I must acknowledge that, if you break the PucaTrade Terms of Service, you can purchase PucaPoints from other members. I do not condone this practice. It was clear to me that buying PP from another user would be a bad idea. It would be terrible for one of the most vocal supporters of the service to get his account banned. However, a cursory search did reveal that I could purchase PP at a rate of $.35 per 100 PP. Using this baseline, I set out to discover if it was feasible to purchase cards for cash, and mail them out for PP. (Spoiler .. IT IS!!) Let’s talk about how.

Keep in mind that the values used in this discussion may fluctuate; I can only use the values available at the time of this writing. My goal is not to instruct readers on specific cards to buy and send for points. Instead, I want to illustrate that it is feasible to obtain a good rate on your cash investment when trying to get  PucaPoints. As with most things I discuss, this method will take a little bit of work. In my opinion, however, the payoff is there.

The Promoted Trade Dashboard is available to everyone. All it requires is a little bit of time to crunch numbers. This tool has allowed me to take advantage of up to a 500% bonus. Here’s how it works in a nutshell: I commit to a trade, and then buy the card from TCGPlayer.  I ‘drop ship’ (mail the card directly to the trade recipient) from TCG. This gets the cards to the receiver fast. I reap the benefits of buying low (with cash) and selling high (for PP).

Note, I do not necessarily concern myself with the highest percentage bonuses on the dashboard. Sometimes these can be cheaper cards, and not worth the effort. Instead, I sort the list by Size of Bonus and look for Bonus % of more than 275% or so.

For example, I found that I could get a solid 20,000 pucapoints for a Noble Hierarch.

 I quickly threw these numbers into Excel and started calculating. I could purchase the Hierarch from TCGPlayer for a cost of $63. In return, I’d receive $200 worth of pucapoints. This meant that I’d be spending $31.50 in cash per $100 worth of PP. That’s a better rate of return than the current rate of $35 per $100 ($.35 per 100 PP). I feel that buying PP from other traders no longer makes sense when the Promotion bonus option offers better deals, and is within the TOS.

In other words, if I was to buy the same amount of PP from another player, I’d have to spend $70 cash. Instead, I spent just $63 cash on the Hierarch. This may seem like a small margin. However, if you turn these points around and acquire cards that you need at a lower promotion rate, you are increasing your ‘profits’ without breaking any rules. This exercise requires a knowledge of the cards you want to acquire and understanding what the current promotions are on those cards. If the cards you want are ALSO promoted at 500%, this method probably isn’t for you. 

For the sake of this article, I chose Watery Grave and Koth of the Hammer as the cards I would want to acquire through PucaTrade. Watery Grave from RTR is currently at a base of 1172 pucapoints, and top promotion is 2500 points. Koth of the Hammer is base 1300 points, and promoted at 2500. Full playsets of both of these two cards at their promoted price would cost 20,000 PP. That’s the same amount of Puca Points as the promoted Hierarch. If I was to buy four copies of each of these cards, it would cost me $92.36 in cash from TCGPlayer. Instead, I can feasibly obtain $92.36 in cards for the cost of buying and sending a single $63 card.

The biggest risk with this scenario is that the exact cards that you want may not be sent to you via promotion.  Although this is a risk, I chose two cards that I myself have been sent by random members in the past. I have faith in the system, and I am perfectly comfortable using this method to pad my points. I acknowledge that others with very specific wants may feel differently. The point of this article is not to argue the health of the system. Rather, I want to show that there is more than one avenue to increasing your point total.

If you find yourself in a spot where you have little faith in the system, but want to make it work, feel free to check out some of my very popular PucaTrade articles.

• Have Courage and Be Kind
• Puca Trading–The Strictly Average Method
• Strictly Short – A Want List That Works

Always remember to Give and Let Give

-Strictly

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE STRICTLY AVERAGE MOVEMENT OR IF YOU WANT TO GET IN ON NEXT MONTHS DRAWING, FEEL FREE TO CHECK OUT OUR PATREON

Jeremy Beardsley

Jeremy aka “Strictly Average” is an ‘average’ guy with ‘average’ plans. He is the creator and overboss of Strictly Average Gaming, which includes the Patreon group and StrictlyAverageMTG.com

https://strictlyaveragemtg.com

The hype for Modern Masters 2017 is real.  There are a ton of high-value reprints that everyone seems excited about. Yes, I’m excited to be getting affordable Snapcaster Mage, Liliana, of the Veil, and Zendikar Fetch Lands, but I am even more psyched about some of the other much-needed reprints. So without any more hype, the other guys have enough of it already, here are the Top six cards I’m buying from MM17.

6. Serum Visions

I have seen this card preselling at $1.88, and to me its a steal.  I believe the Uncommons are going to be much rarer in this set.  With 2 reprints (and an FNM promo) recently I don’t see Serum Visions going back to being a $15 card, but it is a widely played card that could go back to the $5-$7 range, and having a playset or 4 at this current price will not hurt anyone.  This price is the absolute floor and I do not see it going lower.

Price Trend Chart from MTGStocks.com

5. Death’s Shadow

The price of Death’s Shadow has already crept up since I snagged a couple playsets at $7.50 each.  This card is seeing more and more Modern play in a variety of flavors.  The biggest roadblock for lots of players with the older Death’s Shadow lists was the need to run Tarmogoyf in the deck.  Not only is Tarmo getting reprinted, making the more traditional lists more attainable, but other less expensive variants are making some waves, especially Grixis Death’s Shadow. At the current preorder price of $10.50, I think this card is a bargain.  I can see it easily creeping up closer to $15-$17 after people are done opening MM17.

4. Might of Old Krosa

Might of Old Krosa is currently preordering at $3, less than half of the original printing.  This is a slam dunk purchase for me, even if I never plan on playing it. This card will easily return to over $5 after this set passes, and may even get back to closer to its original price as less Uncommons are opened as expected.

3. Voice of Resurgence

Preordering at $12, Voice of Resurgence is a great investment.  Being printed in the Mythic Slot means far fewer prints than other cards in the set.  Voice was over $40 at one point during Shadows over Innistrad time frame and was still over the $20 mark before spoiler season hit.  I expected the card to go back to $20 easily and possibly back up to $40 if someone breaks out a GW based deck in the current volatile Modern metagame.  Even if I am wrong about both of those points, the card will easily surpass $15, making this a solid 20% off sale.

2. Abrupt Decay

Speaking of sales, ordering a playset of Abrupt Decay at around $4.50 feels like a nice sale of 50% off the pre-spoiler price.  Decay is one of the key pieces to JUND decks and sees a lot of play.  It is easily one of the most played cards in decks with these color combinations, and will not stay where it is. Let’s just say that I am wrong again, and Decay doesn’t hit the $9 pre-spoiler price but caps at $7.  A 35% return on investment doesn’t feel bad, especially in Magic.

1. Stony Silence

At $3 a copy preorder, I am robbing the kid’s College funds to invest in copious amounts of Stony Silence. This card will easily double in price, if not go higher.  Stony is a sideboard card in every deck that plays White, as it attacks many decks in the Modern format.  The original printing was around $10 for almost ever, and even if the value of the card loses 10% due to reprint value, that would be a 3X multiplier on value.  Maybe with all the money I earn from this purchase, I will send myself back to school for a Finance degree, so I can fully understand the idiocy of investing my kid’s College fund into cardboard.

Good Luck and Have fun Drafting MM17,

Strictly

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE STRICTLY AVERAGE MOVEMENT, FEEL FREE TO CHECK OUT OUR PATREON

Jeremy Beardsley

Jeremy aka “Strictly Average” is an ‘average’ guy with ‘average’ plans. He is the creator and overboss of Strictly Average Gaming, which includes the Patreon group and StrictlyAverageMTG.com

https://strictlyaveragemtg.com