 5, and I was fine with the trade on those grounds. It being worth 8 only sweetens the pot a little!
My:
Skirsdag High Priest (1.6)
His:
2x Lord of the Unreal (1.8, 3.6)
FOIL M12 Mountain (0.50)
Net: +2.50
This trade was a little awkward because the only think he wanted was the High Priest, and the only thing I wanted was cards worth 6+. Eventually I decided I could settle for Lord of the Unreals as long as I could also get the foil mountain. I know the foil mountain should trade very easily as everyone wants to make their deck as flashy as possible nowadays. I don't anticipate the Lords moving very easily, but maybe I will get lucky with a casual market.
My:
Inkmoth Nexus (10.41)
His:
2x Honor of the Pure (2.62, 5.24)
Grafdigger's Cage (4.28)
Grim Lavamacer (3.33)
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (3.8)
Net: +6.24
I almost only got one Honor of the Pure out of this trade, but at the last second he decided that he could throw in the other one because it didn't matter to him much (we valued it at 1) and he wanted to see the project actually work out. This will be the third time I have acquired a Thalia. She is trading very easily, and the other two times I traded her out I got great profit (first got me 3 dual lands, second got me a Sorin). This is also Honor of the Pures #2 + 3, the first one didn't really get me anywhere, but Honor has gone up 50 cents since then as tokens has risen in popularity. I'm very satisfied with this trade as everything is fairly liquid.
March 14, 2012
My:
Honor of the Pure (2.62)
His:
Grafdigger's Cage (4.20)
Net: +1.78
This trade was kinda funny how it happened. I was considering playing Grafdigger's Cage in the sideboard of my Werewolves deck as an answer to Zombies, so I traded for 2 into my normal binder. Going for this third one, my trade partner didn't see anything he wanted in my normal binders, so he offered this trade, which I gladly accepted. It wasn't until after the trade was over did he realize I probably wouldn't be using the Cage if it was in the pack to moat binder, but I wasn't going to get in the way!
My:
Splinter Twin (4.08)
His:
Chandra's Phoenix (7.27)
Net: +3.19
For this trade, the other guy wanted 2 Splinter Twins, but I had one in my legacy binder, and one in my pack to moat, so we had to set up 2 different trades. Someone passing by identified Phoenix as a 6, so I went for it. Then instead of wasting my time finding a 4 for the normal trade, the guy just said for me to take a phoenix for the other one too! Sweet!
My:
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (31.13)
His:
Thoughtseize (36.62)
Net: +5.49
This trade was awesome! First, it required no prompting from me, which makes the whole process go over so much easier and friendlier. In fact, when he said "hey, want a thoughtseize?" I thought he meant for normal stuff. But more importantly, you will notice how Sorin was 3.58 when I got it just last week, so the card has been losing about a quarter a day. Trading it into a serious eternal staple is big game! My trade partner even took the time to look at the other 4 Thoughtseizes he had in the binder to make sure I was getting the nicest one!
March 16, 2012
My:
FOIL Mountain (0.50)
His:
Blue Sun's Zenith (0.89)
Net: +0.49
This trade was the first at the FNM at That's E! to get the crowd acclimated to the pack to moat binder. After this trade, there were several others to follow.
My:
Honor of the Pure (2.59)
Grim Lavamancer (3.3)
His:
Mirran Crusader (5.42)
Lingering Souls (1.73)
Net: +1.26
Lingering Souls is a very surprising card as it is actually a valuable as Brainstorm, and is also very playable in Legacy (Tom Martel had 4 in his GP winning deck).
My:
Scalding Tarn (14.69)
His:
Lord of Atlantis (4.61)
Phantasmal Image (15.03)
Net: +4.95
I thought Phantasmal Image was at 13 all weekend until I finally found out the real price when I started writing this post. Regardless, problem like that are not ones I will complain about!
My:
Divination (0.09)
His:
Evil Twin (0.54)
Net: +0.45
This trade happened at about 4am because Mark didn't feel like finding a place in his binder to put an Evil Twin, so he just gave it to me for the project.
March 18, 2012
My:
4x Daze (2.71, 10.84)
His:
4x Thoughtcast (0.56, 2.24)
2x Moorland Haunt (2.49, 4.98)
Graveborn Cabal Therapy (4.00)
Net: +0.38
This trade was a mistake.... This is the first trade across the whole project I really regret. The only reason I did it is because I figured I could move the Thoughtcasts at 1 a piece to an aspiring affinity player, but that requires finding an aspiring affinity player.... Just an overall bad trade....
My:
Thoughtseize (35.94)
His:
2x Elspeth Tirel (17.76, 35.52)
Goblin Guide (5.14)
Net: +4.28
This is another trade that could have been a mistake. As my binder was, I had the very expensive Thoughtseize, and the next most valuable card was half the value. I decided I wanted to have a bunch of fairly high value cards to help work the entire binder together up the chain. Overall I think this was a fine move, but we will see how mallable the Elspeths are.
My:
Phantasmal Image (15.03)
Lord of Atlantis ( 4.61)
His:
Maelstrom Pulse (10.58)
Counterbalance (7.35)
Blade Splicer (3.64)
Net: +1.93
This trade was done under the impression Image was at 13, which made it a much sweeter trade. But as is, this is still fine. Pulse is always a good card across different decks, and Counterbalance is a very attractive deck for people getting into legacy to want to build, thinking they can make the best control deck.
My:
Goblin Guide (5.14)
His:
6th Edition City of Brass (5.17)
Command Tower (2.24)
Net: +2.27
Command Tower is an interesting card. I think the Commander cards will all go up in value over time because they weren't printed in a huge mass, and several are very playable (Scavenging Ooze). I think Command Tower should be an easy car to move as every single player wanting to play commander immediately needs one.
My:
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (3.76)
Counterbalance (7.35)
His:
Blackcleave Cliffs (7.68)
Infernal Tutor (5.52)
Ad Nauseam (0.65)
Net: +2.74
Moving Counterbalance so quickly was awesome, and Blackcleave Cliffs is a very in demand card in standard. Also, now I have a couple more Legacy Staples to leverage.
My:
Divination (0.09)
His:
Worlds 1999 Wasteland (???)
Net: +???
I have no clue what this gold bordered wasteland is worth. If anyone has a clue, please let me know! The guy I did the previous trade with was sick of seeing this stupid wasteland in his binder that he could do nothing with, so he just felt like giving it to me. Some prices I have seen online include a set being sold on eBay for $5, $5 a piece on an online retailer, to $12 on a different retailer. Regardless, that is a lot prettier than a Divination, so I will take it!
16 Trades
Week 7 Net: +45.99
This week was incredible for the project, which after 2 fairly dry weeks was quite necessary. There is another local shop, Harrison's, that I have yet to do any trading at, so there are new lands to venture towards nearby. Thanks to this week, the project is doing very well, and the binder is about $130 in total value!
That's all I have for today! Remember, if anyone is interested in doing a by mail trade, just contact me and I would love to work something out with you. Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
March 13, 2012
My:
4x Bloodbraid Elf (2.62, 10. 48)
Batterskull (14.13)
His:
Inkmoth Nexus (10.41)
Scalding Tarn (14.54)
Black Sun's Zenith (7.7)
Net: +8.04
I got a txt message saying "hey, are you going to be at FNM this week? I want to trade for you Bloodbraid Elves from the pack-moat. I want to build Modern Jund" to which I had to reply that no, I am going to WPI for the weekend and would be around. After a couple minutes of chatting we agreed to meet up at the same Dunkin Donuts as week 5 (in fact I was talking to the same guy), but this time he would try to see how many of his friends from around town he could get together. He wound up bringing two others and I got a good trade in with all three of them! In regards to this trade, I thought BSZ was only worth 4 or 5, and I was fine with the trade on those grounds. It being worth 8 only sweetens the pot a little!
My:
Skirsdag High Priest (1.6)
His:
2x Lord of the Unreal (1.8, 3.6)
FOIL M12 Mountain (0.50)
Net: +2.50
This trade was a little awkward because the only think he wanted was the High Priest, and the only thing I wanted was cards worth 6+. Eventually I decided I could settle for Lord of the Unreals as long as I could also get the foil mountain. I know the foil mountain should trade very easily as everyone wants to make their deck as flashy as possible nowadays. I don't anticipate the Lords moving very easily, but maybe I will get lucky with a casual market.
My:
Inkmoth Nexus (10.41)
His:
2x Honor of the Pure (2.62, 5.24)
Grafdigger's Cage (4.28)
Grim Lavamacer (3.33)
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (3.8)
Net: +6.24
I almost only got one Honor of the Pure out of this trade, but at the last second he decided that he could throw in the other one because it didn't matter to him much (we valued it at 1) and he wanted to see the project actually work out. This will be the third time I have acquired a Thalia. She is trading very easily, and the other two times I traded her out I got great profit (first got me 3 dual lands, second got me a Sorin). This is also Honor of the Pures #2 + 3, the first one didn't really get me anywhere, but Honor has gone up 50 cents since then as tokens has risen in popularity. I'm very satisfied with this trade as everything is fairly liquid.
March 14, 2012
My:
Honor of the Pure (2.62)
His:
Grafdigger's Cage (4.20)
Net: +1.78
This trade was kinda funny how it happened. I was considering playing Grafdigger's Cage in the sideboard of my Werewolves deck as an answer to Zombies, so I traded for 2 into my normal binder. Going for this third one, my trade partner didn't see anything he wanted in my normal binders, so he offered this trade, which I gladly accepted. It wasn't until after the trade was over did he realize I probably wouldn't be using the Cage if it was in the pack to moat binder, but I wasn't going to get in the way!
My:
Splinter Twin (4.08)
His:
Chandra's Phoenix (7.27)
Net: +3.19
For this trade, the other guy wanted 2 Splinter Twins, but I had one in my legacy binder, and one in my pack to moat, so we had to set up 2 different trades. Someone passing by identified Phoenix as a 6, so I went for it. Then instead of wasting my time finding a 4 for the normal trade, the guy just said for me to take a phoenix for the other one too! Sweet!
My:
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (31.13)
His:
Thoughtseize (36.62)
Net: +5.49
This trade was awesome! First, it required no prompting from me, which makes the whole process go over so much easier and friendlier. In fact, when he said "hey, want a thoughtseize?" I thought he meant for normal stuff. But more importantly, you will notice how Sorin was 3.58 when I got it just last week, so the card has been losing about a quarter a day. Trading it into a serious eternal staple is big game! My trade partner even took the time to look at the other 4 Thoughtseizes he had in the binder to make sure I was getting the nicest one!
March 16, 2012
My:
FOIL Mountain (0.50)
His:
Blue Sun's Zenith (0.89)
Net: +0.49
This trade was the first at the FNM at That's E! to get the crowd acclimated to the pack to moat binder. After this trade, there were several others to follow.
My:
Honor of the Pure (2.59)
Grim Lavamancer (3.3)
His:
Mirran Crusader (5.42)
Lingering Souls (1.73)
Net: +1.26
Lingering Souls is a very surprising card as it is actually a valuable as Brainstorm, and is also very playable in Legacy (Tom Martel had 4 in his GP winning deck).
My:
Scalding Tarn (14.69)
His:
Lord of Atlantis (4.61)
Phantasmal Image (15.03)
Net: +4.95
I thought Phantasmal Image was at 13 all weekend until I finally found out the real price when I started writing this post. Regardless, problem like that are not ones I will complain about!
My:
Divination (0.09)
His:
Evil Twin (0.54)
Net: +0.45
This trade happened at about 4am because Mark didn't feel like finding a place in his binder to put an Evil Twin, so he just gave it to me for the project.
March 18, 2012
My:
4x Daze (2.71, 10.84)
His:
4x Thoughtcast (0.56, 2.24)
2x Moorland Haunt (2.49, 4.98)
Graveborn Cabal Therapy (4.00)
Net: +0.38
This trade was a mistake.... This is the first trade across the whole project I really regret. The only reason I did it is because I figured I could move the Thoughtcasts at 1 a piece to an aspiring affinity player, but that requires finding an aspiring affinity player.... Just an overall bad trade....
My:
Thoughtseize (35.94)
His:
2x Elspeth Tirel (17.76, 35.52)
Goblin Guide (5.14)
Net: +4.28
This is another trade that could have been a mistake. As my binder was, I had the very expensive Thoughtseize, and the next most valuable card was half the value. I decided I wanted to have a bunch of fairly high value cards to help work the entire binder together up the chain. Overall I think this was a fine move, but we will see how mallable the Elspeths are.
My:
Phantasmal Image (15.03)
Lord of Atlantis ( 4.61)
His:
Maelstrom Pulse (10.58)
Counterbalance (7.35)
Blade Splicer (3.64)
Net: +1.93
This trade was done under the impression Image was at 13, which made it a much sweeter trade. But as is, this is still fine. Pulse is always a good card across different decks, and Counterbalance is a very attractive deck for people getting into legacy to want to build, thinking they can make the best control deck.
My:
Goblin Guide (5.14)
His:
6th Edition City of Brass (5.17)
Command Tower (2.24)
Net: +2.27
Command Tower is an interesting card. I think the Commander cards will all go up in value over time because they weren't printed in a huge mass, and several are very playable (Scavenging Ooze). I think Command Tower should be an easy car to move as every single player wanting to play commander immediately needs one.
My:
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (3.76)
Counterbalance (7.35)
His:
Blackcleave Cliffs (7.68)
Infernal Tutor (5.52)
Ad Nauseam (0.65)
Net: +2.74
Moving Counterbalance so quickly was awesome, and Blackcleave Cliffs is a very in demand card in standard. Also, now I have a couple more Legacy Staples to leverage.
My:
Divination (0.09)
His:
Worlds 1999 Wasteland (???)
Net: +???
I have no clue what this gold bordered wasteland is worth. If anyone has a clue, please let me know! The guy I did the previous trade with was sick of seeing this stupid wasteland in his binder that he could do nothing with, so he just felt like giving it to me. Some prices I have seen online include a set being sold on eBay for $5, $5 a piece on an online retailer, to $12 on a different retailer. Regardless, that is a lot prettier than a Divination, so I will take it!
16 Trades
Week 7 Net: +45.99
This week was incredible for the project, which after 2 fairly dry weeks was quite necessary. There is another local shop, Harrison's, that I have yet to do any trading at, so there are new lands to venture towards nearby. Thanks to this week, the project is doing very well, and the binder is about $130 in total value!
That's all I have for today! Remember, if anyone is interested in doing a by mail trade, just contact me and I would love to work something out with you. Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Saturday, March 17, 2012
FNM at That's E!
Hello Everyone!
Right now I am hanging out at WPI, and last night I went to That's Entertainment for Friday Night Magic, packing my not so trusty Werewolves deck. Here's the list I went 2-2 with:
4x Wolfbitten Captive
2x Reckless Waif
4x Mayor of Avabruck
1x Gatsaf Shepherd
4x Daybreak Ranger
2x Immerwolf
2x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Kruin Outlaw
1x Master of the Wild Hunt
3x Instigator Gang
4x Moonmist
4x Incinerate
1x Galvanic Blast
1x Naturalize
2x Garruk Relentless
4x Copperline Gorge
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Mountain
9x Forest
3x Kessig Wolf Run
Sideboard:
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
2x Naturalize
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
2x Corossive Gale
3x Full Moon's Rise
3x Act of Treason
2x Ratchet Bomb
1x Garruk, Primal Hunter
The games were all pretty traditional with my losses coming to having a total of 2 lands in play across the whole match against Mark and my other loss came against Frites. The play of the day though came in round 2. And by play of the day, I mean everyone in the room knew abou it before the game where it happened even ended! I was on the play and kept my opening 7 while my opponent mulliganed to 6. Here's how the game went:
Me:
Forest, go
Him:
Seachrome Coast, Delver of Secrets
Me:
Copperline Gorge, Mayor of Avabruck
Him:
No flip, Delver of Secrets, Delver of Secrets
Me:
"Oh Fuck!" Mountain, go, Transform on your upkeep
Him:
No flip, Moorland Haunt, Delver of Secrets, Ratchet Bomb, Blow up Ratchet Bomb on 0
Me:
In response, Moonmist
Him:
"....ok? How does this help you?"
Me:
"Transform all humans" *points to 4 delvers*
Him:
"ARE YOU F%$#ING KIDDING???!!!"
So basically I forced his delvers to flip, and they all dies to the Ratchet Bomb nlowing up on 0, so he used one of his cards to blow up 2 of mine and 4 more of his! He wound up slowly working his way back into that game as I was playing poorly and kept missing a point or 2 of damage from time to time. We wound up going to time, and I won on turn 4 in extra turns. For the rest of the night, several people were referring to me as "the Moonmist guy" and all of my opponents after that carefully read what Moonmist does exactly whenever I cast it, or they saw it off a Gitaxian Probe. I'm not going to lie, that could have been one of the coolest plays of magic I have ever made in my life!
While the deck was fun, and the people there were cool, the venue was not great at all... That's Entertainment! (That's E!) barely had any table space for the 28 players that were there, and everyone had to get way too cozy and close for comfort. Trying to play 3 games of Magic on a table that fits 2 was the norm for the night. The FNM was supposed to last 5 rounds, but after round 4 the X-0s decided to split prize, so the TO abruptly ended the event 1 round early. As it turns out, only the top 3 players get prize, they don't care about your record. So even though Mark went 3-1, he got nothing. What really put the icing on the cake was as soon as the FNM was abruptly ended, the TO yelled, "OK, Everyone out!" I was quickly trying to end a trade after having my time wasted by someone who asked me the value of every single card in my binders before deciding he didn't want anything. But I didn't even have 5 minutes from when the TO said for everyone to leave that he just turned the lights out on us and just threw us right out! Keep in mind that the time was 8:30 pm when this all happened, so it wasn't even remotely late.
After getting thrown out of the store, we wound up playing games like Cards Against Humanity (Apples to Apples for terrible people), Dominion, and of course more magic in the common room until 3am before calling it a night.
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Right now I am hanging out at WPI, and last night I went to That's Entertainment for Friday Night Magic, packing my not so trusty Werewolves deck. Here's the list I went 2-2 with:
4x Wolfbitten Captive
2x Reckless Waif
4x Mayor of Avabruck
1x Gatsaf Shepherd
4x Daybreak Ranger
2x Immerwolf
2x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Kruin Outlaw
1x Master of the Wild Hunt
3x Instigator Gang
4x Moonmist
4x Incinerate
1x Galvanic Blast
1x Naturalize
2x Garruk Relentless
4x Copperline Gorge
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Mountain
9x Forest
3x Kessig Wolf Run
Sideboard:
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
2x Naturalize
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
2x Corossive Gale
3x Full Moon's Rise
3x Act of Treason
2x Ratchet Bomb
1x Garruk, Primal Hunter
The games were all pretty traditional with my losses coming to having a total of 2 lands in play across the whole match against Mark and my other loss came against Frites. The play of the day though came in round 2. And by play of the day, I mean everyone in the room knew abou it before the game where it happened even ended! I was on the play and kept my opening 7 while my opponent mulliganed to 6. Here's how the game went:
Me:
Forest, go
Him:
Seachrome Coast, Delver of Secrets
Me:
Copperline Gorge, Mayor of Avabruck
Him:
No flip, Delver of Secrets, Delver of Secrets
Me:
"Oh Fuck!" Mountain, go, Transform on your upkeep
Him:
No flip, Moorland Haunt, Delver of Secrets, Ratchet Bomb, Blow up Ratchet Bomb on 0
Me:
In response, Moonmist
Him:
"....ok? How does this help you?"
Me:
"Transform all humans" *points to 4 delvers*
Him:
"ARE YOU F%$#ING KIDDING???!!!"
So basically I forced his delvers to flip, and they all dies to the Ratchet Bomb nlowing up on 0, so he used one of his cards to blow up 2 of mine and 4 more of his! He wound up slowly working his way back into that game as I was playing poorly and kept missing a point or 2 of damage from time to time. We wound up going to time, and I won on turn 4 in extra turns. For the rest of the night, several people were referring to me as "the Moonmist guy" and all of my opponents after that carefully read what Moonmist does exactly whenever I cast it, or they saw it off a Gitaxian Probe. I'm not going to lie, that could have been one of the coolest plays of magic I have ever made in my life!
While the deck was fun, and the people there were cool, the venue was not great at all... That's Entertainment! (That's E!) barely had any table space for the 28 players that were there, and everyone had to get way too cozy and close for comfort. Trying to play 3 games of Magic on a table that fits 2 was the norm for the night. The FNM was supposed to last 5 rounds, but after round 4 the X-0s decided to split prize, so the TO abruptly ended the event 1 round early. As it turns out, only the top 3 players get prize, they don't care about your record. So even though Mark went 3-1, he got nothing. What really put the icing on the cake was as soon as the FNM was abruptly ended, the TO yelled, "OK, Everyone out!" I was quickly trying to end a trade after having my time wasted by someone who asked me the value of every single card in my binders before deciding he didn't want anything. But I didn't even have 5 minutes from when the TO said for everyone to leave that he just turned the lights out on us and just threw us right out! Keep in mind that the time was 8:30 pm when this all happened, so it wasn't even remotely late.
After getting thrown out of the store, we wound up playing games like Cards Against Humanity (Apples to Apples for terrible people), Dominion, and of course more magic in the common room until 3am before calling it a night.
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Legacy Faeries!
Hello everyone!
A couple weeks ago my Dredge deck completely disappeared. I don't know where it is.... :( Dredge isn't an expensive deck, except for the fact that I just added a set of LED to it, and I also recently foiled out my set of Cabal Therapies, among other pimped out cards like a Korean Firestorm, and other assorted foils and foreign cards.
But instead of looming in sadness of losing Dredge, I have been working on a new legacy deck that I have been having a decent amount of success with. That deck is Faeries. Here is the deck as it currently sits:
4x Delver of Secrets
3x Snapcaster Mage
3x Spellstutter Sprite
2x Vendillion Clique
4x Bitterblossom
2x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4x Brainstorm
3x Daze
3x Force of Will
2x Ghastly Demise
2x Spell Snare
1x Mana Leak
2x Inquisition of Kozelik
2x Ponder
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Scalding Tarn
4x Polluted Delta
2x Island
1x Swamp
4x Underground Sea
1x Riptide Laboratory
4x Mutavault
3x Wasteland
Sideboard:
3x Vampire Nighthawk
1x Force of Will
1x Perish
4x Surgical Extraction
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2x Liliana of the Veil
3x Damnation
This list looks a little all over the place at first. If it weren't for the Delver of Secrets this would very clearly be a control deck, so why do we have Delver in here? In testing I realized that all my 1/1s weren't really putting my opponent on a clock. In the same way that Counterbalance decks will play a Tarmogoyf to apply pressure and try to close out the game before the opponent can come out of the soft lock, the same is true here. This deck is very counterspell heavy, but is also fairly tempo-based. One of the staple elements of a Faeries deck is how you play your entire game plan on your opponent's turn. This deck has 16 spells that have to be played on your turn in the form of Delver of Secrets, Jace the Mind Sculptor, Jitte, Bitterblossom, and Ponder. All of those cards are very powerful cards that your opponent will not want to be facing down, so you don't mind having to tap out for them.
Unlike RUG Delver, this delver deck is more tempo-control. This deck will slow down the game plan and let the incremental advantages of Bitterblossom, Jace, and Jitte take the game over while still countering some spells and applying pressure. If I had any complaints about this deck, I would have to say I would like to maybe cut one card for more 4-ofs. That might end up being Daze that gets the axe, but I don't want to count it out yet.
I find that sometimes the best strategy to be successful in Legacy is to just have a different game plan as sideboard space is so limited that you can never answer any deck. Play some powerful, and play something different.
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
A couple weeks ago my Dredge deck completely disappeared. I don't know where it is.... :( Dredge isn't an expensive deck, except for the fact that I just added a set of LED to it, and I also recently foiled out my set of Cabal Therapies, among other pimped out cards like a Korean Firestorm, and other assorted foils and foreign cards.
But instead of looming in sadness of losing Dredge, I have been working on a new legacy deck that I have been having a decent amount of success with. That deck is Faeries. Here is the deck as it currently sits:
4x Delver of Secrets
3x Snapcaster Mage
3x Spellstutter Sprite
2x Vendillion Clique
4x Bitterblossom
2x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4x Brainstorm
3x Daze
3x Force of Will
2x Ghastly Demise
2x Spell Snare
1x Mana Leak
2x Inquisition of Kozelik
2x Ponder
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Scalding Tarn
4x Polluted Delta
2x Island
1x Swamp
4x Underground Sea
1x Riptide Laboratory
4x Mutavault
3x Wasteland
Sideboard:
3x Vampire Nighthawk
1x Force of Will
1x Perish
4x Surgical Extraction
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2x Liliana of the Veil
3x Damnation
This list looks a little all over the place at first. If it weren't for the Delver of Secrets this would very clearly be a control deck, so why do we have Delver in here? In testing I realized that all my 1/1s weren't really putting my opponent on a clock. In the same way that Counterbalance decks will play a Tarmogoyf to apply pressure and try to close out the game before the opponent can come out of the soft lock, the same is true here. This deck is very counterspell heavy, but is also fairly tempo-based. One of the staple elements of a Faeries deck is how you play your entire game plan on your opponent's turn. This deck has 16 spells that have to be played on your turn in the form of Delver of Secrets, Jace the Mind Sculptor, Jitte, Bitterblossom, and Ponder. All of those cards are very powerful cards that your opponent will not want to be facing down, so you don't mind having to tap out for them.
Unlike RUG Delver, this delver deck is more tempo-control. This deck will slow down the game plan and let the incremental advantages of Bitterblossom, Jace, and Jitte take the game over while still countering some spells and applying pressure. If I had any complaints about this deck, I would have to say I would like to maybe cut one card for more 4-ofs. That might end up being Daze that gets the axe, but I don't want to count it out yet.
I find that sometimes the best strategy to be successful in Legacy is to just have a different game plan as sideboard space is so limited that you can never answer any deck. Play some powerful, and play something different.
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Modern Dredge Combo v2.0
Hello everyone! Recently I was looking back at modern dredge, and I realized that while legacy may be too fast for Gravecrawler to make a cameo, Modern is slow enough by design for it to make an impact. Gravecrawler synergizes beautifully with Bridge from Below, so I knew I wanted to make a deck around those two:
4x Drowned Resulka
4x Hedron Crab
4x Magus of the Bazaar
4x Viscera Seer
1x Golgari Thug
4x Shambling Shell
4x Stinkweed Imp
4x Bloodghast
4x Gravecrawler
1x Skaab Ruinator
4x Vengevine
4x Bridge from Below
1x Darkblast
1x Life from the Loam
1x Godless Shrine
3x Watery Grave
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Swamp
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
1x Creeping Tar Pit
sb:
4x Nature's Claim
1x Elesh Norn
1x Iona
2x Unburial Rites
3x Memory's Journey
4x Duress
The one problem I have noticed with this deck in testing is the lack of interactivity and the lack of going over the top. It sits awkwardly right in the middle. However, it has been testing very well despite those apparent issues. Even when my opponent plays something like Grafdigger's Cage, as long as I have a Viscera Seer in play I can just draw a creature from the yard with dredge and turn it into zombies every turn for the rest of the game. In fact, if that creature with dredge is Shambling Shell, then I don't even need the viscera seer!
This deck has been doing incredible against the control decks, but it has been soft to combo decks. If there is enough combo, I may add Inquisition of Kozelik to the mix too in order to disrupt the opponent enough to allow me to beat in. Aggro is another interesting matchup. On one hand, they can never really profitably trade, but on the other, I really can't rely on bridges. Some games though, I am given the window of opportunity to make a huge army and they can never outrace me.
By the way, every good deck is supposed to have a nut draw, so how do you beat this opener?
T1: Hedron Crab
T2: mill 6 off fetchland, viscera seer + gravecrawler or Magus of the Bazaar
T3: Crazy shit happens!
On turn 3, you have many avenues available. If you went for the magus, then you can upkeep dredge (upkeep is better than main phase in case dredgers don't chain you can discard a dredger for the draw step). If you went for the Seer + Gravecrawler, then if you have at least 1 bridge form below you can make a zombie horde. Also don't forget about Bloodghast triggers if you have any! More free Zombies! If you have no lands in hand, you could even sac the crab for another 2 or 4 power to speed up the clock a little. Remember, while you are recasting gravecrawlers, you are casting creature spells that may trigger any vengevines in your yard, so you may get to punch in for 4 right off the bat!
The difference between this deck and the legacy version is that in this deck you aren't as all-in on the graveyard, so you are less impacted by graveyard hate. This means opponents need twice the answers to every threat. If they answer it in play, they have to deal with it again in the graveyard.
I was playing against one opponent who confidently cast Firespout while I had 2 creatures in play and some 20 zombies. In response I cracked my fetchland and recurred my 3 Bloodghasts and let his sweeper resolve. I triggered 2 bridges per dude and casually placed 20 power worth of zombie into play. Needless to say he scooped them right up.
4x Drowned Resulka
4x Hedron Crab
4x Magus of the Bazaar
4x Viscera Seer
1x Golgari Thug
4x Shambling Shell
4x Stinkweed Imp
4x Bloodghast
4x Gravecrawler
1x Skaab Ruinator
4x Vengevine
4x Bridge from Below
1x Darkblast
1x Life from the Loam
1x Godless Shrine
3x Watery Grave
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Swamp
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
1x Creeping Tar Pit
sb:
4x Nature's Claim
1x Elesh Norn
1x Iona
2x Unburial Rites
3x Memory's Journey
4x Duress
The one problem I have noticed with this deck in testing is the lack of interactivity and the lack of going over the top. It sits awkwardly right in the middle. However, it has been testing very well despite those apparent issues. Even when my opponent plays something like Grafdigger's Cage, as long as I have a Viscera Seer in play I can just draw a creature from the yard with dredge and turn it into zombies every turn for the rest of the game. In fact, if that creature with dredge is Shambling Shell, then I don't even need the viscera seer!
This deck has been doing incredible against the control decks, but it has been soft to combo decks. If there is enough combo, I may add Inquisition of Kozelik to the mix too in order to disrupt the opponent enough to allow me to beat in. Aggro is another interesting matchup. On one hand, they can never really profitably trade, but on the other, I really can't rely on bridges. Some games though, I am given the window of opportunity to make a huge army and they can never outrace me.
By the way, every good deck is supposed to have a nut draw, so how do you beat this opener?
T1: Hedron Crab
T2: mill 6 off fetchland, viscera seer + gravecrawler or Magus of the Bazaar
T3: Crazy shit happens!
On turn 3, you have many avenues available. If you went for the magus, then you can upkeep dredge (upkeep is better than main phase in case dredgers don't chain you can discard a dredger for the draw step). If you went for the Seer + Gravecrawler, then if you have at least 1 bridge form below you can make a zombie horde. Also don't forget about Bloodghast triggers if you have any! More free Zombies! If you have no lands in hand, you could even sac the crab for another 2 or 4 power to speed up the clock a little. Remember, while you are recasting gravecrawlers, you are casting creature spells that may trigger any vengevines in your yard, so you may get to punch in for 4 right off the bat!
The difference between this deck and the legacy version is that in this deck you aren't as all-in on the graveyard, so you are less impacted by graveyard hate. This means opponents need twice the answers to every threat. If they answer it in play, they have to deal with it again in the graveyard.
I was playing against one opponent who confidently cast Firespout while I had 2 creatures in play and some 20 zombies. In response I cracked my fetchland and recurred my 3 Bloodghasts and let his sweeper resolve. I triggered 2 bridges per dude and casually placed 20 power worth of zombie into play. Needless to say he scooped them right up.
If you're looking for a very fun modern deck that packs a punch, try out Dredge v2.0! If you are looking for ways to customize this deck for yourself, one thing to consider is Unearth cards like in the previous version of the deck.
That's all I have for today! When in doubt... BRAAAIIIINNNS! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Pack to Moat, week 6
Hello everyone! I'm back with another weekly update on the pack to moat project! I haven't played much magic at all this week, which is reflected in the lack of trades, but I got my first 30+ card this week!
March 5th, 2012
My:
2x Gravecrawler (8.22, 16.44)
Rootbound Crag (3.88)
Wurmcoil Engine (15.97)
His:
Garruk Relentless (14.52)
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (3.82)
Batterskull (13.95)
Dungeon Geists (5.17)
Net: +1.17
This trade looked good for me initially, but after review it turns out I valued my Gravecrawlers 1 too low a piece and my Rootbound almost a dollar low as well. The funny thing about this trade was that after I cleared up the Pack to Moat trade, I wound up trading for those 2 Gravecrawlers and the Wurmcoil Engine!
March 7th, 2012
My:
FOIL Headless Skaab (0.25)
His:
Harmonize (1.71)
Net: +1.46
This trade was kinda cool because I didn't realize how seemingly useless cards like Harmonize can actually hold some good value! The card is absolutely playable in the right deck, so maybe this can do a miracle for me!
My:
Garruk Relentless (14.52)
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (3.82)
Dungeon Geists (5.17)
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (3.82)
Dungeon Geists (5.17)
Clifftop Retreat (2.86)
His:
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (32.58)
Net: +6.21
This is awesome! I haven't even had a 20+ card in the binder yet, but now I vault right over into the 30+ range! The only thing bad about this trade though is that Sorin is losing about 50 cents a day right now, and I won't be able to trade again until probably Wednesday, so by that point he will be down to maybe 29. Regardless, this is a very powerful piece that I will try to move quickly for some more solid staples including hopefully like a Sword of Feast and Famine or a Geist of Saint Traft.
3 trades
Week 6 net: +8.84
Like I said, I played almost no magic this week, however this next weekend I am going on a geek excursion out to WPI to play in a bunch of events there and hang out with some people I met at states, so I expect to get as many as 10 trades in over the course of that weekend! So while I haven't had many cards moving these past couple weeks, I expect next week's report to be a doozy to write! I may not have been playing much, but I am fine tuning a new Legacy deck that has been having fairly good results that I should have a post up about by Wednesday.
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
3 trades
Week 6 net: +8.84
Like I said, I played almost no magic this week, however this next weekend I am going on a geek excursion out to WPI to play in a bunch of events there and hang out with some people I met at states, so I expect to get as many as 10 trades in over the course of that weekend! So while I haven't had many cards moving these past couple weeks, I expect next week's report to be a doozy to write! I may not have been playing much, but I am fine tuning a new Legacy deck that has been having fairly good results that I should have a post up about by Wednesday.
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Monday, March 5, 2012
Pack to Moat, week 5
Hello Everyone!
This past week I was not able to do much trading because I was gone for the weekend to staff a church retreat. However, I was able to get a couple trades in, so the ball is still rolling!
February 27, 2012
My:
Forge Devils (0.12)
His:
Increasing Ambition (0.54)
Net: +0.42
This was after a trade and Andrew didn't feel like holding onto any junk rares, so he was very gracious and dumped them off to me! But you never know who is building tutors.dec, so watch out!!
February 28, 2012
My:
Ichorid (7.83)
Cabal Therapy (5.88)
His:
Splinter Twin (4.3)
Wurmcoil Engine (16.17)
Net: +6.76
This was my first trade to happen outside of Toys N Things, although it was with a guy who I usually play FNM with. We met up at a Dunkin Donuts planning on moving one of my Copperline Gorges to a friend he brought, but en route that friend found his fourth Copperline, so we just hung out for 150 minutes, socialized, and did some light-hearted trading. Over the course of the conversation I showed them my dredge deck and seeing the deck play out convinced one of them to go for these 2 cards after I explained how inexpensive the deck is to make.
February 29, 2012
My:
2x Copperline Gorge (9.69, 19.38)
His:
2x Gravecrawler (8.12, 16.24)
4x Daze (2.63, 10.52)
Net: +7.38
At WNM, there is one guy who I know never trades, so I don't even bother asking him. I think I may have looked into his binder 2 or 3 times in my life, although each time I am immediately blown away by his altered set of Bitterblossoms that he still uses in every format they are legal. So when he was walking by as I was soliciting to someone else and exclaimed, "Hey! I need 2 Copperline Gorges!" I was pleasantly surprised. We were able to quickly work out this deal, and the power of staple commons and uncommons really shines here. No one ever thinks of them as value cards, so it can be really easy to turn a fast profit. When someone is looking for a card, they tend to know its value, so this shouldn't be hard to move properly.
3 trades
Week 5 Net: +14.56
So I only had 2 real trades this week, but they were both VERY good ones! This next week I will be gone again for the weekend skiing in Maine, so I can't expect too significant of results. However after that I am spending a whole weekend at my friend's campus and will probably just be trading for 2 or 3 days straight! If I can set myself up for that weekend, I can foresee some awesome trades washing up soon! I estimate the binder is worth about $80 right now, which after 5 weeks and 28 trades seems very proficient!
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
ThingsILack on mtgo
This past week I was not able to do much trading because I was gone for the weekend to staff a church retreat. However, I was able to get a couple trades in, so the ball is still rolling!
February 27, 2012
My:
Forge Devils (0.12)
His:
Increasing Ambition (0.54)
Net: +0.42
This was after a trade and Andrew didn't feel like holding onto any junk rares, so he was very gracious and dumped them off to me! But you never know who is building tutors.dec, so watch out!!
February 28, 2012
My:
Ichorid (7.83)
Cabal Therapy (5.88)
His:
Splinter Twin (4.3)
Wurmcoil Engine (16.17)
Net: +6.76
This was my first trade to happen outside of Toys N Things, although it was with a guy who I usually play FNM with. We met up at a Dunkin Donuts planning on moving one of my Copperline Gorges to a friend he brought, but en route that friend found his fourth Copperline, so we just hung out for 150 minutes, socialized, and did some light-hearted trading. Over the course of the conversation I showed them my dredge deck and seeing the deck play out convinced one of them to go for these 2 cards after I explained how inexpensive the deck is to make.
February 29, 2012
My:
2x Copperline Gorge (9.69, 19.38)
His:
2x Gravecrawler (8.12, 16.24)
4x Daze (2.63, 10.52)
Net: +7.38
At WNM, there is one guy who I know never trades, so I don't even bother asking him. I think I may have looked into his binder 2 or 3 times in my life, although each time I am immediately blown away by his altered set of Bitterblossoms that he still uses in every format they are legal. So when he was walking by as I was soliciting to someone else and exclaimed, "Hey! I need 2 Copperline Gorges!" I was pleasantly surprised. We were able to quickly work out this deal, and the power of staple commons and uncommons really shines here. No one ever thinks of them as value cards, so it can be really easy to turn a fast profit. When someone is looking for a card, they tend to know its value, so this shouldn't be hard to move properly.
3 trades
Week 5 Net: +14.56
So I only had 2 real trades this week, but they were both VERY good ones! This next week I will be gone again for the weekend skiing in Maine, so I can't expect too significant of results. However after that I am spending a whole weekend at my friend's campus and will probably just be trading for 2 or 3 days straight! If I can set myself up for that weekend, I can foresee some awesome trades washing up soon! I estimate the binder is worth about $80 right now, which after 5 weeks and 28 trades seems very proficient!
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
ThingsILack on mtgo
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