Friday is always the best day to since the most amounts of people will be at the store for draft and Standard. Naturally there were about 60-70 people attending and it even got to the point where I had to go upstairs just to get some space and fresh air. Prior to heading over, me and my roommate Alex spent the previous night testing our 1v1 EDH decks against each other. Alex’s Animar deck would previously crush my Xiahou Dun the One-Eyed build since he all would needed was to Bribery the Grave Titan out of my deck. Fortunately after a handful of changes the matchup became a little more even.
In order to make these changes we orchestrated a large trade involving mostly commons and uncommons. The trade essentially came down to me sending him a Snapcaster Mage for a Chandra the Firebrand, Time Warp, Plow Under and Ancestral Vision. While having the Snapcaster Mage would likely be better for me, I’d rather help a roommate put a deck together and what I get in return is meaningless as long as I get similar value.
I made about half a dozen trades this week with two things in mind: 1) Start rounding up the pieces for my
Uril, the Miststalker EDH deck. 2) Dump some high-value Standard cards as previously mentioned. All the trades managed to satisfy my first goal and I was able to walk away with 15 cards for my deck. The first trade was a simply trade down of Plow Under for a Sunpetal Grove, Rootbound Crag, and Ruination. It was another trade where I should have probably just stuck with the Plow Under, but the need for the duals and Ruination outweighed the desire to keep an extra Plow Under.
I managed to next get rid of all the Etched Champion in binder as a result of their usefulness in Modern. I had picked them up for a dime months ago and they had been sitting in my binder since, I half expected to not get rid of them until rotation. Instead I turned three of them and a Misty Rainforest into a Grove of the Burnwillows, Terravore and Yavimaya Hollow. Sometimes you get lucky and can turn dimes into dollars. All three cards were going into my EDH deck and were three cards that I did not see frequently. The only downside was I didn’t have any more extra Misty Rainforest, which people are always looking for in Boston.
I swapped out two Obstinate Baloth for a Scepter of Dominance and then proceeded to make my biggest trade of the evening. I traded one of my foil full-art Niv-Mizzet into 2 Elspeth, Knight Errant, Sword of War and Peace, Sword of Fire and Ice, 2 Ajani Vengeant, and a Grim Lavamancer. It was a trade where both sides were satisfied: I got a pile of cards for EDH and he got the pimpest of generals for his deck. I wasn’t entirely thrilled about picking up a Sword of War and Peace since I’m trying to dump my Standard. Then again I can’t really complain about getting 5/6ths of the trade right. Also I was trading something that would sit in my binder forever for some more liquid/useful cards.
I made another trade for my deck, getting a Slagstorm, Swords to Plowshares, Vexing Shusher, and Eladmari’s Call for a spare Academy Ruins, and Phyrexian Metamorph. A lot of the trades I made today involved me trading down. While many people prefer not to trade down, or don’t do without some sort of premium, I don’t mind making that kind of deal at all. One $10 card is as useful to me as two $5 cards and I’m willing to trade up or down regardless of situation. If the card is very expensive ($25+) I may expect a couple of $10+ cards in return, but I most likely won’t ask for a premium. It’s easier for me to just have the numbers match up more than anything else.
The store was closing soon and me and a couple of friends moved over to a pizza place to hangout. Here was where I managed to accomplish part of my second goal. I trade both of my remaining Inkmoth Nexus and a Glimmervoid for Goblin Guide, Arid Mesa, Karmic Guide and Cryptic Command. Once again I was putting together someone’s Modern deck whereas I received a couple cards for my deck and a couple of EDH/Modern staples. I also succeeded in trading at a pizza joint for the first time ever.
Overall it was a good weekend for trading. I still have a sizable chunk of my EDH deck to trade for despite our league being unlimited proxies. With prerelease coming up next week, I may take the next week off from Magic.
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