2011 Cards!

Turnout a bit low, but we can work on that next year.  Many people that wanted to participate lost track of time.  Anyways, here are the submissions for this year, labeled by submitter.  I added some of my own cards to every submission to sweeten the deal.  You can click on the images in the sblock to go to a bigger version.

from warghoul Show
from grishny Show
from wcsae Show










Hey all!

This is a little tradition that Gavin Verhey started over at MTGSalvation.  I thought that I'd (shamelessly) steal it and put it to use over here in our little forums community (and perhaps keep it alive, Gavin may stop due to his recent internship with WotC R&D).

So, what am I talking about, you may ask?

The holiday card exchange is pretty simple.  Everyone send in cards to me (as the organizer), usually altered in some way, I mix up the packages I get, and send them out to the contributors.  Sort of like a double secret santa. 

Now, you don't have to be any kind of awesome artist to alter your submissions (I know I'm not).  Generally, personal things like in-jokes or obvious references to your forums personality make for the most memorable cards.  Stolen from Gavin's last thread, here are some tips for your submissions:

• Try and modify cool cards. They don't necessarily have to be rares, but it's great when somebody can play the cards they receive in a deck and then tell the story of how they received them!
• You may submit as few or as many cards as you would like.  Your submission will be treated as a single entity and be gifted to a single individual, so everything included will be kept together as a "set".
• Stumped for cards to alter? Try sending cards related to your name, avatar, or signature! That way there's a connection between the Wizards Community Forums and the cards you're altering.
• What you receive is random and a gift from someone else to you. Regardless of how you feel about the quality of cards you received, please be grateful. After all, it's a gift!
• Part of the fun is ripping open the package when it finally arrives to see what you received. Try not to post the alters you did ahead of time - though vague hints can sometimes be fun.
• Sending items such as letters, notes, or pictures along with your cards to the other person is not only allowed, but encouraged!
• You might want to take a picture of your cards before you send them so that you can still show them off if the recipient has no way to upload an image.  I will try to document many of the submissions, but I may be overwhelmed.
• Take your time and make some great alters!

Like I sad, pretty simple.

How do I participate?

I'm glad you asked, eager young forum member.  Again, stolen from Gavin:

Participating is easy! Just send me a PM with your address, and I'll send you mine back. All you have to do after that is send me your cards along with a self-addressed and stamped envelope. After that, just relax and wait for your return package to make its merry way to you. It's that simple!

All participants must have their cards to me by December 15th-ish. They will be redistributed and sent off over the weekend, and hopefully everybody will have theirs by December 25th. Please remember to budget enough time for your cards to arrive, it should take 2-5 days by US Post.

Brand new accounts are excluded to avoid gaming the system. If you try and game the system to get more presents, I will catch you. Please don't do it. It will just result in a sad face for both of us.

That self-addressed stamped envelope is kind of an important part.  It's how I get your gift back to you.  I like you guys, but I'm not going to go buy stamps for all of you.

International readers: If you're mailing internationally (outside the USA), we can work that out on a case by case basis via PM. In general, I'd appreciate if you sent a label with your address on it along with something like an international reply coupon,  money for postage, US currency, or money by paypal - some way so that I'm not stuck paying the return postage for you .  I think most of the rates for shipping a letter from the USA internationally are ~$1-3, so it's not all that more expensive than it is for within-USA.

This is nice and all, but who are you and why would I trust you with cards?

Another good question, my intrepid friend.  I mainly deal with the MTGO side of these forums.  However, due to technical limitations (pixels vs cardboard), this type of event is better held on this side of the forums.  I mainly deal with mentoring new players on MTGO and helping out with technical issues, which got me invited to the 2010 CCC (see sig).  I've even met Zammm in person!
/street cred
Over hear, I mainly lurk a bit, though I do love playing some 3CardMagic, currently hosted by Just_a_Cleric.

Moar Stuffs!

You want to know a little more about this whole affair? Well, you can check out last years holiday card exchange on MTGSalvation: forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t...
That shows you what type of things people do with this type of event and doubles as a bit more street cred for myself, if you read the whole thread....

Cliff Notes!

* PM me your address, I'll respond with my address
* Alter some Magic Cards!
* Ship me said MTG cards along with a self-addressed stamped envelope
* Anxiously away for your goodies to arrive!

Gifts for WotC/R&D/etc!@!

I forgot to mention this at first, but I'm altering a decent bit of cards that I plan to send in a package to WotC, both as a general gift and things for specific peoples.  So, if you'd like to give a gift to WotC or a specific member of WotC, you can send that along too, with clear indication as to what goes to WotC, and I'll include that in the package I send to WotC. Though, I suppose you could just do this yourself directly or something.....