The first question I ask back when someone asks me what deck they should play at XXXXX event is simple. What are your goals for playing Magic at this event? This question does throw some people off, but I feel it is the most important thing to consider both when choosing what deck to play, and in some cases what event(s) to play.  This refers more to lower-level events, but asking yourself that question will help guide you in deck decision, even at larger events (I’ll get back to larger events in a few; for now, let’s stick to weekly FNM style events). When attending weekly events at your LGS, you may find that you have many possible and varying goals week to week.

My current goal at FNM is simply to test out more cards, and variations on my Modern UW control deck.  On a week to week basis with that as my goal, I don’t necessarily consider what deck to play. Instead I consider what silly tech will I try out. Getting more practice with a deck is a viable goal for attending a weekly event.

Another scenario that comes up often is using Magic as a tool to just get outta the house.  Some weeks I just want to get out of my house (the one downside of working from home) and see my buds.  This means playing a deck like my current UW list, or a deck like Storm are off the table.  These are the weeks I gravitate towards Burn or a similar deck that will let the outcome of my match be decided in the first 7 minutes of the round. I can spend time between rounds talking to friends and trolling other guys playing grindy matchups.

On some rare occasions, my goal for a weekly event is to just plain have fun, not care about winning, and do things unexpected.  Have fun with my opponents by playing a deck they do not expect, or decks that leverage cards not commonly played.  With limited live MTG time these days, this scenario is few and far between.  A couple gems from this goal are my short love affair with Mono-Blue Turns (Back when Jace, the Mind Sculptor was banned, and Nexus of Fate was just a bad idea and not a card) and my short spell-slinging fling with Troll Worship. Brief Disclaimer: If you are strapped for cash and trying to earn credit or cash from weekly events, this is a terrible idea.  But loads of fun!

My final weekly goal for deck choice is the ‘HOLY COW, I just got this super sweet card, now I need to show it off to my friends’ goal.  It may sound strange that I would actually include this; but let’s face it, they call me Strictly Average for a reason. Recently, I acquired a playset of my most sought-after card.  The one I have always wanted, but never owned.  And that is the WCMQ Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. So, in order to properly show her off to my friends, I am working on shoring up a UW spirits list that will allow me to cast her in all of her foil glory. This deck probably will never see ultra-competitive play for me, as it’s just not my style.  But with a goal of sick brags, this deck choice is perfect.

Take a step back and look at this theory; ask yourself what your goals are for an event at the larger scale?  If you’re heading to a PPTQ, IQ, GP, or an Open, the level 1 answer is to win as many rounds as possible. If you are going to one of these events for the first time, or are generally a novice at higher level play, the answer is to play your most comfortable deck.  This ties into the goal of winning as many games as possible and getting better.

For those who regularly attend these events, the equation gets super complicated.  I mean, Differential Equations complicated. ‘Well, such and such a deck is better than this one.’ ‘So and so won an event last week with this one deck, everyone is gonna try to beat them with this other deck, and I am gonna be Smart and Level 3 them by choosing the deck that beats the deck that beats this other deck.’

This is all enough to make you go mad. Simply put, having clear goals for a larger event will help guide the deck choice. I attended a Standard PPTQ a while back, and it was after the emergence of RB vehicles style decks. My goal for that PPTQ was straightforward.  I didn’t want to lose to RB, so I crafted my deck to hose RB. (Truthfully this was a poor decision because I went 2-3 at the event).  Although I did terribly versus non-RB matches, I didn’t lose a single game to RB. Some may read this and think I failed because I went 2-3.  Nope, I succeeded in my goal.  I was happy with the outcome because it led to adjusting my overall decklist and playstyle for the rest of that standard format.  And Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Search For Azcanta have paid for themselves multiple times over in prizes.

I hope after sitting through this random stream of thought that the next time you ask yourself, or someone else, ‘What Deck should I play?’ you follow up with asking yourself ‘What are my goals at this event?’

Be Kind to eachother!

-Strictly

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

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

1. Evaluate the sideboard of my decks prior to every event. I treat my sideboard as a series of answers to problems that I expect to encounter at the event.  I’ll often have multiple sideboards I use. I’ll create one for the local play where the metagame is known, and another for a more wider metagame that may be unknown.
2. If I chose to play an established deck list, I always revisit the sideboard. Yes, I do ‘net deck.’  Sometimes pure home-brewing isn’t competitive enough, and the correct move is to play an established deck. Whenever I do this, I try to remember that the sideboard used for that event may not apply to the event I’m playing in now, since the sideboard should be determined by the expected metagame. I’ve found that my metagame is usually far different than the ones at high-level events.
3. Solve as many problems with as few cards as possible. If I can put a card in my sideboard that can address multiple threats at once I’m happy, because I can free up more spots for answers.  If I expect to see a metagame with artifacts and enchantments that I have a hard time interacting with, I may put less powerful cards in my sideboard that deal with both threats, in order to free up space for other answers to other problems.
4. Sometimes it is okay to ignore the hardest deck to beat and focus on increasing win percentages against the rest of the field. This tip is less intuitive but when analyzed it makes more sense. If I know that my matchup verses one deck is horrendous. Even if I can gain a few percentages points with a card in my sideboard, I may ignore that deck altogether and focus on improving my percentages against more decks.  For example, let’s say that my GW Humans list has a 20% win rate against another deck in the format, but a 40% win rate against three other decks, I may ignore the 20% win rate deck in my sideboard, and focus on making my win rate against the other three decks better.
5. My sideboard is not an overflow catch for cards that didn’t make the 60 card cut. Using the sideboard for good cards that didn’t make the cut in the main deck is a popular approach for many of my friends, and I have recently started to move away from this.  I used to add cards that I thought were good to my sideboard, because they were good cards, but not quite better than cards in my mainboard. I found that more times than not, I would never move those cards into my main deck because as I originally observed, my 60 cards already in the deck were better than those cards.
6. I’ve learned to allow my sideboard to free up space in my main deck. This is especially true when I build control decks. Instead of building my lists to catch all threats in the main deck, I am able to use more focused answer and leave room for other answers in my sideboard. In a metagame of low to the ground fast decks, I will mainboard sweepers and ways to deal with many threats at once, while putting single target removal and permission in the sideboard. The ability to have answers in my sideboard greatly changes how I construct my deck in these cases.
7.  I’ve made it a point to not let the outcome of a game change whether or not I sideboard. It is common practice for players at the weekly events that I attend to just move on to game two in a match without looking at their sideboard. I’ve forced myself to look at my sideboard and analyze how it can increase my chances of winning the rest of the match no matter what happened in round one. Doing this at local events is bad because it leads to habitual behavior, and if I’m attending a larger event, I find that my habits from weekly events kick in, especially when I am tired.

I sincerely hope that those reading this will take away something from these lessons I have learned.  If you feel like I am wrong about any of these, I’d love to chat more about it.  Drop me a comment and I will respond accordingly.

Good Luck and Have Fun!
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

Much to my surprise, this is a very well documented approach to drafting. BREAD is an acronym for how to evaluate cards during the draft.  The letters stand for:  Bombs,  Removal,  Evasion,  Aggro, Duds/Dregs. I’ll go through each of these categories and list out a handful of cards that fall into each one.  Keep in mind while considering this approach to drafting that this is a series of guidelines, not hard and strict rules.  Sometimes switching colors to acquire a Bomb or Removal card makes sense, while other times it is just silly and will make your deck worse off.  The tricky part about becoming better at Limited is to learn when it is correct to make a drastic change or not.

Bombs

These cards are exactly what the name implies.  They are the cards that are usually picked first for a very good reason. A Bomb is a card that needs to be answered, or it can completely take over the game.  Some traditional examples of Bombs are massive creatures that are hard to interact with or Planeswalkers. Usually, these are the cards that will force a player into a particular color because they know if they can resolve a bomb, they’ll be winning the game.  In the context of Aether Revolt, some of the bombs I’ve observed are Exquisite Archangel, Herald Of Anguish, Lightning Runner, Battle At the Bridge, and Heart of Kiran.

Removal

This is my personal favorite type of card to draft.  Having answers to my opponents threats is a good way to open the door for my threats to do their job, and win me the game. Removal cards are answers to threats played by an opponent. These cards can often directly kill (or otherwise disable) opponents creatures or permanents.  This category can even include combat tricks that may help your creatures survive while killing your opponent’s creature. Removal can be tricky because not all removal is created equal. Some removal cards use mana inefficiently which can put you far behind on tempo. Aether Revolt is loaded with interesting removal and just a few examples of them are Fatal Push, Caught in the Brights, Shock, Hungry Flames, Thopter Arrest, Cruel Finality, Foundry Hornet, Yahenni’s Expertise, Monsterous Onslaught and Natural Obsolescence. For a full list of removal check out the Aether Revolt Removal List on MTGGoldfish.

Evasion

Evasion creatures are the bread (no pun intended) and butter of a successful draft deck.  These are creatures that are hard to block or hard to interact with.  The first obvious type of evasion is Flying but some of the other important keywords in the evasion category would be Menace, Unblockable, Deathtouch, Double Strike, and First Strike. These creatures should be prioritized higher than ‘vanilla’ creatures with very little keywords or abilities. In the case of Aether Revolt, I would add mana efficient hard to kill creatures to this list, mainly because of cards like Lifecraft Cavalry. Some of the best evasive threats in AER are Dawnfeather Eagle, Aethertide Whale, Aether Swooper, Solemn Recruit, Aether Chaser, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Scrapper Champion, Greenbelt Rampager, Ridgescale Tusker, and Outland Boar. In deeper discussions with some seasoned Limited players, they kind of treat this category as a catch-all for good spells.  Others would add cards like Tezzeret’s Touch and Weldfast Engineer in this bucket since they are very synergistic with this set.

Aggro

This heading is for aggressive creatures and other serviceable spells. Your draft will typically be comprised of many cards from this category. One to two of this level of the card will not determine the direct outcome of a draft, but having a series of good aggro cards will contribute positively to the number of prizes that can be collected at the end of an event. In this current draft format, I would be happy with a deck filled out with cards such as Winding Constrictor, Silkweaver Elite, Countless Gears Renegade, Aetherstream Leopard, Audacious Infiltrator, Scrounging Bandar, Narnam Renegade, and Greenwheel Liberator.

Duds and Dregs

These are usually the last cards picked, and add little or no value to a draft deck.  I usually make a pile closer to my deck box of these, because I hope that I will not end up playing these in my deck. These are the cards that I will actually be upset with if I end up getting them as the last card.  Cards like Secret Salvage have little or no business getting sleeved into a draft deck.  This category can also include cards that require a setup that is just plain not worth the payoff.

I hope this little primer on BREAD theory was informative and useful.  Please feel free to leave a comment below with questions, concerns, feedback, or just to say Hello.

Good Luck and Have Fun!
-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

Instead of doing a cookie cutter article – listing four to five untested deck lists with a pile of cards designed to get you to buy the new set, I’m going to talk about the process that I go through to make a deck.  My goal is to have my own polished list by the time Game Day rolls around in a few weeks.  The day before a set becomes legal is usually when I get asked this question the most, ‘Hey Strictly, can you help me with this brew?’ Usually, the decks are pretty solid, but sometimes they’re just bad. Sometimes I’ll suggest an unexpected card, and they respond with ‘Well isn’t such and such card just better?’ I laugh to myself “You’re the one with the deck idea, why don’t you tell me?” I don’t bother verbalizing my question, because I already know the answer.  Everyone has their own process for building decks. Picking the four most powerful cards in the colors and slapping some lands together doesn’t work for me.

I’m not here to tell anyone how to play the game they love.  If you want to brew your own way, feel free to do so.  Also feel free to share your methods, I’d love to hear them.  My hopes are to share my process for brewing a competitive deck in an attempt to help you improve in your own brewing process.

Accepting Failure

My first step in coming up with a deck idea is accepting that I will most likely fail.   Chances are whatever deck that I brewing could be just plain bad, and I may end up with a Net Deck. If my deck ends up being a pile of poo, I’ll accept failure and treat the rest of the brewing process as a learning practice.  If you fail, and learn from the failure, than you’re better off than if you succeeded initially. I treat every card  while testing as a data point.  This awareness and focus helps me see new possible interaction that I hadn’t thought about before.

Before going down the rabbit hole of card selections, It’s important to share the tools I use for brewing. I prefer Tappedout.com and  MTGGoldfish for my decklist. Tappedout has the best mana base tool, and helps me quickly adjust land counts when needed.  Goldfish’s interface is easier for me to use when building the list, and the pricing on the deck page is helpful for figuring out a budget for acquiring cards. Testing in person is not always an option for me, so I am becoming more active on MTGO and Xmage. Xmage is a free clone with rules enforcement. I use it for the bulk of my testing. Once the decklist is near complete I acquire cards on MTGO start jamming events.

Pick a plan

Some questions I find myself asking those who send me deck lists is ‘What is your plan?  What are you trying to do here?’ More times than not, their decks that are all over the place. This happens because they didn’t consider what type of deck they wanted to build. They lose focus and pile on cards that are good but lack synergy, and expect that to be enough to win.  These decks have no identity, and just tend to be doing too many things at once.

I usually let the known meta, or what I expect the meta to be in a format guide me. For Game Day, I expect to see the multiple combos and later game scenarios where my opponents can win on turns 5 – 6. To combat this I want to come up with a super fast aggressive list.  Energy decks are very combo orientated and can fall apart against some strategies.  With all things considered, I suspect that there is a humans list out there just waiting to be found. Plus, Thalia’s Lieutenant is still legal! Humans is the only tribal deck that has ever suited my play style, so I think I may be a bit biased in testing this deck. My deck will be base White, but I’m still undecided on the other color.  I suspect it will be a White Red human list when I am done.

The Core

Once I know the identity of the deck, I try to figure out the core components of the deck. These are cards that are an instantly going to have three or four copies in the list. I’m very careful not to just pick the obvious four-of for the deck. This is an easy trap to fall into. I try to keep the list low because I want to let testing determine the final counts. For the deck I am currently working on,  the initial core of the deck was four copies of Thalia’s Lieutenant, three copies of Always Watching, four Harnessed Lightning and two Declaration In Stone. The six removal spells will be replaced last and will be very much meta dependent.  The Lieutenant is an instant add to any human deck for the card’s human synergies.  Always watching is also a no-brainer because of its sheer power level in this format.

The Meat

This is where things get counter-intuitive in my process.  Instead of assuming what creatures will round out the open 25 or 26 slots, I just start adding cards to the list as a singleton or sometimes a two-of.  Any card that synergizes with my plan is fair game.  Sometimes this stage gets me to 50 cards. For my Game Day deck, I added a series of 2-ofs, since I’d already done some heavy testing in the past with humans. Once the deck is close to the number of nonland cards that I want, I go to Tapped Out to work on the manabase. At this stage of the process, my deck usually looks horrible. If I make the list public, I usually get nastygrams about what a terrible idea it is to play EDH in Standard.

This is when I load up Xmage and throw my list in there.  My goal is to jam as many games as possible before making major changes, unless I can admit that I made a huge mistake. During these games, I ignore whether or not I even win the game. I am looking for card synergies and interactions I normally wouldn’t have thought of.  If I am lucky enough to be testing with a friend on Xmage, I’ll load up a match with no time limit, an absurdly high win count for the match.

My current list has a long way to go before I can even justify acquiring cards, let along sleeving it up for an event.

2 Expedition Envoy
2 Inventor’s Apprentice
2 Thraben Inspector
2 Town Gossipmonger
2 Aether Chaser
2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Metallic Mimic
4 Thalia’s Lieutenant
2 Hanweir Garrison
2 Reckless Racer
2 Lightning Runner
Spells (6)
2 Declaration in Stone
4 Harnessed Lightning
Enchantments (5)
2 Gryff’s Boon
3 Always Watching
Lands (23)
4 Aether Hub
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Mountain
4 Needle Spires
7 Plains

During the early testing, I found a massive mistake with my list. I had zero copies of Metallic Mimic and a singleton Kari Zev. I instantly made some cuts and put four mimics and two Kari in my list.  They are proving to be the All-Stars behind the Lieutenant and there is a good chance the pirate lady may end up as a three of in my deck. This is the part of the testing where I find out what card text matters, and what doesn’t. Currently Lightning Runner’s gain an extra attack text has not even come into play because when the card hits play he gets 1 or 2 counters from Always Watching or Metallic Mimics. I have chosen to not cut him yet, because the card is super powerful when played. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be firming up this list. I will share the evolution of the deck in a future article.

Play Testing

Once I narrow this list down to 6 or 7 unique creatures I will begin to play games with intention of winning.  This is where I start to consider sideboard cards as I learn what sorts of decks I am weak to. It’s here that I usually decide if the deck is a dud or not. This also when I start sharing the list with friends and ask them to test and give me their impressions.  If the deck is worthy of further tuning I will know almost instantly from this feedback. The idea is to get as many reps against real decks as possible.  This is where paper testing and MTGO are stronger.  Sometimes I’ll proxy out the top decks in the format and play a bunch of games with friends. One thing that is overlooked by a lot of brewers is the process of playing against your own deck.  I will hand my paper list over to a friend and play a bunch of games against my own list.  This helps to understand things from the other side of the table. It also helps if you test against better players.

There is No Magic Christmasland

If I want to determine if my list can stand up to variance in the game I purposely gimp myself. I remove my bomb or win condition in the deck, and replace with a different artwork land than I normally run. This will allow me to identify the close games I would have won with the win con, but still, determine if I have a serviceable win/loss record without my win condition.  A huge mistake people make when designing their decks is they always consider the best case scenario and ignore variance.  If I can still hold my own under adverse conditions I am confident the deck will stand up.

It is also very important to remember that a deck list should never be final and complete. Yes, obviously you need a complete list to compete.  I feel that lists should always be evolving as new information comes out and the meta shifts around you.  I am always looking for ways to improve not only my play but also improve my deck list. I may shelf a deck and move into something else because of evolving metagame but I rarely disassemble a deck that I have put this much work into.

I hope this little primer on how I evolve and brew my decks was helpful.  Feel free to leave a comment and let me know.

Try to have fun, and don’t forget to Drive a Tranquil Bargain Friends.

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

Yessiree, it is the most wonderful time of the year! Pre-release weekend.  I’d considered rewriting the whole song but time is short and what I have to share is important. Through trial and error, I have come up with a system for how I handle the financial part of the pre-release weekend. For the most common card types and rarities, I have created for myself a dollar value that represents a decision “threshold”. The pricing I tend to use is MTGoldfish’s Printable Price Sheet.

This is how the threshold values work. If I list one threshold value for a card type, this is my guideline.  Consider this value my ‘I wanna keep any cards I get in this category.’ The further the price goes past this point, the apter I am to sell instantly. Whereas the lower it goes from this value, the apter I am to go all in.

For some cards, I have multiple marker points and I will explain as we go.  It is also important to point out that opening a card I want to use for a deck overrules any and all thresholds I set.  If I can open something I need, it instantly goes into the project binder, regardless of current price.

Planeswalkers

One important thing to remember is that we do not always know the power of a card when we look at it in spoilers and may not know the power for a while after a set is released.  Let us take Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy as our prime example.  Prerelease night this card was trading around $8 and it was being shipped shortly after for 1,100 puca points. This was just one example of a missed opportunity when it comes to Planeswalkers for many people,  as the card eventually got close to $100.

For Planeswalkers, I use a three value system of $10/$15/$20.  Planeswalkers around $10 or less, I tend to actively try to acquire.  Due to the popularity of Planeswalkers when they are new, someone will always want them in the opening weeks of the set.I keep an eye on activity and move them when I feel they have peaked.

The closer I am to $15 from each side determines if I just hold onto it .  This is a good safe value.

As the price climbs over $20 I usually ship these on Pucatrade or sell before I leave the event. This price point or higher means that I have virtually played for free.

Rare Lands

I tend to want to be able to play any deck in standard and the first step to this is the mana base.  I have found that it is hard to go wrong holding onto lands and they rarely lose enough value to justify unloading.  For lands, I use $12 as my decision point. The further under $12 a land is listed at the apter I am to keeping it or acquiring more.  As the price goes past $12 I am more apt to flip it towards cards I need.

Removal Spells

 Rare Removal spells require a good knowledge of the current meta-game and formats.  I tend to look at previous sets and how similar cards trended.  Let’s use Languish as an example. This card preordered for $7.50 and spiked to nearly $20, before averaging around $5 for its time in Standard.  More recently Declaration in Stone also had a similar trajectory. It started at $5 when spoiled and rocketed to nearly $20 a few weeks after release before settling back around $5. I value Good Removal spells with a decision point of $5.  Defining what is good is subjective and could take up an entire posting series.

Counterspells

Rare Counterspells are easy. I set a decision point at $2 on these.  Sometimes I will add value on  Counter Spells for extra text, like exiling a spell of ability. Summary Dismissal recently preordered around $3, tanked to under $1 and settled back around $2.

Creature Spells

I’ve found creatures to be the most volatile of all the cards from prereleases. There are lots of mitigating factors I consider when evaluating the cost of creatures, but let’s simplify it a bit. I start by looking at Rarity and whether of not a card has Legendary in the type. After that I look for creature types because there are some tribes I put a premium on.

It is no secret that Mythic Creatures tend to be where the money is. Here I default to the Planeswalker $10/$15/$20 values. I do however make exceptions for cards that I feel could be format breaking or a cross format All-star. I’m looking at you Kalitas and Grim Flayer.

Due to the prevalence of EDH and the effect on the market, I treat Non-Legendary and Legendary Rare Creatures differently. I find the most bulk rares in the Non-Legendary creature type. I have found the press leading to prerelease on these cards to be pretty accurate and use it to guide me. I keep my decision point around $7 for these cards.

Legendary Creatures are a different beast altogether because they can be commanders in EDH.  These cards tend to trend slightly different.  The usually slowly gain in price and level out later than other cards.  I would recommend using the $7 decision point on these cards with exception of adding a low of $2.  If I find a card I like as a possible commander because it has a relevant tribe or good text, I will scoop up as many as I can.

Uncommon

I avoid the chase uncommon cards like the plague.  I do not actively acquire UCs actively and tend to hold the ones that I acquire because I open so much product and I am sure to see them again.  The exception to this is over hyped UCs priced around or over $4. Most of these UCs settle around $2 for their life in Standard and I will be happy to unload at double that price.

Foils, Masterpieces, and Promos

SELL SELL SELL. Don’t argue.  Just sell. This is when the height of the value trend will be for foils. Move them fast and pay for prerelease.

Aether Revolt

Uncommon
Fatal Push is a trap at $5.  If I open any of these they are instantly going out. I will be more than happy to send them to people at $5 and collect the ones I need while drafting.

Felidar Guardian is a viable investment at $1. If the combo pans out I can see it going up to $3. I will be on the lookout to obtain these this weekend.

The rest of the UCs I will just hold onto until I see what the Pros do.

Rares

I will be actively looking to get my hands on Glint-Sleeve Siphoner at $1.50.  I think this card has a lot of potential in a tribe that could benefit greatly from her. There are many relevant humans in Standard right now.

Spire of Industry at $4.50 is a no brain slam-dunk buy for me.  I will trade for these all day.

Baral, Chief of Compliance at $6 is a trap for me.  Yes, he is Legendary.  Yes, he has a cute ability.  I just do not feel this card is worth the hype.  I will be selling each these I get, so I can buy more Spire of Industry.

Disallow is the one card I hope I am wrong about.  At $4.36 I am just plain indifferent. I will pass this card over all weekend long.

I have read many people down on Yahenni’s Expertise. I am hopeful and optimistic with this card. With what we have seen with Languish in the past, at $5.99 I will definitely acquire these if I have the chance.

At $1.50 I am sneaking into my kid’s room late at night to raid their piggy banks to snatch up Yahenni, Undying Partisan. This card seems really good to me for many reasons.  I love a low price on a Legendary with a great tribe and a useful ability. In a standard format where Drana, Liberator of Malakir is still legal I think there may actually be a vampire deck.  The price is right, and I will be getting my hands on as many of these as I can this weekend.

Mythics

My 2nd favorite cat is back, and at $11 I will be acquiring Ajani Unyielding based purely on my Planeswalker rules.

Although it is no Looter Scooter, Vehicle fans will be looking for a replacement because of the recent B&R report. They will be overpaying for Heart of Kiran to replace their trusty Scooter.  I am not buying it, and at $21 I am paying for my prerelease with this card.

At $3.50 I would like all of my readers and Pucatrade friends to trade me all of the Exquisite Archangels that they open. This is my second favorite card to go in on with this set with Yaheeni being the first. Angel’s will always have a place in EDH.  This angel stops you from losing the game.  I am full well expecting this card text to be fully abused at the Pro Tour.

Good luck this weekend.  May your lands drop as needed. And your top decks hit as you want them to.

As always Drive a Tranquil Bargain Friends.

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

A little while back  I covered International shipping from the US to Canada, and the costs associated with that. This short will revolve around an interesting product that I was turned onto called team bags. These awesome inventions got their name from original sport card purpose, holding team sets of cards.  You’ve seen these before if you’ve received orders from any of the major online card retailers. They can be purchased from Amazon for roughly $3 per 100.

These bags can be used to protect your cards more than a top loader alone can, and they allow you to cleanly pack a stack of cards with one top loader.  When shipping more than 2 or 3 cards, the weight of your envelope can be an issue and make shipping very costly if you attempt to load up multiple top loaders into an envelope.  Thickness of your envelope is also a major concern when shipping many cards.  My shipments usually only include 1 top loader, a stack of unsleeved cards, and a team bag.

When shipping a large number of envelopes out accidents are bound to happen.  I personally feel that it is my duty as the sender to ensure the cards get to the receiver and have found that the protection of the team bags is worth the effort and cost.  I recently a received a message from a receiver in Canada who’s envelope was mangled in the mail, but the team bag and the cards were intact. The receiver praised my shipping methods and attributed his cards arriving safely to the use of team bags.

Once I started using team bags, I found myself increasing the number of cards I was willing to send to users. I actually find it easier to ship using them.  Gone are the days of jamming cards into top loaders.  I’ve received some amazing feedback from others who I’ve informed about them and am curious to hear about your experience with them. or if you might have other methods for shipping larger stacks.

That’s all for now, and remember… Drive a Tranquil Bargain Friends.

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

Today I am hoping to remove some of the mysticism around sending cards overseas and hopefully open a new world of recipients and senders to you.

Receiving

The is only reason to block other countries from sending you cards, is if you are on a deadline for your cards.  (Honestly though, If you are on a deadline and need cards fast, why use Puca to begin with?) PucaShield and sender responsibility covers you from anything that can go wrong.

Sending

This is where things get complicated.  As far as I know there is no easily accessible shipping guide for sending cards from the US to other countries. The most important question is cost. It costs $1.15 to send a 1oz envelope to all international countries, Canada is an exception.  The Canadian Postal Service and the US Postal Service have an arrangement, which allows you to send up to a 2oz envelope to our Canadian Friends. This $1.15 cost can be paid with any amount of postage you have to reach that amount, or you can purchase a single International Forever Stamp for the same cost from the Post Office. It’s also a good idea to keep a supply of $.21 ‘extra ounce’ stamps on hand, and add them to any package that is over 1oz.  I use a food scale to ensure that I’m within the weight limits. With Pucashield, there is no need for additional insurance.

Some other tips for sending cards overseas:

• Write Air Mail on the envelopes, this helps the letters get sorted faster.
• Use Greeting Cards to smooth out the thicker envelopes, as it will help the envelope not get torn when being processed.
• Secure the envelope as tightly as possible, using tape to hold down all parts of envelope that could get open/torn. Remember International shipments touch many different hands, so I try to secure them as much as possible.
• Always pay the extra $.21 if you are unsure.  Its safer to pay .$21 then to pay to reship.

There’s so much more to cover regarding proper packaging and postage, and I’ll be going deeper on this in a future post. For now I wanted to touch on something that I get asked daily. If you have tips for international shipping / receiving please leave them in the comments.

Drive a Tranquil Bargain Friends.

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

Go Wide, but Keep Your Focus

Today’s tip is about how to mange your want list most effectively. I believe that your Wants List should be a path to your end goal, instead of just a list of random wants.  Many people will advise you to add more cards to your list so that more traders can find more matches with your wants.  This is great advice because it helps from a package package trade perspective, but blindly adding any card that you might want is a bad idea.  I suggest that you add cards that will get you to your goal.  When building your want list, think about the cards you want and also what cards that people may want if they’re giving up a card that you desperately need.  Here’s an example:

If you’re looking for fetches for a Modern deck, then you’re more likely to get the cards from someone changing decks in Modern.   Trade into other Modern lands that you don’t specifially need so that you’ll have more leverage when trading for what you do need.

Another method that I use, is trading for like-valued cards within a given format. This will give you “trade bait” for cards that you do need. For example: I recently needed Kalitas for my sideboard in Standard, but noone was trading the card.  I added other higher priced Standard cards to my list and someone sent me a Grim Flayer.  I found someone who was willing to trade off Kalitas to get his Grim Flayer, because they were changing Standard decks.

I hope this tip helps you get closer to your trading goals. I’d like to hear what you think of the Strictly Short, and if you have any techniques that you use to build your collection. Take a second and pop over to my Contact form to share those thoughts and let me know if you’d like to see this as a regular series.

Drive a Tranquil Bargain Friends.

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

I joined the discord community with little to no expectations.  I hadn’t received a card in months.  It seemed like everyone was only sending cards to get insane bounties, or ridiculous reciprocal trades (“recips”). I didn’t have the collection to trade for the cards I needed, but I had a load of points.  I was unsatisfied and angry. I was even considered selling my points, but joining the discord server was a turning point for me.

In new social settings I’m typically very shy, and laid back. Because of this, I did as I would normally do in a new social setting: I sat quietly, and studied how those who were successful in communicating acted and behaved. As I watched I started to notice some things.

I saw people trading ridiculously expensive cards! Stuff I would’ve never fathomed being traded on Puca Trade; FoWs, Moxes, Alpha and Beta cards. Shocks and Fetches were flying out of binders like crazy.  I was Templeton the rat, and this was my smorgasbord! I started to look at every profile link that I could – looking for trends and taking notes.  “What cards were being shipped or received?” “What were people recipping for?” “What cards frequently showed up on people’s want lists?”

As I said above, I couldn’t do reciprocal trades, because I didn’t have cards  that people wanted.  So I started sending what I did have..  No bias, no recips, just cards in an envelope, for good will, and points.  Most of what I sent out was jank, but I did build packages in to maximize my sends.  Once my outgoing trades were flowing, the points began to stream in. I updated my wantslist  with stuff I needed for decks, and staples I wanted on hand. Slowly but surely my wants, started to get filled.

Let’s take a break from the story to talk about some of my observations. A lot of traders fall off the Puca wagon because because they send a bunch of low value cards, and expect to immediately get staples. This rarely happens.  I’d love to find the Unicorn trader in real life who is going to give you equal value for any trade, like giving you an Aether Vial for a stack of bulk rares. It doesn’t happen in real life, and it doesn’t happen on Puca Trade. Once I realized the cards I wanted, would be difficult to acquire directly, I started checking what people were trading away to get to similar cards.  Then, I used my want list, to acquire those cards so that I could get to my goal. Let me elaborate.

It is a marathon, not a sprint

A basic understanding of Magic finance tells us that you can’t transform fifty $1 cards directly into one $50. If you want a $50 card you need to trade into smaller cards that will help folks. Trade $1-5 into $5-10 Cards then trade those cards into $10-15 cards.  And keep going until you have a pile of cards like Fetch lands to trade.

A good example of these types of cards are Standard Lands. I added a handful of Kaladesh fast lands to my want list. These currently have ridiculously low prices, so I figured if I got “stuck” with them, I wouldn’t be sad. I also added other Standard cards that people wanted a lot of.  Cards like Prized Amalgam, which see play in other formats. These kinds of cards are low-risk, medium-reward cards. To get people to send me these cards, I offered a small bonus.This is a technique you can try if you’re having trouble collecting cards like this.

Once I had a good amount of cards that people wanted, I changed my strategy. I added more desirable cards (mid-level staples) to my want list, and killed my bonus. Then I started sending cards to active traders. Watching the discord chat room allowed me to see who was actively trading, who was just receiving, and who was just passing through. Supporting active traders, is not only good for the community, but it’s good for my collection. My want list started to get noticed, and cards started coming in. All the while, I was updating my want list to pricier, and pricier cards. Not only was my collection growing, but by sending cards to people, I was also building good faith.

You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours

I don’t actively advertise reciprocal trading, because I think too many people have a negative opinion of it.  You have to be careful about the words you use, or it may come off bad.  If you have a pile of decent stuff to share, just throw a question out there like ‘Hey guys, I really need a playset of Aether Vials.  What would it take to get you to send them to me?’ Listen to advice, make note of the cards people want in exchange, then acquire them. I was able to get 3/4 of my Aether Vials for my Modern Deck by sending KTK Fetchlands. I didn’t advertise ‘Want this, have this!’ I approached people openly and said ‘I need to get here, what do you need from me to get there.’ This way feels more direct; it’s a faster route to get where I need to go- rather than finding that one random person who needs the cards I have for the card I want.

Most reciprocal trades are planned, but every so often you get an “Unintended Reciprocal”. This is a fantastic term I’ve come up with to describe this happy occurrence. This is where you send cards because people need them,  and in virtue, they respond by seeing your list and trying to send you something as well. This is a very good method and works even better if you are open and advertise the cards that you send out. If you send someone a Horizon Canopy for their Legacy deck, it’s OK to brag about it! It’s good for the community to see neat stuff sent, and it gives others, who are watching, a reason to look at your profile. The magical part of the unintended reciprocals is that you send cards with no expectation of getting something back, and you get a pleasant surprise.

Not all cards are created equal

Speaking of sending out cards, I like to classify my trade stock into two categories: There’s an ‘I’ll send to anyone’ pile, and a ‘I’ll send if there is something to be gained from it pile.’ The first pile goes to anyone as long as I have decent stock, and shipping materials. I reserve the second pile for a users who’ve done good by me, or who I’ve seen doing good in the community. There are also times when the trades are flowing and I want to get in on the action, then I may dip into the 2nd pile. These piles typically determine when I send the cards, but not always. I’ve been known to send a $.75 card overseas to someone for $1.15 just because I felt like it. I just like brightening someone’s day. In trades like these, the good will gained by sending cards to a user is more equitable, than the surface value of the trade. I may be sending a shock land with no promise of something in return (besides points), but the long-term benefit is better than any reciprocal I could get. I’ll close with the most important message that I hope you hear in this article.

Have Courage and Be Kind

I truly believe in positive vibes, especially in this community.  The more good you do for others, the more good will happen to you.  My staggering trade numbers are proof of this.  I have completed 2 not-so-cheap Modern decks, and am working on the final pieces to convert one of them to Legacy.  With the help of the Puca Discord community, I was able get all the cards I needed to make my son a Standard deck. My son’s new deck is full of cards that came from Puca Traders, they even made doodles all over the lands for him. I think this group is great, and getting better by the day. The sheer numbers of trades being committed by members of the chat community speak volumes.  On any given day The Leader Board on the Puca Trade site is filled with active members of the chat community.  If you ask these members I am sure mostly all of their experiences have been as positive as mine.  We have all seen an uptick in receives with little or no bonuses, and very few reciprocal trades.By being a positive force in the community, you can have an impact and make it a better place. If you haven’t had a chance yet, take some time and read my recent post Have Courage and Be Kind where I elaborate on these ideas.

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