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

My Deck

I ended up building a pretty sweet Green Blue Fliers/Stompy deck.  I was mainly focused on the double blue Cartouches that I opened, and learned some synergies as I went along. The low curve stuff didn’t perform as expected.  The Slither Blade‘s seemed like they would be good, but it wasn’t until the later part of Round 2 when I finally drew them.  They were mostly underwhelming but did get a bit of early damage in, before eating removal. This cleared the way for some great 2 drops. Bitterblade warriors were just Bears with upside and always did their job. I found Labyrinth Guardian to be very useful, with a great filterability and also leaving a good size body to save time for my bigger threats. Exemplar of Strength is a beast and when paired up with Cartouche of Knowledge, I was living in Value Town.

As the mana curve got larger my value just exploded with this deck.  Manglehorn and Vizier of Tumbling Sands were just straight bodies, and their abilities had little effect on the game. Prowling Serpopard was just a beastly 4/3 that at one point had 2 Cartouches attached to him. Pouncing Cheetah proved to be super great in my matchups.  Sometimes it was merely a 3 mana removal spell and in other times if my opponent didn’t have a fully developed board, I would flash the cat in on their End Step, and get in for 3 more damage on Turn 4. Crocodile of the Crossing is a Bomb in this limited format. From the 5 drop slot, Glyph Keeper did a heck of a job removing the drawback from the Crocodile and the Exemplar of Strength. This synergy was not immediately obvious to me until I actually had two of the cards in hand.  This proved to be absolutely backbreaking for my opponent. I cast the Sphinx on turn 5, with life totals at or around 20.  On turn 6, I cast the Crocodile, targeting the Sphinx and the ability was countered. I then swung for 10. The rest of the fliers were just icing on the cake.

The spell suite was pretty powerful, with the 2 Cartouches being pretty much the game-changers for me. I used Commit as a way to get me to my later threats, or to remove an attacker my opponent has pumped on an empty board, or attached an Enchantment to. Synchronized Strike is a killer combat trick and can turn an equal board state into a lopsided board state very quickly. Decision Paralysis was a great way to disrupt an opponents attack plan, and the Sheltered Thicket was just added value due to having 1 of my colors, and allowing me to Cycle when I needed to draw an extra card.

Last minute tips

• If you are looking for trade value on sites like Pucatrade, make yourself a brief list of the most promoted cards, and trade for them between rounds.  People are paying a premium right now for the ability to play their Standard Decks immediately when the cards are legal. This will allow you to get pretty slick deals on sends.
• Don’t be afraid to try new things.  I was very wary of my deck when I built it.  I just knew I had value in these two colors, and wanted to try and see if they could work.  And they did.  I lost one game all night, and that was when my opponent landed a Liliana.
• The cycle lands are good in limited, and it’s okay to play off color cycle lands just for straight value.
• Creature Synergies seems good. Especially Zombie decks. There was one Zombie deck floating at the event that I was happy I didn’t face.  The Lords make this deck idea very viable.
• Interested in reading a prerelease primer by a seasoned pro? Try:
• https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-amonkhet-prerelease-primer/

I will be attending at least 3 or 4 more events this weekend, and hope to keep you all posted on progress, and attempt to assist those of you playing tomorrow.

Good luck, and have fun out there.

-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

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

All of the old article links that you may have had previously, or found on Social Media should automagically redirect here.  If something seems to be not working, drop me a tweet or a note on the Contact Us page.

As for my normal Wednesday content release, this site upgrade will hold the spot of the content for the week.  I will return Friday with my article about my Standard RW Humans deck, the Touch My Grixis Deck, and game day fun.

Have fun and try not to break the new site,

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

Shipping Labels

The first and most important piece of advice I can give is to use PayPal to ship. By using PayPal you’re able to save money on the cost of shipping, obtain your tracking number immediately, file customs paperwork, and print your own shipping label.

Some people I’ve spoken to have reported that they just show up to their local Post Office with what they want to ship and ask for help.  This tends to yield the worst horror stories.  One user told me he ended up paying $15 to ship a Commander Deck. I only recommend this option if you’re short on time and don’t have a chance to prepare your package. I recently sent a bulk box the size of an unopened commander box for $5.75.

In order to leverage PayPal shipping to the fullest value, I recommend printing your own labels.  I get my labels for free from UPS. I use the 4-per sheet labels for padded envelopes and 2-per sheet labels for larger packages. I did have to obtain some templates online for my version of Word and do some tweaks to them to fit the UPS labels but I found this to be well worth my time to spend in order to get free labels. I’m not covering this in more depth because everyone’s configuration may be different based on printer, software and Operating System.

I create and print new labels from PayPal by going to http://www.paypal.com/shipnow. I choose my desired shipping method and then generate the label I need. In a bit, I’ll cover the shipping types that I use.  After filling out the Ship to Address and selecting the shipping method, I calculate Shipping Cost and then Confirm and Pay. My account is charged and label generated.  At the prompt to Print, I use the Windows Snipping Tool to snip out just the label from the print preview window so the added junk at the bottom half is discarded. The rest of label printing is easy, as I just copy and paste the snipped label into my Word template and reorient the image accordingly.

Small Sealed Product

If I’m shipping small sealed product, a high-value card or a stack of cards too thick for an envelope, I use small 4×7 padded envelopes that can be bought for as little as $.11 each. These envelopes can fit a handful of booster packs also. I use the First Class Mail Parcel Service option with the Package type of Package/Thick Envelope selected. This makes the cost $2.60 for mostly all padded envelopes I send.  I try to accurately list the package weight and have found that I usually always stay at that rate.

Larger Sealed Product

For my larger items (Booster Boxes, Commander Decks, and broken down Fat Packs) I order Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelopes for free from USPS.  Here is the link for all of their free shipping materials (in case you need to order some other items too). The important thing to remember about these envelopes is that you can shape and tape them to fit your item, but you cannot cut them.  When placing a box inside one of these padded envelopes I tape down the corners of the envelope (almost like wrapping a Christmas Gift) so that the envelope fits tight around the booster box.  I try to get as much as the air out from between the envelope and the product as possible as I do not want the product to move around.

Sealed Fat Packs are very very tricky to fit into these. I know of one user who successfully fit one in these envelopes.  I try to avoid doing this for Fat Packs that the recipient intends on keeping sealed.  I have found that when moving newer product I can convince the buyer to let me open just the external packaging and remove the cardboard dividers that make the Fat Packs so tall.  I leave the internal packs, land packs and dice sealed in the Fat Pack, and place it into the large padded envelope. If breaking down the Fat Packs will not be an option, I’ll move to a Flat Rate Box and ship it that way.  Even though boxes can also be obtained for free, I try to avoid these, because they’re not economical -unless you are fitting multiple boxes into one flat rate box. I wont’t go into deeper detail on this method because it’s pretty situational, and I’d suggest getting the free boxes and seeing what shipping option on PayPal is the most economical for that particular situation.

I hope you have learned something from my shipping methods.  If you have something to share, please leave a comment at the bottom.

And 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

The good folks over at MTG Goldfish have already posted the deck lists, with the current pricing of the decks on their site. At first glance, these decks seem to be a bargain.  MSRP is $14.99 and as of the writing of this piece, Ajani’s deck has an estimated value of $18.08 and Tezzeret’s deck has an estimated value of $17.84.  They come with two booster packs each ($4 MSRP), but I don’t feel this makes it a valid investment with the idea of selling cards immediately. Not every single in this deck will be able to be sold (even by stores), for anything more than bulk prices. The actual dollar value of a collectible is what a buyer would pay for the item. By the time you sell the singles in these decks you may have earned enough to buy a coke. Even though the numbers tell me that it’s not a good investment for resale, I ordered my copies of the decks weeks ago.

I purchased these to help teach my eight-year-old the mechanics of this set, and have him get used to decks of equal power.  I did the same thing with the Kaladesh Planeswalker decks.  I sleeved the decks up and played many many games with the little guy.  The decks are fairly balanced, and with a few budget changes, we have two really sweet decks.  I love these decks for casual play or as a training tool for new players. After months of intensive training on the Kaladesh decks, my son has graduated to his first real standard deck. Collectively we have logged over 20 hours of fun with our decks. Looking at the cash investment of the decks as a cost of entertainment, these decks are already a better bargain than taking him to the movies by a factor of ten.

These decks also contain standard legal cards that are not printed anywhere else. These cards include the namesake Planeswalkers along with some commons and uncommons.  The Chandra Kaladesh deck contains four copies of Flame Lash, which is a unique burn spell.  One of the most interesting phenomena of Magic the Gathering is when everyone including the pros overlooks some card. If someone breaks the format with one of these unique cards I will have them on hand when I want to play them. I’ve also started venturing into other formats that contain more than 60 cards and having these Planeswalkers on hand for my Battle-Box or an EDH deck is also a benefit.

I’ve been accused of having a serious illness when it comes to opening sealed product.  I open a ton of it.  I also love these decks because they are available a week earlier than the preorder boxes, and I get an opportunity to crack packs before most other collectors. I do not recommend this behavior because opening packs for value is not a viable investment opportunity.  It is just fun.

As far as considering purchasing these and keeping them sealed for long term value, my recommendation is to hold off and wait till they have been printed for a while.  In the event that the EV of these decks goes up, there will be plenty of time to acquire your copies.  The good thing about these decks is that you’ll always know what you are getting and at the first sign that something is increasing with them.  In the event of a buyout at local game stores you will still be able to find them at your evil annoying big box stores.

The Nissa deck from Kaladesh is still holding at $16. Some stores are already putting these on sale to move extra stock and it would be a good time to grab then if you get a deal. Any price close to $10 it is definitely worthwhile, especially with the 2 booster packs.

To conclude, if you’re looking for instant gratification and cash flow, do not buy. If you are like me and do not need every penny returned immediately on an investment, or actually enjoy playing the game of Magic, buy at least one of each. If you’re looking for long term investment, hold off and watch what happens. I will be sure to let you guys know when the time to buy these decks is.

Thanks for joining me and 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

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