Hello all! Welcome back to the series that catalogues the casual. Today, I want to begin my article with a brief question for Wizards.
A few months ago I wrote a preamble asking why the checklists that Wizards has available for each set stopped being printed in the numerical order of the cards. If you collect a set, then you will put the cards in the order on the bottom of the card (which is alpha by color, in case you are wondering about the system). The checklists were not in that order.
As a collector, I print out a checklist for every single set, and then check off the cards as I acquire them, until I have a full set. After I wrote that mini-rant, the next checklist Wizards published was back to the old order, as I requested in my article. Now I doubt my article had much of an impact, and I’d be surprised to discover that anyone working at Wizards would read my article. On the other hand, maybe the fact that I brought it up caused discussion somewhere that eventually trickled to Wizards and made changes — or maybe it was just serendipity.
Today I have a similar question about checklists, specifically the Future Sight one. Where is it? Future Sight has been out for a long time and there is still no checklist on their website. On each product page, they have documents for public consumption, such as checklists. On the Planar Chaos page, you can see the sortable spoiler, the checklist, and the printed spoiler. For Future Sight there is nothing.
Wizards even has a page that collects all of the card lists, spoilers, and checklists, for all sets ever, but no Future Sight is on that page.
Can I get my checklist soon, so I can finish checking off these cards please?
Okay, with that finished, let’s move on to Magic.
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In the realm of Magic writing, articles have become predictable. You can basically break down virtually all articles into a few categories.
Decks — In these articles, the author builds one or more decks and may explain how they play with some detail. The primary purpose of this article is to give advice or illustrate deckbuilding. Many rogue deckbuilders often prefer that people not build netdecks, and instead get their own ideas. FYI, I love this category, and it is my second favorite one to write (after Card Valuation below)
Tournament Report — This classic article stems from long ago. Players were encouraged to submit tournament reports to sites like The Dojo or to post them on Usenet. Tournament reports used to be very popular before the modern trend of hiring writers became vogue. You can still read tournament reports in articles, of course. However, they are usually Grand Prix or Pro Tour reports, instead of PTQ reports and whatnot. They are still interesting, but they aren’t as immediately useful to most readers, who may never play in one of those tournaments. Gone are the days of pre-release and local store tournament reports on the major websites.
A popular modern tournament report sub-genre is an article that runs through a draft or sealed event. These carry a large portion of strategy so they often have a lot of meat to the articles. I really like them, and they are among my favorite articles to read.
Strategy — These articles try to investigate an element of playing strategy by investigating an in game phenomenon. Some of these articles become classics of online writing, and they can be among the most helpful to readers. On the other hand, a lot of strategy can be repetitive or dull.
Card Valuation — I have written a metric ton of these articles, so I know them well. These articles evaluate cards. They can be anything from set reviews to an article on what cards are good in draft to which cards are good sideboard choices for the metagame. My own Underused Hall of Fame and Anthony Alongi’s Multiplayer Card Hall of Fame articles fit this category. I love these articles, and am very comfortable writing them. They are tons of fun to read because it is easy to agree or disagree with a card evaluation.
Rules — These articles, typically written by judges, explore the rules of the game. They may answer questions, or they may explain rulings. Also is this category are articles for beginners that explain the rules of the game, such as the Saturday School series on MagicTheGathering.com.
Rants — Another classic article type is the rant. These articles see the writer rail against some observed slight, from how Green was screwed again to the new card borders and everything in between. Although I have written a few of these, they are the category that I am least comfortable writing.
With these six categories, I thought I would investigate StarCityGames.com’s articles last week. Their articles breakdown thusly:
Decks — 9
Tournament Reports — 9
Strategy — 6
Card Valuation — 2 (mine was the only one of the week until Flores on Friday)
Rules — 4
Rants — 3
There can be articles that fall outside of these six categories, but they are rare. As you can see, the first three categories were heavy last week, with the last three being light. Obviously that will change when a new set is released and everybody wants to talk about the new cards, bumping Card Valuation up.
I remember articles published trading cards, such as this or this. Ben’s recent series was in this genre.
There is so much to do with Magic outside of tournaments, deck building, cards and strategy. I consider my article last year, The Quest for the Perfect Token, to be one of my best, and it is about something completely outside the normal writing experience.
I remember the articles about trading, or how to organize a trade binder, or how to prepare for a pre-release and what supplies to pack. They are impressionable because they are on topics outside of the normal articles’ span of control. You see new deck articles, new strategies and new reports every day on tons of websites. How often do you read an article about what you could use for tokens?
I once wrote an article on how to host a Magic night at your place, only to have it rejected, because the editor felt it wouldn’t get enough hits. I had twenty tips in the article for how to host Magic night at your hacienda. To be fair, that was many years and many editors ago. Maybe Craig would publish it today, and maybe you would want to read it today. (Would you want to read it?).
The point is that Magic readers, sites, and writers sometimes seem to conspire to keep articles about the same thing over and over again. It’s not overt, I just think that we as writers would prefer to keep our articles similar to things we’ve written about before. I also think that we as readers will click on articles that remind us of things we’ve always experienced. Lastly, I think that editors would prefer to publish known quantities. Everybody’s self interest intersects.
I realized that this past weekend.
I have just gotten a ticket to fly to a school and interview for a new job. I am a finalist. I am also actively applying to go back to grad school in case the job falls through. As a result, I expect to move shortly. If I get the word that I am moving, then I won’t have long to actually pack and move. As such, I am preparing now for the move.
I have a large Magic collection. I run a residential complex on campus at Eastern Michigan University. Two years ago, I moved from one complex to another. Since that move was close by, I didn’t throw anything out, and I just kept my old stuff. In this next move, I may have to divest myself of most of my things.
See, the grad school I applied to last week is overseas. I can’t take that many things with me if I go. I want to take Magic, sure, but the move itself demands that I cut off a lot of my possessions and that means winnowing my Magic collection to the bare essentials.
How does one go about doing that? I have no idea where to start. It sounds like a brilliant article idea. I’m sure that many Magic writers have had to move at one time or another and had to figure out what to do with their Magic collection.
I start looking for articles. I check StarCityGames.com and other web sites. After spending maybe thirty minutes searching, I realize that I don’t believe anyone has ever written on the topic, at least not that I could find. Maybe there is an article out there and I just couldn’t find it.
It shouldn’t be that hard to find, however. Magic players are moving all the time, and an article to help them out would be grand. Yet… I cannot find that article.
As a result, I have decided to spend a few pages today and talk about the subject.
I’ve begun the arduous task of sifting through my collection. Yesterday, I spent nearly the entire day (and two and a half seasons of Coupling) going through box after box after box. I would grab all of my boxes from one set, say, Mirrodin. Then I would search through the Mirrodin commons and pull all of the cards that I need. I might grab eight each of the artifact lands, and four each of most other cards that I see myself needing at some point in time. Then all of the other cards would get packed away.
I’m starting to realize that this will take some time. Here are some topics that I have already learned are important to discuss.
Remember that you intend to keep playing at your destination. Therefore, you can pick up supplies and more there.
Basic Lands — An excellent question that I have yet to get an answer to is, “How many basic lands should you take with you?” You can get basic lands cheaply and in bulk at most stores, and players that you connect with should have basics in droves. However, basics are the foundational building block of decks. Without any, you cannot build decks. Do you want to wait until you find basics before building new decks?
The answer to this question could be helped by those who have moved. Have they needed basics? How many basics did they take with them? If they divested themselves of all basics, how did it go for them?
Without an article by someone who has already moved, how can we know? Please note that when I mention that someone with experience could write an article, I don’t mean someone who rented a U-Haul or packed an SUV. I mean someone who had to take out most of their possessions and move through air or by boat, with very limited storage possibilities.
I’d love to hear from these people what they did with their basics.
To Sleeve or not to sleeve — I’ve already realized that this is an issue. Sleeves add to the size of a card or a deck. I took a 660-count card box that was full of sleeved cards and then desleeved them. The amount of space made by taking out the sleeves was incredible.
Now, I’m not recommending that you desleeve all cards. I will be sleeving my money cards, Mana Drains, Power Nine, playing set of Bazaars, Imperial Seal, Moat, The Abyss, Nether Void, etc. I’ll probably put these cards in a metal card box and then put it in my carry on luggage.
Remember that you can always buy more sleeves. You want to take as many cards with you as possible, so making your cards fit in greater number into boxes is probably the way to go. As such, based on my actions thus far, I’d recommend taking off all sleeves except for the key cards in your collection.
Boxes or binders — Do you want to pack your cards into binders or boxes? A quick glance shows my binder takes up a lot more room than a cardboard box. The goal is to take as many cards as possible, so you have to use the method that will do so.
Binders may be cute and all, but boxes are the way to pack and ship cards when you have spatial needs.
How many boxes? — A sub question of the above question is to ask what boxes, and in what quantity should be used. I’d use as few boxes as possible. Spring for some longer boxes. The longer the box, the more cards can be fit in the same space.
Here’s an experiment. Take two boxes that are each around half of the length of a long box. Place one at the end of the other, and beside them place the long box. Open all three up. See all of that cardboard in the middle of the two boxes?
The more boxes you have, the more space you are using for the ends of boxes, and therefore the less cards you can pack into the same space. Therefore, stick to the longest boxes you can find that also fit into your bags.
What cards should I take? — After spending an entire day pulling commons and uncommons I have a lot of cards pulled out and ready to go if I get the call.
Obviously, I will take any decks that are still together. I have no questions about that. However, I want to take deck stock. I have pulled four of (in a few cases eight of) every card I can see myself putting into a deck in the foreseeable future.
For example, take Deftblade Elite. There are no Deftblade Elites in nay of my decks, but he is a good card, and there’s no reason I wouldn’t play him. On the other hand, take Goblin Grappler. There is no way that I would ever want to play him. When I searched through my Legions commons, I pulled four Deftblade Elites, but no Goblin Grapplers.
Now, I am sure that you can acquire bulk common cards wherever you move to. There’s going to be a store or three that have common boxes, and other players will have tons of common cards. However, if you do not have a card in your collection post-move that you want to put into your newest concoction, then you have to find them. Who wants to scavenger hunt for Deftblade Elites?
Not all cards are created equally. I think it’s fair to take Lotus Petals, because those are older commons with a high demand, making them much harder to find. On the other hand, Incinerate will be in Tenth, and people will be buying a bunch of Tenth. Find the right playgroup, and they’ll give you Incinerates from Tenth.
Therefore, it seems to me to be a benefit to take older commons or highly demanded commons before taking cards like Civic Wayfinder.
I need a lot of money for my move if I go overseas. With that in mind, I have been making a “Good Uncommon” and “Good Common” box as I sift through all of these boxes of cards. I’ll charge a modest fee to get these cards from my friends and other players, so if they want my extra Tendrils of Agony, then they have to pay. I have a cigar box set aside to collect the funds.
If any of you are considering a move and how to cut down your collection, let me know in the forum. I’d love to chat with you about the issues!
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I have one more thing, before I go. All of this thinking about Magic articles has got me wondering. My column is supposed to cover all things casual. Is there some casual Magic topic that you would like to see me write about? If so, let, me know in the forums!
So, it looks like I am asking for three things in the forums:
1) Do you want to read my How to Host a Magic Night article?
2) Are you moving and do you have thoughts on today’s article?
3) What things would you like to see in future articles?
I hope to see you in the forums!
Until later,